Atari co-founder dies at age 81 due to cancer

Image: Facebook/@atari

Atari co-founder Ted Dabney passed away at age 81 due to cancer.

Friend, author and video game historian Leonard Herman made the announcement through a Facebook post dated May 26.

Image Facebook/Leaonard Herman

Doctors diagnosed Dabney with esophageal cancer in 2017, but he decided not to undergo treatment; he was told he only had eight months left to live, according to Eurogamer.

Dabney partnered with Nolan Bushnell in 1972 to set up Atari and created “Pong”, the simple two-player arcade game which landed Atari in the history books of the video gaming world.

He also co-founded the Syzygy Game Company prior to putting up Atari. When he left Atari around March 1973, he continued to help Bushnell with “Pizza Time Theater”, the predecessor for the classic game “Chuck E. Cheese’s”. He also made games under Syzygy.

Dabney would later close down Syzygy after “Pizza Time Theater” went under. He then worked for 10 years in the technology company Teledyne before leaving the technology industry altogether.

He moved on to managing a grocery store and later a deli, before resurfacing in 2009 for an interview with Herman for Edge magazine about his contributions to Atari. Alfred Bayle/JB

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