Atari's 1979 Plans for McDonald's Revealed in Original Drawings Heading to Auction

Previously unpublished design materials from Atari executive Roger Hector envision arcade games, interactive drive-through entertainment, and a new experience for children at McDonald's restaurants.

CONCORD, N.H., November 2026 — In 1979, as video games were beginning to transform American entertainment, Atari was exploring an unexpected opportunity: bringing interactive gaming into McDonald's restaurants.

The original drawings and corporate presentation materials documenting that proposal have been preserved for nearly five decades by Atari executive Roger Hector. The archive will be offered at auction by New Hampshire-based NobleSpirit on November 19, 2026.

The collection reveals a series of imaginative proposals intended to incorporate electronic entertainment into the fast-food experience. Among the concepts were interactive drive-through displays, specially designed children's ordering counters, and an overhead arcade game in which Ronald McDonald navigated a colorful, game-like environment.

One proposal envisioned children receiving tokens with their food orders, which could then be used to play arcade games within the restaurant. Other designs explored integrating electronic entertainment directly into restaurant fixtures and customer interactions.

Hector, who served as Manager of Advanced Products at Atari from 1976 to 1981, personally developed the concepts before Atari presented them to McDonald's executives at the company's Chicago headquarters.

The surviving archive includes 10 original concept drawings, technical design materials, an internal Atari corporate proposal, and a presentation box marked "McDonald's / Atari 1979." According to Hector, the specially designed presentation boxes were deliberately made to resemble familiar McDonald's food packaging, providing a distinctive introduction to his proposals.

The collection also includes an Atari Touch Me electronic game incorporated into the presentation materials, one of two games Steve Jobs helped produce when he was at Atari, and an original signed letter of provenance from Hector.

Hector recalls that elements of the proposed children's counter concept were adopted in limited test markets, although the broader collection of interactive entertainment proposals was not implemented as originally envisioned.

“The idea came from Atari Marketing. It was the summer of 1979 and I was recruited to come up with some entertaining promotional objects to “gamify” McDonalds…and give us a connection there.  (I used to work at McDonalds when I was a teenager).  I came up with some concept drawing ideas, and I personally built 4 special presentation boxes, designed to look like McDonald’s packaging to hand out at a meeting there in Chicago at McDonalds home office. It went very well and they wanted to try the “Kids Counter” first, which was a touch screen below the counter where kids could order their own food and get a token to play these massive games hanging from the ceiling. Those are included in my portfolio. We prototyped a couple of the concepts, gave them to McDonalds, and they liked ’em a lot. But the negotiations fell apart (not sure why)…and we moved on and I kept one of the McDonalds presentation boxes and all of my original artwork in my portfolio.  They have never been seen otherwise until now.” 

The original artwork offers an unusual view of Atari's ambitions beyond the arcade and living room, illustrating how the company was exploring opportunities to apply video game technology to everyday consumer experiences.

Although Atari and McDonald's would later participate in other video game-related promotions, the 1979 presentation documents an earlier effort to integrate interactive entertainment into the physical restaurant environment.

The archive, offered as Lot 9 in The Roger Hector Archives Part I, carries a pre-auction estimate of $4,000–$6,000 and is surrounded by 63 other lots of nostalgia from Sonic to Pac-Man, many providing interesting insight into the artistic process of an industrial designer turned video game pioneer at Atari, Electronic Arts, Bally, Disney, Sega Technical Institute, and Namco. 

The auction will take place November 19, 2026, at 7 p.m. Eastern, with online bidding available through LiveAuctioneers.

Auction information: https://www.noblespirit.com/roger-hector-liveauctioneers-sale

About NobleSpirit

Based in Concord, New Hampshire, NobleSpirit specializes in coins, stamps, sports cards, historical collectibles and profiling important lifetime collections.  

The Roger Hector Archives Part I presents original development materials, artwork, prototypes, and personal documents from Hector's storied career in the video game and entertainment industries.