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Ted Dabney

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Inventor

The Resume

    (May 15, 1937-May 26, 2018)
    Born in San Francisco, California
    Birth name was Samuel Frederick Dabney, Jr.
    Electrical engineer
    With Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari (1971)
    Designed the motion circuit used in the arcade games Computer Space and Pong

Why he might be annoying:

    He said about becoming an engineer at Ampex, ‘I figured it’s going to take them at least three months to find out I ain’t no engineer.’
    He kicked his daughter out of her bedroom to get space for the equipment while creating the motion circuit.
    After two years, he left Atari following a dispute with Bushnell.
    He and Bushnell disagree on whether he quit (Dabney’s claim) or was fired (Bushnell’s).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He created the motion circuit for Pong from components of a standard TV set to avoid using expensive computers.
    Bushnell took out a patent on his motion circuit without crediting him.
    Bushnell tried to erase him from Atari history, calling himself the sole founder of the company for years.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 52 Votes: 53.85% Annoying