Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Steve Bristow papers
- Dates:
- 1969-1996
- Creators:
- Bristow, Steve, 1950-2015
- Extent:
- 12.25 Linear Feet (23 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Steve Bristow papers (M1887). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of business papers such as reports, legal & patent documents, and sales & trade show material; notebooks; service manuals & user guides; schematics; advertisements;, articles and photographs. Most of the papers concern Bristow's career at Atari.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Steve Bristow (1950-2015) was a video game pioneer known especially for his work on arcade games at Atari. Bristow was born in California and lived there his entire life. In 1971, while studying at University of California-Berkeley and interning at Ampex under the supervision of Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Bristow worked on circuitry for Computer Space, the first commercially sold coin-operated video game. After Ampex decided not to pursue the video game market, Bushnell left for Nutting Associates, and Bristow followed in March 1972, creating a two-person version of Computer Space with his wife, among other games. Around this time the Bristows also maintained and collected money from arcade machines in Berkeley as a sideline.
After graduation, Barstow went straight to Bushnell’s new company, known as Atari. As head of Coin Engineering he helped develop multi-user versions of Pong, Indy 800 (one of the first arcade racing games), as well as the company-saving Tank and Breakout. Among his various roles, he was involved with the Electronic Board Game Division and was Plant Manager of Pinball Production. Bristow was more or less in charge of Atari's arcade division until 1979 when he transitioned to the Consumer and Computer Group, where he helped put Atari’s home computer line into production. Not long after a management decision to bring out a successor to the 2600 rather than license Nintendo’s new game system, Bristow left Atari and worked as an electrical engineer. He passed away in February 2015 at the age of 65.
- Acquisition information:
- This collection given by Steve Bristow to Stanford University, Special Collections in April, 2012.
- Physical location:
- Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2015-11-18 13:51:53 -0800 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Steve Bristow papers (M1887). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022