Nolan Bushnell's Touchscreen Time Disastre

As much delight as I take in that stock photo of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell sitting in a pool and smoking a pipe, I feel like I owe that man a modicum of respect. The first video-game experience I can recall with much clarity was on the Atari 2600, and I spent many a birthday/post-soccer-game celebration at Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (“re” because it's fancy!) I've been vaguely intrigued by uWink, Bushnell's latest attempt to fuse dining and electronic entertainment, this time with more booze and, sadly, less giant animatronic rodents. Intrigued, but not enough to actually commit to the long journey required. While in the area, MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepeck made the commitment that I've thus far avoided, and he's not shy about calling his uWink experience “disastrous.”

The big hook for uWink is that all transactions, from ordering to paying your bill, are performed using some crazy touchscreen technology that's built into every table. This touchscreen also serves as a means for patrons to play social games while they wait for a, sadly, carbon-based waitperson to bring the food. Aside from all the flashy technology, on paper this kind of reminds me of the quick-service beef bowl and curry shops in Tokyo where you order by purchasing tickets from a vending machine, or, you know, an olde-timey automat. Except that those things actually work. The underlying problem, it would seem, is that the technology employed by uWink is kind of busted, offering games that are either crash-happy or just boring, and making simple stuff like ordering a drink harder than it'd be in a regular restaurant.

There's now a uWink open in Mountain View, California, which is significantly closer to the Giant Bomb offices than any of the previous Southern California locations, but between this anecdote and the wealth of tepid Yelp reviews, I might be better off playing games at home and ordering a pizza.