Anyone know why Atari Corp opened a software dev office in Chicago?

[Lynxpro]

I've always been curious why Atari Corp. opened up a video game development office outside of Chicago to develop games for the 7800 and Lynx instead of closer to Sunnyvale...

 

Has anyone ever interviewed any of these former Atari Corp programmers?

[DracIsBack]

Possibly cheaper cost? Bay area is pricey to set up!

[Nukey Shay]

They did fire a large percentage of their workforce and reps just prior. Maybe they just wanted to give Ol' Larry a chance to avoid being lynched by an ugly mob?

[DracIsBack]

They did fire a large percentage of their workforce and reps just prior. Maybe they just wanted to give Ol' Larry a chance to avoid being lynched by an ugly mob?

 

If they did do that, it likely was a cost-savings initiative - cheaper workforce to be had elsewhere ...

[Inky]

But the Chicago area isn't that cheap.

[+jd_1138]

But the Chicago area isn't that cheap.

 

Plus back then, the Bay Area wasn't as expensive as it was after the internet boom of like 1995-1997. The South Bay Area was and is the hotbed of technology, so to move to Chicago seems like just yet another bad decision by Atari.

[DracIsBack]

But the Chicago area isn't that cheap.

 

 

Everything is relative. Compared to where I live, it's quite expensive. Compared to the heart of the bay area, where Sunnyvale is, I'd argue that it's a fair bit cheaper ... at least today. Dunno about 1989.

 

Just did a quick "Cost of Living" check on this site, putting Sunnyvale as the starting site, Chicago as the ending.

 

http://www.bestplace...&city2=51714000

 

- Chicago 39% cheaper than Sunnyvale

- Chicago housing 59% cheaper than Sunnyvale

- Someone making a $50K salary in Sunnyvale would only need $30K salary in Chicago to live comparatively.

 

Both are higher than the national average but Sunnyvale is on the more extreme end.

 

But this is all speculation. Maybe they hired a hotshot VP from there who convinced them he could do all kinds of magic cheaply if they let him open up an office and relocate ...

Edited March 6, 2011 by DracIsBack

[SpaceDice2010]

Keep in mind that during the Commodore years Tramiel shifted from the West coast to the East coast as well. The workforce was cheaper elsewhere and the turn over rate was much lower as well.

[Retro Rogue]

I asked Leonard. His response:

 

"Larry Siegel and his group were in Chicago and didn't want to move. I don't remember how we got involved with them but that's why they were there."

Larry had actually wound up taking over as head of the Entertainment Electronics Division after Katz left.

[kool kitty89]

I asked Leonard. His response:

 

"Larry Siegel and his group were in Chicago and didn't want to move. I don't remember how we got involved with them but that's why they were there."

Larry had actually wound up taking over as head of the Entertainment Electronics Division after Katz left.

Wasn't Mead Ames-Klein head of entertainment for a brief period after Katz before he left as well? (and was then replaced by Larry for Entertainment and Elie Kenan as general manager of Atari Corp)

http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/interactive.html

 

It seem the issue over location came up again in Summer of 1992 as Atari Corp was consolidating operations back to California, leading to Siegel's departure:

Atari shifted Lynx sales, marketing, and support from the Lombard, Illinois location of Atari Entertainment to the Sunnyvale, CA headquarters. Larry Siegel, president of Atari Entertainment, chose to leave the company rather than relocate to California. Bernie Stolar would now head the Atari entertainment marketing/development operations.

 

After which, Bernie Stolar took up the post as head of Entertainment briefly. (he left that October -of course, he would soon move on to a position at Sony of America and be a major playing in organizing their release of the PSX and would later serve as president of Sega of America at possibly its worst period of the Saturn)

I don't see anyone else listed after '92, so I guess Sam was acting as head of Entertainment as well at that point. (granted, by '93, there wasn't really much left other than the entertainment division)

 

 

 

They did fire a large percentage of their workforce and reps just prior. Maybe they just wanted to give Ol' Larry a chance to avoid being lynched by an ugly mob?

Yeah, except it was Warner who did all the firing (100% layoffs of Atari Inc consumer division personnel), Tramiel was interviewing much of that staff for positions at TTL (Atari Corp).

 

Of course, with the absolute mess created by Warner's handling of the split, it's no wonder that people didn't understand what was really going on. (perhaps to some extent exacerbated by Tramiel, but it was largely Warner's responsibility to properly organize the liquidation/split of Atari Inc and the related transition -and it was their fault that Atari Inc was left out in the cold during the whole of the negotiations for the split)

[Retro Rogue]

I asked Leonard. His response:

 

"Larry Siegel and his group were in Chicago and didn't want to move. I don't remember how we got involved with them but that's why they were there."

 

Larry had actually wound up taking over as head of the Entertainment Electronics Division after Katz left.

 

 

Wasn't Mead Ames-Klein head of entertainment for a brief period after Katz before he left as well? (and was then replaced by Larry for Entertainment and Elie Kenan as general manager of Atari Corp)

http://mcurrent.name...nteractive.html

 

Yes, for a brief time.

 

 

It seem the issue over location came up again in Summer of 1992 as Atari Corp was consolidating operations back to California, leading to Siegel's departure:

 

Well considering they axed most of the product under him (2600, 7800, XEGS) not long in to his tenure, I'm not surprised at them wanting to consolidate back over and him wanting to leave.

 

 

Marty

[kool kitty89]

It seem the issue over location came up again in Summer of 1992 as Atari Corp was consolidating operations back to California, leading to Siegel's departure:

 

Well considering they axed most of the product under him (2600, 7800, XEGS) not long in to his tenure, I'm not surprised at them wanting to consolidate back over and him wanting to leave.

Weren't the 2600 and 7800 not officially discontinued until 1992? (so that's 2 years into his tenure, though I'm not sure when the XEGS was dropped -apparently in January of '92 along with the consoles and A8)

 

But yes, they'd certainly dropped all those products prior to him leaving, and no current generation game system on the market to follow the 7800 -ie against the Genesis/TG-16/SNES. (the Lynx would have been the only thing left to market until the Jaguar was released, the Panther and any ST derived consoles had been canceled by 1991, and by the time the Jag was released, the Entertainment division was pretty much all that was left anyway with the computers being pulled back -and it seems the Lynx was pulled back in favor of the Jaguar as well in '93/94)

[Retro Rogue]

Well considering they axed most of the product under him (2600, 7800, XEGS) not long in to his tenure, I'm not surprised at them wanting to consolidate back over and him wanting to leave.

Weren't the 2600 and 7800 not officially discontinued until 1992? (so that's 2 years into his tenure, though I'm not sure when the XEGS was dropped -apparently in January of '92 along with the consoles and A8)

 

According to this, they didn't start operations in Chicago with him until Jan of '91. So no, that's barely a year in that they were cutting most of the consoles under him.

Edited March 7, 2011 by wgungfu

[Lynxpro]

I asked Leonard. His response:

 

"Larry Siegel and his group were in Chicago and didn't want to move. I don't remember how we got involved with them but that's why they were there."

Larry had actually wound up taking over as head of the Entertainment Electronics Division after Katz left.

 

 

 

Well, that explains it. Do you have Leonard on speed-dial?

 

 

Years later, a lot of developers set up shop in Chicago.

 

 

 

Wasn't Mead Ames-Klein head of entertainment for a brief period after Katz before he left as well? (and was then replaced by Larry for Entertainment and Elie Kenan as general manager of Atari Corp)

http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/interactive.html

 

 

Was it Mead Ames-Klein or Elie Kenan that Atari made a big deal about [to Atari Explorer and Antic/STart] who was supposed to turn around the company and move all operations to Boston but lasted like one month on the job? For awhile there, Atari Corp. was like a revolving door with their "leadership" much like the Soviet Union prior to Gorby, except the Atari people weren't croaking.

[kool kitty89]

Wasn't Mead Ames-Klein head of entertainment for a brief period after Katz before he left as well? (and was then replaced by Larry for Entertainment and Elie Kenan as general manager of Atari Corp)

http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/interactive.html

 

 

Was it Mead Ames-Klein or Elie Kenan that Atari made a big deal about [to Atari Explorer and Antic/STart] who was supposed to turn around the company and move all operations to Boston but lasted like one month on the job? For awhile there, Atari Corp. was like a revolving door with their "leadership" much like the Soviet Union prior to Gorby, except the Atari people weren't croaking.

I'm not sure, but I remember reading that Ted Hoff was brought in for that reason. (and of course, Morgan was for Atari Inc, but he seems to have been the only one to actually make headway as such -of course the split killed all of that -and Hoff was also in the worst situration of any of those, coming into Atari Corp in 1995)

 

Give this timeline: http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/interactive.html Mead Ames-Klein was only there for a couple months, so it sounds like he's the one you're thinking of.

[Retro Rogue]

 

Well, that explains it. Do you have Leonard on speed-dial?

 

We're internet "friends" and also friends on Facebook.

[Lynxpro]

I'm not sure, but I remember reading that Ted Hoff was brought in for that reason. (and of course, Morgan was for Atari Inc, but he seems to have been the only one to actually make headway as such -of course the split killed all of that -and Hoff was also in the worst situration of any of those, coming into Atari Corp in 1995)

Give this timeline: http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/interactive.html Mead Ames-Klein was only there for a couple months, so it sounds like he's the one you're thinking of.

 

 

But Ted Hoff lasted for more than a year. He wanted to transition Atari Corp over to a hardware-agnostic game publisher such as what AtariSoft had done before and the current "Atari" is. I met Hoff on two different occasions; great guy. But of course his vision ran counter to lashing Atari to a two-bit hard drive manufacturer.

 

It must've been "super"-CEO Kenan who wanted to move Atari Corp operations to Boston so he could still run Atari France.

 

What's striking about Atari Corp is how many great executives they actually employed that after they left the company went on to be superstars. Reminds me of the Sacramento Kings, or the Washington Senators before that [and, of course, in baseball]. I think that really feeds into a lot of the anti-Tramiel sentiments amongst Atari fans, both then and now in retrospect...

 

 

 

We're internet "friends" and also friends on Facebook.

 

 

Considering his OS expertise, I'm surprised he didn't go to work for Microsoft post-Atari... After all, Mr. Gemulator certainly did...

[Retro Rogue]

Considering his OS expertise, I'm surprised he didn't go to work for Microsoft post-Atari... After all, Mr. Gemulator certainly did...

 

He's a physics guy, that's what he was doing before he got called to come over to Atari Corp. and that's what he continues to do now.

[kool kitty89]

What's striking about Atari Corp is how many great executives they actually employed that after they left the company went on to be superstars. Reminds me of the Sacramento Kings, or the Washington Senators before that [and, of course, in baseball]. I think that really feeds into a lot of the anti-Tramiel sentiments amongst Atari fans, both then and now in retrospect...

There's a lot of crossovers in the industry in a number of other areas as well (especially engineers), but that certainly applies on the executive level. It's interesting to note the crossover with Mattel and Sega as well (in Katz's case, you had Coleco on top of that), but it's not all in the same order either. (Katz was at Mattel before Atari and Sega after, Stolar was at Atari before Sega, and then moved on to Mattel as president -Tom Kalinske had been president of Mattel prior to Sega, though he was never at Atari)

[Lynxpro]

Considering his OS expertise, I'm surprised he didn't go to work for Microsoft post-Atari... After all, Mr. Gemulator certainly did...

 

He's a physics guy, that's what he was doing before he got called to come over to Atari Corp. and that's what he continues to do now.

 

 

Interesting. I thought his PhD was in computer operating systems...

[Retro Rogue]

Considering his OS expertise, I'm surprised he didn't go to work for Microsoft post-Atari... After all, Mr. Gemulator certainly did...

 

He's a physics guy, that's what he was doing before he got called to come over to Atari Corp. and that's what he continues to do now.

 

 

Interesting. I thought his PhD was in computer operating systems...

 

 

 

No. Ph.D. in physics from Columbia, and he's currently the coordinator of the Center for Inquiry in San Francisco. Got his bachelors of science in Physics from Santa Clara in '76. He went on to do master of arts, master of philosophy, and doctorate of philosophy all in Physics at Columbia. While at Columbia he also briefly did some of the PET design work with Peddle and later programming/etc. work at Commodore for his dad during that (but did not consider himself an employee of Commodore). Just after finishing grad school is when he was asked to join up with Jack at the new Atari Corp.