Nolan Bushnell the film "Atari", an adaptation of Bushnell's life story. Despite the announcement, however, no progress has been made on the project. In 1969, Bushnell and colleague Ted Dabney formed Syzygy with the intention of producing a "Spacewar" clone known as "Computer Space". Dabney built the prototype and Bushnell shopped it around, looking for a manufacturer. They made an agreement with Nutting Associates, a maker of coin-op trivia and shooting games, who produced a fiberglass cabinet for the unit that included a coin-slot mechanism. "Computer Space" was a commercial failure, though sales exceeded $3 million. Bushnell felt that Nutting Associates had
Nolan Bushnell During this time Bushnell was using large loans on his Pizza Time stock to fund Catalyst. By the end of 1983, Chuck E. Cheese was having serious financial problems. President and long-time friend Joe Keenan resigned that fall. Nolan tried to step back in, blaming the money problems on over-expansion, too much tweaking of the formula and saturation in local markets by the management team. He resigned in February 1984, when the Board of Directors rejected his proposed changes. Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theaters (now named after its famous mouse mascot) entered bankruptcy in the fall of 1984. ShowBiz