Nathan Strum

391 < PreviousIndexNext >

Least exciting episode of ZPH ever: James (reads comic strip on livestream): "Well, that wasn't very funny." Aerlan: "Dude, you totally missed the juxtapositioning of anthropomorphism with the human condition. It's a biting satire of how people find meaning in pointless emotional attachment to material things. F___ yeah, man!"

If you mean not in a box? Yes. Artie will return as a proper 2600. I have one or two left in this series, then we'll start unboxing Artie and some of the rest of the cast. I'm a bit preoccupied with some other projects right now, so there may be a bit of a delay before that happens.

Nope. I decided to revert back to black and white (as Artie originally was) for several reasons: Traditionally, daily newspaper comics are black and white. Since moving back to Seattle, I get a newspaper here (a real printed one). There are some comics in the paper that clearly started out as full-color web comics, and they don't translate to black and white at all. They didn't take into account the limitations of newspaper printing when creating them, and they end up a blurry, illegible mess. I like the clean, simple look of a well-designed black and white comic strip, and wanted to go back to Artie's original inspiration and appearance: a newspaper comic. The color strips (even as copy/paste as they are) are a bit of a pain to produce. I wanted to simplify things so I'd be more inclined to produce new strips. I wanted to change the look of the strip, and try some different approaches to creating the artwork. This is in part because I've moved, therefore Artie's moved, and this represents an opportunity for a clean break between then and now. But also, I'm always looking for new ways to create art, and hopefully come up with techniques and approaches I can use in other projects. I'll get one or two strips out of Artie's meta commentary about how everything is black and white.

390 < PreviousIndexNext >

One of my favorite-ever Bloom County comic strips: https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1982/08/18

That's a reference (of sorts) to a Bloom County strip, that I've paid homage to before. Well, he will be finished with the move at some point. But as for being in color... I don't recall that episode, but I seem to recall them referencing Atari (or similar games) a number of times. I didn't watch a lot of ATHF though. For me, a little of that went a long way.

Might want to refer to it as "Community-Built Unnamed 1970's Video Game Console-Compatible System".

When I lose interest in making them. I went nearly a year last time between episodes because of the move (yes - Artie moving was inspired by me moving in real life). But as long as I have something that interests me related to classic gaming (and is hopefully funny ), then I'll keep sporadically cranking them out. As for the future of AA, the blogs, etc. – Artie would find a home elsewhere, should it become necessary.

389 < PreviousIndexNext >

388 < PreviousIndexNext >

That's true - I forgot about the T-shirt thing. I don't recall the details - I think the T-shirt website itself flagged it as an off-limits IP. But however that was done, Atari is still behind it. And I don't think that instance had anything to do with the Atari logo. The ZPH awards is a little more understandable though, since they weren't actually "Atari" awards, and the logo was the dominant feature of it. It implied they were from Atari, rather than for games for Atari systems. I think they should just be renamed the ZPH awards, and make the award look like the ZPH logo. Then James would be free to do what he wished with them. (They're sort-of that way now, but it's really a ZPH production, and I think it should be identified as such.) It would be nice though if Atari wasn't so immediately dismissive of fan projects. But they're a corporation, and they're protective of their IPs. Not their fans.

387 < PreviousIndexNext >

I figured someone would. And "SOS" seemed too easy.

Bring a little flashlight. That should work.

386 < PreviousIndexNext >

Yep - get the money out while you still can. I've never asked for royalties, or other monetary payment for my work for AA (apart from copies of games from the AA store - which would amount to a tiny fraction of the work I actually put into projects). For me, this has always been a hobby, and taking money for it would cross the line into "work". Also, I've always felt the games belonged to the developers, and they should be the ones being paid for their games. Not me. And while I'll still be willing to work that way for developers on an independent basis, I will not be doing any unpaid work for Atari. What form any future work with them takes will have to be determined.

Did Plaion initiate the project, or did Atari hire them to create it for them? Even if Plaion came up with the proposal for it, Atari was still dictating the terms that impacted its design. More to the point, is Atari taking the initiative on any of these products, or are they sitting around waiting for people to hand them ideas? I fully understand all of that. And I fully agree they aren't even interested. That is precisely what I mean by "not getting it": that it's still a fundamentally flawed and deceptively marketed product. It's not a 2600, because it's not fully compatible. This is a more expensive Flashback. Period. And it should be marketed as such. (But that's my reality. Not theirs.) I'm not sure of what their level of interest is or isn't, because I haven't been in direct communication with any of them. Hope they're enjoying the comics though!

I posted some of my thoughts in another comments section here: https://forums.atariage.com/blogs/entry/18674-maybe-the-guys-who-bought-battlezone-would-want-it/?do=findComment&comment=31358 I agree with Thomas though - AtariAge was a fan-run, independent community. It is now owned by a corporation. It may still be managed by Albert, but he no longer determines its fate. Anything Atari has done previously, good or bad, is irrelevant. They have no track record with this. But they are now the owners of AtariAge, and AtariAge is subject to them. If there had been (for example) an Atari Fan Club in the early 80's, run by gamers, with thousands of members, with their own newsletters, club meetings, etc., and that had been bought out and run by Atari, then there would be a precedent for this. And when Atari collapsed, the fan club would have collapsed with it. The financial backing, support, and resources would have evaporated. But... as I mentioned in my other post, people are resilient, and those that chose to, would have simply moved on and found other ways to connect. AtariAge is really a community of people. The forum named AtariAge is merely the current gathering place.

I'm avoiding the forum discussions about this, because I don't see any point in adding my voice to the noise there. I'd rather let Artie comment, since he has a longer history with Atari than I do, since he was built by them. That said... My concerns are: who is really running Atari, what are their actual goals, and what happens if they fail to meet them? Does Wade Rosen have free reign, or is he on a leash with Atari's board of Directors? What is he expected to accomplish, and in what time frame, and what happens if that fails? Are they expecting to attain a certain level of profitability in a given number of years? And even if they do, is the goal to maintain and build on that, or make Atari an attractive property for eventual buyout? Is Rosen in this for the long haul, or if he gets a better/more prestigious offer from another company, is he going to jump ship? Is there a succession plan in place for that possibility? These are questions that there are already answers to, because these discussions have already happened (or they're not doing their jobs). But we'll never know the actual answers, until the events play out. They can "say" anything in interviews or press releases. But that means nothing. AtariAge is a small piece of the Atari puzzle, and one that could be easily discarded or abandoned in a heartbeat. "Sorry Al - but the numbers just aren't adding up this quarter for us to keep you around." I'm not criticizing Al's decision to sell to Atari. I think it's (potentially) a great opportunity for him, and I know that AtariAge has pretty-much taken over his life. He certainly didn't intend for that to happen, and burnout is going to be inevitable. Some may think, "Yeah - but that's the dream! Getting to do your hobby for a living!" but the problem is, AtariAge isn't a reliable, predictable, or sustainable source of income. It's wholly reliant on programmers being willing to donate their time to create games, and a community being willing to pay money to purchase enough of those games to cover not only the production costs of the games themselves (which is considerable), but pay to keep AA itself up and running, and then put food on the table. It's a terrible way to try to earn a living. A steady paycheck has to be of tremendous relief to Albert, not to mention the possibility of getting some much-needed help. Clearly, Al's had enough interaction with Atari to trust them to take over ownership of AA. But Atari now owns this forum, which includes the software driving this blog (I maintain that I own the content, however). And they can pull the plug tomorrow if they choose to do so. I think that's the big, overarching fear most people have. Or that Atari will irreparably damage the forum through censorship, ads, or other means. However, I'm not as doom-and-gloom about that as some others may be. This is the very nature of the internet. Communities come and go all the time. Usually, the people who want to keep together simply move on to another location and continue on. Been there, done that. Several times. I hope AtariAge will continue on though. But the world won't end if it doesn't. Everyone who wants to, will turn up somewhere. People are resilient like that. Unlike Albert, I do not trust Atari. They have too checkered of a history to warrant it. As far as I'm concerned, Atari has yet to prove they're a different company. They may be. But the 2600+ is a yet-another example of a product from a company that just doesn't "get it". They're not paying attention to the details, which means at some level, they don't care enough. And if they don't care enough about that... what else won't they care about? Optimistically, maybe this is still part of their learning curve. Certainly, Atari has a lot of learning to do to pull itself out of the mire. Maybe Rosen will turn into the visionary Atari has been lacking for 40+ years. More than anything else, a company like Atari needs someone with a clear and correct vision and the ability to act on it. We'll see how it goes. I'd like to see the return of a competent Atari. It'd be fun to want to buy one of their products again. But I'm going to start backing up my blog entries.