Retro Rogue

That's cool that Nolan signed it for you. Was that at Campus Party Brazil 2013? Did he say anything about the book?

As someone else mentioned, they bought the Atari Games properties to get at the Midway properties (like Mortal Kombat). I doubt they would care about getting this IP or doing anything with it - they've done nothing with the Atari Games properties as it is. What I'd prefer to see is someone to buy both sets away from these companies and unit them elsewhere.

Atari US (Atari Inc.) is not the holder of the Atari IP, Atari Interactive is. Whether or not Atari Inc. is sold (which is just a handfull of people in an office in NY) has no bearing on any of that. Atari Inc. is simply GT Interactive-> Infogrames NA, Inc. -> Atari Inc. Atari Interactive is Hasbro Interactive -> Infogrames Interactive -> Atari Interactive. Besides everything purchased from Hasbro, all the properties from GT and others were folded into AI. Atari SA is the holder of Atari Interactive, and all the IP associated with it.

No, these are all by Atari Games. Different Atari, and their assets are currently owned by Time/Warner.

No, it's all under one big pot called Atari Interactive.

Everything coin, console, and computer from '72-'84, and everything console and computer from '84-'96. So there's actually a lot of IP there.

NAMCO has certainly not sold off Pac-Man, that's it's mascot. You're most likely confusing it with some company licensing it from them.

No. What they did was buy Hasbro Interactive, which included Atari Interactive. The deal was for $95mil in Infogrames Securities and and $5mil in cash. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=99#.UQg7TaHHfls

Of course. As per the first book, this is more driven by the stories behind the scenes vs. just facts and figures. We have plenty of documentation and resources for the facts and figures and we wind up cross-referencing people's recollections with those anyways (and with other people's recollections, to create a more "complete" picture). Will do. You should consider coming up regardless some time though. Largest fan based show in the country (close to 50,000 square feet, over 5,000 people over the two days, just under 300 coin-op, events, vendors, competitions, an entire museum wing with everything playable, etc.) .

LOL, I have one too. BTW, if you're going to make it up to MGC this year let me know. We're starting the interviews for Book 2 (Atari Corp. - Business Is war) and It'd be a perfect opportunity to go over your time there.

If we're talking about cartridges specifically, certainly.

Jack was chairman of the board the entire time, so technically you say could he was involved (Jack retired as CEO and left daily operations in May of '88). But yes, the Jaguar was under Sam's term as both President and CEO.

Not all the ones you mentioned. As I stated, the only consoles Jack produced was the 2600 Jr. and the 7800. For 8-bit computers, it was purely the XE line. Reselling inherited backstock for the other items doesn't constitute associating him with the creation or production of those items. Jack didn't manufacture half of what you had listed. Yes, it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Communications. There were shares in the original Atari Inc. (1972-1976), but those were bought out and people paid out when Warner bought the company. Under Warner, the big thing was Warner stock.

No, that was Atari Games Corp. making the arcade games. Atari Inc. was gone. To re-iterate what happened during the '84 split: The Consumer Division of Atari Inc. was split off and sold to Jack, who brought it under TTL and renamed TTL into Atari Corp. What was left of Atari inc. (Coin, Ataritel, and a few other small divisions and projects) was immediately (that very day) renamed to Atari Games Inc. By early 1985, the other divisions were all shut down or sold off and Coin was spun off under NAMCO as Atari Games Corporation. The only version of the 2600 being produced under Jack was the 2600 Jr., which is why I mentioned that. Likewise, the 5200s weren't being reproduced under Jack, that was old Atari Inc. stock being re-released to clear it out. The 400/800 had been out of production since 1983, Jack's series of 8-bits was the XE line. So I really don't see what's not fair. If all he cares about is display an "Atari" stock, then that'll work just fine, and if he was talking about a boxed Jr. that'll be even better. If he's talking about a heavy sixer, light sixer, 4-switch, or darth vader model, Jack was not responsible for any of those. I'd even give the benefit of the doubt on the darth model since that would have been the backstock Jack would have inherited when he bought Consumer and was selling from '84 though late '85 until the Jr. was brought out. http://www.atarimuse...s/ataripcs.html

Unless it's a 2600 Junior though, that doesn't make a lot of sense. That's an Atari Corporation stock certificate, not an Atari Inc. one.

As a coin-op company, no. And as part of Midway, it was Midway that didn't allow it to properly transition to a consumer company. But then, Midway didn't make that transition well themselves.

Surely you can't be serious with regards to Atari Games? 720 Degrees, APB, Blasteroids, the Gauntlet series, the Hard Driving series, the San Francisco Rush series, etc., etc. They did quite well. It was the coin industry itself that was the issue with that company, and then Midway continuing to marginalize them. They wouldn't have been able to do anything with the pre-84 properties without Atari Corp.'s consent anyways. While Atari Games owned the rights to coin appearances of the pre-'84 games, they didn't own the copyrights and trademarks to the games (i.e. the game titles, characters, and audio-visuals).

The problem with that viewpoint is you keep reffering to them as "they". There was no one "Atari" during all this time that you can point a finger at like that. The fortunes of what company? Atari Corp? Atari Games? Midway West? Hasbro's Atari Interactive? Infogrames?

I have the large midi maze set up that used to run at Gencon back in the late 80s and early 90s. Got it from the Atari user group that used to run it when they were tossing out everything in the early 2000s. They were no longer an Atari user group by then, just a PC group comprised of a few people in their 50s and 60s.

Always remove the shrink wrap if you're trying to preserve the box, it will constrict and damage the box overtime causing it to crease, wrinkle, and dent.

That's right, young kids don't really care or even know the difference between most of the high tech stuff, The vintage consoles and comptuers museum room at the MGC is packed with young kids every year, all loving playing the old consoles and computers we have up for play. I think Jaynz had more teens and 20-somethings in mind, but even then I've seen plenty of teens have a blast playing each other with Warlords or even Combat.

I just think it's funny, because they also had to copyright the 's spelling because so many people internally were misspelling it as well.

Or even Yars' Revenge.

Keep in mind the company is not what's up on the auction block, it's the brand name and IP. Blubay and Atari SA are liquidating all the assets, not selling off the companies themselves - those are being shut down. So earnings, debt, etc. of those entities are irrelevant.

That's not what it says. It's talking about Atari SA and Atari Inc. filing for bankruptcy, which are majority owned by Blubay. As such Blubay is liquidating them.