AEX

Hi everybody, Sorry to bump this again, but If anybody can provide me with the following Atari Arcade flyers in the post below, (good-to-mint condition) please get in touch... Donations welcome of course, but willing to pay (via Paypal) if needs be Thanks for reading, sorry to annoy you if I have done that already Karl www.atariexplorer.com

Buddy, you said it yourself, little is known about it. So little in fact that nobody can confirm what the hell it is. You seem to not even know anything about it, but you are getting mad because we want some authentication? Also, it is not the customers job to verify a product that you are selling, I can't believe you think we should be the ones hunting down the origins of this device. We aren't selling the thing. Any value that Golden Lynx would have retained if it is a legitimate Atari paint job, is lost from the abuse that device seems to have taken. As a so-called big shot collector, you should then know that any work taken to repair that unit, and to return it's appearance and functions to it's original quality would make it unoriginal. You would be replacing the d-pad, and both back covers, all of which you would have to paint what looks like PMS 871 gold, but to get it to match you would have to repaint the entire Lynx, making any original paint job from Atari moot, at which point the unit is just a simple fan made custom (which it looks to be anyway). I guess the biggest problem is the $100 starting bid. If that unit were so well known as an official Atari production, it should be able to ride on its own merits from a starting bid of $1. Another point of concern, is why is this the only one we've ever seen? It has a serial number and all the normal labeling a production Lynx would have. If this was produced for a company in the UK, why is this the only unit? Atari would have produced more than one of these. A production Golden Lynx would have shown up here at Atari Age a hell of a long time ago. Just want to say... Companies produce "one-offs" all the time... Its not exactly beyond the realms of possibility that Atari UK did indeed ask a local company to paint one Lynx! I use to ask OEM's all the time to produce various samples, many of which would have been one of a kind items, most of which would have ended up in the dumpster if the project was shelved Also, I have seen a couple of these. Curt definately had one. He would know more about the authenticity. Is this the same unit, I don't know. I think SDL would have had access to such promotional items either directly from Atari UK or produced for SDL by SDL. SDL would have been a AAA client of Atari UK, and Dixons were partially owned by Atari through its shareholding for a time, so promo items could have been produced for these companies. I have an original Gameboy with a Hard Rock Cafe logo on it... but its not gold :-( Karl

AFAIK... That was done for a UK Distributor called Dixons, which Atari corp once held quite a large share holding in back in the day. I'm not 100%, but I think Curt Vendel had one (or perhaps that has made its way from Curt via eBay at some stage). To say its spray painted is of course bloody obvious! The actual Lynx one is spray painted anyway (with a dark gray lacquer), and this would also have been specially painted for whatever promotion it once was used for. Its genuine as far as its a Lynx and its gold :-) Unless it was made for Goldfinger Karl

Guys, Atari had played around with the idea of a mascot or other strong character association with the platform and in-house designers had drawn up various draft ideas, but none were adopted. I actually like the Jaguar cat used in one of the ads, but a good pack-in game with that or any other character and a long-term promotional campaign would have been needed at launch and not mid-way through its shelf life. Karl

Hi lp060, Will be up again very soon, please check out the new URL below. Karl

Hi Jeremiahjt, Yes, I think your right, I had all the box images and the perceived rarity value on each one. It'll be back soon Karl P.S. -> @ Rhod - No problem you using misc. gfx from Atari Explorer as long as you ask first and credit the hard work

Rhod, Atari Explorer will be back on 17th - I'd appreciate if you credit the caption graphics on your website, as they are from Atari Explorer! (It's only courtesy to ask ) Karl

OK, I'll keep this short and sweet if I can "Tramiels time at Atari" has nothing to do with the pricing of Atari Inc. XL pricing in the UK or elsewhere, and could not have had any impact of the initial launch of the 600/800XL be it marketing or otherwise, because that was an Atari Inc. product. Without going into wild speculation about the future of the XL's under Atari Inc. (apart from the possible technical route the systems where heading) it should be noted that the majority of the XL products were actually sold by Atari Corp at MUCH lower prices than Atari Inc. had, and even undercut C64's for a time as they depleated LARGE inventory of XL product. Marketing was CUT to the bone on the XL range after August '84, and pricing did the talking as far as the Tramiels were concerned. RRP/SRP (Rec. Retail Price or Suggested Retail Price) is a baseline figure provided by a manufacturer to a reseller. Most resellers sell below the RRP, and although Atari may have "bought in" CPU's etc where Commodore had MOS, this didn't effect the product margin or have any real connection to Atari's RRP of their products. To say Atari could not lower RRP because it may not have operated like CBM is not correct. I do not know how much margin Atari Inc. made on any XL, but its possible to take a hit on hardware initially to facilitate a set percentage sell through into the market and create a successful "launch" base for a product. Once a satisfactory share is obtained and costs lower due to increased production and natural savings etc etc, then profit on hardware is made gradually. Atari also understood by this time that software and not hardware was the key, so its possible under Atari Inc. no XL product made money, especially when you consider how much inventory Atari Inc. had manufactured knowing the dire state of its finances circa late '83 and '84. The 800XL was well received in the UK and other European countries, but it was "pushed" out the door by the Tramiels not only to ensure they sold inventory, but to inject much needed capital into the cash-strapped Atari Corp. Karl

Gorf, Yes a proto rotary controller was developed and was with Curt for a while, but has moved to pastures new unfortunately. I think Jason Smith got it, but not 100% sure where it is now. Looked good, not sure if it was a working unit or not though. Karl

eBay! Well, a few of us here tried to start a Video Game auction site some time ago (a belated thanks to all those in the AA and wider community who helped us). We all lost money and valuable time with our families to try and make it work, but the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day everybody keeps using eBay, no matter how much money you plough into systems, advertising etc, eBay is the market leader. Yahoo! tried and failed, and although there are many successful trading sites out there, eBay is the #1, and unless you have a big budget you ain't going to stop the 'bay! Now, thats not to say you can't have a niche product, after all the video gaming sector is worth millions today and even a small slice of that would pay you nicely if you could get it. But... its not the systems, processes or even the pricing thats the issue... eBay has the brand awareness and more importantly the TRAFFIC that enables people to SELL their items. Of course, if AtariAge started a similar auction product I think most of us here would not only TRUST it, but pending the fees etc, would PREFER to use it. You could have the system running and paying for itself IF a small percentage of the selling price went to AA directly. I'd keep it simple and have trading free for personal use and a single annual fee for commercial users with the only stipulation that they sell videogame related products (or rules to that effect). To ensure AA can pay for bandwith and servers/software (and possibly donate a monthly sub to some tech/moderators to oversee the day to day stuff) even personal sellers could donate a small percenatge for every X amount of sales they do if they use it regularly. The community could VOTE for changes as the system develops so it would become a much fairer product and in a sense form a real independent and democratic place to sell or swap video game related merchandise. So instead of just AA, it would be known as AAA! AtariAge Auctions! Karl

PM Sent Phil

IMHO, the double-caret AtariAge logo as it appears on homebrews has more cachet with me these days than Atari proper. Absolutely, its great to see homebrew products and indie game devs making things happen these days without the pressure of big business on their backs all the time (some of them are even making a good living from it). Atari Age has been a leading light for Atari homebrews and long may it continue. I'd still like to see the Fuji survive and be used again proudly some day The AA logo reminds of the Citroën logo a little bit... (a popular French car maker). Karl

If this is the case, then its the most sensible move the board has made to date. Infogrames has to some extent been shielded by the Atari branding, but not by much. I guess they needed to protect the name of their Major brand, unless they were to start again and perhaps buy a name like Commodore or Coleco... (and ruin whats left of their good names as well...) But I would suggest this is the end of the line for Atari Brand once this has been completed. Will the brand ever grace a quality gaming product again Karl

Although a sad state of affairs, I think the game is up for the Atari brand. Its value as a gaming symbol and producer/publisher of quality IP's in the current console market have been hit hard. Since the sale from Hasbro it has been punched around so much I doubt you could make it stand again on its own for some time. Unfortunately some brands do eventually die for good, and unless (a) Infogrames or Atari Inc. turn their fortunes around or (b) it is sold and purchased by a company such as Activision or perhaps even Microsoft (ie, stable companies in the market) I really think we might be saying goodbye to the Fuji symbol for some time, perhaps forever. The only other chance it has is to purchased by a smaller working group who can realise its IP portfolio properly, release niche products itself to market and continue to survive on the fringes like some of the new indie development companies (which we should continue to support always). My cousins got their PS3 for Chritsmas this year, and along with their Wii and PS2 they still haven't got a clue who Atari were and they don't really care Karl

You weren't alone. Ah yes, Mr. Minter giving out about updated retro games... Isn't SG just another trippy rehash of all his other old games but actually based on the original Tempest anyway... throw in some new animal from his home Zoo, or in this case some African Giraffes' and you'd never notice this is another Minter designed game... right? Perhaps he should have stuck with Llamma's or sheep for marketing purposes? Given his recent rant about gamers and what he thinks of the consumers who don't buy his games, I have lost a lot of respect for the man. He does have talent no doubt, but his loyal followers keep him protected inside a bubble atop a magnificent plinth like some sort of demi-god... No Mr. Minter, if you want continued respect why don't you be a man and move on and maybe design a NEW game? A game with no trippy visuals or farm animals would be a good start in my opinion I just think its sad, he obviously feels his game has a right of passage to be a hit. I'd buy his games if they were of T2K standard and conformed to either a general genre or something unique which he has cleverly designed to be appealing to the mass market. SG is a niche product much like most of his previous work IMO. Karl

Kind of strange they'll be celebrating a computer manufactured by a company who basically pushed them out. Guys, Obviously I don't expect anybody here to act like a moron and disrupt the above proceedings Whatever your feelings on the subject, the Tramiles were absolutely instrumental in the development and success of Commodore and the C64, as were many other people in the company. As Jack was CEO, he is the figurehead associated most directly with its success and its great that he has agreed to share his memories with the CHM for this event. As for his leadership during the Atari years, thats another event entirely Karl

Yes, You can see them in the flesh at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View near San Jose on Dec. 10th. in celebration of the C64. A Q&A is planned also. If anyone does go, please get me an autograph(s) on Atari Headed Paper and contact me via PM for a nice gift in return. More details: http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4010 Karl

EA wants 'open gaming platform' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7052420.stm Why don't EA put their money where their big mouth is and spend some of their huge bank balance trying to ensure their utopian gaming future An old Atarian who isn't a big EA fan, or can't you tell Karl

I think we've discussed the STE here before, but in brief anyway... The EST was a design being developed by Shiraz Shivji's development group at Sunnyvale. It was a mish-mash of both the ST design and elements of what would become the Atari TT utilising a 32-Bit CPU. Shivji left Atari in 1988 and later moved to NeXT. Unfortunately, he also took with him the real vision of the ST platform and the resulting STE was probably a quickfix solution to properly dveloping the ST to the next logical level. Atari had to move the platform forward, but the STE was a little underwhelming when it eventually left the factory. From what I understand the engineers took the elements of the various EST designs that were more or less tried and tested and finished them, bolting them onto the basic ST engine. A few chips were LSI'ed to reduce costs, but no new physical design was signed off which made it even cheaper to produce, thus the STE was pushed out the door with little or no fanfare. It didn't make the big next step the ST platform needed, and that resulted in a lacklustre response from the press and consumers alike. The TT was also born from some of the early EST designs - most probably, the TT was really where the ST should have been aiming for, while the TT should have been even further advanced. There is no real proof that Atari sat on these systems, or had them ready to "turn on", I would doubt that. There was a lot of development taking place at Sunnyvale and other locations (UK and Japan) on various projects, but the ST was only really taking off during 1987. The Mega's were only a year old at this point and very much in demand - so no point releasing new platforms when existing ones are profitable and popular. Like most computer products, delays are part and parcel of the process and Atari had problems getting the STE and the TT out by the promsied launch dates. Launch dates are used for many reasons, some related to investors and some related to the competition, but Atari was always a little egar to shout about availability The TT was launched without Unix initially, and a TT/X model (Tower config with Unix) was never actually lauched. 30 days after Unix V was made available it was shelved and the internal Unix dev group was axed. The CD-ROM for the Jaguar was delayed for technical reasons (Philips sent to many bad qual units to Atari and fixes pushed out the public launch) - there was no trick played here. Karl

And that is exactly the reason why it will get pirated in the end. Piracy is not fought with less supply & higher prices. Anyone believing that is an idiot. Besides, I think most people would like to buy the stuff, if it was available at a reasonable price, and people knew the money would go towards new developments. But most active people here has more eyes for the potential value of their collections and/or the stock of games they keep in their warehouses, than to actually contribute to the scene. So the jaguar scene is a small pathetic club for selfadmirers, rather than vibrant, active and alive that it should be. you do realize all official sales of Battlesphere (i.e. sold by Doug (Thunderbird)) Goto charity. So those paying the high price get alittle more out of it then as you put it.. "self admiration" I don't own it cause I can't see myself spending that much but at least it's going to a good cause. As much as I respect ScatoLOGIC and its IP, I have to ask... "This game and many other rare ScatoLOGIC items will be auctioned off in the coming months to help combat software piracy" A direct quote from the last round of official BS eBay sales... (as per the sales page copy). What does that statement mean exactly? How does this eBay auction (and the many others past) combat software piracy? If anything selling this game on eBay, which is now so uncontrollably out of the reach of most mere mortals, surely increases the likelyhood of piracy? Even if I could afford the $500-600+ these regularly make at auction, I simply could not justify purchasing ANY game at this price. I don't have a copy of Battlesphere, and as things stand, most probably never will (but lifes a bitch eh!)... but due to the supply and demand for this title, each and every sale just keeps pushing the price sky high. The fact that the IP owner is continuing to sell this title on eBay only fuels this market hike, and the result is that many genuine Jaguar fans will not be able to play/own BS. This fuels human temptation to play it by other means if that means is available. As a gamer and collector, I wouldn't be bothered with an "alternative" way of playing this game, but as a human I can see the temptation, when the game is so utterly out of physical reach! On the other side of the coin, if ScatoLOGIC did indeed finalise a new run of BS it would surely decrease the auction values depending on the hypothetical run of new units, and ensure genuine players can legally buy their own copy. In my view, obviously thats a good thing. I didn't see any mention on these most recent auctions that the money is going to ScatoLOGIC's charity - fair play if they are finally making profit from all the hard work, they ultimately deserve it. Karl

MRB - How old are you??? Shit, this is what is must've felt like when a my grand parent must've been asked "Whats a telegraph, is that a paper version of a telephone?" Curt Not to mention he sounds like he's confusing the web (which runs over the Internet) with the actual Internet. And yes, a bicycle is just a self powered version of a car. And a cow is a live version of a hamburger MRB - very simply put, general public internet access didn't start until the mid 90's or so, driven mainly by the (then) recent invention of the Web. Even the Internet itself was new in the late 80's, growing off its earlier Arpanet roots. Before that (late 70's through mid 90's) what you'd do now to socialize (email, discussions, etc.) you'd do on BBS's (which have nothing to do with the Internet though during the mid through late 90's some started providing gateways to the Internet). A BBS (Bulletin Board System) was simply someone's own personal computer (Atari 8bit, Commodore 64, Apple II, etc.) set up with a modem and BBS sofware. A person would load up terminal software on their computer, dial across the phone line and call in to that BBS person's computer. Then via the BBS software leave messages on it (like what you're doing now in this forum), put up software for other people to download, read the latest text files, play simple text games, etc. etc. Then hang up so someone else can dial in to the BBS, etc. (unless the person had multiple phone lines and modems hooked up, which happened during the later years of BBS'ing). Then they'd check back the next day or later that night, or whatever (phone lines were usually constantly busy for popular BBS's) to see responses, etc. I'd also recommend picking up Jason Scott's documentary to learn a bit more about the history of BBS's and what they were like as a "scene". If you want to try it out, some AtariAge members have actual atari computers running bbs software and hooked up to the Internet so you don't need to call in through a modem (though the experience is nothing like connecting to it from your own atari computer and modem). You telnet in to the BBS's and their Atari computers think you're calling in to them through an actual modem/phone line. Here's three to get you started - ainside.no-ip.org darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org 216.62.20.217 Please don't tell me you don't know what telnet is though. It must be pointed out in all fairness that people are here to learn from the elders of the AA community No genuine question should be left unanswered, and we're just yanking your chain MRB Well done for ** actually ** answering the question Marty Karl

It was the system of communication just after hieroglyphics... Karl

Ahh, Jeff Minter... This is a bit of a rant if that's ok! I've nothing against the man, but I think there is a lot of spin sprinkled on his general aura as a games designer. I'm all for creative games that break the mould, even the weirdest and most quirky games sometimes make a lasting impression on me, but I've never understood the relevance of sheep and llama's in his games (apart from his personal affection for these animals) especially when in the past they have been just dropped into a Defender clone. Now we have "Space Giraffe" (the weird name drums up some additional press coverage), most probably the same concept as the failed "Unity" project everybody got so excited about on the Gamecube? You can bet there was a few characters from his farm in that one too... Anyway, my point... Oh yes... Am I the only one who doesn't worship every product this guy does? Ever since the fantastic Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar (the only game of his I actually thought was any good), and the very clever VLM's on the Jaguar/Nuon and 360 (great concept evolved from the Trip-O-Tron product), I have to say that the Minter Hype is just over-played in my opinion. I have no intention of paying even $5 to play "Space Sheep" or whatever its called (although I congratulate Mr. Minter for providing cost effective gaming), but I will keep playing Tempest 2000 because you don't see those color effects in his games anymore... Karl

Hi guys, A great 2-Player game is BMX Simulator, which apart from being on BMX-Bikes is a great racing game. Another is Kickstart (motorbikes) which is fantastic with 2 Players. Apart from that, Elektraglide is king of the hill for this aging Atarian! Karl

Well, Outside the US we missed a PAL Flashback 2.0 release, and I can only hazard a guess that we'll never see a Flashback 3.0. It might be still possible to see the FB2P project launched worldwide as it won't have territory issues. I would have been happy just to get one of the new FB2 joysticks! Either way, I guess we'll see if there is any life left in Atari to launch anything in the future. Karl