Joey Kay

Topic drift... sorry... I can't help but think that if Tramiel had stayed at Commodore, the whole computer market would be different today. I think, to him, the software side of Atari was probably a pain. There's always been very little to take to issue with the power of any Atari machine. It's always the software that kills them, and there was an expectation from that company for software. But Tramiel wasn't a software developer. Commodore, on the other hand, had only an expectation of low-cost product. No software expectations. You have to wonder how he could have changed the market by staying at Commodore and building low-cost machines. We might still be using Commodore computers today (probably running Windows, however) if he had never left.

I think you're thinking of Imagitec. Me thinks you're correct. Oops! And Bubsy collision detect still sucks!

Some thread drift here already, but an interesting question. I would have to say he did in two ways. First, Tramiel really was the person who created the home computer market by driving prices down on entry-level computers that could do way more than a console for a very reasonable price. In that sense, he helped kill the video game market. It's also noteworthy to consider that Commodore was more concerned with selling hardware than software. As Atari was both a hardware and software publisher, the flood of crappy, cheap games hurt them as a software publisher. Commodore, on the other hand, focussed more on selling hardware, so a flood of cheap computer games isn't necessarily an all-bad thing to them, as the amount of software available was an important aspect to computer shoppers back in the day. (And a bad C64 title is often better than many half-decent 2600 titles.) Second, Tramiel was more adept at profiting off of the home computer market than Warner Atari ever was. The 400/800 never achieved C64 status, and there's no question he caused a lot of headaches for the Atari computer division that hampered their profitability. I'm willing to bet that Atari spent a lot of time looking at ways to build those machines more cheaply, thus taking away product development time to focus on reducing product unit costs.

A lot of kids in my school scoffed at the size of the 7800 carts, thinking "more is better" with the NES carts. How are we to expect 10 year-olds to know it's not size that matters? (or 35 year old dads... but I digress) Perhaps Atari could have made their carts kind of like an inverse M-Network cart: skinny bottom to plug in (and maintain compatibility), fat top to appear like there was more guts inside the cart. Although, it wouldn't be as efficient from a manufacturing perspective, having to do two separate runs of cart casings, it may have helped.

Didn't Imagineering also do Bubsy for the Jag. That game has some of the shittiest collision detection and death sequences on earth. If that was them, glad to see that they're consistent in turning out crap for Atari.

Yeah... Nintendo has to be given credit for single-handedly reviving the video game market in the mid-80s with things like that dumb robot, retailer buy-back promises, clever marketing, etc... Mario helped dramatically, too. When I was a wee one (okay, 6 or 7) I was infatuated by Smurf Rescue on the Colecovsion, as were all my friends. A whole cool world to explore, as opposed to another space alien to shoot. What the hell was Atari thinking with their rehashed launch titles for the 7800 in 84. If these games weren't driving sales of the 5200, why would they drive sales of a new console? Atari should have developed a killer-ap pack in for 1984 (and this should have been crystal clear to Tramiel for the relaunch). But this isn't even a "wiser in hindsight" thing. Atari ought to have known this in 1982, when people dry-heaved at Super Breakout packed in with the 5200 while Coleco packed in Donkey Kong. Pole Position II for the 7800??? Give me a break. Why not just toss in an unsold ET cart? It would have saved them the crushing and burial costs. And that planned computer add-on? Yeah... since it worked so well for Coleco with the Adam, and would compete directly with Atari's existing computer line - what a fantastic idea!!! That dumb (and ultimately failed NES robot) was at least a unique (and very trendy mid-80s) idea... Any way you look at it, Atari was using 1979 logic in 1984. I love my 7800, but it is a textbook example of how NOT to launch a system. I bought mine because of brand loyalty, not the gaming library.

Weelll.... It DOES have superior sound if you're talking about Ballblazer or Commando! And if one wanted to be really fussy, it could be argued that games like Dig Dug were able to keep the music loop in memory so it wouldn't restart at the beginning every time you'd stop and move again. Anyone know if this video can still be found, or does anybody have it archived... the link is down... Cheers!

BS. Neither Robotron or Joust were shown in the ad. It was Mario Bros (which also appeared on the NES), Donkey Kong Jr (NES), Impossible Mission (NES), Hat Trick, Baseball (looked like NES Baseball), Desert Falcon (wow! 3D!), Karateka (NES too I believe.) Many of those games looked very NES-like which makes this a perfectly appropriate ad for that era. Hmm... I'm torn as I always respect Gregory DG's opinion, but I have to say that (to me) the ad just looked bad. I think the biggest problem facing this ad (cheezy spokesman skills aside) is it didn't really have a target audience. Was it for kids? Was it for adults? The game screens do look pretty darn good, but at the end when he uses the phrase "As a consumer" to talk about the price point of Atari carts, it kind of shifts the ad towards adults and isolates kids. 7 year olds wouldn't understand what that would mean, and I doubt most "cool" parents could take the spokesman seriously. Perhaps some fine-tuning there would have helped. The "More games at about half the price" ad was much more effective in delivering that message to kids. In fact, I would say both the "Atari test lab" commercial and the "More games at about half the price" were better spots, as were the "Atari Advantage" spots from late 88. Damn, I've got to find that VCR tape! I'm thinking this ad was from 1988 judging from the titles available. However, the "Atari Advantage" TV ads I saw in 1988 were from the holiday season, so I'm thinking this was either summer or early fall of 1988. And I, too, am rather disturbed at the way he is "stroking" the fire button at the start of the ad. Cheers!

Brutal, brutal, brutal. Has anyone seen this? I wish I could find the tape with the ads for "The Atari Advantage" back from the 1988 holiday season... they weren't nearly as bad as this (or so I remember).

Are they both NTSC? I'm surprised that there was more than one production run on that game, as it came out pretty late in the lifecycle of the system, did it not?

Agrees 100%. The last thing the 7800 needed was another port of a game we've been playing for the past 5 years or so (when it came out in 1986). The 7800 needed more original titles and titles that were more suited for playing at home vs a game that was meant for the arcade. 1007888[/snapback] Add me as third to this list. What the hell was Atari thinking that in 1984 people wanted to buy a third port of Joust???

Nothing wrong with smoking the odd gagger if it turns out such product as Ninja Golf!!! Cheers! Joey

What to do... what to do. I have a 130XE w/XF551 and 1020, and a Commodore 1541 monitor, and don't know if I should continue hanging onto it. I just NEVER use the thing... (sort of like my Portfolio - I "got rid" of it for a while (a colleague wanted it), but then got it back as I missed it, even though I never use the damn thing...) It's all sitting in it's original boxes in my storage room, and although I love reading the boxes every once in a while- I feel guilty about not giving it a good home anymore. Any thoughts or advice? I don't even know what a system like this is worth now - but I do know that it's not enough to make any substantial money... and it's not by any means rare enough for someone to be genuinely thrilled to buy it... What would you do? Sell it to a good home, or keep it for the fond memories?

I concur with Shark Shark or whatever that INTV game was called... The other Intellivision game that I was WILD about was Utopia. That was a GREAT game - really, the forefather to the Sim games (as far as I know). That would have been fun on the 2600... Cheers!

Esc - That link to the Atari FB on Amazon made me ALL nostalgic, as Amazon lists it as by "Atari Canada"... oh the memories of Atari (Canada) Corp. 90 Gough Road, Units 1 and 2, Markham Ontario. L3R 5V5. I still remember their address by heart... how sad is that... Anyhow, went to one of those gaming stores in Chinook Mall in Calgary last Friday (I think it was EB), and there was no FB to be found. Cheers!

I really just don't understand Theme Park. I've tried to play it, but I'm either too inept or too impatient to learn it. Am I alone in not really understanding this game? I'll stick with my original SimCity for Windows 3.1 (which, as a sidenote, doesn't work on any newer OS... and I'm overwhelmed by the newer SimCity 2000, so really, I'm stuck with nothing) Cheers!

That is a classic, no doubt! Here's my two cents: Why does George Bush think he's smart enough to wage an Air-Sea Battle with Iraq as part of his Blue Print for world-wide democracy when he struggles at Basic Math? Clearly Brain Games are not the strong point of this Carnival of an adminstration, as all that's been created by these Crackpots is more Combat in this Battlezone. And I only used A through C! Cheers!

Back in 1985, Consumer Reports gave the thumbs up to the ST over the Amiga. I have the 1985 Buying Guide sitting on a bookshelf at home - I should scan it when I get back from my summer break...

YIKES! Normally, I find myself agreeing with you, Ferris. Today, I cannot help but think you are smoking something really good and need to share it. Cheers!

Hey hey! This happened to me twice in my life... forum link However, I could be wrong when I quoted "Almost Made It" as the screen message since the whole thing happened so damned fast it shocked me. Cheers! Joey

Warner was never "bankrolling" Tramiel's Atari (although one could argue that the subsequent fights in 1985 and I think as late as 1986 between Warner and Tramiel regarding the value of the assets could be called "bankrolling"). Warner merely held shares in the company as part of the sale agreement in 1984. Warner only bankrolled Atari when it was a fully-owned subsidiary of Warner Communications after Nolan sold it to them. Cheers! Joey

I got mine in the summer of '96 during one of Don Thomas's internet blow-out deals from the Atari Jag-Wire website... I'd have to dig out the receipt to see what I paid, but I got a heck of a deal. A Lynx II bundled with four games (Robotron 2084, Electrocop, Gates of Zendecon, Shanghai) , a power adaptor, and the D-cell battery pack (along with an XM301 8-bit modem for the hell of it... it was only a couple of bucks...). The only game that I've bought for it since then was PacLand from Toad Computers in 1996. Cheers! Joey

Good luck! For goodness sake - I tried getting a copy from Atari Canada in late 1989/ early 1990 and it was to no avail. They finally returned my money order! Cheers! Joey

Hey... What was the name of that Atari cart released for the XEGS around 1988 or 1989 where you were floating the bubble around the kingdom? Cheers! Joey

Just a guess, but if the built-in 7800 mode game works, then perhaps it's a problem with the console's connector things for the extra board out things from the 7800 cartridges. (my apologies for my inability to state this in a technologically-sound manner) Cheers! Joey