Let's Pool Our Resources and Buy Atari - How Much Will You Contribute?

[Schizophretard]

Seriously though, I think it's in Microsoft or Sony's best interests to buy Atari.

 

That would be horrible.

[Atari2600Lives]

This would be in the 10s of millions range ( just a guess based on what I feel the brand is worth) I have a wealth of experience selling a sizable corporation to a buyer . I imagine it's possible but not very probable doing it in a grass roots sort of way like the OP suggests.

 

Also the plan of what to do with the brand is as important as generating the funds to obtain it. If someone is going to put a combined 5, 10, 15, 20 million + into a venture such as this , how to manage the brand going forward is the most important consideration . Gathering the funds is literaly only half the battle .

Edited January 24, 2013 by Atari2600Lives

[BillyHW]

That would be horrible.

 

Yes, probably.

[+Gemintronic]

Bankruptcy doesn't mean the fat cats that have been suckling on the IP are willing to give up. In all likelyhood the deal to sustain their control is already set in stone.

 

What about haggling over licensing rights instead of trying to buy them out? Offer a chunk of cash as protection money for anything AtariAge that uses the brand name.

[Schizophretard]

According to the votes we could already raise around $20,000 or more. That's not bad for less than 100 people. Imagine what all Atari fans could do.

[Benighted]

I think Moon Patrol was a Williams IP, not Atari.

 

The arcade game was by Williams, you're right. Bad example from me :-)

[Aamp]

I know this doesn't have to do with the actual buying of Atari, but after reading some comments of what to do with it if the community could be catered to and in getting a younger audience, I just imagined this:

Kids love collecting and comparing with friends. Pokemon cards got kids collecting. We had Nintendo 64, yet somehow through marketing, the 8-bit, 4 shades of grey, GameBoy became still very appealing, as well as playing with inexpensive to produce pieces of cardboard and beads (cards and damage counters) because they were related to collecting and trading with friends. The emphasis was you had to get them all!

 

I just re-imagined Atari, quickly generating, low cost revenue if they could make collecting the big thing. They have a big library and rep already with the classics. I wonder if a scannable 4K could be put on a "Magic-type" card these days? Maybe a Flashback-type console that scans them into playable games?

 

Imagine, kids, and adults (their parents) getting into collecting all the different classic and new brew 2600 games, on cards with stats, other info, and the artwork, commons and rares, and having them all in a deck or in sheets in a binder? Games at every convenience store or gas station. They'd go to school with you.

 

Imagine new playfields being added to games we already know by collecting additional card parts to the game. Have a part to the game that you could play with the cards and do something without scanning them, just playing some kind of game sitting around the table (like Magic). You wouldn't even have to like, or want to play the games to want to get the whole collection. You could even just enjoy the artwork side of it, obtaining different label (card) variations of the same game, etc. This could branch to game character cards also, like a space invader, maybe even a new game where you are the space invader.

[+Gemintronic]

Chunky pixels aren't for kids anymore. They want Buy-Landers figures. Also, clicking on the PURCHASE button rapidly within Apples 5 minute password approval grace period is fun too.

 

Back on topic. What about my idea of buying some licensing rights instead of the impossible task of buying Atari outright?

[S1500]

We need a telethon, kids. An Atarithon! We could have Keith Apicary do various physical stunts, video game tournaments, the whole works! We gotta save the orphanage!

[GroovyBee]

Imagine, kids, and adults (their parents) getting into collecting all the different classic and new brew 2600 games, on cards with stats, other info, and the artwork, commons and rares, and having them all in a deck or in sheets in a binder? Games at every convenience store or gas station. They'd go to school with you.

 

Never gonna happen. Its neither low cost or quick to implement when you need to redesign the Flashback plastics and its electronics, validate a card reader, change the outer box and the inner box, design the cards themselves (and pay royalties on copyrighted images, never mind the negotiations to use the images in the first place), go through FCC/CE regulatory testing and then finally get it into consumer supply channels. You'd be looking at a several person team and up to 6 months of development time. Plus a million or two for the advertising budget on top of the R&D budget to watch it have minimal take up because kids with pester power (the target demographic) don't really care about space invaders or pacman collectables very much these days.

[+Gemintronic]

Never gonna happen. Its neither low cost or quick to implement when you need to redesign the Flashback plastics and its electronics, validate a card reader, change the outer box and the inner box, design the cards themselves (and pay royalties on copyrighted images, never mind the negotiations to use the images in the first place), go through FCC/CE regulatory testing and then finally get it into consumer supply channels. You'd be looking at a several person team and up to 6 months of development time. Plus a million or two for the advertising budget on top of the R&D budget to watch it have minimal take up because kids with pester power (the target demographic) don't really care about space invaders or pacman collectables very much these days.

 

GroovyBee has the logistical reasons down. My take is this: pushing your interests onto your children is often a kiss of death. You'd have to convince them that Atari is cool, which just feels a tad creepy as a kid. While you can play Atari yourself - and maybe they'd get interested - a product like this would have to be marketed by the parent to them. Never a winning strategy.

[solidcorp]

I already own enough Atari

 

[Aamp]

GroovyBee has the logistical reasons down. My take is this: pushing your interests onto your children is often a kiss of death. You'd have to convince them that Atari is cool, which just feels a tad creepy as a kid. While you can play Atari yourself - and maybe they'd get interested - a product like this would have to be marketed by the parent to them. Never a winning strategy.

 

Totally agree. I was thinking the other way around where the parent might be interested in what the kids are collecting. Nevermind though, I am definitely thinking about retro gaming, and the "cool factor" (which probably nobody outside of it being a hobby cares about) of collecting and learning the history of video games, which is projecting my interest. I wasn't thinking it would be impossible for kids to like, if presented as novelty items related to video games through media (with flashing lights and "beatbox beats"; I am getting old and living in the past, ha!) that work with their phones or whatever (if say, minus a console). I only imagined a market for that . Back to the topic. I do wonder what would be done with a purchased Atari.

[atarian63]

It has been beyond just the nostalgia, but looking to take on new titles with modern designs, for example -- Look at how Donkey Kong and Mario has evolved over 25+ years, this is how the Atari assets should have evolved as well, but keeping core play elements. Atari should also symbolize game controllers are accessories and would have a unique standing in leveraging the ability to develop controllers across all platforms, where as you would never see Sony make Wii controllers or MS making PS3 controllers, Atari could do controllers and accessories for all consoles, doing modern controllers and classic arcade style controllers as well. Many of Atari assets could be culled together into MMO styled games, having elements from various games to actually become "worlds" that players have to navigate through to make it to other stages, again leveraging Atari legacy's but bringing games into the modern realm. Ultracade, Global VR and others do lines of home rec room arcades, while the market cooled for a bit, it will be priming to become viable again soon and those who have rec rooms with air hockey, soda machines, popcorn makers, etc... would be the same buyers to buy an actual Atari made home arcade machine, and with built in wifi connectivity, it could be setup to allow buyers to buy, download and install more games as they want. Some other idea's not able to be mentioned publicly have been in the works, but there are other area's that could be implemented into... the key is diversify the company assets into multiple markets and create profit centers across these different markets, so if one market was to weaken, others would pick up the slack... this has been a serious flaw in companies such as Atari, THQ and others who narrowly focused on one particular market and then within that market and even more narrowed delivery to platforms, this creates too high a risk for the company to have "all its eggs in one basket" approach and helps to usher their demise.

seems like so many ways to make money, just the licensing, heck you cant sell a tshirt with an atari logo. tons of casual gaming opportunities on multiple platforms,christ! make money while people are willing to pay for it.! wish you could do it!

[Jinks]

Think harley davidson. the moneys in the t-shirts not the motorcycles. so not much electronic stuff to make(cause mostly would be a loss)

Edited January 26, 2013 by Jinks

[+Gemintronic]

Back to reality, people. Atari is too big to tackle. Why not bring all this momentum BACK to AtariAge? Create AtariAge branded systems and games. Promote the bugeezus out of what we have. Y'all know it's Albert and one or two other people, right? Find ways to make AtariAge grow organically.

[S1500]

Back to reality, people. Atari is too big to tackle. Why not bring all this momentum BACK to AtariAge? Create AtariAge branded systems and games. Promote the bugeezus out of what we have. Y'all know it's Albert and one or two other people, right? Find ways to make AtariAge grow organically.

 

I wonder if there's a separate business opportunity in having a company just making homebrew & replica carts. I mean an actual company with resources to make cart shells from scratch, the whole works.

[Benighted]

I already own enough Atari

 

 

What an awesome thing to have!! :-)

[solidcorp]

What an awesome thing to have!! :-)

 

Thanks!

 

They're not expensive, anyone who wants one can get one: Atari Stock Certificates on eBay

 

It probably won't have your name on it though

[oky2000]

If I owned the brand I don't know if I could make it profitable again but I would use it to try to resurrect the old Atari and I would focus on the retro community. I believe the retro community is all that is left of the real Atari. I would try to find a way to merge the community under the brand name and make the talented people of the community Atari employees. Homebrew programmers would be Atari programmers. Their carts would have the Fuji and be official releases. They would get royalties and credit. The people who refurbish and modify systems would be the new Atari Service Center. AtariAge would be the official Atari forums. I would make a deal that Albert would be completely satisfied with. Subscribers to the forum would be the new Atari Club and they would get an Atari Age magazine subscription. Game Gavel would be the official Atari auction site. I would also make a deal that Mike would be completely satisfied with. I would buy Best Electronics and the South American warehouses. I would bring all the old new stock back to the states. I don't know exactly how I would go about it all but you would basically go to the Atari site and find everything and everyone. There would be an Atari alternative to eBay, YouTube, Facebook, you can get an Atari email address, there would be an Atari Linux distro with all emulators and ROMs installed,.... I would just try to somehow merge the entire community under the brand name without the community thinking it is an evil corporation. It would be the modern day version of the old Atari but with our small market. Once that is done then I would focus on remakes on modern systems and stuff like that.

 

This is interesting as I always proposed that if you make the right machine and align it with a closed encrypted store like Apple's App Store you could kickstart a whole new trend.

 

Here are two examples, one was a C64 copy that due to being run by emulation at it's core using standard x86 parts would allow a purchaser to play SuperCPU equipped Commodore 64 games for LESS than a manky old second hand setup costing $1000s from ebay (assuming you could even find one) this would kickstart a whole new homebrew scene possibly culminating in maybe an FPGA implementation of the 65816 equipped virtual C64. The second was even more simple, again a classic identifiable case (in this case an Amiga 500, pig ugly though it is it is the most nostalgic financially sane choice) and with some clever modifications to emulator setup (again running on standard x86 parts) would allow you to both run Lotus Turbo Challenge iii FASTER AND SMOOTHER than any Amiga ever produced by Commodore and yet at the same time you could still take your digiview digitizer and plug it into the parallel port and fuse real hardware with retro emulation systems transparently. Again having brute force driving the whole system new homebrew titles could appear that look almost as good as the best of the 100% machine code games of yore thanks to this 'better than real hardware' design.

 

Something on those lines to cover the 8, 16 and 32 bit Atari consoles would be great with a bespoke copy cat case filled with regular off the shelf x86 parts and emulation combination. If finances permit it is a prudent idea to get a 2600, 7800, A8 and ST FPGA mini motherboard with SD card slots for use of purchased games [from your app store]

 

(better as in performance, YMMV on whether it is 'better' in principle because it doesn't have a real physical SID/PAULA sound chip)

[Mirage]

Thanks!

 

They're not expensive, anyone who wants one can get one: Atari Stock Certificates on eBay

 

It probably won't have your name on it though

 

Thanks! I just bought one. This is going to look great framed next to my boxed 2600 collection!

[Atari2600Lives]

Back to reality, people. Atari is too big to tackle. Why not bring all this momentum BACK to AtariAge? Create AtariAge branded systems and games. Promote the bugeezus out of what we have. Y'all know it's Albert and one or two other people, right? Find ways to make AtariAge grow organically.

 

Good post

[Retro Rogue]

Thanks! I just bought one. This is going to look great framed next to my boxed 2600 collection!

 

Unless it's a 2600 Junior though, that doesn't make a lot of sense. That's an Atari Corporation stock certificate, not an Atari Inc. one.

[solidcorp]

Unless it's a 2600 Junior though, that doesn't make a lot of sense. That's an Atari Corporation stock certificate, not an Atari Inc. one.

 

I understand what you are saying but that's not entirely fair. At the time I worked for Atari - 1987-1991, Atari Inc. was only making arcade machines and Atari Corporation, then run by the Tramiels, was producing all Atari consumer products including 2600, 5200, 7800, 400/800/XE, Lynx, Panther, Jaguar, Portfolio, ST, STe, and TT at least. I even remember using an Atari made 286 based PC there - I can't even find a picture of it online now :-).

[Retro Rogue]

I understand what you are saying but that's not entirely fair. At the time I worked for Atari - 1987-1991, Atari Inc. was only making arcade machines

 

No, that was Atari Games Corp. making the arcade games. Atari Inc. was gone. To re-iterate what happened during the '84 split:

 

The Consumer Division of Atari Inc. was split off and sold to Jack, who brought it under TTL and renamed TTL into Atari Corp. What was left of Atari inc. (Coin, Ataritel, and a few other small divisions and projects) was immediately (that very day) renamed to Atari Games Inc. By early 1985, the other divisions were all shut down or sold off and Coin was spun off under NAMCO as Atari Games Corporation.

 

and Atari Corporation, then run by the Tramiels, was producing all Atari consumer products including 2600, 5200, 7800, 400/800/XE, Lynx, Panther, Jaguar, Portfolio, ST, STe, and TT at least.

 

The only version of the 2600 being produced under Jack was the 2600 Jr., which is why I mentioned that. Likewise, the 5200s weren't being reproduced under Jack, that was old Atari Inc. stock being re-released to clear it out. The 400/800 had been out of production since 1983, Jack's series of 8-bits was the XE line.

 

So I really don't see what's not fair. If all he cares about is display an "Atari" stock, then that'll work just fine, and if he was talking about a boxed Jr. that'll be even better. If he's talking about a heavy sixer, light sixer, 4-switch, or darth vader model, Jack was not responsible for any of those. I'd even give the benefit of the doubt on the darth model since that would have been the backstock Jack would have inherited when he bought Consumer and was selling from '84 though late '85 until the Jr. was brought out.

 

 

I even remember using an Atari made 286 based PC there - I can't even find a picture of it online now :-).

 

http://www.atarimuse...s/ataripcs.html