AEX

Aha! My bad, I assumed (which one should never do!) that it was a 6x6 inch print he was talking about Of course, once it has been scanned and stitched nicely at at least 300dpi, you could make some nice copies of the image, a poster a lot of people would like to hang on their wall for sure. Karl

Not sure that's accurate, Most print houses assume 300dpi minimum for most applications (the human eye doesn't see much more than about 250dpi). Anything larger consumes memory size and is only beneficial for truly large print jobs or to display exceptional accuracy. A typical 10MP camera can throw out an image easily at 3600 x 2400, and if you were to print that image out at say 16 x 24, the resulting dpi works out at around 325dpi. DPI is referenced from the 72-points-per-inch standard set by the printing industry - the fact that the camera market keeps pushing up the reference of mega-pixels = more quality is to some degree accuarte, but does not mean that you need the type of MP camera you have mentioned above to print larger ouput effectively (not even hubble has that type of power!). If you scan the image at 300dpi and stitch the results together (always best done manually because each scan is going to have light and colour changes), the image will be larger, but still 300dpi. Karl

Karl, good to see you posting again. I wasn't suggesting he was stating that. He made a comment about Atari Inc. as if it designed and released the FB and FB2, which suggested to me he had no idea it was Curt that designed them and was Curt who had to work hard to get Atari to release it. Hence my response correcting him on the origin of said consoles, and why Curt was never involved in a "cash in" scheme. Atari Inc. saw squat in potential at the time, they were treating the retro properties as a red headed step child (no offense to you Irish) that they didn't know what to do with. Curt had to keep on them about getting some new hardware out, and used his involvement as an adviser on some of the other plug and plays to push the FB. He was given the go-ahead the last minute on the FB with no real time and told there would be no 2 if he didn't get the 1 out in their time constraints. Perhaps. But in the same token, they're never fully behind anything until they continually "test waters". We have some great ideas in the pipeline that are being worked on, but first thing is first. That wasn't our fault. Blame some management no longer with the company. That's all I can say. Marty, Yes, been busy recently, but always check by! Curt's passion definately pushed the FB to its physical release, and its the passion of many Atari fans that see projects through - just look at some of the great products released here through AA. I remember the FB days and the hair-pulling time Curt and you guys had with the suits at Atari (although it pains me to call any of these rebranded content providers Atari), but at least some of the vision got to be realised with FB2. I was thinking, if "Atari" took the Atari properties one step further and brought the experience to say XBLive etc, and without the obvisous real-world challenges for a second (funding, dev, etc) have something like the PS2 Activision Anthology where you enter your period-piece living room, select an Atari console (from VCS all the way to say Lynx or even Jag), pick a game from your library (which you can further build upon) and play your emulated game. Moving on from there, tie-in an FB3 or FB4 promotion and get the products into the stores and into the main-stream market place. The physical product could differ in many ways from the software version (other titles built-in, physical cartridge/joy/expansion slot etc). We can dream right As for "red-headed" Irish people (and I am one of them, although I think its really more like "Auburn"!), we also have a shitty temper, so go easy on the analogies cowboy! Keep up the good work Marty, Karl

I'm grand, although we've just had another bruising national budget yesterday I'm sure the Tramiels tried to off-load as much as they could before the eventual Hasbro sale! There is potential in the TV game systems, and those Jakks games are always on sale in this country, so they must be selling decent numbers. I recall talking to one of our U.S. bigwigs at Gateway Corp. around '96 and they were discussing purchasing Amiga (like a lot of companies at the time), and he mentioned they had had some brief discussions with Atari. Gateway was really just sounding out what Atari had on the table and the annual royalties were only bringing in around $1.5 Million, Gateway were looking for intellectual properties at the time, especially anything that could be adapted to shave royalties off the PC systems it sold. The Amiga sale was similar and actually had properties that enabled a couple of Compaq (HP) royalties to be shelved due to some of the patents it had. When that deal was done, it was small change and nobody really knew what to do with it. Due to outside pressure and the range of items the Amiga sale brought, a small division was set-up to look more into the oppotunities, which eventually came to zilch (apart from a new OS). I had the Amiga system mock-up in my Marketing store-room right up until I left, wish I had taken it with me Karl

Excuse me? What a load of crap. Curt didn't design the FB's as a way to "cash in on retro gaming". Rather to get new Atari hardware on the market. And management at Atari had to be dragged kicking and screaming in to it - you have no idea how many hoops had to be jumped through and continue to be jumped through to try and get the portable and actual FB3 on the market. Steady on there Marty , I don't think the guy meant Curt was just lining his pockets with the money from unsuspecting retro geeks!, but that Atari saw the potential of retro consoles at that time. Everything comes back into style as a past generation sees the nostalgia of something from their childhood, and younger consumers get a chance to relive the times and products their parents talked about, the FB launched at such a time when Jakks etc, all saw the right market conditions. Perhaps when the economies of the world begin to pick up again, Atari will manage to fund a new FB project and get fully behind the thing - I think the market is always ripe for these type of niche products, but you really need the parent company fully behind you to exploit the investment and get the right product to market, and not something half-baked which ruins consumer confidence for any future products. I've never seen an FB in the flesh, but best of luck with the new FB's, I know we'd like to see them in Europe some day too! Karl

Nice Joystick, Not sure if the CBM "CX-40" was just a sample or produced in another territory, but it looks nice. The offical CBM controller was a wedge shaped thingy with the button placed top-middle if memory serves me right. I'd agree with the Rybags and give the Lemon 64 forums a shout, they'll be nuts for one! Karl

Yeah, and if we had all chosen Atari ST's, Lynxs', Jaguars', TT's, Atari "might" have survived too I've never bought a system because I was "loyal" to it, although I have a particular fondeness for Atari because it was my first... But my first car was a Renault 5 (Le Car!) and although I've had many different brands of car over the years, I am currently back driving a Renault all these years later, but its not due to brand loyalty (something I can't say for my computer which is not an Atari unfortunately!). It comes down to specs and price and even sometimes the overall design, couple that with a personal emotion you get when you just like something more than something else. I enjoyed the Amiga and the ST. I also enjoyed the Archimedes systems and some other niche systems over the years, but all these computers had pros and cons and many of the manufacturers are no longer with us. I used my Amiga primarily for DPaint and the ST for DTP (ASM and some MIDI apps), and even with my ST Bias, I knew the ST could not compete with the Amiga on so many levels, but at the same time the Amiga had issues as well. We could debate the "what if's" until the cows come home - bottom line and to get back on topic, the XE(GS) was a great design and apparently the focus groups loved it. The machine actually sold out, and for the Tramiels, that was the whole idea. Karl

The ST Failed??? The ST saved the company in the long run, with sales of 8-Bit systems and old Warner inventory supplying cash to keep the company afloat early on. You can't build a new computer just for your current user base, and the ST wasn't just about games (sound, sprites etc). The ST was a new machine and the 8-Bit line continued to be supported right up to 1991, you wouldn't have had any A8 support UNLESS the ST was a success for the company. Karl

Just to clarify, the 7800 only came with the Atari Joypads in Europe AFAIK. The XEGS was a well thought out design and concept, and was the perfect platform to consume older stock inventory Atari still had of 8-Bit parts. It actually sold out with the 7800 in 1987, and did very well in the UK and Australia. I don't think the 8-Bit platform was important to Atari by the late 80's in any case, but people still bought it! Karl

We had a few of the 4-Player versions in the Dublin stores I worked for back in the day, the only difference being the steel pole had circular holes througout and was coloured the same gray as the wooden stand. I always thought they should have had lighting LYNX headers and additional speakers set inside them to amplify the Lynx sound and grab more attention in the store Karl

But you know something....they are not only still around, they are still the giant they have always been. They controlled their market correctly and have always stuck to their roadmaps and weathered the storm. A few lessons Atari could have taken onboard was looking at how Intel manage their business model. Anybody here who has worked closely with them know how professional they can be. And... Apple eventually made the switch too... Karl

I've made my position on this topic many times before :-) Many of you may be a little hazy on the history of Atari... But without going into all the details, Warner made as many, if not more, bad decisions as the Tramiel family did. Nobody runs a company perfectly and yes, profit is king. There isn't much love in business, but there is always dedication and hard work involved. Looking back at things at Atari after they have happened and making uneducated or even disrespectful comments on events just muddies the history. I'll just say this... The Tramiels ran Atari longer than Bushnell or Warner and no matter what your feelings towards any of the key decision makers are today, we have a great legacy of systems to remember and to enjoy to this day. Sure, we could fix all the problems at Atari if we had a crystal ball :-) BTW, I don't think Intel had anything to do with the PPC Merry Christmas one and all... and don't pay Casio another cent for those Lynx LCD's... there too bloody expensive Sam! (Yes Jack). Karl

(Doh! Sorry this double post, Mods please delete if required). (Example of how easy it is to make dumb mistakes :-) )

http://cgi.ebay.com/1989-ATARI-CYBERBALL-O...1QQcmdZViewItem That's for Cyberball 2072 unfortunately :-( Thanks for looking out though Karl