David Judd Nutting (December 26, 1930 – September 23, 2020)
was an
industrial design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
who played a role in the early
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...
. He was a graduate of the
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
with a degree in industrial design.
Career
After leaving the
Army Corps of Engineers, Nutting joined the design firm of Brooks Stevens Associates. During his time there he was involved in a wide variety of projects, working on everything from
Evinrude Outboard Motors
Evinrude Outboard Motors was a North American company that built a major brand of two-stroke outboard motors for boats. Founded by Ole Evinrude in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1907, it was formerly owned by the publicly traded Outboard Marine Corpor ...
,
Mirro
The Mirro Aluminum Company was an aluminum cookware company that existed in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from 1909 to 2003. It was colloquially referred to as simply ''Mirro''.
History
Founding - 1940
The roots of the company can be traced to the ...
cookware,
Bolens
MTD Products is an American manufacturer of outdoor power equipment for the mass market. Headquartered in Valley City, Ohio, the company began in 1932 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker. Prior to Stanley Black & Decker's ...
tractors,
Studebaker
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...
, and
3M. For
Willys
Willys (pronounced , "Willis" )
was a brand name used by Willys–Overland Motors, an American automobile company, founded by John North Willys. It was best known for its design and production of World War II era and later military jeeps (MBs ...
, Nutting designed
Jeep Grand Wagoneer, and went on to design the
Enstrom Helicopter
The Enstrom Helicopter Corporation is an American helicopter aerospace manufacturer, based at the Menominee–Marinette Twin County Airport in Michigan, United States.
The company was founded in 1959 by mining engineer Rudolph J. "Rudy" Ens ...
.
In 1967 Dave Nutting became involved in the coin-operated games industry through his operation Nutting Industries selling the ''I.Q. Computer'' (1967) which he co-designed with engineer Harold Montgomery. The quiz machine used a film-strip to display various questions and answers which participants would select to accrue score. Through the next few years Nutting would update this technology to create electro-mechanical arcade games like ''Red Baron'' (1970). In 1971 he started a new enterprise, Milwaukee Coin Industries (MCI), continuing the design and manufacturing of arcade amusements as well as opening Red Baron Amusement Centers around the country.
In 1974, Nutting and fellow MCI engineer Jeff Frederiksen started Dave Nutting Associates to serve as a contractor for new arcade game concepts. The two learned about
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
's new microprocessor chip set and decided to integrate this technology into a pinball machine, convincing Intel to provide them with one of the first development kits for the
Intel 4040
The Intel 4040 microprocessor was the successor to the Intel 4004. It was introduced in 1974. The 4040 employed a 10 μm silicon gate enhancement load PMOS technology, was made up of 3,000 transistors and could execute approximately 62,000 inst ...
. They integrated the microprocessor into a ''Flicker'' (1975) pinball machine provided by
Bally Manufacturing
Bally Manufacturing, later renamed Bally Entertainment, was an American company that began as a pinball and slot machine manufacturer, and later expanded into casinos, video games, health clubs, and theme parks. It was acquired by Hilton Hotel ...
. This scheme was later patented by the duo as the first microprocessor pinball design. Bally acquired the patents to their solution, but did not produce a product based on this design. They began producing solid-state pinballs in 1976 with the Night Rider (1976) table and became the predominant pinball company in the industry. The patents became the subject of a
patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
lawsuit against other pinball makers, primarily D. Gottlieb & Co and Williams Electronics.
Wishing to expand into
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s with this technology, Nutting hired two students from the University of Wisconsin named Jamie Fenton and Tom McHugh to work on video game software. This team developed a video game hardware system which was first used on the game ''
Gun Fight
''Gun Fight'', known as in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 multidirectional shooter arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway in North America. Based around two Old West cowboys armed wit ...
'' (1975) released by Midway Manufacturing.
Bally later purchased Dave Nutting Associates with David Nutting retaining the head position. Other video games produced by the company included ''
Sea Wolf'' (1976), ''
Bally Pin
''Bally Pin'' is a pinball
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the bo ...
'' (1979), ''
Wizard of Wor
''Wizard of Wor'' is an arcade game released in 1980 by Midway. Up to two players fight together in a series of monster-infested mazes, clearing each maze by shooting the creatures. The game was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, ...
'' (1980), ''Robby Roto'' (1981), ''
Baby Pac-Man
''Baby Pac-Man'' is a hybrid maze and pinball game released in arcades by Bally Midway on October 11, 1982, nine months after the release of ''Ms. Pac-Man''. The cabinet consists of a 13-inch video screen seated above a shortened, horizontal pin ...
'' (1982) (combining pinball and video) and ''
Gorf
''Gorf'' is an arcade video game released in 1981 by Midway Manufacturing, whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a fixed shooter with five distinct levels, the first of which is based on ''Space Invad ...
'' (1981). In 1984, Bally closed Dave Nutting Associates, following the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
.
After his involvement with arcade video games, David Nutting continued in engineering. He wrote two books, ''Language of Nature: Quantum World Revealed'' (2005) dealing with quantum mechanics and ''Secrets of a Creative Mind'' (2012) a creative motivational book.
Nutting died at his home in Green Valley, Arizona, on September 23, 2020.
References
"David Judd Nutting" Xlibris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutting, Dave
1930 births
2020 deaths
American video game designers
Pinball game designers
Pratt Institute alumni