carmel_andrews

E.T and 2600 Pacman....2 very good reasons why management and marketing types shouldn't get involved in game or product development (unless by some stroke of luck, they actually understand or comprehend what actually goes on in either game development or product development) I am sure there are other classic examples (i won't go into the one about Atari turning down Jay's and subsequently Joe Decuirs proposal or roadmap for future development of the atari 8bit, aka the 68000 based systems)

If you use 'emulation' (which i know isn't everyones bag or cup of tea), just load up your favourite 5200 emu. and your fave 5200 game image and nab yourself 'artmoney' or 'cheat engine' if the emulation is running on a pc, armoney and cheat engine are essentially software equiivalents to PAR/GG/Xplorer/Xploder etc

Does it go at the speed of light?....Or warp factor 10 to using star trek logic

I think i've seen something v. similar to that in a second hand (used) games shop in north london years ago (basically a 3rd party or official playwhatsitsname portable)

Linky only http://www.cast-inc.com/ip-cores/processors/index.html And it lists 6502, Z80 and 68000, perhaps they should also get into making 6502/z80 and 68000 Custom IC's like vic2/3, sid or pokey/antic/c or gtia and ofcourse paula/agnes and denise, glue and shifter/shifter 2 Could be interesting

Here’s an interesting point, why do companies (like Atari) fail or die like they do It is either because they failed to adapt to the constantly and ever changing environment (i.e. the marketplace) Or like I was told, once a company gets so far in the evolution, growth/expansion of that company, it starts losing touch with itself and its market/customers etc. (by that I mean it starts removing itself from those that work for the company, namely anyone that doesn’t have the word ‘president’ in their job spec/title and also it starts removing itself from the people that are its customers/market) I think in Atari’s case it was a bit of both I was told, per email by a well-known former Atari staffer (from the US) from the warner’s days, that Atari’s MANAGEMENT didn’t care or give a toss about anyone with the word engineer or developer/designer (both hardware and software) in their job spec or title, Atari MANAGEMENTS attitude was, ALL EMPLOYEES REGARDLESS OF TITLE OR STATUS/DESIGNATION ARE PAID TO DO A JOB AND THAT IS IT, furthermore the same person intimated to me that Atari’s MANAGEMENT were largely technologically ignorant (or was it technologically incompetent)…not a good thing when you are running a company pretty much involved in the tech market Is it no surprise then that if Atari’s MANAGEMENT had that attitude and approach, as to why the company largely failed like it did (or the parent company wouldn’t have felt the need to unload it onto TTL like it did?) The reason why Atari had the problems it had now is largely down to failure to adapt to the ever changing environment and constantly clinging onto ancient IP’s that had pretty much been milked dry anyway Now, if Atari had innovated its ancient IP’s (i.e. constantly developing them further and making that IP relevant to that generation’s market) Atari might have stood a small chance of doing something useful in the market, case in point being the reboot of ‘Star Raiders’, because Atari didn’t develop that game further, past the original and also the renamed/rebranded ‘last starfighter’ game, people, namely the consumer couldn’t see the link between this version of star raiders and the original as well as the subsequent title, now if Atari had been on the ball and had constantly kept developing that particular IP (and also other ancient IPs) further by every so often coming up with improvements and embellishments to the original game and packaging that into a new version of said game (or games) Atari would constantly be making all their IPs marketable and relevant to that market and generation of gamer The other issue is that Atari were making an ar$e of themselves by trying to release gaming content that people didn’t identify Atari with in order to show that Atari could play with the big boys like EA, Activision etc, if Atari had been on the ball, it would have kept the modern gaming content and the retro gaming content as separate businesses or gaming labels, it is because Atari didn’t do this is to why Atari largely failed, since very few people identified Atari with modern gaming content

Linky only http://mostechnology.com/ I know there's nothing there, but the fact that bothered themselves to pay for a domain name i guess means the company is on the way back, since it's bankruptscy back in early 2000's (As GMT Microelectronics) Perhaps they should by Atari and the imposter company parading as commodore

I seem to remember namco selling of the home gaming IP of Pacman, I used to work in the same building as the company that purchased the rights at that time, back in 2000...I think they were called insight design or sommat, dunno if they were buying the IP for themselves of for one of their various clients

I don't see a 2600 there (or an A8)....Bad girl

Following on from the thread about using a Commy Sid in the A8 and using non Atari hardware in an A8 (like VBXE which uses a TI gfx chip unless i am mistaken) It brings my to asking a question to those that program or create software based emulators (like atari800win, atari++, altirra, steem, saint, stella, virtual jaguar etc etc) Since all the hardware that the emulator uses is now represented as 'code' (be it assember/c/vb/java etc etc), would it be feasable or possible to using emulated hardware chip sets from a non atari platform (i.e c64, amiga, st,7800 etc) in an atari 8bit emulator, or conversely using an atari 8bit HCS's in non atari 8bit emulators OK so you'd have to reprogram the hardware registers (to reflect the hardware registers to the new hardware being emulated) and you'd also need to reprogram specific parts of the emulated machines OS to seeing/recognising the new hardware as well as modifying the relevant 'memory maps' for that emulated machine, if that could be done though I am guessing that the principle should work If this is possible/feasable i am guessing that the possibilities would be endless since this could apply to any form of HCS that is being emulated but hasn't been used in say popular computers or games systems (i.e OTS based hardware and coin op hardware) OTS=Off the shelf

I think the only way Atari will ever make money from the games market is to revert back to it's original business plan/model (i.e. the one they had prior to deciding to produce and market/distribute coin op pong itself) That is if Atari comes out the other side of administration (aka CHAPTER 11) in one piece The original atari business plan/model was (from what i recall reading) is that Atari merely designs/develops the games and then licences that content out to manufacturers/producers to market/distribute etc under their own names (with atari getting a cut of each game unit sold)

I think the only way Atari will ever make money from the games market is to revert back to it's original business plan/model (i.e. the one they had prior to deciding to produce and market/distribute coin op pong itself) That is if Atari comes out the other side of administration (aka CHAPTER 11) in one piece The original atari business plan/model was (from what i recall reading) is that Atari merely designs/develops the games and then licences that content out to manufacturers/producers to market/distribute etc under their own names (with atari getting a cut of each game unit sold)

MB as our french friends say

Do these still need the QT stuff, if not, is the Version of VJ without the QT stuff been updated along with your updates (and link please)

Was there any reason why atari went with a replaceable O/S like that...or were they planning different iterations/versions of A8

Somewhat Ironic here but wasn't one of the last games that the present IMPOSTER parading as an ATARI company plugging or pushing, none other then a modern copy of the very game that started the ball rolling for Atari (i.e. PONG) Game over.....Insert coin (Gorf stylee)

What, you've seen an actual proto atari 800, any pics....

I used to have a biggish collection of Atari 8bit tape games (most in orig. packaging) I think they numbered around 250 tape games (including compilations) I found it interesting though that the UK market (as well as some parts of europe) was predominantly 'tape driven', considering though that the success sinclair had with his ZX series (which effectively created the UK games industry as we know it), I found it surprising that the major UK software houses only considered Atari and commodore disk versions of tape games as an 'afterthought' (i.e as an additional sales channel)

Does Garry (or is it Gary) Tramiel count....Spoke to him on the dog and bone (phone) for a few minutes as he was about to go into a meeting with Atari's accountants at the back end of 1995...Apparently he was working for some company called Atari...who are they?