Atari Mindlink controller

[lushgirl_80]

 

 

Did it actually work? lolz..

[high voltage]

follow this topic

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/169826-is-laser-gates-really-inner-space/

[Jinks]

Oh those cheap things..it would not work with air raid so i threw them both out!!

[lushgirl_80]

Found the old thread about the Mindlink...

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/6447-the-mindlink-controller/

 

 

 

I'd like to know more about it though and any recent stories from using this..thanks.

[DanOliver]

I used it during development of Telepathy and thought it worked very well, but took time to get good with.

 

The unit I used had a sensitivity dial on it and that determined how much you had to tense your forehead/eyebows muscles. At first it could be a real mess for some people. But with a little thinking and practice you could turn down the sensitivity so much that you could play a game without other people being able to see any movement at all. It seemed like you were controlling the game with your mind. Actually got to be relaxing to just sit there playing a game with no movement, almost like yoga.

 

http://youtu.be/6mUooo5Z8b0

 

The sensitivity dial was kind of a crude controller. The game itself did/could/should do most of the adjusting. For example in Telepahty I start out with a simple screen, kind of like Kaboom where gold nuggets come toward you in a pattern. I always start the nuggets on the right side of the screen so I can track what kind of max values I read. That give a basis for what "max" is. And that can be adjusted over and over again.

 

http://youtu.be/BvAxvQeOFsw

 

With only a value that ranged from near 0 to some higher number there was no up, down, left, right or fire button. So the game had to be designed accordingly. For example in the mine if you walk over a hole gravity can move you down. In the underground river water flow would move you forward if you swam left or right and lined up with an opening.

 

In the mine you fall down into the shaft to rescue a hurt miner. When you hit a wall and keep walking into the wall the logic changes to mean "climb up" the wall.

 

So even though you can only move left or right the player on screen can be controlled to move up and down too.

 

I enjoyed using it a great deal. But I probably logged about 100 hours of use. My muscles were a bit tired the first couple of hours, but then I figured out it didn't take hardly any movement at all.

 

At first people would have basically 2 moves, 0 and max. That would cause the player to move across the screen and you could kind of play Telepathy that way. That could be exhausting because to get max they'd tense their face a lot. But when you calmed down and actually controlled the player in the middle of the screen, it was fun and almost no effort.

 

The biggest problem I remember is when we focus tested the unit (at least this was the only focus test I saw) the unit had an RF transmitter which didn't work in the focus test room because of the fluorescent lights. The unit I'd been using for development didn't have a RF transmitter, it was wired directly into the 2600. The focus testing had to be done with the lights off. I assume the RF problem could have been fixed, but at the time it was a serious issue.

 

I thought it was a pretty amazing piece of engineering. I remember it always working well.

 

I'm not sure the actual reason the project was scraped was because people got headaches or not. That's the story I've read and is on Wikipedia. I think that could be more myth than true. Peoples' hands also got tired when first using a joystick but that didn't stop joysticks from being released. People learn you don't have to hold them so tight or jam the stick. I think there were probably several factors stopped the Minlink. Cost vs profit, low adoption rate, specialized games required, and it's not like the Mindlink was a better controller by any means. It was just unique. That's a tough business for a company selling into the mass market. Plus Atari was just about out of business by the time the Mindlink would have come out.

 

But the headache thing sounds better.

[high voltage]

There were a lot of games with miners way back in the early 80s that's for sure

[OneSwitch.org.uk]

Would be fascinating to hear more on this story linked to the Mind Link:

 

"The sad part of Mindlink's history is that the day after it was splashed on national TV

Someone associated with the original Battlestar Galactica film/series,

came to the booth and brought a proposal from Rafer Johnson,

Olympic Champion and the then president of Special Olympics.

They were proposing that Atari develop sports software for the next Special Olympics.

The Rose Kennedy Foundation was going to foot the total development cost.

This would have opened a door to development of computer control for the handicapped;

which could not realistically be funded any other way. "

 

Via: http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/mindlink.html

 

Were there plans to use the Mind Link for greater accessibility to games for disabled players? I wonder too what other accessibility stuff Atari were planning, as they were pioneering in this fledgling field too: http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/atari-accessibility.html

 

 

 

I used it during development of Telepathy and thought it worked very well, but took time to get good with.

 

The unit I used had a sensitivity dial on it and that determined how much you had to tense your forehead/eyebows muscles. At first it could be a real mess for some people. But with a little thinking and practice you could turn down the sensitivity so much that you could play a game without other people being able to see any movement at all. It seemed like you were controlling the game with your mind. Actually got to be relaxing to just sit there playing a game with no movement, almost like yoga.

 

[DanOliver]

I was only involved with the Mindlink for a couple of weeks. I didn't hear anything about it being used for anything other than playing on the 2600. I certainly could have been adopted to other devices but software would have to be developed specifically for the device.

[+Gemintronic]

Right then! It's time to make the NEW MindLink via the MindWave

http://store.neurosky.com/products/mindwave-1

 

It sounds like it's really a serial device.. hmmmn!

[DanOliver]

Looks like maybe the same, or smaller version, Tan Le developed. There are a few TED type talks on it. Here's one.

[Godzilla]

wants a mindlink for www.facebook.com/theimagic I remember reading about these back in the day, I've always wanted to play one. Thanks for the great info!

[Retro Rogue]

It was cancelled by the Tramiels when they took over the assets of the Consumer Division. According to what Leonard told me, they thought it was silly.

[Jess Ragan]

It was all part of a diabolical plan to turn Andy Rooney into an unstoppable video game champion.

[moycon]

It was cancelled by the Tramiels when they took over the assets of the Consumer Division. According to what Leonard told me, they thought it was silly.

 

Now, I've noticed a tendency for this video game market to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I'm not having things getting silly. Those two last game ideas were very silly indeed, and that last one about the bed was even sillier. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do...except perhaps my wife and some of her friends...oh yes and Captain Johnston. Come to think of it most people likes a good laugh more than I do. But that's beside the point. Now, let's have a good clean healthy videogame market. Get some air into your lungs. Ten, nine, eight and all that.

[Jess Ragan]

Well, it's not really any more silly that the "trance vibrator" created for Rez.

 

I'm surprised Atari didn't explore that handicapped gamer angle. Nintendo was quite proud of the chin and straw controller they made for the NES, bragging about it in an issue of Nintendo Power. (I still wonder how you'd use that to play Double Dragon, since sucking through the straw hit B and blowing into it hit A.)

[DanOliver]

Tramiels didn't want anything to do with any thing even remotely related to games in the beginning, just like the rest of us. I don't remember a single person who was left there ever saying anything about ever doing a game again. My impression was everyone thought the video game market was gone and would never come back. Even when the ST was released I don't remember a single person even mention doing a video game for it much less writing a single line of code. I think it seemed silly to everyone there to consider any game effort. It wasn't that MindLink was more silly than anything else in games.

 

It wasn't until later when other people showed there was serious money in games that it all started to look less silly to people at Atari Corp.

[Retro Rogue]

Tramiels didn't want anything to do with any thing even remotely related to games in the beginning, just like the rest of us. I don't remember a single person who was left there ever saying anything about ever doing a game again. My impression was everyone thought the video game market was gone and would never come back.Even when the ST was released I don't remember a single person even mention doing a video game for it much less writing a single line of code.

 

That's actually a common misconception about the Tramiels, but I can understand where people making the transition from Atari Inc. over to Atari Corp. would have thought that given the isolation from the inner circle. However, they did try to get some of the Consumer Division game programmers to stay on in a contract status. Likewise, internal emails show them wanting to start up the 2600 Jr. project again that August '84 and they of course also planned to rely heavily on the inherited back stock of game consoles and games to help keep the company afloat.

 

 

I think it seemed silly to everyone there to consider any game effort. It wasn't that MindLink was more silly than anything else in games.

 

It wasn't until later when other people showed there was serious money in games that it all started to look less silly to people at Atari Corp.

 

That's actually not what happened at all (assuming by other people you mean Nintendo and the NES). The original 7800 development deal was with Warner (because GCC's contract was with Warner), not Atari Inc. So it didn't come with the Consumer Division when Jack purchased it and folded it in to TTL to form Atari Corp. Jack tried to negotiate with Warner for it, because he still planned on releasing it (contrary to one popularly told tale that is suspect as to whether it actually happened). GCC had yet to be paid for the development of the MARIA chip and the 10 launch titles they did, so Warner wouldn't let him have it until he paid for those. He was involved in on again and off again negotiations with Warner and GCC from August '84 through April/May of '85, at which time he gave in to Warner and paid GCC to get access tot he 7800. Then he started negotiating for the 10 launch titles, and wrapped up that by August '85, which is when he started looking around the industry for someone to come in and restart a video game division including relaunching the 7800. Long before Nintendo's test marketing in New York even began.

 

He started wooing Mike Katz around late August, and Mike finally agreed to leave Epyx and come on board by late September (not announced until October). At which point Mike started up looking for licensing more titles to put in to development, which is when he first started hearing about Nintendo's console (mainly because a lot of the coin licenses he wanted to get were already locked in. That's what drove him to go back to the computer games industry for licensing of new titles). He launched the 2600 Junior during the Christmas '85 season and the 7800 was reintroduced that early January at CES. All nothing to do with Nintendo, who only had a single poorly received (according to retailers) test marketing in New York. Nintendo had yet to do the slightly better received test marketing in Los Angeles (which didn't occur until February '86). As the NES was slowly moving to test marketing in other cities and backing the previous cities with heavy advertising, the 7800 backstock had already been distributed and in fact had to be rationed through Spring and early Summer until the new manufacturing run was in play because of locations selling out quickly.

[DanOliver]

They sure hid it very well indeed.

 

Trying to get game developers to stay? I'm pretty sure every single programmer that stayed and worked on the ST were game programmers. There were a few game programmers that they had stay as "contractors", and they were charged rent for their cubes. That may have been an exaggeration by the contractors, I don't know what was in the actual contracts. But those programmers just used the time to find their next job. I don't know how long they stayed, I'm guessing a month max.

 

I don't know why the Tramiels kept them as contractors, perhaps they thought they could hire them out and take a cut. Maybe there was some royalty arrangement from previous Atari and the Tramiels wanted them to quit instead of be fired. No clue. But I'm 100% sure it wasn't to create games for Atari Corp, or even finish games that were almost done. Maybe some games to complete some contracts so they wouldn't get sued. Don't know.

 

After the ST shipped Atari had maybe a dozen game programmer still on staff, the people who worked on the ST. Atari owned a bunch of great titles, would have been a breeze to port any of those to the ST. Cost would have been almost zero since they were already paying us and some of us didn't have much to do after ST shipped. IMO a few good games on the ST would have help sell some systems, plus the profit on the games. Or even give away the games on the system. Not once was this ever suggested even in passing. The concept of doing any kind of game was completely off the table. So in mid 85 still zero interest.

 

Instead we created the rotating cube, Neochrome, ST Writer, a Finder, etc. Anything but a game. All those projects we did on our own. My feeling is if we got caught writing a game we'd probably be shown the door. To say the Tramiels weren't interested in games is actually an understatement imo. And I might add for very good reason. Hindsight is 20-20, but in 84, early 85, anyone who thought there was money in games was considered insane.

 

Nintendo showed the Tramiels their system in July or Aug of 84. I was in part of the meeting. Tramiels wanted nothing to do with it. And it would have been really cheap for them to have Atari games ported, or to be the US distributor, or do any kind of deal with Nintendo they wanted. Zero interest.

 

In 85 after the ST was tanking and Nintendo was doing well things changed I guess. I'd moved to Apple by that time but Atari did have me fix some bugs in Desert Falcon for the 7800 in 85 so they were starting to think maybe games could earn some money.

 

Believe as you wish. But good luck trying to convince me what I experienced was something different.

[Retro Rogue]

They sure hid it very well indeed.

 

Trying to get game developers to stay?

 

Yes, they approached some of the game developers to come over via contract to finish games they were working on or stay on to do others. We interviewed these people directly.

 

I'm pretty sure every single programmer that stayed and worked on the ST were game programmers.

 

There were people from all different areas doing new jobs from what they had been doing at Atari Inc. I'm not sure how that's reflective of anything other than they needed to cut down the amount of manpower in all the areas including game development, because as you yourself stated the market appeared in dire straights. It was no different than what Morgan was planning to do, massively cutting down Atari Inc,'s Consumer Division to a few profitable products and the staff to support it.

 

There were a few game programmers that they had stay as "contractors", and they were charged rent for their cubes. That may have been an exaggeration by the contractors, I don't know what was in the actual contracts. But those programmers just used the time to find their next job. I don't know how long they stayed, I'm guessing a month max.

 

A good bunch of people that were hired over to Corp. from Inc. all left by September. The bulk of the rest left by or during '85.

 

I don't know why the Tramiels kept them as contractors, perhaps they thought they could hire them out and take a cut.

 

No, it was for the reason I mentioned above. When Jack got the Consumer Division, he also had to take on Atari Inc.'s overall debt as well as part of the agreement. So he had to immediately look at ways to cut costs across the board (many of which wound up being what Morgan was moving towards as well under his planned re-organization). Even then, he was pumping in a lot of his own money into the company as well to keep it afloat.

 

Maybe there was some royalty arrangement from previous Atari and the Tramiels wanted them to quit instead of be fired.

 

Not at all. People were hired over to Atari Corp., not inherited, though it's a common misconception that we found amongst employees (including yourself). That's what the interviews that Leonard and company did across early July were for, to see who they wanted to hire over to Atari Corp. and who would not be. Those that weren't got their final checks and packages (for those who that applied to) directly from Warner (which we also verified). The whole thing was handled horrible by Warner, and instead of any normal preparation when you plan to split apart a company, it was done on the fly. Many people were left working business as usual through the first half of July without knowing what was actually going on, they thought the company itself had just been purchased and they were simply under new ownership. When Atari Inc. was split on paper, the problem was most of July was spent with Atari Games Inc. (what Atari Inc. was renamed to) and Atari Corp. inhabiting the same buildings and such as before. While they worked on splitting up who was taking what assets and building wise, Leonard ran around with some others interviewing who they wanted to hire over to Corp. Those Consumer Division people that weren't, were summarily dismissed by Warner and paid by them (since these people fell under Atari Games Inc. yet). Jack and Leonard were well aware of the consequences though that by not hiring these people to Atari Corp. they were essentially dooming them to be let go all together. Atari Games Inc. was eventually paired down to just the coin-op division by the end of the year and then had it's majority share holdings sold to NAMCO in early '85 when it was then renamed to Atari Games Corp.

 

No clue. But I'm 100% sure it wasn't to create games for Atari Corp, or even finish games that were almost done.

 

You'd be 100% wrong. We directly interviewed those people, one of which was Steve Woita who remembers very vividly when he was over at Coin's main building (where the console programmers had been moved when Gibraltar was closed earlier under Morgan), listening to his Walkman and coding when he was tapped on the shoulder and given the offer to either severance or come over to Corp. as a contractor to finish the games he was working on. He chose the former. Six people chose to come on as contract programmers to finish their games, which they did.

 

Maybe some games to complete some contracts so they wouldn't get sued. Don't know.

 

Not at all, as stated he still planned on releasing the 7800 and jumping to the Jr. for the 2600 (as internal emails showed), and even was giving interviews to that effect. He had also inherited a massive backstock of consoles and games with the Consumer Division which he fully planned on continuing to use and promote to help keep the company afloat while RBP was under development. But money was a constant issue at the time, considering all the debt he took on. Warner's promise of him being able to recoup mass amounts of money from money owed to Atari Inc. that he tried to collect on also completely fell through. (That's what forced him to re-negotiate terms and get money from Warner in the Fall of '84.) The wrench in the 7800 again was how the GCC project stayed with Warner, which combined with the money problems meant he had no intention at the time to sink mass amounts of money back into a product until things were more stable - he instead wanted a deal. He tried negotiating for better deals with Warner and GCC through Spring of '85 as I mentioned, when he finally capitulated and sent them a check for MARIA development (also verified on the GCC side).

 

After the ST shipped Atari had maybe a dozen game programmer still on staff, the people who worked on the ST. Atari owned a bunch of great titles, would have been a breeze to port any of those to the ST. Cost would have been almost zero since they were already paying us and some of us didn't have much to do after ST shipped. IMO a few good games on the ST would have help sell some systems, plus the profit on the games. Or even give away the games on the system. Not once was this ever suggested even in passing. The concept of doing any kind of game was completely off the table. So in mid 85 still zero interest.

 

You're talking about the ST and games on that computer, what does that have to do with consoles and starting up a console group again? And as stated, that's false on zero interest in games. He paid GCC in Spring '85, paid off the launch titles by early Summer, and then was looking for people to formally start up a console division in that August. I talked to Mike Katz directly on this, it's not something I'm making up. Jack approached a couple different people first and finally got around to him. And Mike stated the only way he'd come on is if he was allowed to make it more of a Consumer Entertainment Electronics division because he had his eye on some laser tag related products he wanted to do as well. Jack agreed, Mike came on in September (and admitted he's still ticked that Jack decided later not to invest money in the laser tag product he wanted them to buy). This is all directly from Mike. I was surprised when I heard the facts the first time as well, because I (along with Curt) were of your viewpoint. But as we dug in and did the active research, we found very different.

 

 

Instead we created the rotating cube, Neochrome, ST Writer, a Finder, etc. Anything but a game. All those projects we did on our own. My feeling is if we got caught writing a game we'd probably be shown the door. To say the Tramiels weren't interested in games is actually an understatement imo. And I might add for very good reason. Hindsight is 20-20, but in 84, early 85, anyone who thought there was money in games was considered insane.

 

There's a difference between not interested and not interested in spending a lot of money on it because of those concerns. Your experience and stories you keep recounting seems to be in relation to what was going on (or not) in relation to games for the ST.

 

Nintendo showed the Tramiels their system in July or Aug of 84. I was in part of the meeting. Tramiels wanted nothing to do with it. And it would have been really cheap for them to have Atari games ported, or to be the US distributor, or do any kind of deal with Nintendo they wanted. Zero interest.

 

The original talk of a deal was between Nintendo and Atari Inc., and it was anything but cheap (we have the full demand list). It included Atari being nothing but an OEM re-seller, with Nintendo producing all hardware (console and cartridge) and Atari agreeing to guaranteed amounts. This would not change. Likewise, as stated, he was already involved in negotiations for the 7800 (to which Warner was also applying pressure back for him to pay for the development for because they wanted it released as well). So why would he show interest in the Famicom?

 

Who else was in the meeting btw when you were there for part of it? Jack, Sam and Leonard?

 

In 85 after the ST was tanking and Nintendo was doing well things changed I guess. I'd moved to Apple by that time but Atari did have me fix some bugs in Desert Falcon for the 7800 in 85 so they were starting to think maybe games could earn some money.

 

Nintendo doing well where? They didn't start doing well in the US until '86. And as stated, restarting the 7800 and a consumer games division was already in play by Summer of '85, had nothing to do with Nintendo.

 

ST was tanking how? It helped bring Atari Corp. into the black by early '86. (Genuinely interested in your thoughts in light of that).

 

BTW, I'm confused. You're saying you were at Apple in '85 but in the other thread you said you left Atari Corp. in 1/86? Did you mean you left as a contractor in January '86? Then when did you actually leave Atari Corp. as a regular employee?

 

Believe as you wish. But good luck trying to convince me what I experienced was something different.

 

It has nothing to do with belief, I'm explaining what was going on at the time that you may not have been aware of. I don't doubt you experienced what you did, but that doesn't automatically make your interpretation of what you experienced accurate either. That's precisely why we go by internal documents, logs, emails, and multiple interviews across the board on a subject. We go for the bigger picture in our research rather than just one person's viewpoint, because a single person is limited by what they were exposed to, or as you even said yourself earlier they can be jaded viewpoints as well.

 

Were the Tramiels interested in bringing computers to the forefront at Atari Corp.? Certainly, and that's the way the consumer industry was headed at that time. Were they looking to completely abandon video games or simply not interested? No, there's no truth in that given everything else that occurred that we now know.

[DanOliver]

You are deeply confused over what an interest in doing games is and what covering your ass is. At the very start I'm sure they did keep some people to "do games", but only because they bought a huge company with buildings and buildings full of product. I don't think it would be very bright to fire every single person and then try and figure it out. The kept a few and pretty quickly figured out they weren't needed.

 

A couple of emails is not the same thing as actually doing games or having any kind of serious interest in games.

 

Not really sure why you want to believe all that stuff, but enjoy it.

[Retro Rogue]

You are deeply confused over what an interest in doing games is and what covering your ass is.

 

Lol, there's no confusion going on Dan. I'd counter and say that you might be very jaded and obviously were not exposed to these elements, and are throwing out guesses to decisions that are not the case, because of that. But at this point I don't think the conversation is going to go further than what it's at now. I noticed you Didn't elaborate on this meeting that was supposed to have occurred with Nintendo during July or August '84. Looking into who in management or hardware would have been involved, so far nobody from Corp. that we're talking to from that time has heard of it - even on the Nintendo side of things. This is part of our process when claims are made, we need to go and vet them, get multiple independent sources for corroboration. I'm almost wondering at this point if its not being confused with GCC's meeting at that time? Unless you're able to provide more names of people that were in the meeting that we can verify with, that's what I'll have to assume. If it's not the case and it actually did happen, it would be great to be able to dig into it further.

 

You also didn't answer my question about your different stated ending dates in this and another thread. In this thread he stated he left by '85 but in another you stated you left and January '86. Is the '86 date simply the ending of your contract date from when you came back to do the game debug? Either way, verifying that you were debugging desert falcon in '85 was helpful and fell in line with all the other information we have including what I was told by Mike Katz. That's a perfect example of the independent verification we seek to vet information we were told by others.

 

 

At the very start I'm sure they did keep some people to "do games", but only because they bought a huge company with buildings and buildings full of product. I don't think it would be very bright to fire every single person and then try and figure it out. The kept a few and pretty quickly figured out they weren't needed.

 

Once again they didn't fire anybody, nobody was inherited over, they were hired over. People that weren't hired over were then Warner's responsibility (since they fell under Atari Games Inc.), and let go. As stated, The Tramel's were well aware that their not hiring someone over was akin to letting that person be fired. We verified this with Jack and on the Warner side, and with many of the people we did interview they were let go during that time who all stated they got their final checks from Warner. The second the split occurred, all employees were actually employees of Atari Games Inc., which is what Atari Inc. was immediately renamed to as of the signing. Employees may not have realized this because of how things were handled poorly as I mentioned. People were then interviewed and hired over to Atari Corp. As I stated previously, I understand how many employees including yourself thought they were being interviewed to see whether they were going to be fired or not.

 

A couple of emails is not the same thing as actually doing games or having any kind of serious interest in games.

 

Who said anything about just a couple of emails? I brought that up for timeframe. We talked directly to the hardware guys for instance, who were in charge of getting the 2100 Jan project going again too during that time (the 2600 junior project that I mentioned as being in the emails at the beginning of August). It actually occurred.

 

Not really sure why you want to believe all that stuff, but enjoy it.

 

"All that stuff" has come after extensive research into documentation, internal logs, and direct interviews. Never taking a single source as de facto, because as stated one persons view point can be very jaded and based upon what they themselves interpret of what they experienced vs. what was actually going on in other people's minds and agendas. I'll restate again, they certainly intended on bringing computers to the forefront. But abandoning games with a brand like Atari was never the goal. The events I stated regarding the 7800 actually happened. We verified that on the Atari Corporation side, the Warner side, and GCC. Etc., etc.

[oky2000]

Tramiels didn't want anything to do with any thing even remotely related to games in the beginning, just like the rest of us. I don't remember a single person who was left there ever saying anything about ever doing a game again. My impression was everyone thought the video game market was gone and would never come back. Even when the ST was released I don't remember a single person even mention doing a video game for it much less writing a single line of code. I think it seemed silly to everyone there to consider any game effort. It wasn't that MindLink was more silly than anything else in games.

 

It wasn't until later when other people showed there was serious money in games that it all started to look less silly to people at Atari Corp.

 

Lands of Havoc by Steve Bak for Microdeal was a launch title for UK release of the 520ST IIRC

[Retro Rogue]

 

 

Lands of Havoc by Steve Bak for Microdeal was a launch title for UK release of the 520ST IIRC

 

Inerestingly, my early 520ST came bundled with Megaroids.

[Jess Ragan]

I'm not one of the optimists who think that Jack Tramiel lovingly embraced Atari's video game division. I'm sure that his death and the bungling of the Atari empire by Hasbro and Infogrames has made fans eager to polish the turd that was Atari's Tramiel years, but let's take off the rose-colored glasses and get real here. Tramiel was fired by Commodore, and Atari was his way to get back into the home computer market. He only became interested in video games when Nintendo demonstrated that the market was still profitable. There are all kinds of stories from biographers and historians and even Atari employees which illustrate this. The attempts to rewrite history and whitewash the career of a man best described as a corporate shark are wrongheaded and profoundly annoying.

[Retro Rogue]

He only became interested in video games when Nintendo demonstrated that the market was still profitable. There are all kinds of stories from biographers and historians and even Atari employees which illustrate this. The attempts to rewrite history and whitewash the career of a man best described as a corporate shark are wrongheaded and profoundly annoying.

 

What's annoying is your constant need to ignore facts to promote a rose colored pro-Nintendo agenda in this forum Jess. Your statement is completely false, the Jr. and 7800 were started up again before the NES had even been test marketed in the US. Mike Katz knows when he was approached by Jack, what he was approached for, and when he started it. Likewise the GCC people, hadly in Jack's corner, also verified when he paid for what and about the ongoing talks. There are all kinds of direct interviews with Atari Corp. employees which also illustrated this that we conducted (with the people directly involved in these projects such as Mike), and internal documentation that show this as well. The only biographies/historians that say opposite are usually regurgitating each other or the same one or two previous resources and "stories." I've talked to most of them, from Steve Kent to Frank Cifaldi, and in fact most of us historians, arcivists, and industry biographers are all part of the IGDA Preservation group together. Likewise, the ex-Atari Corp. people that make these "not interested in games" statements are all conveniently ex-Atari Inc. people who came over to Corp., and all are usually very jaded and isolated from what was going on upstairs (Jack wanted Atari Corp. to be a family run company, and the close knit circle was only family and ex-commodore people in this early period). As stated, we used to think the same way until we actually dug further into resources and took the time to get more elaborate resources rather than going by "stories." Nobody is setting out to whitewash or rewrite, and there's just as many further negative things about him we've uncovered as well in the process. However, correcting negatives that were incorrectly identified as such is not a rewrite, any more than discoveries in any other historical field that correct previous misconceptions and expand our understanding automatically are. Your attempts to discredit by creating the notion of us doing something less than genuine, honorable, or valid are what come off as shark like, wrongheaded, and as usual annoying, if not very childish in the above example.