Oct 2, 2015
Harold Lee, Home Pong Designer and the Man Who Hired Jay Miner
In 1974 an engineer by the name of Harold Lee
had become burnt out from his work designing arcade game boards and
he quit and left Atari. No sooner had he left then he would
receive a call from Allan Alcorn. Al asked Harold a
question - "Could Pong be put on a chip?" Harold said it
could be done and suddenly he found himself now hired back at Atari
as an outside consultant. Harold and Al worked on the design
and the chip was finished in
the latter half of 1974. It was, at the time, the highest
performing chip used in a consumer product. Harold was kind
enough to talk about his experiences working for and with Atari and
the fact that he was the one who hired the legendary Jay Miner into
Atari.
This interview took place on April 25, 2015.
Links
I've known Harold for many years. Not only is he a genius but he has humor and fun in every fiber of his being. My life would have been so much less exciting if I hadn't known Harold.
We often play Pong on his original devise and occasionally I win.
He is accessible and loves to entertain. Why this man isn't
married is a puzzle to me.