Al Alcorn grew up in San Francisco, went to Berkeley, and later was at the video pioneering company, Ampex. There, he met Nolan Bushnell and several other people that would end up being constants through the Atari / Apple / Grass Valley / Pizza Time Theater set of companies. This article is about the city in California. ... Berkeley is the name of several places: Berkeley, California Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England Berkeley, Illinois Berkeley, Missouri Berkeley, Virginia Berkeley Heights, New Jersey Berkeley Lake, Georgia Berkeley Township, New Jersey Berkeley County, South Carolina Berkeley County, West Virginia Berkeley Plantation in Virginia It can also refer to University of California, Berkeley. ... Ampex is based in Redwood City, California. ... Nolan Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is the founder of Atari, Inc. ... For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ... Species Malus domestica Malus sieversii The apple is the pomaceous fruit of trees of the genus Malus in the family Rosaceae, and is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. ... There also is Grass Valley, California, a city in Nevada County, California, USA and Grass Valley, Oregon, a city located in Sherman County, Oregon. ... Chuck E. Cheese is a franchise of giant video arcades complemented by small rides, pizza (a central focus), and other popular diversions for young children, including ball pits, climbing equipment and giant slides. ...

Alcorn was the original designer of Pong, creating it at the direction of Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell selected a simple ping-pong game as a simple place to test feasibility, and all were pleasantly surprised how fun it was. The rest is history. Pong, an adaptation of table tennis to the video screen, was the first commercially successful video game and is widely regarded as ushering in the video game era. ...

Alcorn went on to be an Atari founder with Bushnell.

In addition to direct involvement with all the breakout Atari products, such as the Atari 2600, Alcorn was involved at some of the historic meetings of Steve Wozniak (at that time an Atari employee) and Steve Jobs presenting their Apple I prototype. Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ... Stephen Wozniak (Polish: Woźniak, nickname (The) Woz or Wizard of Woz) (born August 11, 1950) is credited with initiating the entry of computers into private homes. ... Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is best known as the co-founder (with Steve Wozniak) and CEO of Apple Computer, and somewhat less so for his leadership of Pixar. ... The Apple I was an early personal computer and the first to combine a keyboard with a microprocessor and a connection to a monitor. ...

After Warner bought Atari, Alcorn consulted to many fledging companies in Silicon Valley, especially involved in the startups of Catalyst Technologies Venture Capital, one of the first incubators, created by Nolan Bushnell and other ex-Atari leaders. Silicon Valley is a nickname for the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, USA, originally referring to the concentration of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually becoming a metaphor for the entire concentration of high tech businesses. ...

Alcorn was involved in several of the startups directly, including Cumma, a re-programmable video game cartridge/kiosk system, and an advisor to Etak, one of the first practical, in-car navigation systems.

Alcorn later became an Apple Fellow, and led and consulted to a variety of startups during the tech boom.