In this episode, we drift back to the dusty orchards of California’s Santa Clara Valley and watch them transform into the pulsing heart of the computer age. We meet the restless dreamers and restless schemers who turned solder and screens into playgrounds for millions of kids and grown-ups alike. At the center is Nolan Bushnell, a tall boy from Utah who saw magic in a flickering television and turned it into a machine that ate quarters faster than bartenders could pour drinks. From the first jammed coin box in a dark tavern to the neon arcades that spread like wildflowers across America, this is the story of how one simple echo — pong — built a kingdom and then lost it to the very speed that made it possible. Along the way, we peek inside the hidden rooms where ideas were born over cheap beer, trace the messy sprawl of factories filled with hippies and stolen parts, and remember how sometimes the best things slip through our fingers not because they failed but because they worked too well.

Explore all topics covered by the National Media Archive:

Electric Dreams and Bouncing Balls