“At a time when computers — the main arena then for programmers working to build games — could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, Mr. Dabney spurned them altogether. Instead he tinkered in a workshop he had set up in his daughter’s bedroom and used plywood and fake mahogany paneling to build Atari’s first consoles.” He also came up with a game called Pong. Nellie Bowles in the NYT: Ted Dabney, a Founder of Atari and a Creator of Pong, Dies at 81.