Another 5 Q's : If Atari Corp did the deal with the NES or Genesis,would...

[ataritiger]

1) Would Atari Corp have released the 7800 still? I love my 7800/2600. Glad it was released.
2) Would Atari Corp have benefited more by the deal of the Atari NES or Atari Mega Drive? I guess since Nintendo is still powerful in 2015, NES?
3) Would Atari Games/Tengen actually be the first party for NES or would Nintendo? Same for Sega? These companies shared games on their consoles.
4) Would the original Atari Corp or Atari Games still be around now, or at least until 2001, if one of the deals went through?
5) Why weren't these deals made? Especially if Atari was losing money anyway? Spend your last $100,000 and do the Genesis deal after you screwed up on the NES deal. They had money to release the Lynx in 1989 and Jaguar in 1993 with all these hardware and shipping costs plus ads, but not do a distribution or co owner deal with Sega USA in 1989? Ok.

Bonus Question. It is sad Sega made many of the mistakes Atari did, do you think any of the big 3 will repeat Atari or Sega's history lesson not being learned?

Edited February 22, 2015 by ataritiger

[+xucaen]

I think if Atari had bought either company, they would have gone in a completely different direction. I don't think we would have seen the 7800 or the SNES, instead something completely different. Maybe we could have had 16 bit Atari consoles by 1985?

[8th lutz]

1.) Atari Corp. was never interested in the NES and the 7800 was going to released no matter what by Atari Corp. Atari Corp was never in talks with the NES. Atari Inc. under Warner had the talks with Nintendo as a way to stall the NES. The Warner talks with Nintendo was mentioned the book Atari Inc. Business is fun.

 

2.) Atari Corp would have benefited more from the Sega Genesis due to the fact Atari Corp wasn't in any talk with Nintendo. The talks with Nintendo happened with Atari Inc. under Warner in 1983. Atari inc. wouldn't have benefit much with the NES instead of the Atari 7800 in the 1983 time line. The NES in Japan in 1983 was weaker than the NES was in North America from a game library standpoint due to not having Super Mario Bros.

 

3.) Atari Games/Tengren was never a first party after the 2 Atari's split. The fact is Atari Games/Tengren was third party when Atari Games/Tengren decided to develop and publish games for the NES and Genesis.

 

4.) Atari Games wasn't going to be affect by the Genesis no matter what since Atari Games wasn't owned by Tramiel and was not a true first developer for Atari. Atari Corp. used 3rd party developers to develop games for them with Atari Corp. publishing them or used contractors. The fate of Atari Games was going to happen in terms of having 2 Atari companies was going to happen because of how bad Atari Inc. and the NES would have been worse off in America.

 

5.) Atari Inc. under Warner didn't do the deal with the NES because they were stalling for giving the Atari 7800 time. Atari Inc. actually was never interest in the NES, but was in talks for the reason I mentioned.

 

Atari Corp. didn't do the Genesis deal because Atari Corp. wanted the Europe rights besides the North America rights of the Sega Genesis.

[Lost Dragon]

It's hard to say if lessons will EVER be learned.SEGA were arrogant and it cost them dear, Sony seemed to learn from PS2 and PS3 not to Sacrifice RAM on hardware with Vita and PS4, but then killed Vita with lack of 'killer-app 'software to a degree (something that blighted Lynx+PSP) combined with absurd prices on memory cards.

 

PSN store still needs vast improvement as do Sonys servers for online play.

 

MS say going off online data they had back from customers using the 360, people were using hardware for things other than games in big enough numbers to focus XB1 as a system that also played games, rather than making it games 1st and in early days it cost them dear (as did bundling Kinect in with XB1 etc).

 

I personally don't think enough lessons will ever be learnt, some and small ones yes, but industry prone with failures, era after era and people trip up in exactly same places years later.

[ataritiger]

"1.) Atari Corp. was never interested in the NES and the 7800 was going to released no matter what by Atari Corp. Atari Corp was never in talks with the NES.
Atari Inc. under Warner had the talks with Nintendo as a way to stall the NES. The Warner talks with Nintendo was mentioned the book Atari Inc. Business is fun."

Ok. I thought the Atari and Nintendo talks were for the USA NES in 1985, after the Inc split. Ah, Atari Inc Warner had them with Nintendo earlier.

"2.) Atari Corp would have benefited more from the Sega Genesis due to the fact Atari Corp wasn't in any talk with Nintendo. The talks with Nintendo happened with Atari Inc. under Warner in 1983. "

Ok as you pointed out above. Atari Mega Drive. Hmm.

"Atari inc. wouldn't have benefit much with the NES instead of the Atari 7800 in the 1983 time line. The NES in Japan in 1983 was weaker, than the NES was in North America from a game library standpoint due to not having Super Mario Bros."

Well I meant the USA distribution deal I thought that was in 1985 for Atari to help the NES sell here as Atari had the big name to help Nintendo. But you clarified the talks were in 1983 under Atari Inc/Warner with Nintendo.

"3.) Atari Games/Tengren was never a first party after the 2 Atari's split. The fact is Atari Games/Tengren was third party when Atari Games/Tengren decided to develop and publish games for the NES and Genesis."

I know they are a 3rd party company, but if Atari Inc and Nintendo partnered wouldn't Tengen (Atari Games after Inc split) and Nintendo be first company developers for the Atari NES, technically? Did Atari Corp make games, if not they couldn't be first party developers for the Atari NES, Atari Games would have along with Nintendo?

"4.) Atari Games wasn't going to be affect by the Genesis no matter what since Atari Games wasn't owned by Tramiel and was not a true first developer for Atari. Atari Corp. used 3rd party developers to develop games for them with Atari Corp. publishing them or used contractors. The fate of Atari Games was going to happen in terms of having 2 Atari companies was going to happen because of how bad Atari Inc. and the NES would have been worse off in America."

Ok. Again, what properties does Atari Games/Tengen have? Gauntlet? Like, what games? Or are they just a logo basically for Infogrames now (Infogrames Atari Inc 2015)?

"5.) Atari Inc. under Warner didn't do the deal with the NES because they were stalling for giving the Atari 7800 time. Atari Inc. actually was never interest in the NES, but was in talks for the reason I mentioned."

Interesting.

"Atari Corp. didn't do the Genesis deal because Atari Corp. wanted the Europe rights besides the North America rights of the Sega Genesis."

So all it took was a region to ruin the deal. Interesting.

[8th lutz]

 

"3.) Atari Games/Tengren was never a first party after the 2 Atari's split. The fact is Atari Games/Tengren was third party when Atari Games/Tengren decided to develop and publish games for the NES and Genesis."

I know they are a 3rd party company, but if Atari Inc and Nintendo partnered wouldn't Tengen (Atari Games after Inc split) and Nintendo be first company developers for the Atari NES, technically? Did Atari Corp make games, if not they couldn't be first party developers for the Atari NES, Atari Games would have along with Nintendo?

"4.) Atari Games wasn't going to be affect by the Genesis no matter what since Atari Games wasn't owned by Tramiel and was not a true first developer for Atari. Atari Corp. used 3rd party developers to develop games for them with Atari Corp. publishing them or used contractors. The fate of Atari Games was going to happen in terms of having 2 Atari companies was going to happen because of how bad Atari Inc. and the NES would have been worse off in America."

 

Ok. Again, what properties does Atari Games/Tengen have? Gauntlet? Like, what games? Or are they just a logo basically for Infogrames now (Infogrames Atari Inc 2015)?

"5.) Atari Inc. under Warner didn't do the deal with the NES because they were stalling for giving the Atari 7800 time. Atari Inc. actually was never interest in the NES, but was in talks for the reason I mentioned."

 

Interesting.

"Atari Corp. didn't do the Genesis deal because Atari Corp. wanted the Europe rights besides the North America rights of the Sega Genesis."

 

So all it took was a region to ruin the deal. Interesting.

 

3.)Tengen would be in this case. Atari Corp published games. Atari Corp. hired developer companies like Blue Sky Software, Ibid inc., Sculptured Software for programing games for the Atari 7800. Usually Atari Corp didn't have inside development houses to my knowledge. Atari Corp. bought rights to arcade and computer games for doing ports on video game systems. Nintendo would be a first party in this case.

 

4.) Atari Games never had anything with Infogrames. They are with the same company that owns the rights to Midway games. A lot of the arcade I am going to mention are games that Atari Games owns including when Midway has them. The only games they developed they don't own are the ones That Namco owns like Rolling Thunder, Klax, and Movie and Cartoon based games like Batman: The Arcade game.

 

Atari Games aka Tengen developed the following arcade games: Marble Madness, Paperboy, RBI Baseball, Rolling Thunder, 720 degrees, A.P.B, Area 51, Batman: Arcade game, Badlands, Blasteroids, California Speed, Championship Sprint, Cops, Cyberball, Cbyerball 2072,Empire Strike Back: The Arcade game, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Guantlet, Gauntlet 2, Guardians of the 'Hood,Hard Drivin', Hoop it up World Tour, Hydra, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Klax, Maximum Force, Mighty Mouse, Moto Frenzy, Off The Wall, Peter Pack Rat, Pit Fighter, Primal Rage, Race Drivin, Rampart, Relief Pitcher, Road Blasters, Road Runner, Road Burners, Road Riot 4WD, Road Runner, San Francisco Rush, San Francisco Rush 2049, Shuuz, Skull & Crossbones, Space Lords, Steel Talons, Super Sprint, T-Mek, Tetris, Thunderjaws, Toobin, Vapor TRX, Vindicators, War: Final Assault, World Rally, and Xybots.

 

5.) Yep, It only took a region. That was Atari Corp overstepping their bounds since the SMS was more popular in Europe than the Atari 7800 was. Atari wanted Europe since a lot of their Atari St's sold was from that region. Sega knew the 7800 sold better than their own system in North America.

[ataritiger]

3.)Tengen would be in this case. Atari Corp published games. Atari Corp. hired developer companies like Blue Sky Software, Ibid inc., Sculptured Software for programing games for the Atari 7800. Usually Atari Corp didn't have inside development houses to my knowledge. Atari Corp. bought rights to arcade and computer games for doing ports on video game systems. Nintendo would be a first party in this case.

 

4.) Atari Games never had anything with Infogrames. They are with the same company that owns the rights to Midway games. A lot of the arcade I am going to mention are games that Atari Games owns including when Midway has them. The only games they developed they don't own are the ones That Namco owns like Rolling Thunder, Klax, and Movie and Cartoon based games like Batman: The Arcade game.

 

Atari Games aka Tengen developed the following arcade games: Marble Madness, Paperboy, RBI Baseball, Rolling Thunder, 720 degrees, A.P.B, Area 51, Batman: Arcade game, Badlands, Blasteroids, California Speed, Championship Sprint, Cops, Cyberball, Cbyerball 2072,Empire Strike Back: The Arcade game, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Guantlet, Gauntlet 2, Guardians of the 'Hood,Hard Drivin', Hoop it up World Tour, Hydra, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Klax, Maximum Force, Mighty Mouse, Moto Frenzy, Off The Wall, Peter Pack Rat, Pit Fighter, Primal Rage, Race Drivin, Rampart, Relief Pitcher, Road Blasters, Road Runner, Road Burners, Road Riot 4WD, Road Runner, San Francisco Rush, San Francisco Rush 2049, Shuuz, Skull & Crossbones, Space Lords, Steel Talons, Super Sprint, T-Mek, Tetris, Thunderjaws, Toobin, Vapor TRX, Vindicators, War: Final Assault, World Rally, and Xybots.

 

5.) Yep, It only took a region. That was Atari Corp overstepping their bounds since the SMS was more popular in Europe than the Atari 7800 was. Atari wanted Europe since a lot of their Atari St's sold was from that region. Sega knew the 7800 sold better than their own system in North America.

3) I see.

4) Ah, yes I am still memorizing the posts you and others wrote to me about Atari History from my other thread. Sorry for my error, Yes it is Atari Games (Tengen)/Warner 2015. Nothing with Infogrames that is basically Atari Corp/JTS/Hasbro/Atari Interactive/Infogrames/Atari Inc 2015. " Original Atari Inc. co-founder Nolan Bushnell joined the board"

​5) Wow, so I guess in America it could have been the Atari Genesis because Sega had partners like JVC, Samsung and others (Victor Wondermega, JVC X Eye) that had regions of Mega Drive or older consoles like Tec Toy Master System without the Sega name on console. Sort of like the Sears 2600.

 

As usual, great answers 8th. I appreciate it. This great article also backs you up. http://www.retrovideogamer.co.uk/index.php?page=atarigenesis

 

and

 

http://n4g.com/news/1390862/the-story-behind-the-atari-genesis-mega-drive

 

Seriously, imagine this.

 

 

Oh well, I better make that Atari Inc , Atari Corp and Atari Games picture now so I don't keep confusing things. I never knew Atari Games/Warner made an Atari Telephone.

 

"Atari Games received the rights to use the logo and brand name with appended text "Games" on arcade games, as well as rights to the original 1972–1984 arcade hardware properties. The Atari Consumer Electronics Division properties were in turn sold to Jack Tramiel's Tramel Technology Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation.^[5][6] "

 

 

[LynxJagLunatic]

For me personally I'm glad things went the way they did other then the Atari going out of business part. We would never have gotten the 7800, Lynx and Jaguar without the Tramiels. I thank them for the wonderful childhood memories I had playing their consoles.

[ataritiger]

Did they actually go out of business though? Anyway, a great read here that blew my mind

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/12/22/puffer-the-great-atari-exercise-bike-that-never-was/


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/24/atari-s-bankruptcy-filing-ends-video-game-pioneer-s-gradual-decline.html

Edited March 8, 2015 by ataritiger

[LynxJagLunatic]

Your right Ataritiger they didn't go out of business but the Atari era that I love died when the Tramiel's merged Atari with JTS.

[ataritiger]

Oh no Lynx, we are both right, I knew you meant that magical game era of say 1977 to mid 1980s of Atari however I just wanted to point out to those who might not have known if a google search comes here, that technically they never died. I know how you feel, I remember the Sega Genesis era so fondly. Sadly, history has been rewritten basically so that it was only the snes era, mostly by kids on youtube now who were not even born then. But they have to remember the Genesis chopped the head off the N E S then knocked out the better S N E S for a long time, but S N E S gets the T K O at the end if units sold only matters.

[LynxJagLunatic]

So very true Tiger so true.

[The_Laird]

It was me who wrote the article linked earlier :-)

[Greg2600]

Very interesting questions.

 

1) As someone clarified, the NES talks were in early 1983, a year before the sale to Tramiel. Had that deal actually gone through, I doubt Warner would have sold the company to Jack. They may well have sold it to someone else, probably Nintendo if anybody. So IMO, Atari Corp would never have gotten the company while it had a deal with Nintendo. As for the Genesis, the 7800 had been released years before, so that's kind of moot. Atari barely supported the 7800 as it was, and a deal to distribute the Genesis may well have grown to include the Master System making support of the 7800 even less likely.

 

2) As I said, Atari Corp was never getting the Nintendo deal. The SEGA deal is far more a relevant question. Hard to say really, because SEGA themselves did a miserable job promoting the SMS and the Genesis for years prior to Tom Kalinske's entrance as head of Sega of America. Given the Tramiel's equally poor marketing track record, I would guess an Atari-Sega deal may well have spelled doomsday for both companies. Then again, may have prevented Atari Corp from spending money on the jaguar and could have kept their computer line going. Also, may well have meant the combined company got behind the Lynx, rather than SEGA ever making a Game Gear?

 

3) Atari Games had nothing to do with Atari Inc.'s Nintendo deal. Probably still would have had Tengen!

 

4) Atari could easily have crapped out just as SEGA has, not making it to today. It's highly likely Nintendo would have quietly sought to get out of the contract, and/or make their own distribution plans once the agreement was underway. Once the NES was successful they wouldn't have had much use for Atari. Ditto SEGA.

 

5) Video game history is littered with deals that never got done. That's what happens.

 

Bonus: The question these days is delivery. How best can you get content to the marketplace to be consumed? I think Nintendo has shot themselves repeatedly in the feet in this regard.

[ataritiger]

Heck yeah LynxJag.

Cool Liard, which article exactly though?

"Very interesting questions. " Thank you Greg.

"Then again, may have prevented Atari Corp from spending money on the jaguar and could have kept their computer line going. Also, may well have meant the combined company got behind the Lynx, rather than SEGA ever making a Game Gear?" That is my line of thinking too, a Sega/Atari MegaDrive would have been good money for both companies, and a Lynx from them with Atari and Sega games that were classics and a price drop to match Game Boy could have done damage.

"Video game history is littered with deals that never got done. That's what happens." Very true, the Play Station could have been Nintendos or Segas.

[MrMaddog]

Note: Atari Inc. was the pre-crash company that dealt with Nintendo while Atari Corp. was the post-crash one that dealt with Sega

 

NES: Had the Atari Famicom deal went through, everything would be on Nintendo's terms with Atari only being the distributor. If that were the case then I can see Warner selling the video game division to NOA to run. (Yes, I did write that awful What If story for Retrogaming Times...so sorry)

 

Sega: Atari had the brand recognition even after the Crash, but even with having superior tech the Tramiels just wouldn't be able to market anything properly. Michael Katz, had he stayed at Atari, would still do the Genesis Does campaign but it wasn't enough to beat Nintendo. That never happened until he was replaced by Tom Kalenski who did The Next Level ads.

 

Tengen: Atari Games would still be a seperate company and couldn't release home games or even consoles under their name. So they would still have to be beholden to whoever owned the NES and Genesis consoles. Tengen even licensed their arcade titles to Atari Corp for the Lynx, but the Tramiels stiffed their royality payments.

 

But if Atari Corp 'did' have the same successful marketing as they did in Europe then maybe they might still be around...

[Lost Dragon]

Ref. 2) Was'nt it Sega's uncertainty about operating outside of Japan that saw the Master System handed to Tonka in the USA and Mastertronic here in the UK? (Although Mastertronic were'nt the 1st choice) and if my information is correct, Sega approached both Matchbox and Mattel with a view to handling the Genesis in America, but they turned Sega's offer down?.

 

Tom Kalinske is supposed to have said Sega might well of approached Atari as well, but Atari by this time Atari were so weak, it would of been a disaster....

 

Tonka apparently did'nt want to renew deals with Sega because of the prices Sega were charging for consoles and software.

 

So the Genesis could have ended up in a choice of alternative hands, had things been different i guess....

[ataritiger]

Thank you guys for all your knowledge, info and time responding in this thread and also in my other Q's thread http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234803-atarians-5-qs-from-tigerv2600-to-7800xm-to-concerto-cart-more/. More info is always welcome.

[Lynxpro]

Let's correct some things.

 

1. Atari Inc did stall Nintendo but it was to see if GCC could do better with the 3600/7800 than what Nintendo was doing. Nintendo was super arrogant with their demands. Still, there were still some people at Atari Inc that did like the Famicom over the 3600/7800 project, Ed Logg being one of them. He was programming Famicom games for Atari Inc before the split even though he was supposed to be exclusively working on arcade titles for Atari Coin/Atari Games.

 

2. The AtariTel Division of Atari Inc was sold to Mitsubishi. They ended up releasing some of AtariTel's products.

 

3. Under Michael Katz, the Atari Corp "Entertainment Electronics" Division set up shop outside of Chicago and they were developing games in-house in addition to the outsourcing of development of 1st Party titles through the likes of Sculptured Software and Ibid. That division handled a lot of the early non-Epyx Lynx titles. The division was later closed down after Katz retired from Atari Corp and then magically was hired by Sega of America one month later.

 

4. Katz left Atari Corp because Jack Tramiel broke his promise to authorize Katz to sell a LazerTag competitor that Midway engineers actually created and Atari Corp exclusively licensed. That and Tramiel botched the negotiations with Sega of Japan over the Genesis/MegaDrive. Tramiel and Atari Corp also wanted Europe in addition to North America and Sega didn't agree to that. Tramiel supposedly told Sega then that he didn't need the Mega Drive because he had the XEGS. Katz wanted to sell other things via his Atari division, hence the name "Entertainment Electronics". Well, for that reason and they couldn't use the "Atari Games" brand. There's debate whether Atari Corp staff actually came up with the "Genesis" name for the Mega Drive. That and "Tomahawk". Some Atari Corp programmers from this division claim it although ex-Sega people deny it. Anyway, Katz made Sega of America and the Genesis a success with his "Sega does what Nintendon't" marketing. You can hear all about this from his interview with the Antic Podcast.

 

5. Atari Games Corp and [Jack Tramiel's] Atari Corp didn't get along. The Atari Games people felt they were the "Real Atari" and in fact, they were. Steve Ross, the chairman of Warner, and later TimeWarner, forced them to work together via Warner's continued 25% ownership stake in both companies. They set aside their differences for their common hatred of Nintendo, at least for awhile. This is why the Lynx got almost the entire Atari Games library licensed to it whereas the 7800 didn't [until it was too late]. Had the 7800 had access to that library, it would've been a much closer competitor to the NES, success-wise. Or had Atari Games decided to market the 7800 and somehow got Warner to get Tramiel to agree to license the "Atari" name back to them for use with the 7800 in the consumer marketplace. Either way, GCC was the party that delayed the release of the 7800 because they didn't want to deal with Tramiel post-July 1984 and insisted Warner pay them for the development rights and licenses and not Tramiel. Tramiel wanted to still release the 7800 for Christmas 1984 for $59 which would've meant GCC's royalties per console sold would've been severely minimized.

 

6. Had Atari Inc survived in-tact by retaining both Consumer and Coin divisions together and the 7800 would've been released on time for Christmas 1984, the NES wouldn't have been a success in North America, or Europe. An in-tact Atari Inc would've also made sure Commodore didn't snatch away Amiga and the 16-bit "Mickey" console based upon the Amiga Lorraine chipset would've been available for Christmas 1985. Atari Coin/Atari Games would've also been able to use the Amiga Lorraine chipset in their arcade games if they wished.

 

7. Despite Atari Games and Atari Corp essentially hating one another at the start, there was still unofficial cross-pollination. Atari Games learned of Tetris because Ed Logg liked the version he had on his Atari ST and he was convinced they could make a successful arcade version.

 

8. Because of Atari Inc's implosion, the kinks in the revolutionary Atari AMY sound chip weren't worked out. Atari Games ended up using the Yamaha YM2151 in their arcade games because of this, and Atari Corp ended up first shelving their plans to use the AMY in the ST and instead use the inferior YM2149 [Yamaha wouldn't sell them the YM2151 because Yamaha was making their own music computers]; they also later cancelled the 65XEM computer because they still couldn't get the AMY working. They later sold the design to Sight+Sound who fixed it and intended upon releasing keyboards and synthesizers based upon it but then Atari Corp sued them and a fire destroyed the warehouse that was filed with all of their equipment and schematics.

 

9. Atari Games came up with the "Tengen" sub-brand for their consumer operations because they could only use the "Atari" name - in conjunction with "Games" - in arcades. Warner sold a 90% stake in Atari Games to Namco. Namco later tired of all of the division's lawsuits with Nintendo over Tetris and NES licensing so they sold their stake back to the Atari Games employees. The employees sold their stake back to Time Warner ["Time" is pronounced silently]. Warner merged all of their "interactive" divisions together into "Time Warner Interactive" and tried to rename Atari Games/Tengen into that fully for about 2 years before deciding to sell it to WMS [Williams/Midway] Industries. WMS later spun their video game operations into "Midway" in order to concentrate on slot machines and lottery equipment. Midway renamed Atari Games as "Midway Games West". The remnants of Tramiel's Atari Corp was later sold by JTS to Hasbro. Hasbro later decided to sell and they had a deal in place with Atari Games/Midway Games West to buy all of the "Atari" assets but then Infogrames came in at the last minute and offered to buy all of Hasbro's video game assets - not just the Atari stuff - so Hasbro sold to them instead. About 5 years later, after holding off Viacom's Summer Redstone's various takeover schemes, Midway went bankrupt and Warner swooped in and bought everything and then folded it all into their "WB Games" division which is the current situation. Infogrames still calls itself "Atari" but it's just a very small operation now.

 

Did I miss anything?

[DracIsBack]

 

5. Atari Games Corp and [Jack Tramiel's] Atari Corp didn't get along. The Atari Games people felt they were the "Real Atari" and in fact, they were. Steve Ross, the chairman of Warner, and later TimeWarner, forced them to work together via Warner's continued 25% ownership stake in both companies. They set aside their differences for their common hatred of Nintendo, at least for awhile. This is why the Lynx got almost the entire Atari Games library licensed to it whereas the 7800 didn't [until it was too late]. Had the 7800 had access to that library, it would've been a much closer competitor to the NES, success-wise.

 

I don't think Atari licensed for the Lynx first and 7800 later. Not really their "cost efficient" style. More than likely they licensed the titles they were going to license for all systems at the same time, but prioritized their development budgets accordingly. Also remember - by the time the Lynx hit the market, the 7800 was starting to really fade away.

 

 

[zzip]

Your right Ataritiger they didn't go out of business but the Atari era that I love died when the Tramiel's merged Atari with JTS.

Atari died a little when Tramiel acquired it in 1984. They were never the same. Prior to that they lead the game industry, after they were always behind.

[zzip]

8. Because of Atari Inc's implosion, the kinks in the revolutionary Atari AMY sound chip weren't worked out. Atari Games ended up using the Yamaha YM2151 in their arcade games because of this, and Atari Corp ended up first shelving their plans to use the AMY in the ST and instead use the inferior YM2149

Were there actually plans to use AMY in the ST though? My understanding is much of the design work on the ST was done before Tramiel bought Atari, and they purposely chose off-the-shelf chips when they could to meet their aggressive deadlines.

[DracIsBack]

Were there actually plans to use AMY in the ST though? My understanding is much of the design work on the ST was done before Tramiel bought Atari, and they purposely chose off-the-shelf chips when they could to meet their aggressive deadlines.

 

I've also heard this is massively 'over-stated' in terms of Tramiel myths.

[zzip]

I've also heard this is massively 'over-stated' in terms of Tramiel myths.

which part?

[DracIsBack]

which part?

 

I think sometimes people think the ST had a shorter development cycle than it did. There was a post a while back about how long it took and it surprised people.

 

But like a lot of things from the era, the legends take on a life of their own, like "Atari was offered the NES and turned it down"