Posted Tue Jul 17, 2018 2:47 PM
Posted Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:56 AM
Posted Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:13 AM
Edited by Lost Dragon, Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:19 AM.
Posted Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:50 PM
Any good articles on the Panther? You've got me curious...
Posted Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:24 AM
Edited by Lost Dragon, Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:26 AM.
Posted Fri Sep 7, 2018 5:38 PM
I believe there was an interview with Jack Tramiel scheduled for the purposes of the book, but Jack sadly passed away before it could take place?.
That's correct. Marty and Curt had it set up but he passed away before then.
According to his sons, he was going to be open. They truly believe that he was ready to spill the beans on everything precisely because he was old and had never really spoken openly before. Remember, Jack was a primary funder of a Holocaust Museum. He understood the value of history but I think he also realized that some of the things he had personally done were unforgivable in a lot of people's eyes. His stint at Atari wasn't nearly as bad as at Commodore but he still left a lot of bitter people in his wake.
I do know that his sons were always a bit distant from him in terms of actually knowing who he was behind the veil, but I look forward to their input in the book if it does eventually come out. Jack could have revealed a lot but you take your dues in history. I've personally missed out on way too many people that I could have got to.
Posted Sat Sep 8, 2018 3:28 AM
Posted Sat Sep 8, 2018 2:57 PM
RIP Jack Tramiel.
Sadly his best kept secrets he took to the grave, however the Atari/Nintendo wars middle chapter of Atari (and it's subsequent downfall in the 90s) speaks for itself. I don't honestly believe Tramiel had much of a shot at reviving Atari during the 90s regardless of what he did. Atari as a consumer brand was already tarnished. More R&D (or even flooding the market with Pokey based games) would have been costly and not likely contributed to increased sales. Atari had almost no 3rd party developers on board due to Nintendo; nobody cared about early 80s arcade games anymore, and even the Arcade division saw the writing on the wall and instead of supporting the 7800, was instead releasing games on the competing NES under the Tengen label. Still, a number of otherwise SMS / 7800 exclusives got ported under the Tengen label, and some even played better on the NES.
While I would love to read the next chapter (especially the war over who had the rights to produce Tetris), it appears as though, like other Atari related projects that don't warrant mention here, the "Business is War" book is on an indefinite hiatus. Curt, Marty, if you guys are still reading this, I would love to be proven wrong with an announcement of something, anything. Currently we have a book cover and website that's not been updated in years...
Posted Sun Sep 9, 2018 10:07 AM
It wasn't really consumer damage that left Atari with no chance, it was retailer damage. If you read Brian Bagnall's Commodore on the Edge, you can see that Jack slashed and burned his way to the top with Commodore by offering special deals to mass market retailers, leaving all the specialty retailers in the dust. The deflated market meant that mass market retailers didn't want to deal with video games at all and nobody wanted to deal with Jack because they'd knew he'd screw them if he ever got a decent enough success. Plus, Atari even though it had split still had that stigma as being the company that flooded the market with games. They were still pushing out inventory from 1982 as late as 1986. Therefore, the Atari products generally could not get into the hands into consumers even if there was huge demand, which there wasn't because they didn't have the content.
Atari Corp had nothing to do with the Tetris fiasco. If you want to know most of the story you can listen to my good friend Alex Smith's podcast on it, trying to untangle a lot of the webs of the timing and influence. Atari Games was not a division of Atari Corp and will be covered in a separate book, "Last in Fun", so said Marty.
Posted Sun Sep 9, 2018 12:46 PM
I am aware of this fact. Pretty douchey if you ask me for Atari Games not to support Atari Corp by licensing popular arcade titles to the system. We did get an excellent port of Food Fight to the 7800, one of the fresher arcade ports released for the sytem. I think Food Fight was developed just prior to the split, so Atari Corp was able to port it to the 7800. It is one of the few truly good 7800 exclusives, and the "replay" easter egg was very well excecuted.Atari Corp had nothing to do with the Tetris fiasco. If you want to know most of the story you can listen to my good friend Alex Smith's podcast on it, trying to untangle a lot of the webs of the timing and influence. Atari Games was not a division of Atari Corp and will be covered in a separate book, "Last in Fun", so said Marty.
Posted Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:03 AM
Posted Thu Sep 13, 2018 5:51 PM
Remember, Namco bought controlling interest in Atari Games. Since Namco already had experience with the Famicom it makes since they'd develop for the NES. Also, Atari's arcade & home divisions were run like they were separate companies; there might not have been much loyalty between the two divisions once the company was split.
That would explain the Pacman license Tengen had.
I wonder what games Namco released directly to the NES as a 3rd party developer, besides the 1993 reissue of Pacman and the regrettably inferior Ms Pacman? Most of their "Namcot" Famicom catalog did not make it to the states or got released by third party studios stateside. And Ms Pacman releases on both the SNES and Genesis used the Tengen port, whereas the Namco version got neutered.
Posted Sun Sep 30, 2018 5:44 AM
Posted Sun Sep 30, 2018 10:56 PM
So....
The book which was on hold until the 7800XM was finished, is now at the back of an even longer queue?
3200 has to be crowdfunded and launched, then 7800XM finished and launched, then and only then work will restart on the book?.
Someone else will make a 7800 clone if they don't. If they don't finish the book, the information and research will be lost to the times I'm afraid. Many of the people who worked at Atari back in the day are getting old and dropping like flies.
Posted Mon Oct 1, 2018 12:43 AM
Someone else will make a 7800 clone if they don't. If they don't finish the book, the information and research will be lost to the times I'm afraid. Many of the people who worked at Atari back in the day are getting old and dropping like flies.
That's why I hate the 3200 announcement. Drop the 3200 crap and finish the book first.
Posted Mon Oct 1, 2018 1:22 AM
Posted Mon Oct 1, 2018 9:55 AM
It is frustrasting that the book will never come out, it's getting to the point where no one even knows the ST computer even existed these days!
Posted Mon Oct 1, 2018 10:19 AM
It is frustrasting that the book will never come out, it's getting to the point where no one even knows the ST computer even existed these days!
Posted Thu Oct 4, 2018 9:20 AM
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