Atari Entertainment System

[Brian O]

How do you think things would have played out had Atari agreed to distribute the NES under the Atari name, and shelved the 7800? Do you think it would have been as successful as the NES? Would it have saved Atari from imploding?

 

Curious to hear your thoughts.

 

-B

[Algus]

Nintendo would have gone alone eventually I bet. It might have propped Atari up for a bit, but even a great product would have a hard time correcting bad management which is the biggest demon that Atari faced. My guess is Atari would have done something to anger Nintendo and the big N would have started marketing its products on its own.

 

It is kind of ironic that years later after licensing deals fell through, Nintendo would eventually be squashed by Sony when their cd add-on turned into the PS1.

[Rikkarr]

Nintendo would have gone alone eventually I bet. It might have propped Atari up for a bit, but even a great product would have a hard time correcting bad management which is the biggest demon that Atari faced. My guess is Atari would have done something to anger Nintendo and the big N would have started marketing its products on its own.

 

It is kind of ironic that years later after licensing deals fell through, Nintendo would eventually be squashed by Sony when their cd add-on turned into the PS1.

 

Hmm... Now that you mention the botched Sony-Nintendo deal, I wonder what would have happened there if Atari took over Nintendo distribution? Would Sony even be in the game market, and would there even be a Playstation?

[nathanallan]

If Atari had gone with Nintendo it would be a very different game world indeed. I bet Sony would have been into gaming anyway since they had great success with the MSX computers.

 

Atari would have still been around, I bet that would have been great. Ah, I love thinking of what could have been.

[Koopa64]

The MSX was by Sony? I thought it was Microsoft...

[nathanallan]

Sony made a computer, MS made the OS iirc:

 

http://www.sqitz.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=det&p=390

[OldAtarian]

Sony made a computer, MS made the OS iirc:

 

http://www.sqitz.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=det&p=390

 

Other companies besides Sony made MSX computers. It was supposed to be an open standard, not limited to a single manufacturer. And it was originally conceived by Microsoft.

 

"MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain (although heavily advertised by Toshiba in the UK), but they were popular in other markets."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

Edited November 28, 2010 by OldAtarian

[Cynicaster]

The NES pretty much resuscitated videogames, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been as successful if it was marketed by Atari.

 

I was just a tyke back then, but I remember around that time--at least in my little world--Atari had become kind of "stale" and the name had picked up almost a stigma of sorts. What I'm getting at is, in order for the NES to be the runaway success that it was, I think the introduction of a new player was key.

[tz101]

Other companies besides Sony made MSX computers. It was supposed to be an open standard, not limited to a single manufacturer. And it was originally conceived by Microsoft.

 

"MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain (although heavily advertised by Toshiba in the UK), but they were popular in other markets."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

 

Wasn't the only failure for Microsoft. Like Nintendo with Virtual Boy, Microsoft also had something called "Bob" that was supposed to be some super user friendly OS. It never caught on.

[+save2600]

Atari would have still blown it just as they did with the Lynx and MegaST/Falcon. The company was simply too out of touch with reality and their customers to not have by then. Several consumer electronic, computer/gaming companies with superior hardware in the past have proven that already. Four things Atari would have botched right off the bat:

 

1) relationship with 3rd party accessory vendors

 

2) relationship with retail outlets

 

3) marketing and continued advertising

 

4) relationship with in-house AND 3rd party programmers and development teams/companies

Edited November 28, 2010 by save2600

[Atari Joe]

Dude no way the Mega ST / Falcon and LYNX all came under the Tramiel regime. The Atari-Nintendo accords were held under Warner and may have gotten something out early on enough to keep Warner from dumping Atari to save Warner stock.

[+save2600]

Dude no way the Mega ST / Falcon and LYNX all came under the Tramiel regime. The Atari-Nintendo accords were held under Warner and may have gotten something out early on enough to keep Warner from dumping Atari to save Warner stock.

Ahh... looking at it from that standpoint, makes sense maybe. I dunno. Seems to me in the early 80's under Warner, is when they were already starting to ruin their reputation as a quality company to do business with. How they handled the 5200 and then the 7800 especially. Lack of 3rd party cooperation and all that. If Atari had kept such tight control over an NES like product, treated retailers the way they did, you don't think it would have suffered the same fate? And it was under the Warner regime that a deal couldn't be made with the Famicon, the executives were too busy getting in trouble due to insider trading and during the Famicom deal, they "lost interest"? Yep - Atari under *any* incarnation would have botched the NES - IMHO. lol

 

Oh and the shelving of the 7800... was that strictly a Tramiel era decision? Warner didn't pull the plug early on it too?

Edited November 28, 2010 by save2600

[+jd_1138]

The AES would have had an attractive simulated woodgrain case.

[rhindlethereddragon]

Sony made a computer, MS made the OS iirc:

 

http://www.sqitz.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=det&p=390

 

Other companies besides Sony made MSX computers. It was supposed to be an open standard, not limited to a single manufacturer. And it was originally conceived by Microsoft.

 

"MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain (although heavily advertised by Toshiba in the UK), but they were popular in other markets."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

 

Well then. One COULD say that the Colecovision was like the first X-box system (structurally, and adjusting for technology of the time).

[rhindlethereddragon]

The NES pretty much resuscitated videogames, but I have a feeling it wouldn't have been as successful if it was marketed by Atari.

 

I was just a tyke back then, but I remember around that time--at least in my little world--Atari had become kind of "stale" and the name had picked up almost a stigma of sorts. What I'm getting at is, in order for the NES to be the runaway success that it was, I think the introduction of a new player was key.

 

The Nintendo Entertainment System was a success due to the perseverance of Nintendo, and the hard-line decisions made my Nintendo.

 

The NES wasn't a success at all at first. It ALMOST didn't make it. When it debued at the CES.......NOBODY ordered it. It was a lot of hard work and an alliance with "Worlds of Wonder" that caused the Nintendo to succeed.

[rhindlethereddragon]

People seem to think that the Nintendo was such a special piece of hardware that it would have been a runaway success had Atari distributed it. But it wasn't. There wasn't anything particularly special about the capabilities of the NES itself. Graphically, it was on par with a Commodore 64 computer. There were other factors besides the machine itself that contributed to it's success, such as "who you know", which was, in this case, a little company called "Worlds of Wonder".

[maiki]

I don't get why there are still people trying to defend Tramiel. He is the person to blame and it's clear. He was the man who ordered not to manufacture any consoles and switch to non-gaming ST series and all that. Atari did lost its videogaming territories when Tramiels entered the company. The evidence being that hysterical late 80' cheapo consoles campaign based on the mixture of aging postponed 2600 Jr / 7800 generations + that funny XE GS death spasm... Come on people.. just wake UP please...

Edited November 28, 2010 by maiki

[ApolloBoy]

I don't get why there are still people trying to defend Tramiel. He is the person to blame and it's clear. He was the man who ordered not to manufacture any consoles and switch to non-gaming ST series and all that. Atari did lost its videogaming territories when Tramiels entered the company. The evidence being that hysterical late 80' cheapo consoles campaign based on the mixture of aging postponed 2600 Jr / 7800 generations + that funny XE GS death spasm... Come on people.. just wake UP please...

Actually Atari did fairly well in the late 80s under Tramiel, and he did not want to focus solely on computers after taking over...

[Algus]

Yeah didn't Atari have a fairly respectable 15% market share or so? They weren't the King like they had been in the late 70s and early 80s (and largely through inept management IMO) but they were still doing fairly steady business.

 

They just had a hell of a time getting third party support on their later consoles.

[Zonie]

Y

 

 

Other companies besides Sony made MSX computers. It was supposed to be an open standard, not limited to a single manufacturer. And it was originally conceived by Microsoft.

 

"MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain (although heavily advertised by Toshiba in the UK), but they were popular in other markets."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

 

Wasn't the only failure for Microsoft. Like Nintendo with Virtual Boy, Microsoft also had something called "Bob" that was supposed to be some super user friendly OS. It never caught on.

[Zonie]

You mean "BOS"? (Bob's Operating System). That was used for machine control on 68000 processor based equipment controllers.

 

 

Other companies besides Sony made MSX computers. It was supposed to be an open standard, not limited to a single manufacturer. And it was originally conceived by Microsoft.

 

"MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers. Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States and Britain (although heavily advertised by Toshiba in the UK), but they were popular in other markets."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX

 

Wasn't the only failure for Microsoft. Like Nintendo with Virtual Boy, Microsoft also had something called "Bob" that was supposed to be some super user friendly OS. It never caught on.

[nathanallan]

Well, about the MSX I was meaning that Sony already knew the potential of video gaming with the experience of the MSX line. They would get into gaming independently eventually.

 

See that smilie? I'm cool still, because I say so

Edited November 29, 2010 by nathanallan

[R.O.T.S]

If i was Atari i would of demanded Nintendo redesign the cartridge tray mechanism first

[psquare75]

If i was Atari i would of demanded Nintendo redesign the cartridge tray mechanism first

 

 

This. I always envisioned a Famicom looking Atari "NES" or a toploader NES with more angles, a la Sega Master System.

[Curt Vendel]

Brian,

 

Nice work. However, Atari was in discussions about using its 2600jr (2100) plastics for its version of the Famicom. In fact, the NES design came much later (remember Atari was in talks with Nintendo in 1983) and at the time the Famicom wasn't even in that horrid red/white case design it would come out as in the Japanese marketplace.

 

Curt

 

How do you think things would have played out had Atari agreed to distribute the NES under the Atari name, and shelved the 7800? Do you think it would have been as successful as the NES? Would it have saved Atari from imploding?

 

Curious to hear your thoughts.

 

-B