Given a time machine, many people might say their first order of business would be to go back to the 70s and buy a big chunk of Apple stock. For Nolan Bushnell, founder of video game company Atari, this is not so much a fantasy as a very real opportunity that he passed up nearly 40 years ago.

Talking to ABC News Breakfast on Molnday, the 72-year-old engineer recounts how a young Steve Jobs — formerly an employee at Atari — asked Bushnell for $US50,000 in return for a third of the newly-formed Apple Computer, and Bushnell said no.

Apple is predicted to soon be worth $US1 trillion.

Bushnell said that, all things considered, he didn't regret missing an opportunity that could have made him a multi-billionaire.