The “strength tester” messages were adapted from an earlier 1971 limited-run commercial version of the ESP Machine designed for arcades and pizza parlors. With the help of Bay Area tech entrepreneur and future Atari (1972) founder Nolan Bushnell, Targ released three ESP Machines to Silicon Valley-area pizza shops (Bushnell would also go on to found Chuck E. Cheese’s in 1977), but found it impossible to market the apparatus outside the paranormally-attuned Bay Area. The machine in the center photo features Bushnell’s and Targ’s machine in a 1971 San Francisco Chronicle article at one of these pizzerias, with Targ’s daughter Elizabeth operating it.
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posted 2652 days ago