Nutting Associates was an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade vi ...

manufacturer based in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376. Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is t ...

, incorporated in February 1967 by William Gilbert Nutting. In 1977 the company was purchased by William "Si" Redd and eventually absorbed into the company Sircoma.

History

Bill Nutting was working as a buyer at a San Francisco department store when his father-in-law,

Revere Ware Revere Ware is a line of consumer and commercial kitchen wares introduced in 1939 by the Revere Brass & Copper Corp. The line focuses primarily on consumer cookware such as (but not limited to) skillets, sauce pans, stock pots, and tea kettles. In ...

executive Herbert Ullmann, alerted him to an educational technology company called Edex Teaching Systems looking for investors. Nutting became a partner in the company, which created a coin-operated trivia game called the ''Knowledge Computer'' in 1964. Nutting marketed the machine for Edex and bought the rights to it after Edex was purchased by Raytheon in 1965. In January 1966, he founded Nutting Associates to market the Knowledge Computer and a redesigned version of the device called ''Computer Quiz'' (1967) created by Richard Ball of Marketing Services. In 1968 the model was redesigned into a solid-state version. In 1971, Nolan Bushnell sold Nutting Associates on manufacturing the game ''

Computer Space ''Computer Space'' is a space combat simulation, space combat arcade game developed in 1971. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game as well as the first commercially avail ...

'' (1971). About 1,500 units were manufactured. Afterwards, Bushnell wanted a large ownership stake in the company to continue creating games for Nutting Associates, but left after not being given that opportunity to form Atari Inc. with Ted Dabney. Nutting Associates continued manufacturing video games up until 1977 when the company was sold to "Si" Redd. A new Nutting Associates company was established in Nevada before being absorbed into the larger company Sircoma, a video poker manufacturer. Nutting's brother, Dave Nutting, also worked in the video game industry. He formed

Dave Nutting Associates David Judd Nutting (December 26, 1930 – September 23, 2020) was an industrial design engineer who played a role in the early video game industry. He was a graduate of the Pratt Institute with a degree in industrial design. Career After leavin ...

, a consulting firm that produced many of Midway's games during the 1970s and early 80s.

References

Defunct video game companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1966 Electronics companies disestablished in 1977 Defunct companies based in California 1966 establishments in California 1977 disestablishments in California {{US-videogame-company-stub