Atari VCS architect quits the project; claims he hasn't been paid for six months

defaultluser said:
If you went with the flow of traffic, you started with cartridges then tape then disk. Nobody published on disk at first due to the higher costs, so early third-part was through tape.

IF you bought today, all you would need is disk, but that's not what I'm talking about. From birth to death, you had to have bought a cassette reader, then a disk drive.
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So your big argument is that it was cheaper to play games on a console? You can apply that today as well, you know.

You could have went Floppy from the start and wouldn't have had any issues, and I suspect many did. I seriously doubt you will find any noteworthy Cassette only games that were not on Cartridge and/or Floppy.

But I get it, you were a big NES fanboy.

While I preferred to leave consoles behind much eariler. I haven't owned a console since I sold my ColecoVision and bought a C64 in 1983. Years before the NES even hit the North American Market.
 
Derangel said:
Source
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The non-payment may be related to Atari's current financial situation, which is pretty bad. The company only has three employees and it has lost over $5m in the last two years. The claim to have just under $6m left as of April. Despite this their CEO is still paid $1.1m a year. Atari, also, did not respond to questions the article's author sent.
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excuse me what now?
 
Derangel said:
Why did this thread turn into a stupid argument between the NES and C64?



All the work for the console is outsourced. Atari itself exists by licensing it’s name and IPs out to other companies.
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I think his reaction was to the company being composed of 3 employees and the "CEO" (I'll use that term very loosely) making $1.1 million when they're bleeding cash.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
I think his reaction was to the company being composed of 3 employees and the "CEO" (I'll use that term very loosely) making $1.1 million when they're bleeding cash.
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i should have hit the see more button before responding.
 
Snowdog said:
I hope so, the NES came to USA nearly a decade after the Atari. I was a kid in this Era. I wanted an Atari, but it wasn't in the cards, then later one of my neighbors got an Intellivision. I remember commercials comparing how much better Intellivision was than Atari. A little bit after that, I saved up enough for my first console. I got a Colecovision, which put both to shame. Then the Video game collapse came, and it was only after the collapse that Nintendo arrived.

By then me and my friends had moved on to the Commodore 64 and Nintendo really seemed aimed at "kids". ;)
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My point was some things have aged very well. Atari games have not. It is rare to see someone collecting or playing them. Just look at EBay prices compared to other vintage games. I doubt I could even give the ones I have away, assuming I cared enough to find what box I put them in.
 
VIC-20 said:
My point was some things have aged very well. Atari games have not. It is rare to see someone collecting or playing them. Just look at EBay prices compared to other vintage games. I doubt I could even give the ones I have away, assuming I cared enough to find what box I put them in.
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VCS games suck today, but again, you have to account for the timeframe. NES you compared with, came out nearly a decade later.

Not defending this project. I said it would flop right from the start:
https://hardforum.com/threads/yet-another-new-atari-vcs-update.1982704/page-2#post-1044228667
This is a predicable flop, just like Ouya was (which I was saying even when most were wildly optimistic).

A handful of old nerds might by one because they remember the original VCS, but everyone else will just buy a $200-$300 Xbox or PS4. Less money, much better HW, more games, better games, etc...

And as far as those classic Atari games:

$20 on Xbox:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/a...ol-1/c3nd23hm1j1p?activetab=pivot:eek:verviewtab
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So I am definitely not defending this mess, and while VCS games suck, they are not the attraction of an Atari games bundle, the Arcade versions, and later console versions are a lot of fun even today. One of my friends has a stand up MAME machine, and I enjoyed playing Asteroids and Centipede, Missile Command. Still fun today.

But back to watching "Atari" predictably unravel.
 
Wow Atari used to kick ass. They should make phone games to rebuild thier bank account. Shit angry birds made Rovio worth like what... 2.5 billion valuation or more according to various sources
 
tangoseal said:
Wow Atari used to kick ass. They should make phone games to rebuild thier bank account. Shit angry birds made Rovio worth like what... 2.5 billion valuation or more according to various sources
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While I agree phone games are lucritive, Rovio hit the market at the right time. iPhones were new and amazing and the only real competitors were Palm (lol) and Blackberry and neither of those were known for providing a game that required zero thought and was fun and easy. These days you have thousands of companies trying to do the same thing, and unless you are some sort of current game house with backing, you're unlikely to make any ground.
 
vegeta535 said:
Wait the CEO is making 1.1mil salary and they went to kick starter for funding? This was nothing but a scam.
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Yeah when I read his salary I started shaking my head. If they cared one but about salvaging thier company and keeping food on thier tables that ceo would cut his pay to 100k and put the other million to work. Surely at a level of salary as such his house is free and clear and his yacht can be sold. Salvage the company, grow it, make way more money later. This is called emotional intelligence. Something that is truly a rare trait indeed.
 
tangoseal said:
Yeah when I read his salary I started shaking my head. If they cared one but about salvaging thier company and keeping food on thier tables that ceo would cut his pay to 100k and put the other million to work. Surely at a level of salary as such his house is free and clear and his yacht can be sold. Salvage the company, grow it, make way more money later. This is called emotional intelligence. Something that is truly a rare trait indeed.
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Some ancient Game IP is probably nothing to base a new business on, when you have ZERO in house talent.

Atari is largely a shell, that emerged of bankruptcy protection. I saw something about it listing on an exhange, so the CEO might just be milking more of the investor money before the inevitable collapse.
 
Snowdog said:
VCS games suck today, but again, you have to account for the timeframe. NES you compared with, came out nearly a decade later.

Not defending this project. I said it would flop right from the start:
https://hardforum.com/threads/yet-another-new-atari-vcs-update.1982704/page-2#post-1044228667


So I am definitely not defending this mess, and while VCS games suck, they are not the attraction of an Atari games bundle, the Arcade versions, and later console versions are a lot of fun even today. One of my friends has a stand up MAME machine, and I enjoyed playing Asteroids and Centipede, Missile Command. Still fun today.

But back to watching "Atari" predictably unravel.
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It's a shame, because when it was first announced, I was pretty excited until I saw the price tag and Kickstarter campaign. I decided it was better to take a wait and see approach and I'm glad I did.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and this particular era was one of the best times of my life. I can remember the excitement of new game releases, and I can remember going to arcades and seeing and playing all the arcade games. We had a pizza place with an arcade in the town next to mine and my mom and dad took my brother, friends, and I seemingly every weekend. It was a great time and while the games were simple and often just pixel blobs moving around, it was great for your imagination.

tangoseal said:
Wow Atari used to kick ass. They should make phone games to rebuild thier bank account. Shit angry birds made Rovio worth like what... 2.5 billion valuation or more according to various sources
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Remember, this isn't the Atari of the 70s and 80s. That Atari died long ago and the name was passed around and bought and sold numerous times. A "CEO" raking in $1.1 million per year while he manages 2 other employees and is begging for money on Kickstarter just screams scam to me.
 
VIC-20 said:
My point was some things have aged very well. Atari games have not. It is rare to see someone collecting or playing them. Just look at EBay prices compared to other vintage games. I doubt I could even give the ones I have away, assuming I cared enough to find what box I put them in.
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Well, if you're giving them away, I'll take them. :)
 
mvmiller12 said:
The Atari 400 and 800 computers were also quite good and were available in 1979. I had the Atari 800XL myself back in '84...
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I had formative game experiences on the Atari 8-bit. (1200 XL)

Star Raiders
Silent Service (Sid Meier)
F-15 Strike Eagle (Sid Meier)
Rescue on Fractalus!
Telengard

Those experiences far outweighed anything I played on the 2600/VCS.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Well, if you're giving them away, I'll take them. :)
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I'll take a look this weekend to see if I can find them. I'm in Canada though, so assuming you are in the states, shipping won't be cheap lol
 
Where is the Intellivision console at that was announced near the same time as this VCS? Any word on that?

My teen-aged self would take an 8-bit computer (Atari/C-64) any day over a NES cause PIRACY!!!
The scene was big in the day, and a great way to meet gamers.
 
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