rjhudson (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} rjhudson) wrote,@ 2003-03-24 19:30:00 |
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Attn: Retro gamers
The wait is over. The whole retrogaming thing is officially dead. The proof?
Atari7800.com .
Yes, relive the classic frustration of sloppy play control with such Borderbound Apple IIe hits as Karateka and Ace of Aces. Relive the classic disappointment with inferior sound quality culled from the technological scrap heap of 1978 with five tone mono audio loops and analog bodily functions. Relive the classic pulling-the-cartridge-from-the-console-a
Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to relive the classic jealousy of hearing your friends talk about such mysterious yet enticing titles such as "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend of Zelda," and the classic curiosity about just what the hell a "password" is.
Yes, it's all there. If the prospect of reliving those classic moments isn't enough to get you worked up into a retrogaming spending frenzy, check out their sales pitch. 1986 Technology at 2003 prices! Yow! You used to be able to pick up Choplifter! for 14.99 at Meijers. . . Now you get to pay ten buck more!
What's more, if you order their gold package, you not only get a real Atari 7800 prosystem, AND rf converter AND ac adaptor, BUT ALSO, a demo version of the Atari coin-op classic PIT FIGHTER!
Not interested in the Atari 7800 prosystem? You've got problems, bud. Maybe checking out some behind-the-scenes info on what constituted "business as usual" at the old Atari HQ will change your mind:
"The drug abuse at Atari was more rampant than most realize or care to admit. During the early days of Atari, a few of the higher-up staff members had affairs with some rather serious drugs including cocaine, hard acid, and Quaaludes. Apple founder Steve Jobs (who was an employee at Atari at the time and responsible for Breakout) was late to work on many an occasion tended to show up to work (allegedly) high on acid. Later in the lifespan of Atari, it is believed that one particular member of the Tramiel clan would hold short meetings with a high-end drug supplier in his office and consume lines of cocaine within that same privacy. This issue was kept quite quiet within the family while the gentleman attended a rehab facility in Los Angeles sometime during the early 1990's. Many believe that the relationship between Atari and drug usage stopped with the flirtation of marijuana and free-spirited atmosphere of the Atari creative team in the late 1970's. This unfortunately is not the case."
Now I know why that last, crucial puzzle piece in Impossible Mission never turned up. It was impossible for that guy running the beta test to operate the Prosystem contoller and a two-foot pyrex with a glass side at the same time.
I just wish I'd been into drugs back when I was thirteen. My 7800 would've no doubt been much more enjoyable. Or at least tolerable. Hell, a good tab of Yellow Sunshine and the opening Atari Logo screen would've kept me happy for at least six hours.
"Ray Kassar, CEO of Atari during the Warner years (best known for his political downfall in which he was involved in an insider trading scandal, selling off all of his Atari stock just hours before Atari announced quarterly losses in the millions, and was subsequently ousted in September 1983 with James Morgan taking his place.) was well known by contemporaries to be a flamboyant homosexual outside of the workplace. While his lifestyle was of no real interest within the confines of Atari's offices, he was known to make grand flamboyant entrances and was chauffeured to Atari's Sunnyvale facility on a daily basis via a stretch limousine which picked him up from his estate in San Francisco."
[I'll refrain from saying anything on this point.]
"While Atari (under Bushnell) and Warner Communications were still flirting around with the possibility of the sale of Atari to Warner, Nolan's policy had been to make Atari as presentable as possible to Warner during their visits to the Atari facility in California. Part of this policy had been to "hide" the main Atari staff, who at that time were basically hippies complete with beards, sandals, and a joint behind their ear, who were all working for a company that was run more like a hippie commune, than a corporation. This obviously would have been detrimental to the sale of Atari had Warner seen the true goings-on at Atari in the early days. However, on one occasion, Nolan received a surprise phone call from one of the Warner executives who happened to be near by on an unrelated outing with some other Warner people from Manhattan, who wanted to stop by the Atari facility to take a look around to get a glimpse of the new technology and the production facility. Nolan panicked, as all of the assembly line workers were dressed down and rather unpresentable by Warner standards, and also happened to be freely smoking marijuana on the job. With only minutes to "clean up," the Atari employees put out their marijuana cigarettes and managed to crawl into incomplete coin-op cabinets, essentially hiding out for forty-five minutes while the Warner clan browsed around the Atari facility. According to one ex-Atari employee who was witness to this 'Those Warner guys didn't suspect a thing. Nolan was like a big kid pulling one over on his parents.'"
These guys could swap stories with the fellows at AOL, no doubt. . .
Ah, but let's hear something from the brass, shall we?
"'The truth is, the SuperSystem is a piece of *%$# ...and we all know it!' stated a frustrated Ray Kassar, Atari President under Warner, to an Atari engineering employee outside of the Atari world headquarters in 1982. It was the beginning of the end for the Atari everyone had known and loved for so long. Nolan Bushnell's dream was about to begin a slow and painful death which is still looming over us to this day, and at that point in time, Atari was dramatically losing enthusiasm with their latest system, the Atari 5200 SuperSystem. It was time for a change. Atari had to pull out all the stops to try to save not just the company, but the industry as a whole. This was the beginning of what was arguably one of the most innovative periods in Atari's history. This was the birth of the Atari 7800 ProSystem."
The birth, as we all know, was more like an abortion. A grizzly, back alley, coat hanger and gin abortion.
Still not convinced? Here, we all know that numbers don't lie. . . Give these digits the once over. . .
CPU : 6502C
RAM : 4K
ROM : 4K BIOS ROM
CPU SPEED : 1.79 Mhz
GRAPHICS SPEED : 7.16 MHz
STORAGE: 32K Cartridge ROM
BANKSWITCHING : No
SOUND : TIA Custom Sound
RESOLUTION : 320 X 200
COLORS : 256
The wait is over. The whole retrogaming thing is officially dead. The proof?
Atari7800.com .
Yes, relive the classic frustration of sloppy play control with such Borderbound Apple IIe hits as Karateka and Ace of Aces. Relive the classic disappointment with inferior sound quality culled from the technological scrap heap of 1978 with five tone mono audio loops and analog bodily functions. Relive the classic pulling-the-cartridge-from-the-console-a
Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to relive the classic jealousy of hearing your friends talk about such mysterious yet enticing titles such as "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend of Zelda," and the classic curiosity about just what the hell a "password" is.
Yes, it's all there. If the prospect of reliving those classic moments isn't enough to get you worked up into a retrogaming spending frenzy, check out their sales pitch. 1986 Technology at 2003 prices! Yow! You used to be able to pick up Choplifter! for 14.99 at Meijers. . . Now you get to pay ten buck more!
What's more, if you order their gold package, you not only get a real Atari 7800 prosystem, AND rf converter AND ac adaptor, BUT ALSO, a demo version of the Atari coin-op classic PIT FIGHTER!
Not interested in the Atari 7800 prosystem? You've got problems, bud. Maybe checking out some behind-the-scenes info on what constituted "business as usual" at the old Atari HQ will change your mind:
"The drug abuse at Atari was more rampant than most realize or care to admit. During the early days of Atari, a few of the higher-up staff members had affairs with some rather serious drugs including cocaine, hard acid, and Quaaludes. Apple founder Steve Jobs (who was an employee at Atari at the time and responsible for Breakout) was late to work on many an occasion tended to show up to work (allegedly) high on acid. Later in the lifespan of Atari, it is believed that one particular member of the Tramiel clan would hold short meetings with a high-end drug supplier in his office and consume lines of cocaine within that same privacy. This issue was kept quite quiet within the family while the gentleman attended a rehab facility in Los Angeles sometime during the early 1990's. Many believe that the relationship between Atari and drug usage stopped with the flirtation of marijuana and free-spirited atmosphere of the Atari creative team in the late 1970's. This unfortunately is not the case."
Now I know why that last, crucial puzzle piece in Impossible Mission never turned up. It was impossible for that guy running the beta test to operate the Prosystem contoller and a two-foot pyrex with a glass side at the same time.
I just wish I'd been into drugs back when I was thirteen. My 7800 would've no doubt been much more enjoyable. Or at least tolerable. Hell, a good tab of Yellow Sunshine and the opening Atari Logo screen would've kept me happy for at least six hours.
"Ray Kassar, CEO of Atari during the Warner years (best known for his political downfall in which he was involved in an insider trading scandal, selling off all of his Atari stock just hours before Atari announced quarterly losses in the millions, and was subsequently ousted in September 1983 with James Morgan taking his place.) was well known by contemporaries to be a flamboyant homosexual outside of the workplace. While his lifestyle was of no real interest within the confines of Atari's offices, he was known to make grand flamboyant entrances and was chauffeured to Atari's Sunnyvale facility on a daily basis via a stretch limousine which picked him up from his estate in San Francisco."
[I'll refrain from saying anything on this point.]
"While Atari (under Bushnell) and Warner Communications were still flirting around with the possibility of the sale of Atari to Warner, Nolan's policy had been to make Atari as presentable as possible to Warner during their visits to the Atari facility in California. Part of this policy had been to "hide" the main Atari staff, who at that time were basically hippies complete with beards, sandals, and a joint behind their ear, who were all working for a company that was run more like a hippie commune, than a corporation. This obviously would have been detrimental to the sale of Atari had Warner seen the true goings-on at Atari in the early days. However, on one occasion, Nolan received a surprise phone call from one of the Warner executives who happened to be near by on an unrelated outing with some other Warner people from Manhattan, who wanted to stop by the Atari facility to take a look around to get a glimpse of the new technology and the production facility. Nolan panicked, as all of the assembly line workers were dressed down and rather unpresentable by Warner standards, and also happened to be freely smoking marijuana on the job. With only minutes to "clean up," the Atari employees put out their marijuana cigarettes and managed to crawl into incomplete coin-op cabinets, essentially hiding out for forty-five minutes while the Warner clan browsed around the Atari facility. According to one ex-Atari employee who was witness to this 'Those Warner guys didn't suspect a thing. Nolan was like a big kid pulling one over on his parents.'"
These guys could swap stories with the fellows at AOL, no doubt. . .
Ah, but let's hear something from the brass, shall we?
"'The truth is, the SuperSystem is a piece of *%$# ...and we all know it!' stated a frustrated Ray Kassar, Atari President under Warner, to an Atari engineering employee outside of the Atari world headquarters in 1982. It was the beginning of the end for the Atari everyone had known and loved for so long. Nolan Bushnell's dream was about to begin a slow and painful death which is still looming over us to this day, and at that point in time, Atari was dramatically losing enthusiasm with their latest system, the Atari 5200 SuperSystem. It was time for a change. Atari had to pull out all the stops to try to save not just the company, but the industry as a whole. This was the beginning of what was arguably one of the most innovative periods in Atari's history. This was the birth of the Atari 7800 ProSystem."
The birth, as we all know, was more like an abortion. A grizzly, back alley, coat hanger and gin abortion.
Still not convinced? Here, we all know that numbers don't lie. . . Give these digits the once over. . .
CPU : 6502C
RAM : 4K
ROM : 4K BIOS ROM
CPU SPEED : 1.79 Mhz
GRAPHICS SPEED : 7.16 MHz
STORAGE: 32K Cartridge ROM
BANKSWITCHING : No
SOUND : TIA Custom Sound
RESOLUTION : 320 X 200
COLORS : 256
