Leeroy ST

ST console as originally planned in 89 should have been done honestly. It's the XEGS but better marketed, more powerful, 3D capable, and if they scrap the "can change into a computer" feature, be affordably priced. Plus they would just transfer existing ST third parties over. So that would solve one of Atari's ongoing issues post 2600 for their consoles. It would work well for a later CD Jaguar as well, third party support wouldn't jump into an unknown like they did with 3DO and current Jaguar, they would have worked with Atari on the ST console in this case, and would have some sense of what direction the company was going in. As for whether the ST console would sell more than a few million units. I guess that would depend on if games like Midwinter, Robocop 3(D), Hunter, Castle Master, and No Second Prize could sell systems to console gamers like Sonic 1, Star Fox, DKC, Mortal Kombat 2, and Super Metroid could. But in either case you end up better than what we got: scrapped ST console, a Panther that never got out of phase 1, and a Jaguar that Atari could only produce 20,000 of in their test run while discontinuing all their other product lines to focus on one unprofitable machine. On top of scaring third parties away.

I mentioned before the C64 had a lesser version of F18. It may be possible to learn by looking at both versions. But it would help if someone could find the source codes. Clearly the devs of F18 saw the 7800 could improve what was done on C64 in many areas, so they had to gain knowledge of its capabilities to discover that.

Which was shown in F-18 Hornet. You dont have anything to complain about here, that's why you didn't tag. Your whole argument is flawed, the fact is no one said the 7800 had dedicated 3D hardware, you made it up in your head. Yes it is "capable" of 3D as seen in the game this thread was created around. Yes, the other consoles not so much. And that's it.

Cosmos was likely if true a separate game. You're basically telling me that Mouse Trap was influenced by Wizard of Wor when it is clearly the same type of game as Pacman. There are games in 78 and before that have the same ship shape, the same perspective, same gravity, and similar mechanics. I'm curious what you think Space Invaders influenced in Asteroids? The numbers seem off but the take off at the end of 78 wasn't some small thing, Warner not only pushed money, but distribution and production. Atari had a nice start but was up and down 77 until late 78. I believe if Warner didn't have Atari Fairchild would have more share. Whether they would win or not is unlikely due to their lack of pushing for more money and the whole controversy with the project lead. But having more share would give Atari less, and would benefit Mattel more later.

No it doesn't The reason why it hit that low was the pricing wars made games and consoles very cheap. You saw this with computers in the US as well, though software recovered faster for computers than game consoles. It had nothing to do with gaming itself being dead, or people not buying. Millions were still buying and looking for games, those near retailers that dropped them couldn't buy them but that doesn't mean no one wanted them. The $100 million was actually lower earlier that year, gaming was already recovering and sales were jumping up, same with computers the same year, look at C64 sales across the year. New console entrants, new game releases after a drought, it was alive. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the crash. It's the same reason that if by end of 87 Atari 7800 outsold NES by 300k, the NES still would have been the console leading the industries revenue value recovery because it cost more. So did it's games. Crash was never about gaming, it was about gross and revenue. Nintendo strong arming the competition out with help from distributors, and taking most shelf space just made it more lopsided. Unsurprisingly, some in the press decided to ignore the original charts and graphs articles and spun it as gaming was dead, and without Nintendo gaming was doomed and no one wanted to buy games anymore, especially 2600. Crap people still believe. But the 2600 was second best selling console post crash era and sold some 5-6 million more consoles....So nobody wanted Atari or "arcade games" doesn't hold water. Not to mention most NES best sellers were also arcade style software. Then the press twisted it again, made nonsense claim that NES introduced new genre like rpg (lol?) because didn't exist before anywhere. Hmm? Then Pacman and ET were thrown in. Its all just an ongoing pile of misinformation. Companies and bad games flood shelves cause the crash? No, Crash made those companies go bankrupt, the wholesale sale retailers having to deal with stock was a consequence from the crash already happening, not a cause. People wanted 5 for $5 games in bargain bins, the problem is those 5 games individually used to be $30-40 and no one was making money on them being $1 each. Retailers and companies were the cause of the crash. Not gamers. Also while Pacman was big blaming it for an already popular and rising industry doesn't make sense. There was already merch, already social presence, a cartoon or tv show for some character was inevitable and happened to more than just Pacman. The amount of companies jumping on board to make games was already rising before and at the same time as pacman. You're oversimplifying a complex issue.

I feel the Panther was mismanaged too badly to ever be viable or what became the Jag caught up so fast Panther never made it to the software phase. But yes the story behind Crescent goes with Atari really not caring about game quality, as long as it looks like a next gen game, and/or looks good in screenshots. Iirc Crescent didn't have music either. Been awhile.

Wait, was Trevor Crescent started as a Panther game, or was that a mistake included in the interview?

This doesn't make any sense, everyone knows the 7800 has unique graphical architecture, Maria is a major part of it. The 7800 is capable of "F-18 Hornet" the NES and SMS are not, especially not anywhere near the same level. None have dedicated 3D hardware. Still shows 7800 is capable of a relatively big game involving 3D polygons. Capability and dedicated hardware are two different things. You just decided to pretend someone mentioned 3D hardware when no one initially mentioned it (except maybe Giles).

I dont know, as you said before, they likely should of killed it. At the time of Club Drive they had games coming out. They didn't need a desperation release of that level. Considering Club Drive barely had textures despite Atari pushing them, it may be just poor vision and Atari believing the concept was some genius thing by itself.

That wouldn't qualify as decent graphics in this case. (It does scroll though, it seems to be partially automated strangely)

Curiously, the best 3D racing game on the system is on the Jag CD, World Tour Racing. But I dont see it existing due to the CD. Outside of music you could probably still put WTR on cartridge and the devs may possibly have found a way to make the game run slightly better. I dont see anything WTR uses the CD for to make the game better, unlike say, Iron Soldier 2.

I mean if you never played crusin or VF, and you're only exposure to polygon racers was a Hard Driving arcade machine in the 80's, I can see how checkered f- Actually no, Hard Drivin is still a much better game. Maybe even more so than VR too. Same for Winning Run. Now I dont know if you or others were following the F1 scene, but this reminds me of all those broken F1 games with near unplayable controls and terrible track design being given passes and scored high for "realism" and requiring you to play as if you were driving "a real F1 car" so the worst games had the highest scores. While the best games were "toys", "not simulators", or not real racing games Checkered Flag is clearly a hard to control unresponsive mess with poor track design. I wonder if the F1 rule applies to the reviewers who gave it high scores. Club Drive may have been first to the market for it's game type. An explorable open world driving game with stunts. You mentioned before there was a presentation at a UK event where the game was shown off to poor reception. I heard similar in the US. I'm curious why Atari decided not to cancel and doubled down on releasing the game. Even the game lineup excuse doesn't work if the game is going to get panned by the press.

Plenty of people moved on to other games, what? Are we really doing the games were dead myth in 2021? Also gaming was exploding before and right when Pac man was picking up in popularity, it wasn't a singular event.

87 score for Checkered Flag. Maybe Atari was on to something with screenshot graphics over gameplay. How else can you give CF an 87? "Jaguar has good ammunition for the battle of next generation consoles as is, simply demonstrated in the line up of new releases." One thing I'll give Club Drive is it's scale is ambitious. If the game was finished, actually finished not Atari finished, it could have made for an interesting open racing game, but that's not what ended up happening.

Well yes, if not sealed in cages they could bite people. You can let it out if you want, but once you receive the hospital bill I'll bet you will regret not doing the math beforehand.

2600 had a updated version of that game in 78 as well. I remember some press mistaken Asteroids as a sequel.

?? I literally said this: So you basically said the same thing (even though the numbers are slightly off), Warner pushed more money into the VCS and for retail for the holiday. If you go with sources of the time it doesn't make much sense. Even then, there were several games with similar gameplay and perspective at that point. Even on the 2600 itself before SI hit the console, and same year as the arcade release. The only difference between those games and asteroids are the asteroids. The cosmos game could have been a thing but it was very likely a separate idea. The similarities between Asteroids and similar games before are way to close.

Asteroids was conceived at the time SI came out so that doesn't make sense. I'm sure you cant discount it outright but Asteroids is not the same type of game as SI. One could argue it's an evolution of previous overhead space games. Atari had other things in the pipeline to replace that in short time, so Bushnell not porting it wouldn't be end all. This is why his gifted hands of the most holy resulted in the new VCS being the success it is today. Xbox and Playstation trembling in the sweat of their sorrowful insecurities. I remember Kaz's suicide like it was yesterday, after Soulja Boiz big announcement: "Soulja Boyz your new VCS is lit off the shelves, but dont you think you should lower the price?" "Eh keeping it 100% if you want my system ya need to get two jobs." "And also, we is so big and the best, if you can find a single VCS on shelves I'll pay you $1200." Some in Japan say Kaz screamed and cursed Jack Trenton's name as he jumped. Along with a guy named "Crazy Ken" I hear. RIP.. Dont get me started on poor Phil Spencer and switch to the Furrys. Thank goodness Soulja Boy saved Infogrames pepe le pew pew Atari SA. Which stands for Soulja Awesome I hear.

No they were pretty close until late 78. Atari picked up the marketing, or rather Warner, and got more distribution for the holiday. Fairchild never seemed to take the VES as seriously after that. Honestly even before they never put that much money behind it, but there was a controversy with the lead man of the project that is often blamed for that. 70s is 70's.

What happened? Accidental deletion? Sucks either way. But I guess there are still the American press archives. Sadly they require a subscription though. Unless someone already has the scans

Atari should have waited another 15 years when showing and selling unfinished games became acceptable. They were too far ahead of their time. Lol. It would be cool to see more written reactions to Club Drive. It's just so weird they thought that game was some flagship title. At least Fight for Life made sense to hype up. Odd no CD version though. But Club Drive? Even in the best areas of the game the car is jerking and has no sense of speed. Not something you would show at E3 or even a small venue.

Your last image scan mentioned it so I hoped it happened. Then again, they also called both Club Drive and Daytona driving simulators, and honestly neither of them are close to simulators. Well, Daytona is at least not far off.

Holding da devil horns indicate another hoax for da masses. It was edited photo, plane was nevah missing...ATARI STOLE DA PLANE! CNN cova up! Why you gots no brains people's? Hit them with A BAM! Soulja Boy sex change funded by COLECO free masonry. Dey call it the bitter truth for a reason.

It also goes north south (back and forth)

No one actually said this. Being capable and having hardware are two different things.