ilmenit Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic. Who would be for you the most iconic Atari character? Rockford from "Boulder Dash" is very multiplatform, the same with Panama Joe from "Montezuma's Revenge" (this character is even trademarked). Pitfall Harry? Robbo? Anonymous guy from Zybex? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Bounty Bob 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Rockford ... without a doubt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Bruce Lee sprite was born on A8, but he's on C64 too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 ET Nobody else was going near that one. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Do you mean Atari 8 or Atari in general? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombalar Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 When I think about Atari, I think about very famous video game characters that were originally invented by other companies, but released in the arcade under Atari's name... or become popular in Atari's systems... like Pac-Man (Namco), Dragon's Lair's Dirk (Cinematronics) or Dig Dug (Namco). Even Kangaroo was made by Sun Electronics hehe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preppie Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 2 hours ago, mimo said: Bounty Bob I'd have to agree with this I think. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 For me its the Robot from the walking Robot demo or the Swan from a similar demo...They say Atari to me in spades... If it was a game character then indeed, Bounty Bob would be a good choice although the Lode runner load screen is also good but can you really choose a character that has appeared on other computers as 'most Atari'? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 That was one of Atari's problems without them realising it. Despite practically inventing the industry they never really had an iconic character on any platform including arcades. Also "platform" is the operative word there too. Most of Mario's and the Kong's early appearances were in platformers or scroll/jump/collect games which were an evolution of platformers. Sonic from Sega, scroll/jump game. Crash Bandicoot was probably Sony's icon - 3D jump/collect game. Microsoft? Maybe the Halo characters? Atari? Not that many games even used recognisable living characters. Centipede - unclear WTH that thing's supposed to be - a snake head maybe? The dude from 720? Too late to become an icon and too minor, plus that game wasn't ported to many Atari home systems. At least a few of the systems had their killer apps - Star Raiders on the 800, Space Invaders on the 2600. But I can't really name any for 7800, Lynx or Jaguar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxl Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 The Gauntlet characters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) Just now, xxl said: The Gauntlet characters? But it is not from the Atari of computers, but the arcades Atari Games company after the split, isn't it? Edited January 2, 2020 by José Pereira 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Wasn’t that movie Birdbox an enactment of what would happen if a Qix was released from its natural environment? Lynx: the red tile from Klax 7800: Louis’ nose Jaguar: c’mon. Do we have to do this again? It’s obviously...the traffic cone in Speedster II 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Gauntlet crossed my mind but it's 4 characters and they're not really that recognisable. The game itself was probably most renowned for it's D&D shooter flavour and for being 4 player simultaneous action. How about the bat from Pong? 5 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAM Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 The bat from Pong. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 2 minutes ago, Rybags said: Gauntlet crossed my mind but it's 4 characters and they're not really that recognisable. The game itself was probably most renowned for it's D&D shooter flavour and for being 4 player simultaneous action. How about the bat from Pong? Or the “ball”. Hey, that could do double duty with the thingy in Adventure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACML Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Not a character, but ATARI has the most recognizable iconic emblem of them all. The rainbow FUJI. Everyone immediately associates the FUJI with ATARI. Even young people that have never seen one. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Problem is it's tainted in the modern day thanks to repeated trademark/company owners that just used it to push their own often shoddy game titles. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Yeah, ain't that the truth......Just like all those labels who only produced barely budget quality games, as soon as you saw the name you were already doubting the product which usually turned out to be the right choice.. I don't even know who owns the name now, still with infogames (or whatever their name was?) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Bentley Bear? That seems like the most logical one to me that could have gone up against Mario/Sonic. But first he would have needed to be used in more games 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibstov Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 The tank from Combat. It was the pack-in game for years. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombalar Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Actually Atari recognized this problem in the 80's. When they made Gravitar they wanted it to have a "game character". Thus, you have this weird looking alien in the cabinet art. Unfortunately that awesome game was too difficult for the masses and it offered just too much strategy and finesse for that era. But that interview is interesting. http://www.cooganphoto.com/gravitar/interview.html Mike Hally: The game name was as difficult to agree upon as it was doing the entire game. This was the era when the marketing and sales staff got involved and determined that it was their job to approve of the game name. As you can see (in the project documents) I went through some procedures and spent money doing searches and still the name changed! The reason you change from Lunar Battle is that it was tested and the results were so-so. Rumors in the field are bad and by changing the name it gives it a new life. Look at the status reports to determine when the name switch was made. I don't recall seeing any official documents in the binder about the name change. Oh well. The guy they added to the artwork is Gravitar. Atari wanted to have a character in the game, (kind of) since character games were becoming popular! As you can see I had to deal with more than just designing a game that people would put money in to play! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 11 hours ago, ilmenit said: Which would be for you the most iconic Atari character?? Clearly CHR$(0) - it is a heart and a string zero termination a the same time 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0ger Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Atari doesn't need iconic character, we already have iconic computer ? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 12 hours ago, ilmenit said: Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic. Who would be for you the most iconic Atari character? C64? ZX Spectrum? Amstrad? BBC Micro? Character shows by You is characters for game console, not for computers. So, I think - for computers choice is not so clear... We can get only Atari games characters? For me good choice will be cat from "Alley Cat". "Robbo"? Not, it was convert for too many platforms. "Zybex", "Draconus" - also for C64, if I remember ZX Spectrum too. I think that is no clear characters for computer platform, but - as said ROger - we have iconic computer... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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