ted dabney samuel frederick ted dabney jr may 2 1937 may 26 2018 was an american electrical engineer and the cofounder alongside nolan bushnell of atari inc he is recognized as developing the basics of video circuitry principles that were used for computer space and later pong one of the first and most successful arcade games education and early career dabney was born in san francisco california to irma and samuel frederick dabney his parents divorced while he was young and subsequently raised by his father career in the computer industry the computer space arcade game cabinet dabney left bank of america after a year and on recommendation of john herbert a colleague he worked with was hired by hewlettpackard dabney and bushnell jointly created a partnership called syzygy named after astronomy term representing an alignment of celestial bodies in 1971 when they decided to incorporate they discovered another company had that name and therefore established their corporation under the name atari inc based on the go term equivalent to chesss check as both had been avid fans of the game as pong became successful dabney felt overshadowed by both bushnell and alcorn he learned that bushnell had patented his video circuit idea without including dabney on the patent later life and death dabney had married and later divorced joan wahrmund with whom he had two daughters he later married carolyn dabney after leaving the computer industry dabney and carolyn managed a grocery store and later a deli in crescent mills california a gofundme account was set up to help the dabneys resettle but it was cancelled after dabney confirmed that he didnt need it after his departure from atari dabney did not receive much publicity and until 2009 his contributions towards atari and the early days of video games were generally forgotten dabney was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in late 2017 and opted against treatment he died on may 26 2018 in his clearlake home from complications from the cancer authority control worldcat identities sudoc 175420394 viaf 306314559 