Joey Kay

When I read that interview, that thought crossed my mind, too. What on earth did Nolan have to do with the computer industry??? Wasn't the 800 chipset designed for the next-gen video game machine, but somebody at Warner wanted to get Atari into the computer market, so they hijacked the project for a computer? In reality, it's really hard to find a head of Atari who we could all agree on was truly great. That company is like a Shakespearean play... each of the main characters had a tragic flaw. If I had time, I'd compare them all to Shakespeare figures. Here's a start... James Morgan - Hamlet - Indecisiveness cost him everything. Ray Kassar - Macbeth - his thirst for power blinded him. I'll figure out the others later... I have to get back to work... unless anyone else wants to add to this! Cheers! Joey

Just wondering how people found out, and how they took the news... At University that year, I was always on the Jagwire site in the computer labs. I knew about the reverse merger, but hoped for the best. The video game mags were already sounding the death-bells, despite Atari ads still running in them. Not having internet access at home, I couldn't check much for online stuff. I was working at the Jasper Park Lodge in August of 1996, and went online to check out the Atari Jagwire site... it seemed rather abandoned. I later discovered on another forum that they had indeed closed shop, with the exception of a skeleton staff of two (?) people to handle legal affairs. I was traumatized!!! But by that point, I can't say I was surprised. Cheers! Joey

Found it... http://www.classicgaming.com/features/arti...ticles/tramiel/ Cheers! Joey

I was trying to find the link last night, but can't seem to find it. When I do, I will post it on this thread! Cheers! Joey

As much as I don't want to advocate prank phone calls to senior citizens- good lord that is absolutely hillarious! Way to go, Ferris!!! His response is rather uproarious, too. Would it be incorrect to suspect there was a small amount of alcohol lubricating that phone call. It is probably a very responsible decision not to publish that phone number, although listed phone numbers are ridiculously easy to find in this day and age. Cheers! Joey

I would love to see an interview with one or two of the Tramiels to help solve some of these mysteries. However, I suspect that due to much of the "anti-Tramielism" (if I can use that "word") on Atari forums that it is doubtful they would agree to any interviews regarding Atari. The only post-Atari Tramiel interview I have ever read was one with Leonard... that was a few years ago. Cheers! Joey

I think Tramiel Atari produced the small rainbow stripe ones at first. My 2600jr was purchased in 86 or 87 (IIRC) and had the small rainbow stripe, and came with the standard CX-40 stick. A few friends also had 2600s purchased in 87 and even early into 88 with the thin rainbow stripe. In fact, the "fat" rainbow stripe didn't appear in Canada until about 88 or 89. Just pure speculation, but I suspect the fat rainbow strip coincided with the PAL release of the 7800... whenever that was. It seems to me that (perhaps not as an exact "rule", but at least my experience) the red boxes had the fat rainbow stripe, while the silver boxes had the thin rainbow stripe. Cheers! Joey

That's when I picked up my Lynx II! And my XM301 modem... Cheers! Joey

Both the cart and the box are in color - and it's actually copyright 1987... my boo boo! Cheers! Joey

My 1988 Air-Sea Battle is in color... were there two different pressings? Cheers! Joey

Did anyone see that episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when they asked what the word "Atari" meant? Cheers! Joey

This probably is a tough situation that Atari is in. I would suspect that a bunch of corporate suits who have little knowledge of the depth of heritage of this community are going to screw up once or twice regardless of how many consultants they have... this really is a learning process for Atari. Let's face it: In some ways we probably look like niche "weirdos" and we are probably a hard and fickle group to understand. Who would have dreamed in a corporate office that somebody took their own time to write an "official" manual for an unreleased game. I'm not trying to sound like an apologist for Atari - I'm quite disappointed with the initial Flashback. I'm just looking at this from both sides of the coin. We all go through learning processes when getting into something new at home or work... at least it is good to see Atari owning up to their errors! Best Joey

Depending on exactly how this is implemented, there could be libel issues if this interview doesn't fall under a defencible "fair comment". I would love to see it somewhere, however. Cheers! Joey

What a delicious paradox! I've never stumbled across Jaguar stuff in the wild, but have found Lynx stuff. Cheers! Joey

I noticed that when I was buying those games new, and thought that Atari had some "new" 2600-type system planned for the near future. However, as history has shown, a 2000 number system never did come out. But there were lots in development: http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/cons...nu/2600menu.htm Cheers! Joey [/url]

You sure about that? The way I understood it, the 1986/7 releases on the Atari 7800 were games that Warner had either developed, started developing or secured the license for. Jack merely dusted off the pieces to get them to market cheaply. Methinks (although I could be totally off on this) that Skyfox was part of the deal that secured One on One and Touchdown Football. If you look back to that Atari 7800 CES promo video (and I don't have it right now - I'm at a friend's place), they mentioned new games from Epyx, Broderbund(??), and Electronic Arts. I've seen nothing to indicate that One on One was in the works at GCC, so I've always assumed that Skyfox was the other part of this deal which - for whatever reasons - never came together. In the early Tramiel 7800 days, there seemed to be an emphasis on computer ports for the 7800 - likely because arcade licenses were all gobbled up by Nintendo during Atari's absence. Hence, the Skyfox licence. Anyhow - like I say, I could be 100% wrong. This is merely based on what I've observed and assumed. Cheers! Joey

It seems to me that Sky Fox was a Tramiel annoucement... Anyhow... gotta run! Cheers! Joey

I've got the boxed XG-1 with Bug Hunt... I ordered it from B & C back in 1989. It's the standard blue-type XE box with a picture of the light gun and bug hunt on the box sitting on that blue tile. The cart in the pic has a dust-cover over the connectors, and there's four languages on it. Unfortunately, my scanner doesn't work with my new computer. If I remember, I'll try to use the scanner at work and post it here! Cheers! Joey

Gosh I play this game toooooooo much... Just found out that you cannot have more than 9 lives at once - what is Dig Dug - a cat??? Cheers! Joey

Just as a footnote, I've been buying stuff on and off from B & C since 1989. I certainly can't say I'm their biggest customer, but I can say that they've always offered top notch service - they're fab to deal with! I think they should offer tours of their warehouse - I'd take a holiday to check it out! Cheers! Joey

That's the cat's ass... no pun intended (as opposed to the other part of the cat that was sacrificed for the machine...)! Congrats! Joey

There's one screen I can ALWAYS do it on if I "surrender" my life... This was one of the handful of times I have actually pulled this off without dying. Good grief... I've played that cart SO many times I can practically do the first few screens without even looking at them... But I STILL can't finish the Suzuka track on PPII. Anybody else pulled off this and got the 15,000 score??? Cheers! Joey

Hey hey... I was just playing Dig Dug, and noticed that I scored 15,000 points for dropping a rock that killed all eight meanies on the screen. However, the way the scoring should work, I should have only scored 14,000. Does the game give a 1000 point bonus for killing all the meanies you start out with using one rock? Anybody else notice this before? It doesn't say anything in the manual. Cheers! Joey

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the Flashback from a gamer or price perspective since Atari seemed to rush it to market (I think I may have called it "ET 2004" in an earlier thread) but I certainly hope Atari is satisfied with it and will pursue bigger (and better!!!) classic gaming plans in the future! I don't know how much longer this recycled plug and play fad will last, so let's hope (as Curt alluded) Atari moves forward quickly! But hey - Infogrames Atari at least seems to be moving forward with the Atari name far more than anybody since Tramiel. Even given some of our reservations about Info-Atari, isn't this reason to be excited??? Cheers! Joey btw- I didn't see it at all in Wal-Mart over the holidays but stumbled across it in eb Games for sixty bucks (CDN - that's 50 US) after boxing day. Too much for cheap me! And yes - the conversions, in general, SUCK!

I believe that the scoring text in Food Fight and in Pole Position II are in 320 mode. Can't think of any actual game action, however. Cheers! Joey