What has Atari taught the gaming industry?

[kool kitty89]

I realise that programmers are essential to the whole software development thing, but when you allow them kill potential hardware products (like the proposed 10bit version of the 2600) it begins to limit what the company is capable of producing (hardware wise)...after all it's not as if the 2600 itself was a walk in the park to program on

 

Lastly, going by the number of R&D projects and possible commercially viable products that warner's had investing millions of atari's profits on, it's pointless hiring someone (like alan kay) who has no experience of getting a product from R&D and getting it into the marketplace

The 10-bit VCS successor was a myth, Sylvia (the 3200) was in development in '80/81 and seems like a pretty good design (though a few aspects seem a tad odd), but it was dropped due to time constraints (with mounting competition), and a quicker design was pressed ahead, becoming the 5200. (which has many problems not directly related to being a rushed "quick fix")

 

Anyway, atarimuseum updated it's article on this, and Curt made this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/156916-atari-ss1000-sylvia/page__view__findpost__p__1925859

 

Oh.. wait, you contested in that thread about another 10-bit system which supposedly existed....

A 10 bit architecture would generally be impractical and going with custom architectures really doesn't facilitate good games on a console. The IV's used of a rather obscure architecture did contribute to some difficulties. (a 10-bit external implementation at that)

It means using on;y 1-bit RAM/ROM chips to get the proper word size for one thing, that or wasting memory. (ie using 3x 4-bit chips and wasting the top 2 bits of data, so you'd have 5 instead of 6 kB able to be accessed from 3 2 kB chips)

[the-topdog]

12. It is best to bury your failures in the desert.

[WatchVenusSpa]

What has Atari taught us and the gaming industry?

 

Easy come, easy go.

[Clint Thompson]

That even a huge empire can fall to the knees with improper management.

 

Too many products in development and not enough focus or financial backing will ultimately lead to failure. (and tons of prototypes)

 

When you have a set deadline, stick to it.

 

Half assing it leads to half ass results.

 

Development teams of more than one person usually yield greater results and in shorter time.

 

Quality over quantity.