The Deal

[fdurso224]

Skip Paul and Ray Kassar told Joe Robbins, "You go over to Japan and talk to Namco, but don't sign anything with them" We (Atari) felt that they owed us money.

 

A week later Joe comes back. He's had his picture in the paper, signing this deal with the Japanese and playing with Masaya Nakamura on a golf course. He agreed to give them $ 1 million, and they got to renew their contract, but we got the rights to their coin-op games. At that point they had no hits at all.

 

It was like Jack and the Beanstalk, and Joe came back with these worthless beans. Well, one of those beans was a little game called Pac-Man. In retrospect, it was the best buy of the decade, but at the time, I think it pretty much cost him his job.

 

-Al Alcorn- (Former "sort of" Vice President of Engineering, Atari Corporation)

[plaidbrad3141]

Pac Man is a pretty good bean, but back then I could see it being dismissed as scrap. Today Pac Man and Mario are the face of video games in many peoples minds, or at least spring to mind quickly. Pac Man has universal appeal. When I was a kid in the early 80's, I made a Pac Man X-mas tree ornament "for my mom".