Retro Rogue

I guess that makes you an Ebay sellers dream come true. Anyone can overbid for anything if they're willing to throw money away. That doesn't mean the object is worth that much, it just means that's what you were willing to overpay.

Your estimate on the manuals, especially if they're for those commons, is a bit high. As are for the and Pac-Man and Combat (which are very common and shouldn't go for more than $5-$7). I wouldn't pay more than $60 at a garage sale for that, if even that much.

On the positive side, it brought out people involved in the dumping or around then to witness it to make public statements again like in that video. And once again corroborating what we said: that it was a lot of hardware and a whole line of games that included ET, not that it was an ET dump. Anyone ever track when the idea of it being an ET dump first popped up? It wasn't in any of the newspaper accounts at the time. Earliest I was able to track it was in the mid 90s.

Lol, those aren't Bohus's, those are ours (Syzygy Co, formerly Legacy Engineering). We just licensed that specific see through version for Bohus to sell. http://www.syzygycompany.com/

Not sure how to read your statement. Because that video was not by Fuel Industries, it was a local news report. Fuel had nothing to do with letting reporters in, they haven't even set foot on the site yet. That news report is from when they first visited City Hall to get permission to dig. Likewise from the local reporters I talked to there, both they and the members of City Hall had their doubts as to whether Fuel would even show up to do the dig, they think it's just for publicity as well.

They were collectively called tapes, cartridges, and cassettes depending on people's inclination towards the previous technology they were used to. For example - Tape: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=T4UgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0tgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2737,4533621&dq=atari+tape&hl=en Cassette: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6K8lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H_QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1848,2535505&dq=atari+cassette&hl=en Cartridge: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZnpQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KRIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3019,3041601&dq=atari+cartridge&hl=en

Unfortunately, that's a complaint we've been hearing from a lot of the people in Europe that have ordered. Which means there's an issue with the quality of Amazon's print on demand (POD) plant there. Please, (and I can't stress this enough) contact them and let them know. We've been asking this of everyone that's reported that. Complain, get a replacement copy, etc. It's another reason why we're currently looking into the possibility of working with a regular publisher instead of staying with the POD format.

As I said in the commentary on that page when it first came out, there's no mystery. We already know what was there and why, just an emptying of the El Paso plant as it converted over to automated manufacturing and a focus on hardware as game manufacturing moved to the Asian plants. It dumped the unused and extra stock, which consisted of a plethora of games (not just ET) and hardware (computer and console). It was not a massive dumping of all the unsold ET stock. Even interviews with the kids that were digging out the stock before the concrete was poured have verified this, including the recent interview with one of the now grown up kids Mark Esquero. Likewise there are no prototypes there, that's silly speculation that appeared in a few more recent articles. El Paso was a manufacturing plant, i.e. finished and ready to make and distribute products. There was no development done in Texas, nor was El Paso a storage facility. All development was done where Atari's Consumer Division was actually located - in Sunnyvale. Unused prototypes of hardware were kept in various storage lockers at Atari in Sunnyvale and at the 1196 building (which is where the convention materials were stored), which is where most of the prototype hardware that collectors enjoy today were taken from during the splitting of the company in '84. (Which we'll be covering in the second book, having interviewed the former employees that pulled up vans and u-hauls to take the material). As we were shown in the logs for that plant from the time: in that one month period for the El Paso plant the conversion to automation started, the staff of the plant was downsized, and the dumping occurred - which shows the full picture rather than just focusing on the dump being it's own instance, which lead to all this speculation. We were able to directly interview the person who oversaw all of Atari's manufacturing plants, and were lucky enough that he also kept his log/calendar books from the time. This allowed us to track the goings-on of all the manufacturing plants for the book, including the Asian plants and their trials and tribulations (including issues with the Triads), not just this one little happening with the El Paso plant.

Infogrames/Atari SA had Apple take down all emulators some time ago because they planned on coming out with the Greatest Hits.

Well, as I mentioned, if there's any specific subjects with Mattel Electronics people want me to dig into and be sure and not miss, just send me a list.

Sure they did. The Pippin and C64GS respectively.

Guys, you're looking for rhyme and reason where there wasn't any. The numbering scheme was created and maintained by Atari's marketing department. Not manufacturing, not logistics, not development, and not anyone in the know that would normally do such schemes. It was completely up to their whim, which is why it's all over the place.

The guy said he bought it from a woman going through a divorce in Tomball, TX.

Ok, mystery solved. Anyone know who manufactured this repro?

I'm in a conversation with the guy, he voluntarily took them down and genuinely thought it was real. He's not much of a collector, so he had no idea. He's still wondering if the inside may be real, so I'm working with him on opening it up (told him not to worry about that label) and I've brought Matt (Tempest) in as well to help weigh in when he does. I told him even if it's a repro he can still sell it if he wants, and should be able to get around $50 I would think. To anyone that owns one of the repros, I'm assuming they were done with eproms?

Reviving the thread, someone's trying to pass off a reproduction with this label as an original. Email or give them a call and let them know what you think. http://houston.craigslist.org/vgm/3964463831.html

There's already somebody here in the forms working on a Coleco one, and one of the original members of the ColecoVision team is working on their own book as well.

Already started. My next book is on Mattel Electronics after Curt and I get done with the Atari Corp. book. It'll cover the full spectrum of the division, not just Intellivision. Talked to Keith Robinson about doing it when I was out at CGE 2012. On that note if anybody has any further connections, material or opinions on people I need to be contacting, please don't hesitate to contact me. As with the Atari books, a lot of it rests on former employees getting involved, consenting to be interviewed, and donating materials for the research.

It's not mysterious, it's been discussed openly here for several years: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/152112-sneak-peak-amiga-atari-design/ (also do a search in the forums for "Amiga mickey"). We also have the full story in our book as well. The console project was named Mickey, and it was a result of Amiga approaching Atari Inc. in late 1983 for an investment. The two companies entered the beginnings of an agreement. As a sign of good faith, Atari Inc. gave Amiga an initial check that March '84 in return for access to the still in design custom chipset and documentation (and key engineering staff to answer questions). The final agreement which was to be signed in late June early July '84, had Atari agreeing to use the chips to build a game console only for release that Fall. The console would be allowed to expand into a computer via an additional kit in spring of '85, and then Atari would be allowed to release a full-fledged Amiga-based computer in 1986. The chips would also be used in coin-op as well. Atari would be licensing the chips and paying a royalty for each Amiga chip used in both platforms (consumer and coin), and buying a set amount of stock in Amiga as well. It got as far as the the ready to go finished system PCB shown in that other thread and then fell apart when Amiga sold itself the Commodore and tried to return the original investment money to Atari, and Jack Tramiel bough the Consumer Division from Atari - all in a matter of days.

What has Jay and the Lorraine have to do with it? I said this was an Atari branded console, I.E. this was at Atari. Likewise we're talking about a console here, not a personal computer. Nowhere near the cost of a $2000 computer. Jobs negotiated a US$9 per 68000 chip agreement with Motorola in 1983 for Apple, and Atari's sourcing would have been around the same in '84. Additionally, you're mistaken about Lorraine. It initially started as a game console with a built in keyboard to allow developers to develop directly on it, which had been Jay's and Joe Decuir's vision since they were both at Atari in '79. That was then changed to a full fledged computer during development. Joe, if you're not familiar with him, was Jay's protege and work partner while at Atari, and then was badge #3 while at Amiga, designing the system bus and Angus chip.

Actually, Atari had a 68000 based console target for release in late '84 as well, based off the Amiga chipset. Any 68000 based console at that time would have been released as a more expensive high end console.

Update per Curt: Hangtight kiddies... go grab some snacks and soda from the lobby... this drama is temporarily off-course and in a holding pattern... Can't get into any details publicly, but I will sum it up simply - its a CLUSTER-F*CK... If you hated InfoTari before, you are REALLY going to hate them once you find out what these SOB's have done now...Yes, essentially think of Saddam Huessien when he pulled out of Kuwait and set it ablaze to burn and caused a massive eco-disaster in the middle east... think along those terms... talk about burning bridges on the way out of the city...

Atari US isn't, the classic Atari brand and IP is all under Atari Interactive. Atari US (Atari Inc.) is just the former GT Interactive, and there's not much there. Infogrames (now Atari SA) used it's warchest (unless that's what you meant by "Atari"). In the late 90s and early 2000s, Infogrames went on a buying spree and bought up companies/brands/ip as the last vestiges of the 80s companies were coming to an end. It bought the Atari brand and properties as part of it's purchase of Hasbro's computer/video game division called Hasbro Interactive. It renamed the division Infogrames Interactive and then into Atari Interactive shortly after, which is one of the named companies doing the bankruptcy auctions. Atari Interactive is basically just a holding company for all the US properties Infogrames bought up, and has always been wholly owned by Infogrames. It also bought majority ownership of GT Interactive in the late 90s (GT itself had previously bought Humongous), which it then forced to rename itself Infogrames Inc., becoming the US subsidiary of Infogrames. In 2003 it then forced it to rename itself Atari Inc.(and ironically it was forced to license the name and properties from Atari Interactive). This is the company that everyone seems to be confusing with the original Atari. In 2008 Infogrames then bought the rest of the company, making it a wholly owned subsidiary as well. Most of what's going on is ridiculous posturing and a shell game. When Jim Wilson took over as both head of Infogrames (renamed to Atari SA) and Atari Inc., he gutted Atari Inc. and sent most of the staff to Atari SA - which relocated it's operations to Los Angeles to be near Cryptic (Cryptic was handing most of the operations for the company). At that point Atari Inc. was a handful of people in cubes in an office in New York. I.E. it was a paper only company. That's why when Jim concocted the story in January about wanting to break free from Atari SA it made zero sense - he was head of both companies.

. Those were the only two. The auction packages were publicly announced a while ago and in news announcements as well. Here's the legal document with them for you also. See page 50 onwards. http://bmcgroup.com/restructuring/DocView.aspx?ClientID=316&DocNumber=260&CaseNo=1-13-bk-10176 Not sure what you mean, they're only being sold as a group.

I guess the smiley wink was lost on you with your statement above. This is exactly why I'm leaving AA, just don't need that attitude anymore during my accident recovery. Later.