A History of Atari — the Golden Years 170
simoniker writes "Over at Gamasutra, Steve Fulton has published a massive 23,000-word history of Atari from 1978 to 1981, encompassing '... some of the most exciting developments the company ever saw in its history: the rise of the 2600, the development of some of the company's most enduringly popular games (Centipede, Asteroids) and the development and release of its first home computing platforms.' Best quote in there for Slashdot readers, perhaps: 'Atari had contracted with a young programmer named Bill Gates to modify a BASIC compiler that he had for another system to be used on the 800. After that project stalled for over a year Al was called upon to replace him with another developer. So ... Al is the only person I know ever to have fired Bill Gates.'"
Atari AGAIN? (Score:5, Insightful)
Listen, could you pseudo-gamer-journalists stop writing about Atari's history? We've all heard and read about it a million times. We ALL know about Atari. We all know about Ralph Baer, Higgenbotten, and that Centipede was designed by a woman. Now, how about some REAL history even us old gamers don't know about?
What was it like working for Cinematronics? What was their culture like? Why did they go out of business? What was it like being on the Dragon's Lair team (and I don't mean just talking to Don Bluth and Rick Dyer; that's been done to death. What about everyone else like the tech developers? Did they think it would take off? What about the teams involved in vector games? What was that like?)
How about Universal? What happened to them? What was it like working there? The art department must have been a trippy place considering the fascinating psychedelic art their arcade game cabinets had. Who designed Mr Do? Lady Bug? When could they sense the writing was on the wall? Why couldn't they compete?
How about Stern's video department in 1978-82? At least you know where to reach Gary Stern today...
How about Williams video department? They made such cool games (Robotron, Defender, Sinistar...) What was their workplace and culture like?
Write about something new for fuck's sake.
Re:How Atari Failed (Score:3, Insightful)
They did, in 1984. Atari Games and Atari Corporation.
The real problem with Atari as a computer maker is that Atari Corporation was run by Jack Trameil (also known for being the guy who brought us the PET, C64) who wanted to use it to bludgeon his old company for getting rid of him.
Best quote from story (Score:4, Insightful)
"I felt that the computer system should not be a closed system, we needed to have third party software developers. I could see Steve Jobs out evangelizing, and Atari was saying that if you write software for the Atari computers, we will sue you. I just thought that was foolhardy. They were from the record world, where you sue people."
- Nolan Bushnell
You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Re:who would of thought (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, try reading the article yourself instead of skimming it.
From the article:
"Gamer.nl contradicted the statements, claiming the game was provided to them directly by Atari. What's more, they claim that Atari says they only let 'high scoring' reviews release before embargo."
"One of the sites in question claims their copy was actually purchased at retail."
"it seems as if Atari is only interested in suing those who portray their games in a bad light."
Re:The history of my Atari (Score:3, Insightful)
Because he enforced consequences for actions, and stuck to his word? I don't see a problem with that. I only had to lose a few toys I really liked before I started learning how to pick things up. There's no saying that their father threw it out... perhaps he just sold it or gave it away. Either way, it's called "parenting".
Just because the Atari cost more than other toys shouldn't make it any less susceptible to the rules.