Nolan Bushnell raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is no longer an active member. A 1999 "Time" article described him as a "lapsed Mormon" and described him smoking a pipe, which is inconsistent with the LDS Church's health practice of the Word of Wisdom. After selling Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million, Bushnell purchased the former mansion of coffee magnate James Folger in Woodside, California, which he shared with his wife Nancy and their eight children. The Bushnells now live in Southern California. In June 2008 it was announced that Leonardo DiCaprio would portray Bushnell in
Early history of video games directly displayed via modification of a video signal; it was also the first video gaming device to be displayed in a television commercial. It sold for US$100 and shipped with several games, including "Table tennis", which Bushnell had seen a demo of and which "Pong" had been based on. The Odyssey sold over 100,000 units in 1972, and more than 350,000 by the end of 1975, buoyed by the popularity of the table tennis game, in turn driven by the success of "Pong". "Pong" and the Odyssey kicked off a new era of video gaming, with numerous other competitors starting