Allan Alcorn (born January 1, 1948) is an American pioneering engineer and computer scientist best known for creating Pong, one of the first video games.

Alcorn was the designer of the video arcade game Pong, creating it under the direction of Nolan Bushnell[2] and Dabney.

Jobs had seen a help-wanted ad in the San Jose Mercury newspaper for Atari that said "Have fun, make money."

He showed up in the lobby of the video game manufacturer wearing sandals and disheveled hair, and told the personnel director that he wouldn't leave until he was given a job.

Al Alcorn, then chief engineer at Atari, was called and told, "We’ve got a hippie kid in the lobby.

Jobs adhered to a fruitarian diet, and believed (incorrectly) that it prevented body odor, so he did not shower regularly or use deodorant.

Toward the end of 1978, Alcorn assembled a team of engineers and began designing a game console called Cosmos.

Harry Jenkins, who had just graduated from Stanford University, and Roger Hector, a project designer who had done some impressive work in the coin-op division.

Alcorn brought in two specialists, Steve McGrew and Ken Haynes, to develop a process for mass-producing holograms that could be used with his game.

One of the first games developed for the system was similar to Steve Russell's Spacewar- an outer-space dogfight in which two small ships battled.

The game took place in empty space with no obstructions, but the holographic overlay created an extremely elaborate backdrop with whirling 3D asteroids.

Before beginning the project, Alcorn asked Ray Kassar for permission to create a new stand-alone game system.

Having learned from his failure to sell Home Pong on the floor of the show, Alcorn also set up a suite for private meetings.

Alcorn and Hector long claimed that Kassar refused to manufacture the Cosmos because it represented competition for the VCS, but some of the people who tried the game console disagree.

According to Alcorn, being put "on the beach" by Manny Gerard meant receiving an expense account, a monthly check, and a company car.

Warner attorneys claimed that Alcorn had negotiated his severance separated from the other board members and that he was not entitled to the same bonus-pool compensation.

By this time, Atari controlled 75 percent of the lucrative home video-game market and VCS sales were nearing $2 billion per year.