Joey Kay

[edit] Oops... found my answer in this thread! Cheers! Joey

This is a nifty item... I must say that the first Flashback was a bit of a disappointment, but this one is sounding like the "real deal"... real games (not conversions) and DB9 controllers! I may have to pick one of these up for the nephews! Three (optimistic but still just a hair apprehensive) cheers for Infogrames! Cheers! Joey

I would also argue that the 2600 had two second-generation killer aps in Solaris and Midnite Magic. Cheers! Joey

Zoiks... save yourself mapping - check this website out: I Beat Solaris Although I don't 100% follow the route, it's the best (and perhaps only) guide out there. And even with this guide, I still can't beat the game. WAY TOO MANY cobra fleets to get through to reach Solaris, even with four lives stored up for the final leg of the trip. Cheers! Joey

The best strategy for this quadrant is to clear the whole thing out of fighters, but leave all the planets untouched. Later in the game, you can end up entering from the east. Then kill the zylon planet behind the wormhole, take the wormhole, kill the other zylon planet, then kill the fed planet and leave the quadrant. Each zylon planet you destroy gives you an extra life (but you can only have up to four extra lives saved at any time), Cheers! Joey

The 7800 version is Cadillac! I have been able to use all my home patterns on the 7800 with the arcade version. Cheers! Joey

Hey hey... As I sit here for the second night this weekend trying to beat Solaris (I need a life...) I have been reflecting on my first day of playing Solaris back in the summer of 1988 when I bought it at Zellers... Me and my best friend Lee went back to his place to play it, and I remember being absolutely astounded at the graphics... especially by the fact that the planet in the sky was a "perfect circle"! As with most Atari games, I had not believed that the picture on the back of the box was authentic... imagine my surprise when I played the game! Any other "first encounter" stories with Solaris? Cheers! Joey

Hmmm! I had no idea... Thanks for that! Cheers! Joey

Keep in mind that in America, this would have been NTSC equipment and games being dumped. They couldn't be liquidated overseas. Cheers! Joey

And I should add to this... Or, was the late debut of the Jr. simply a result of Tramiel running out of stock of Vaders, and reverting to the cheaper, smaller design? Cheers! Joey

The latest ET thread has me thinking... Atari manufactured more ET games than they had sold 2600s on the belief that the game would move the system. Well, we know the rest of that story. Anyhow, if Atari believed 2600s were going to move off of shelves, they would have manufactured the consoles. Now, the 2600jr appeared in 1986, and I don't recall the 2600 ever disappearing off of store shelves between the Tramiel take-over and the Jr. debut. In fact, there's 1985 CES pics where vaders were on display at Atari's booth, so it's not like Tramiel's Atari totally abandoned the line... there were still a few bucks to be made and Tramiel needed capital flowing into the company. But, I've never seen a vader in Atari Corp. (not Inc.) packaging. So, did Tramiel manufacture any Vader machines, or was all that stock leftovers from the Warner days of 1983? Cheers! Joey

I don't really have CONCRETE evidence, just some speculation to "fuel the fire" so to speak... I guess the problem here was that this wasn't "perfectly good surplus". It was unsaleable merchandise. It is well known that Atari manufactured more ET cartridges than they had sold 2600 machines on the belief that the game would move more machines. Thus, this software was destined to sit in a warehouse for a LONG time. The write-off would free up warehouse space, which would save Atari money by being able to either lease out the warehouse, end a lease with a warehouse, or sell a piece of real estate, depending on the situation. Notwithstanding the possibility that Tramiel's Atari liquidated the games in 1984, if Atari, indeed, manufactured more ET games than machines, and didn't bury them, then why (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this one) did Tramiel re-release the game in a second manufacturing run in 1986? So - I don't have any indisputable proof to add, but some more compelling thoughts... As a footnote, judging from reading this thread, I would venture a guess that if put on trial, the ET carts were buried theory would hold up in a civil court (balance of probabilities) but still not yet hold up in a criminal trial (beyond a reasonable doubt). Probably the most compelling thread on this topic! Kudos to all! Cheers! Joey

I would now like to declare that Mindfield and I were officially in a parallel universe at 12:37 on 07-April-2005. Cheers! Joey

Perhaps it's a replacement keyboard as opposed to a factory original. You can use a standard ST/STe Keyboard replacement on a Falcon, can't you? Cheers! Joey

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43051&item=4981554259&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3633&item=6521695866&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...7505586692&rd=1

Still can't be worse than the 5200 stick! Cheers! Joey

Remind me to book a seat at your death bed... I remember reading - I think it was in Zap! - that there was a real attitude of "I don't care how bad off your division is as long as mine stays afloat" and, of course, when everybody finally realized that the whole ship was sinking, not just single divisions, etc, it was too late. I suspect that even if Morgan had not blown the '83 computer season by dithering about where to manufacture the damn things, Atari's ship would still have been sunk given the wreck that that company was in... I doubt Morgan could have saved it. It needed more than just strong sales to stay afloat. A shame, really. Cheers! Joey

Interesting... any idea what were the other "activities" being referred to in this passage. There's so many ongoings in that company that we'll never fully know! Cheers! Joey

Probably the closest forum to the right one for this... anyhow... Just reading through the NATCO lawsuit pdf file on Atarimuseum.com http://www.atarimuseum.com/ahs_archives/ar.../natco_suit.pdf and stumbled across this passage (paragraph 20e) If this is true, then are we to believe that James Morgan planning on axing AtariTel? We know Tramiel didn't want it, Warner was left with it, and they licenced the technology out. But perhaps Morgan was going to ice it... any ideas? Cheers! Joey

hehe, no problem guitarmas - err, i mean Jeremy R. Actually, i thought you said Joey as a remark due to my location - ie. Australia-kangaroos-Joey's (baby kangaroos)... Well, I better put myself in the fray and welcome Jeremy R! Bievenue! And guitarmas, I agree that Atari isn't dead, but it's not the same console-manufacturing Sunnyvale based Atari of days gone by. Bring back Jack!!! Cheers! Joey

Perhaps the lease came up... or was that building the actual property of Atari? I know that 1196 Borregas was newly built for Atari circa 1983/1984, but I don't know if it was owned by them. PS - does anyone know where online one can find the pictures of the construction of Atari Germany's new headquarters circa 1992? I found them once, but that was at least three or four years ago, and I don't know where to even look today. Cheers! Joey

Mon dieu!!! You lived in Markham... did you ever see their offices first hand? I still remember the address off the top of my head: Atari (Canada) Corp. 90 Gough Road Units 1 and 2 Markham, Ontario L3R 5V5 How sad is that??? Cheers! Joey

I respectfully agree and disagree on this one... Neon colours were (bleargh!) the rage in the late '80s, so I don't begrudge the design as being so much childish as trendy. The machine itself was really was being marketed to geeky kids (like myself!). Did you ever notice that (at least in the one and only TV spot I saw for the XEGS around Christmas of 1988) that the kid playing the XEGS had glasses, while the kids with the 2600 and 7800 didn't? I thought it was uber-cool that a video game machine had Flight Simulator II, and could be upgraded to a full-blown 8-bit computer system. For loser kids (like myself) that was a real plus! However, I agree that it is for older gamers... I think 10 or 11 would be the minimum cut-off age for someone wanting this machine. Cheers! Joey

I always liked reading up on Atari news and info such as that... Anyhow, although Neil didn't directly state this, I highly suspect that this is more evidence that the XEGS was inspired by 8-bit inventory overstock... for god's sake - Atari was still selling OLD Warner branded software right up until the end of the 8-bit line! No doubt this software was sitting in their warehouse since Christmas of 1983 when James Morgan blew the Christmas season for the 8-bit thanks to his indecisiveness. Had that pile of inventory not been sitting there, the XEGS would have likely never seen the light of day. Cheers! Joey

It was an interview with Sam, and I remember reading it too... just can't remember where. I also got some gratification that, at the very least, Atari outlasted Commodore, just because they "won" in that sense... still, very sad nonetheless. I think I read it in an online article interviewing Sam when they moved out of 1196 Borregas into smaller facilities in an old Bank of America building. I was even just as sad as when Atari moved... Cheers! Joey