I first worked for Atari back in 1976 as a security guard. On my first day I asked to summon Steve Jobs to the Lobby. It was his last day at work and he had an entourage of people waiting for him. I was told weeks later that Steve was co-owner of a new computer start-up called Apple. Fast forward a couple years later I went back to work with Atari as a material handler/assembler in a warehouse. Part of my training was learning to drive a fork lift, they had me practice running over circuit boards, hence destroying $millions of old inventory. I remember going to Busnell's going away party which was held at his Pizza Time theatre at the now defunct Towne and Country village in San Jose CA (Now Santana row). Wow, the memories!
@@JsRetroVideoGames They liked to party. I remember when the managers went to an offsite meeting, the supervisors and dopers were snorting coke in the shipping area during lunch. I tried to be friendly with everyone, but many of the people in the warehouse and manufacturing area were downright low-life scum losers.
I worked at Atari Research under Dr. Alan Kay. I had my own department, My own lab. Following that, I was hired by Nolan Bushnell and worked with his company Axlon. My field is Robotics and A.I... The years I worked at these great companies were formative. The people I worked with were fantastic... I am still creating Robots and A.I. stuff ... will do it forever. Thank You, Nolan. Thank you kindly!
I worked at Atari, but for Steve Mayer in nyc. Alan Kay was cool. The inventor of object oriented programming. Several facts presented are wrong from my memory,. 400 before 2600? Warner purchased Atari before 2600 came out?
When I was a kid, I got an Atari 2600 for Xmas 1978. Got about 25 games and finally quit playing around 1986. My first roommate introduced me to Nintendo in ‘92 and I played it so much that he gave it to me. From there I bought a Sega Genesis and played every sports game until I got sick of them. Bought a house in ‘98 and mothballed everything. Then I witnessed a demo of the Xbox in 2001. I became mesmerized and had to have one. Now in my mid-50’s I still play Xbox One today. Oh by the way, I didn’t get a PC until 2000!
My story is just about the same, except By 1996 I had my Sega for 3 years & was staying up until 3 - 4 AM playing Desert strike, Jungle strike & other games. I saw the Xbox & play station & saw how corny & lame the ideas were like GTA. played some CDRom Games in early 2000's But todays games / most have No meaning. they take up too much time.
@@MetalHeart8787 I'm very sure you would find incredible games that suit your interests if you would get out if that mindset. The modern gaming landscape is far more varied than anything that happened from 1970 to 1995. The thought of some sacrilegious bygone era of gaming is just limiting your own possibilities. If you don't like GTA specifically, that's understandable, but you might want to have a look at modern indie games and see what they have to offer. Please don't just state that something sucks, based just on your tunnel vision
As I child growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, we could never afford an Atari. I remember we had one friend who had one and we would all go to his house to play. We would also all chip in to buy new games. Those were the days. Thanks for the memories.
THIS VIDEO IS AWFUL.......... MAKES NO MENTION OF THE INCREDIBLE ATARI 800 MACHINE AND GRAPHICS INCLUDING IT WORLD CLASS VERSION OF PAC MAN done in 4X3 for the TV.... The unfortunate event for people was purchasing the 2600 but not waiting for the amazing graphics accorded by the 400/800 cartridges, rendering arcade machine replicas of Centipede, Pac Man, Galaxia, Galaga etc. In Pac Man, i once made it to the 40th key maze.............. no power pills after what, the 5th key? Patterns didn't work on this version: you had to wing it. It was harder than the arcade. God bless the 800. What a machine that blew the doors off the Apple 2.
Great video, but it missed part of the story. I worked for Atari in 1981 when the 800 computer was the best one on the market. It had so much more capability than the others it was laughable. As I remember, during that year the computer section made $350 million. They worked hard to market it as a business computer but along the way made two colossal blunders. First, the CEO decided to name a new operating system after himself, the Tramiel operating system, or TOS, which he predicted would take over as the standard in the industry. Second, the major programs they created for the business side worked with only one floppy drive, which meant continuous disc swapping between the program disc and the data disc. It was unbelievable. The second year I was there the section lost $350 million. Straight up and straight down. The losses were accompanied by a remarkable flight of talent to other companies. But I remember fondly the time I spent at Atari. A remarkably talented group of people.
Great post! My first computer was an Atari 800 and while it was cool to have, it was so damn slow loading and saving programs to a cassette deck. I dreamed of having a Commodore Amiga and still remember the commercials of the bouncing balls on the Amiga that looked realistic. All the money I spent on the evolving computers back then would equal a very nice chunk of money now. Among them was a Tandy laptop with two 3.5 inch drives, then a Tandy 1000 with a 20MB hard drive.
@@NeverRideSlowly You're right. I had an 800 and by the time I had enough money to consider an Amiga, it's capabilities had been passed by many others.
@@NeverRideSlowly I bought a 520st in...1987... can't say I did much other than play games on it. The graphics were ehhhh...mostly D&D type. Leisure Suit Larry was my 1st "adult" putchase
This failure ultimately falls on the company executives for giving so little to the engineers to develop, test and correct a game prior to sales. 6 weeks for ONE engineer to accomplish all the stated prior to fielding? Ridiculous and money hungry execs; screw tomorrow, we want the almighty dollar now!
Ford ran into the same issues with the Edsel: a name synonymous with failure. Ford promised a completely different car; but their planning was so bad, the Edsel had no chance.
As a kid I also thought I was an Atari fan, when in fact I was actually a Jay Miner fan instead. I went from a 2600(Miner), to many different Atari 8 bit computers(Miner) to the Atari ST(briefly) and quickly to an Amiga 500(Miner). Today, I own many Atari, Commodore, etc machines and truly celebrate them all.
Insane that they gave themselves a window of 6 weeks to make the game, test it, and, manufacture it, and ship it. Absolutely insane and also straight up greed by the leadership team to meet Xmas timeline.
atari got greedy its said they never had a seal of quality for their games. then with jaguar they could have made a comeback but again greedy and shady gaming tactics. lying to consumers about the real hardware of the jag which was a legit 64 bit console. but jag was a 32bit and alot weaker psx and saturn. barely able to push any polys... its a pity. always admire them tho. the are part of video game history.
@@ssppeeaarr True on this - had a potential winner on this - also the ST successor Atari Falcon could have had a future - but damaged by Atari inept and greed.
@@bls5205 Good call on this - also stale games - repeating same cars, game play, puzzles, limited play in modelled world and being charged pretty penny for it - Forza Series as example is one of charge / plus Subscription to Xbox every month to play fellow players online
The decision to put MIDI connectors on their ST series was a golden idea. Every musician I know had an Atari with Steinberg's Cubase running on it. The first music composer/editor software in the world and a game changer for music composers and musicians all over the world.
It's mostly Americans that are clueless about the impact it had on music and Midi/hardware recording. Which is now standard. Also the Atari ST was far far more popular than the NES for gaming in the UK. The video is also wrong, the MAC wasn't even used for games or a very popular home computer in Europe. The ST blew it away in gaming use.
@@FrankHeuvelman haha. That's why I get triggered by American history videos in gaming and computing. There is so much they don't know or get wrong. Such as the videogame crash only being American, the huge ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari ST and Amiga 500 impact on Home computing, Music and gaming outside America. (Although the video here is Australian it falls into copying the American narrative a bit)
@@FrankHeuvelman Luckily there are British channels that talk about this, and also the Master System console's popularity outside the US and Japan over the NES. If I hear "The NES saved gaming" one more time.........
Damn right brother! It's truly amazing how uninformed so many of the computer experts here Stateside really are. No doubt, the Amiga was a great machine, especially for games but the ST and its impact and importance in the music scene simply cannot be ignored or downplayed!
This story really shows how important company culture is to the future success of the company. I find it so ridiculous when executives think it's okay to pay the people that actually build the technology so little.
And you know what happened? The market corrected it. Those people left. No need for government or anyone else to step in and force those companies to pay more.
@@joecoolioness6399 imagine still believing in the "free" market at this stage. Tesla is the epitome of the exact opposite. I'm sure the tobacco and the asbestos industries "corrected" themselves without anyody stepping in.
@@cattnipp The crypto market is highly profitable with an expert broker just like Mrs anna. I got recommended to her and since then my financial life has been a success.
@@veronicathoms4979 right on, how do I contact Mr Anna? He sounds like exactly the kind of knowledgeable non imaginary Nigerian Prince I need to invest my spare quadrillions
from every video I have seen every company's downfall is due to these reasons 1)ego 2)not paying attention to competition 3)refusing to change 4)absolutely lazy
yet EA is still going strong, and it baffles me that Activision is one of the posterchilds of crunch culture and straight up work abusers, coming from the people that quit Atari trying to make things better.
And not caring for their employees’ financial well-being. And setting up ridiculous production delivery time frames. Overworking the proudest/creators and the same old sick joke... underpaying for their intellectual know how !!!
I smile when I think of how much we paid for the Atari console, around $200. I think. And each game was like $40.-50. which was a fair chunk of change in the late 70s as I recall. But the time we wasted on it...priceless;)
So, I'll be 48 in May. I still have my Atari 2600, several games with it. Some of the fondest memories I have, is playing hours on end with my Mom, in my bedroom... So, there's a lot to be learned from this, and I'm not going to go into it. But everything we have today, was learned many years ago. This video was special to me, it's the memories of the best time in my life before a nasty divorce, and when Mom passed away 4 years ago. Great video Dagogo!
What were your favourites? The most memorable ones I remember are River Raid, Popeye, Olympics, and Spiderman. I'm sure there's at least a dozen I'm forgetting.
Atari Consoles taught me about Microprocessors at age 16! I was the luckiest teenager in Sydney! Repairing and playing them all day. Electronics Trainee nearly 40 years ago.
@@quantumphaser I know how you feel, my Mum died 10 years ago on Nov 14, and Dad joined her 5 years later, and it may sound weird to you, but I still talk to them as though they are still here with me, and can still hear their voices in my head.
14:02 "Apparently, they didn't learn their lesson" Nearly 40 years later and they still Haven't learned their lesson... nor have other companies learned from Atari's mistake. Releasing rushed games has become a trend.
you gotta get product out to be profitable. I know it sucks but most games, even the worst buggy ones, are still pretty good. And only get better with fixes. Like cars, the first ones off the line are probably not the ones to buy, wait a year and let them fix the bugs.
Yup... Look at 15:25, where they say "their competitors, were also making horrible game but selling them cheaper" shows a picture of Activision LOL Some things never change...
After the Atari deal fell through, they made their own console, the 7800, which was set to dominate NA, but Atari got tied up in legal disputes that delayed the release from 84 to 86. At that point, Nintendo had taken over the NA market. That is an important part that was left out.
Two years later came back he Sega Masters System, Turbo Graphics 16, NeoGeo, and computer games started getting a little bit better. They did not have a chance with the 7800.
For 4 or 5 years, Atari was the most influential company in entertainment for sure but even beyond. Their collapse was so quick and so profound it boggles the mind. Within 12 months they went from the biggest thing in the world to completely irrelevant.
Once they lost that case to the 3rd party developers, as the video states, “their business model was shattered.” From then on, it was curtains. Future companies would all have to solve the 3rd party developer problem, and the ones with the best solutions went the furthest
Have to admit. Nolan Bushnell created a lot of childhoods and worldly happiness. First with Atari that spawn the video game industry as it is, then Chuck E. Cheese. Amazing
@@apple_m2_delight Yes. We should, that's why I said "eventually would make bad games". I'm talking about later things like games on the Jaguar. I can name multiple games on the Jaguar published by Atari that are just ripoffs.
I interviewed with him almost 10 years ago - he was working on a VR headset with Virgin. Don't know what happened with that venture but I never believed Oculus devices would be big sellers.
I vaguely remember being incredibly disappointed the first time I laid eyes on Atari's version of PacMan, it was almost criminal. It was like when you ask your Mom to take you to your favorite restaurant, and she says she can make that at home. You're doubtul, but wonder if you have underestimated youe mom and try to remain optimistic. Right up until what lay on the you plate in front of you was the Atari version of Pacman. Little did most us know at the time, the console was capable of making a passable representation of the game, even if not quite as pretty. But laziness and greed ended up severely damaging their brand.
Same. My Dad was a Nortel engineer and knew the market and the tech. He thought Atari was a joke. So we ended up getting a dorky Tandy Color Computer. I was the loserest kid on my block and... I learned a ton about tech and loved that thing! Thanks Dad!
When going over the causes of the crash of 1983, I cant help but feel like we will eventually see a repeat of this due to some recent trends in the modern industry.
ya but for american gamers only tho. lol. yall earned it.... xbox gotta go n sega needs to get back in hardware n reclaim its spot. nintendo will always be there to redeem yall tho. just like back in 80s after the fall n crash.
At this point the industry deserves to crash. So much corruption and nickel and diming bullsh*t, by companies who think they're invincible. The PS5 and its elitist status is just part of the reason why.
@@ssppeeaarr Nintendo's been doing this same garbage recently. I say this as a hardcore Nintendo fan. They have a serious problem with rushing out unfinished games and then letting the sales of said game determine if they'll finish it later with "free updates".
@@FormulaFanboy nintendo is immortal man. they aint gonna anywhere. they aint in danger of falling off gaming any day or year soon. mario and zelda will always keep them relevant and afloat. been decades long diehard fanbase for those. those games take forever to make and come out just fine. lol the seal of quality remains for more important IP's. that said... it is very unfortunate they ignore other IP and franchises. like fzero and starfox. the most obvious and painful for this nintendo fan boy. im dying for new games from them. i think DK is also long over due for a comeback. ya sales play a huge part in things nowdays tho. for all companies. but now with metroid getting a revival after a long hiatus and the recent remaster of prime things looking a little brighter.
Proves that the myth of these “super tech geniuses” is nothing but a lie. They only got to where they are through a combination of unethical practices, privileged backgrounds, and incredible luck.
Apple wouldn't exist without both of them. Wozniak was the tech wizard, Jobs was the salesman. I'd say Jobs was a genius when it comes to marketing, especially later in his career.
Wow, my first computer was an Atari ST when I was 8 in 1997. Spent many hours playing the 100's of classic games on floppy disks. Had no idea of it's Midi capabilities of course. Also, interesting and funny how Jobs was put on solo nightshift and Gates was fired. They certainly started from (relatively) humble beginnings.
The programmer referred to at 12:40 works for me today. He's a great human being and is solving really hard problems for our company. Over the years we've had a lot of discussions about this experience at Atari, and the fallout... sounds like it was a wild time. He went on to work on many other games that were well loved and not so notorious.
@@ashthegeek7400 what would you like to know? Here's his Wiki article. He likes to attend the annual Portland Retro Gaming Convention. It's been canceled this year but he says he'll go next year if they have it. I've threatened to tag along with him next time. He often participates in panel discussions there and is available to meet. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tod_Frye
@@darrenporter1850 lol, with WFH and Zoom I consider myself lucky if he's wearing a shirt at all. :) Had lunch with him last week... our first time out in a year.
Nolan, the creator of Atari, is a family friend. He always said his biggest mistake in life was not listening to one of his first employees’ ideas for a computer. That employee was named Steve Jobs.
@@themoocow7718 Cool guy. Sees the world a little differently than most of us. Kind of an intellectual hippy who enjoys Burning Man. One of his many children is a very good friend of mine, we went to the Philippines together a few years back.
Atari was such a juggernaut back in the day, but as stated, it was mostly marketing. To this day the Atari font still stirs fond memories. The box design and the artwork on them was far far better than the actual games. I still have my original 2800 and about 50 CIB games from my childhood.
I'm about to order some TH-cam channel merch for the first time ever. How else are strangers going to know what a nerd I am unless I let it be know across my chest with an awesome 8-bit graphic.
Growing up as pastor’s kids, we didn’t have a tv in our house until the mid 80’s; but even then, it was only for movie rentals. We wanted game consoles like our friends had, but my dad refused to buy any. Instead he bought a Commodore 64. One of my mom’s brothers was a computer programmer and gamer, so he would make copies of games on floppies and mail them to us. Then my older brother and I figured out how we could make really simple games and we had so much fun coming up with stupid title names. The one that eventually got us in trouble was “The Adventures of Pudwacker”. It was literally just a slalom/downhill ski game where the pointer had to go through flags like a skier. We made some really crazy runs. What got us busted was an idiot friend who started calling everyone a pudwacker. My dad had no idea what he was saying until the kid started making jerk off motions when he called someone the name. We ended up losing all rights to playing on the C-64 for almost 6 months. By the time we were good to play on it again, my brother and I had secretly bought a Nintendo at a garage sale and would hook it up to the tv when our parents weren’t home. As far as the friend, no one in the neighborhood played with him anymore.
What a great story, I remember buying an Atari 2600 at a garage sale, a few years ago, with a box full of games & accessories for $5, the guy then gave me another box full of other consoles & games for free as he thought he had over charged me. My brother who is big in computers joked about what a pile of junk it was, that new years he turned up at my place with some of his computer mates & they hooked it up to my modern system, I have never seen a bunch of 30 year old tech heads have so much fun, we did that on & off for years, pretty sure I still have it all too.
@@bjw4859 These kind of stories are so fun to read and hear about. Makes me happy to know there are so many of us out there who can relate in some way or another.
I remember with fond memories when I got my first console back in 81. Love space invader, thinking how far technology has come to have arcade graphics in your home .
A whole video about Atari without mentioning the 800XL in the 8 bit category. In my country it was a HUGE success, also with their cartridges, not just games, one of them was Basic, which is where I started to programme as a kid! And the games were pretty nice, ET, PacMan, Space Invaders, etc. This was a niche they could have grown in, made decent competition to Commodore 64, a lot better than TI-99 of Sinclair Spectrum, and the Apple II were another category so no competition there. Then came IBM with the concept we have until today, separate keyboard and all, Atari said it would NOT WORK (!), very short sighted, then it was too late for them there as well. Introduced the floppy disk too late too... so yes, their stupidity was their downfall.
You need a Part 2 of this Atari series. So much is missing from the Atari later years. The history of Jack Tramiel and his contribution to Atari after leaving Commodore, the Atari Falcon and Atari Lynx.
YES! There really should be a part 2! I had several Ataris, my first being a 520ST in 1990, last was the tt030. Amazing change when I finally bought a SCSI hard disk. I spent most of my time using programs. My motto was "if it needs a joystick, I won't play it". Also "If I HAVE to read the handbook, it's not worth learning it". I used the CALAMUS desktop publishing program and have been doing graphics/websites ever since.
They legit named it "Atari Falcon" ? I was just thinking that if Atari Hadn't gone bust in the Videogame game, We'd be playing Atari Puma 6 and Atari Falcon Portable.......
Activision was the greatest game company in pre-nintendo days. I used to love playing dolphin, River raid, keystone capers, pitfall, just to name a few and whatever I purchased on Activision was a load of fun! Atari games? sure. weren't that great but it was just something nice to add to the collection and I love those days!
Wow, this video brought back so many memories as a child. I remember how much I hated the ET game (friends had it). I also remember after games were so expensive initially, being at a pharmacy and my mom buying all kinds of knock off Atari cartridges at liquidation prices. At the time, in grade school, i didn't understand other than we just got a lot of cheap games. Now I understand the mechanics of how this happened. It was most likely 1983~4.
I still have fond memories of discovering "Created by Warren Robinett." We played the 2600 constantly. Then by 1984 or so friends got Intellivision and Colecovision and my 2600 sat. Such fond memories though. Same with going to the arcade on spring break and spending the day there. Very addicting in that atmosphere of burnouts and smoke.
I had a 2600 when i was a kid. But my main Atari was an STE with 2mb Ram upgrade and Cubase 2.0 with TV screen emulator. I used it in the mid to late 90s to produce a music album for part of my college course in AV Design & Music Production. I had a Yamaha TG300 connected to it and a MIDI Keyboard. I got a song on the September 1997 Future Music Magazine cover CD called "Plexi" (my stage name was "A Slight Return".
I still remember seeing my first Atari 2600 console at a Sears & Roebuck store. It was setup as a demo, and my folks had to drag me out of the store each time they went.
I like these stories where people break off from a disrespectful parent company and found eventually more successful companies. Like Activision here, or all the Fairchild offshoots.
It is, but when you look at Atari and Amiga they both released numerous failures and had poor vision, and they also made a lot of revenue along the way making some people rich. Atari failures are the 5200, 7800, XEGS, Lynx, Jaguar, Portfolio, and others. Commodores failures are the Amiga 600, 1200, CDTV, and the CD32, along with not released but developed LCD, 65, and 900. I personally think Commodore failed in not getting MOS to compete with Motorola and use their own chip tech, and Atari failed by trying to release cheap tech without support of third parties help. Amstrad went simple and safe, and ended up making set top boxes which were rebranded.
@@AFourEyedGeek Fidn't know the Amiga 1200 flopped? Was best machine ever made at the time. I used it for Octamed creating music with its superlative sound card.
@@AFourEyedGeek I definitely agree that commodre should have done something to make MOS more competitive with Morortola's semiconductor fabs , they could have made their own version of the 65816 but I understand why they didn't want to use that when the 68000 was faster. As for Atari I think Jack Tramiel made a mistake in only buying the computer and video game console division, the arcade division made all the games and made some great games as a 3rd party developer. Also since commodre and Atari computers were both popular as games machines they should have made their own 1st party games which Atari did before the 1984 split and commodre only did 2 times with games like jack attack and international soccer.
@@cryptocsguy9282 I like all of what you said. Hindsight makes things seem easy but I'm not sure how Jack thought they'd be successful without investment into technology or games while also making 3rd party companies life hard. He was promoting during Atari Jaguar that the lack of 3rd party support will lead to higher profits on each game sold. Just what potential buyers want to read. I look at Irving Gould, Mehdi Ali, Jack Tramiel, Alan Sugar and wonder what goes through their minds. Amstrad released the GX4000 and Commodore released the C64GS in 1990, 8-bit consoles based on their old computer tech that wasn't even cutting edge at their release to compete with Mega-drive, Super Nintendo, Master System, and NES. Atari had nothing to compete with Sega or Nintendo around this time except the unwanted 7800 or XEGS. The computer sides also had similar mentality approach, with Amstrad re-releasing the 464 in a Plus format, with Commodore doing the 600 in 1992, and Atari not doing much of worth by cancelling computers to go all on on the Atari Jaguar.
@@AFourEyedGeek Yep I think the C64GS & GX4000 as 8bit machine in 1990 would have only made sense 🤔 as handheld consoles like the gamboy & gamegear (repackaged master system basically) . Atari made such a strange decision to cancel the Atari panther which was supposed to be their 4th generation video game system to compete with the megadrive & SNES & then just drop the Jaguar after the failure of the 7800 & XEGS. They also didn't do enough to encourage game developers on the ST to move over to the Jaguar & killed of the falcon too quickly. As for the Amiga A600 it's existance in 1992 probably wasn't necessary & the iffy compatability with A500 software because of updated OS that didn't agree with some software designed for older versions of the OS & lack of numerpad was dumb.
Jobs' plant in China had 14 slaves literally hurl themselves off the roof of the building, committing suicide. Jobs response was to put up a net around the building.
@Brent Nuckolls Guess what trump and his daughter ivanka do have sweat shops in china. She has her shoes made theer and he has his ties made over there.
Loved Atari, intellivision, Nintendo...good times as an 80’s kid. I wish some days I could go back to those simpler times and simpler humans. The world got way more complicated the smarter it got!
Really high quality production value on this doc. I like it, especially hearing from Nolan himself during it. Might wanna stick around to watch more of this channel in case another topic I like got covered.
Thank you Nintendo for keeping video games alive. Looking back at the games on Atari 2600, the NES/Famicom was leaps and bounds ahead, in every aspect.
@@TheYorkMan Haha - back in the late 80’s I wanted my parents to get me a Sega Master System so I could play Choplifter. For some reason I always preferred Sega over Nintendo. I always thought the Mario Brothers games were goofy and dorky, whereas Sega seemed to be “serious”. My father later spoiled me with a Sega Genesis for Christmas 1990.
@@MrSupernova111 I'm not the clown here. The Nintendo Famicom (which internally is the same as the NES) released in Japan the exact same year as the Atari crash of 1983. Not years later. 🙄
@@link375 Ahahahahha and that's how Apple became a trillion dollar company. Jobs was criticised for introducing the iPhone because it was expensive if I'm correct
I beat it by accident a month after I got it. You have to build the phone by getting the parts. Pretty sure you know this already. Anyway, I was shocked that I sent E.T. home, and after that the game lost its appeal.
Atari's headquarters were located in Sunnyvale, CA. One of the buildings had all their arcade games in it where you could play them for free all day In the late 70's early 80's. It was utter bliss for a kid and comparable to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory
Indeed! I used to take my family and friends there back when I was an employee. Prior to S'vale their headquarters was in Los Gatos at an old winery warehouse.
@@Foxtrot1967 -Very close! Winchester and Lark Ave. The building is no longer there. After Atari vacated, it housed Snook Mfg and Britton Lee/Sharebase before it was demolished.
Agree with you. I was not a gamer but used the Atari PC for word processing and wrote my own programs for statistical analysis. For some of the experimental design analysis, I would enter the data and start the program and it would take many hours to crunch the numbers. When it was done it would print out the results. I still have my collection of the various computer models starting with the 800XL.
Actually, Ray Kassar did get accused of (and got caught) selling Warner stock less than an hour before the quarterly report went public that Warners earnings were down.
It is insane that the people that started video games, are not only still alive, but young enough to still be involved in the industry. The rate of progress in video games is mindblowing, and the growth of the industry is pretty much in its own class.
I didn't even know I wanted an Atari 2600 till my dad bought one, and it started a love affair with gaming that has brought me much joy thru my life. Thanks Dad! RIP
I spent hours and hours in the early 90s on my dad's Atari STe making music with Notator (16:50) , unfortunately it required a dongle that over time got bad connectors, making the whole computer suddenly freeze. However, the Atari STe was an amazing computer and probably ahead of its time when it came to performance and GUI, and by being fanless, it was totally silent, excellent for music production.
That's cool man. I had one in '87 and if I'd realised how good it was for music prod instead of playing River Raider and Frogger I'd probably be a famous producer by now! Mind you I was only 8 so was a bit too young. It sparked my interest in computers though which lead to a successful career in IT so it's all good. Did you carry on with music production as a career?
@@Cyba_IT wow, that's cool! I was around the same age as you (around 8) when we got the Atari, I think :) Unfortunately I didn't end up in music production as a career, but as a software developer actually, but it probably wasn't initialized by the Atari, but more with my first own computer at 15 (although my fathers Atari and my brothers Apple || probably played a role) ;)
I used Notator as well, so good for midi, impossible to program glissandos though, you had to play them on the pitch modular on the synth but you couldn't just adjust it on Notator. Apart from that and of course inexistant audio recording it was a very good machine. Wasn't "Creator" a name for a midi DAW on Atari as well ? I think I used both back in the eighties
@@lordclancharlie1325 The name "Creator" sound about right. Although it had its shortcomings, I think Notator was kind of ahead of its time in many areas. And it's fun to see, even today, that some of the principles (although innovated) is found in software like FL Studio etc.
There’s some *EXTREME* plagiarism in this! ALL YOUR HISTORY ARE BELONG TO US: S03E06 - The Video Game Crash of 1983 th-cam.com/video/eTAtWAzFdGM/w-d-xo.html That video was made 10 years ago, and you’ve copied whole segments right out of it. DO NOT DELETE THIS COMMENT. I’ll be forced to expose you further. I’m embarrassed for you in all honesty.
Wow, it's crazy to think that Atari used to be the biggest name in the video game industry, but now they're basically just a brand name. It's really interesting to learn about the company's early days and how they got started with games like Pong. It's also kind of funny to hear about how their first machine broke after just a few days because so many people wanted to play it!
That was a brilliant video. Almost every record made in the late 80's to mid 90's was made using an Atari ST computer. All the dance records and most of the pop.
Yes, and also the ST was excellent for graphics production for newspapers. In the mid '80's I was part owner of a direct mail shopper and we were look into getting into computerized desk top publishing and get rid of our labor intensive and expensive Compugraphics system. Since I had a background in early computers, I first checked out Apples McIntosh. The local Apple dealer wanted $20,000 plus training and I told my partner, let me check out if Atari's new STs could do the job. I made some calls to a computer retail shop in San Jose, Ca. that I had done business with a few years earlier and he recommend the Atari ST520 and software to do the job and it was only $5000 including a laser printer, plus I could learn it myself without outside training. On a Friday, a bunch of large boxes came in and I started working on setting the system up and by Saturday evening I had it up and running and started training my production department how to use it and by Tuesday's deadline, we were ready to go to the printers. Very easy to use and the price was awesome. Compared to the overpriced MacIntosh, the Atari had larger video monitor screens and were in color. It also had multiprocessors making it much faster. As a side note, last week my 14 year old granddaughter came over wearing a brand new sweatshirt with a color correct Atari logo emblazoned on the front. I couldn't believe it...brought back some great memories!
Great and informative video! Had 800XL for about five years as my first computer in teen age. It even got famous "Q-meg" expansion, yes, a 320kB of RAM in total, in software switchable 64kB banks (i think same concept was in Atari 130XE which has 128kB). It was awesome. Lot of graphical stuff could be done simply via Atari Basic. That's where my road to computer graphics career begun (followed with Amiga :)). When speaking about Amiga (my heart jumped by joy wen you mentioned it in video :)) - do you think that you could make similar video on rise and fall of Amiga (and Commodore itself)? Or simply about Commodore company rise and fall (followed by few other vultures trying to squeeze - unsuccesfully, more or less - as much as possible juice from Amiga after Commodore fell)? That would be nice. Thank you for considering it and thank you for this nice video!
My cousin was the first person I knew who had an Atari. Every time my family went to visit, my brother and I wanted to play Atari. But my cousin was bored of it. So I saved up money with plans of buying my own Atari...but instead bought a Radio Shack color computer console...TI-80 I think it was called? For a young kid, it was a pretty forward looking purchase. It had games, but what attracted me more was the programming capabilities. Taught myself Basic and wrote some rather sophisticated programs. Ended up studying pure sciences at University, but the knowledge and interest I gained from that Radio Shack computer has been invaluable.
Fascinating! I didn't know about the involvement of Jobs, Woz, and Gates with Atari. Please make another version of this, focusing on the computers instead of the consoles.
The name comes from the Japanese term atari, used while playing the ancient Japanese board game Go. The word ataru means “to hit a target” in Japanese and is associated with good fortune, while atari means “about to win” (like checkmate in chess).
To clear up matters, Go is a Chinese game but called Weichi or Weiqi there. It's best known in its Japanese counterpart as Go. The word "Atari" is clearly Japanese, but the Chinese equivalent is "Ta chi'ih" but in the West we go by the Japanese terms as it was Japan that brought the game to the West. The game is also played in Korea.
I grew up with the Atari and it was so much fun but then I got a commodore computer and it blew my mind to learn code and dial into bbs boards. I saved up and bought a 1200/2400 baud modem. I miss ASCII Art!
There’s some *EXTREME* plagiarism in this! ALL YOUR HISTORY ARE BELONG TO US: S03E06 - The Video Game Crash of 1983 th-cam.com/video/eTAtWAzFdGM/w-d-xo.html That video was made 10 years ago, and you’ve copied whole segments right out of it. DO NOT DELETE THIS COMMENT. I’ll be forced to expose you further. I’m embarrassed for you in all honesty.
The Atari 400 (shown as the "Video Computer System", or 2600), was actually my first computer. For the money, in 1981, it simply couldn't be beat. That said, the flat membrane keyboard was horrific.
Loved Atari as a kid! We played that all the time. I was in elementary school. The pac man cartridge debut was like the cabbage patch kids craze @the time. #80s
You barely mentioned the Atari 8 bit computer line, these kept atari afloat for over a decade and while not very popular in the US, found reasonable success in Europe and UK. The multitude of models is itself worthy of a video. Also nothing about Jack T and his take over leading to the ST and almost the Amiga becoming an Atari product!
Atari (65XE) was my first computer and it sparked my love for tech, leading to me doing what I'm doing now. Thanks for this video man, brings back so many memories! ❤️
sounds like monster cable they invented the field in some ways. they went into nothingless but once controlled 99% of sales of video and speaker cables.
Whoa Activison heh !! Now I understand clearly how they manage their sales and products such a Call Of Duty !!!, amazing video as always man !, I had an Atari when little :) good memories 👍🏼
All the programmers who had left Atari to found Activision had left by the mid-eighties and the the company was hit hard by the video game crash. By 1988 it had changed its named to Mediagenic and was branching into business software. I would say that the Activision that we know today started in 1991 when the company was sold on and the name changed back.
I never knew that they invented a game in the early 60’s. It’s pretty crazy that the employees who designed and programmed the games were never paid any kind of commission. When Nintendo came out nobody cared Atari as it was but then REALLY nobody gave a crap.
I was 15 when Pong came out and I remember that our family couldn't afford one so I had to play at a friends house. It was fantastic and he became my best friend in the world ... until my parents go the 4 of us kids 1 for Christmas (that was the gift for all 4 of us ... nothing else). Those were great times. I remember when I was 19 / 20 going to arcades on Granville St in downtown Vancouver and spending about $20 (the equivalent of 4 hours work back then) and doing so in about 2 hours. I had discovered nirvana!! I miss those days.
@@EchoRhythmMusic You're not wrong about the arcade games, but kind of pulling a captain obvious here- it would be at least another decade (arguably longer) before console could compete with free standing arcade games In fact, until the era where the PC was common place and geared towards gaming (mid 90s/early 2000) where I remember be able to get that quality in youe home. As far as where that contest would be today, it's hard to say, since the arcades have all gone belly up.
Thanks for the video! By the way, that's not the Atari Video Computer System at 04:11. It's the Atari 800 computer. Also, the Atari VCS used a MOS 6507, not a 6502. The video recording made of Pac-Man at 13:36 makes the game look far worse than it did--you might want to replace it with a video made with real Atari hardware. Also, the so-called "rumor" of the New Mexico dump was never a rumor. It was fact, and the municipality told anyone who would ask that yes, Pac-Man and E.T. cartridges are buried here.
I remember feeling stupid as a kid that I could not understand what the hell was going on in the ET game. Glad to find out it wasn't me after all. #childhoodsaved
A lot of inaccuracies: the home computer was only an idea when Nolan left, Magnavox Odyssey was NOT a competitor to VCS having been introduced in 1972. I hate when “history” is inaccurate with actual events.
There's a major correction that needs to be done and said. Nolan Bushnell took control of Atari AFTER he bought Ted Dabney out THEN sold the company to Warner. It was a backroom deal between Nolan amd Warner to oust Ted. Ted Dabney wrote the programming, Nolan was the Salesman of Atari. I dated Ted Dabney's daughter for a number of years in the 80s. I heard the entire story from him when we would have Sunday Dinners and Game night at his home.
Great job on the video! I love vintage gaming stories...reminds me of the good times...the before times...before the world went Mad Max on us...haha. For the record, I love Pac-man on the 2600! I had never played it at the Arcade, so, I saw nothing wrong with the home version when Dad brought it home all those years ago. In fact, I didn't care much for the Arcade version once I finally got to play it. It's all about perspective, I guess...
![Intel - From Inventors of the CPU to Laughing Stock [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JH2nXMv6yZI/mqdefault.jpg)
I first worked for Atari back in 1976 as a security guard. On my first day I asked to summon Steve Jobs to the Lobby. It was his last day at work and he had an entourage of people waiting for him. I was told weeks later that Steve was co-owner of a new computer start-up called Apple. Fast forward a couple years later I went back to work with Atari as a material handler/assembler in a warehouse. Part of my training was learning to drive a fork lift, they had me practice running over circuit boards, hence destroying $millions of old inventory. I remember going to Busnell's going away party which was held at his Pizza Time theatre at the now defunct Towne and Country village in San Jose CA (Now Santana row). Wow, the memories!
I'll bet you saw a lot of interesting things. I heard it was like a never-ending party.
@@JsRetroVideoGames They liked to party. I remember when the managers went to an offsite meeting, the supervisors and dopers were snorting coke in the shipping area during lunch. I tried to be friendly with everyone, but many of the people in the warehouse and manufacturing area were downright low-life scum losers.
I worked at Atari Research under Dr. Alan Kay. I had my own department, My own lab. Following that, I was hired by Nolan Bushnell and worked with his company Axlon. My field is Robotics and A.I... The years I worked at these great companies were formative. The people I worked with were fantastic... I am still creating Robots and A.I. stuff ... will do it forever. Thank You, Nolan. Thank you kindly!
Respect!!
I worked at Atari, but for Steve Mayer in nyc. Alan Kay was cool. The inventor of object oriented programming. Several facts presented are wrong from my memory,. 400 before 2600? Warner purchased Atari before 2600 came out?
@@dondixon4206 that was a fake cold fusion bot r u that much of an idiot
@@probecteus3048 Thank you but No need to insult. Peace.
@@dondixon4206 sorry for getting angry
When I was a kid, I got an Atari 2600 for Xmas 1978. Got about 25 games and finally quit playing around 1986. My first roommate introduced me to Nintendo in ‘92 and I played it so much that he gave it to me. From there I bought a Sega Genesis and played every sports game until I got sick of them. Bought a house in ‘98 and mothballed everything. Then I witnessed a demo of the Xbox in 2001. I became mesmerized and had to have one. Now in my mid-50’s I still play Xbox One today. Oh by the way, I didn’t get a PC until 2000!
My story is just about the same, except By 1996 I had my Sega for 3 years & was staying up until 3 - 4 AM playing Desert strike, Jungle strike & other games.
I saw the Xbox & play station & saw how corny & lame the ideas were like GTA. played some CDRom Games in early 2000's But todays games / most have No meaning.
they take up too much time.
Nintendo did it way better, only releasing good titles !
in 1986, Atari was still crap ! Shitty titles killed them !
@@kurtlamprecht93 i was born in 1970 so that would be generation X, & Yes GTA & most modern games just plain SUCK.
@@kurtlamprecht93 I am ashamed of being a part of your generation that is gen z , worst generation ever
@@MetalHeart8787 I'm very sure you would find incredible games that suit your interests if you would get out if that mindset. The modern gaming landscape is far more varied than anything that happened from 1970 to 1995. The thought of some sacrilegious bygone era of gaming is just limiting your own possibilities. If you don't like GTA specifically, that's understandable, but you might want to have a look at modern indie games and see what they have to offer. Please don't just state that something sucks, based just on your tunnel vision
As I child growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, we could never afford an Atari. I remember we had one friend who had one and we would all go to his house to play. We would also all chip in to buy new games. Those were the days. Thanks for the memories.
I worked in the summer as a child labor .Digging up potatoes for a farmer to buy one the 2600. Fun times
fun times when 20 kids in one house took turns playing pitfall!
@@xdsmastermia I was hooked on pitfall.
THIS VIDEO IS AWFUL.......... MAKES NO MENTION OF THE INCREDIBLE ATARI 800 MACHINE AND GRAPHICS INCLUDING IT WORLD CLASS VERSION OF PAC MAN done in 4X3 for the TV.... The unfortunate event for people was purchasing the 2600 but not waiting for the amazing graphics accorded by the 400/800 cartridges, rendering arcade machine replicas of Centipede, Pac Man, Galaxia, Galaga etc. In Pac Man, i once made it to the 40th key maze.............. no power pills after what, the 5th key? Patterns didn't work on this version: you had to wing it. It was harder than the arcade. God bless the 800. What a machine that blew the doors off the Apple 2.
Same here. Enjoy
Great video, but it missed part of the story. I worked for Atari in 1981 when the 800 computer was the best one on the market. It had so much more capability than the others it was laughable. As I remember, during that year the computer section made $350 million. They worked hard to market it as a business computer but along the way made two colossal blunders. First, the CEO decided to name a new operating system after himself, the Tramiel operating system, or TOS, which he predicted would take over as the standard in the industry. Second, the major programs they created for the business side worked with only one floppy drive, which meant continuous disc swapping between the program disc and the data disc. It was unbelievable. The second year I was there the section lost $350 million. Straight up and straight down. The losses were accompanied by a remarkable flight of talent to other companies. But I remember fondly the time I spent at Atari. A remarkably talented group of people.
Great post! My first computer was an Atari 800 and while it was cool to have, it was so damn slow loading and saving programs to a cassette deck. I dreamed of having a Commodore Amiga and still remember the commercials of the bouncing balls on the Amiga that looked realistic. All the money I spent on the evolving computers back then would equal a very nice chunk of money now. Among them was a Tandy laptop with two 3.5 inch drives, then a Tandy 1000 with a 20MB hard drive.
@@marvinwindsor5896 I always thought the direct competitor to the Amiga was the Atari 1040 ST.
@@NeverRideSlowly You're right. I had an 800 and by the time I had enough money to consider an Amiga, it's capabilities had been passed by many others.
Salute!
@@NeverRideSlowly I bought a 520st in...1987... can't say I did much other than play games on it. The graphics were ehhhh...mostly D&D type. Leisure Suit Larry was my 1st "adult" putchase
This failure ultimately falls on the company executives for giving so little to the engineers to develop, test and correct a game prior to sales. 6 weeks for ONE engineer to accomplish all the stated prior to fielding? Ridiculous and money hungry execs; screw tomorrow, we want the almighty dollar now!
Its just poor leadership in general.
@@MrSupernova111 I totally agree.
Ford ran into the same issues with the Edsel: a name synonymous with failure. Ford promised a completely different car; but their planning was so bad, the Edsel had no chance.
As a kid I also thought I was an Atari fan, when in fact I was actually a Jay Miner fan instead. I went from a 2600(Miner), to many different Atari 8 bit computers(Miner) to the Atari ST(briefly) and quickly to an Amiga 500(Miner). Today, I own many Atari, Commodore, etc machines and truly celebrate them all.
GM seems to be using this tactic today. I do not know his they are still in business.
Hope you enjoyed the video, looking forward to chatting! Thanks to Morning Brew for sponsoring this video - sign up for free here cen.yt/mbcoldfusion8
Yo we all enjoy your video there good and very informative if they actually taught this in school I would actually pay attention in class.
@@macewbee Appreciate that!
First haha
Your videos feel like they are made with a lot of effort and they are really informative good luck on your TH-cam channel and your life
I will.
Insane that they gave themselves a window of 6 weeks to make the game, test it, and, manufacture it, and ship it. Absolutely insane and also straight up greed by the leadership team to meet Xmas timeline.
atari got greedy its said they never had a seal of quality for their games. then with jaguar they could have made a comeback
but again greedy and shady gaming tactics. lying to consumers about the real hardware of the jag which was a legit 64 bit
console. but jag was a 32bit and alot weaker psx and saturn. barely able to push any polys... its a pity. always admire them tho.
the are part of video game history.
@@ssppeeaarr True on this - had a potential winner on this - also the ST successor Atari Falcon could have had a future - but damaged by Atari inept and greed.
Atari even put a video game workstation inside Howard Scott Warshaw's house so he could work on the game any time he wanted at home.
Look at the gaming industry, future had repeated itself.... :/ Halo for example...
@@bls5205 Good call on this - also stale games - repeating same cars, game play, puzzles, limited play in modelled world and being charged pretty penny for it - Forza Series as example is one of charge / plus Subscription to Xbox every month to play fellow players online
The decision to put MIDI connectors on their ST series was a golden idea. Every musician I know had an Atari with Steinberg's Cubase running on it. The first music composer/editor software in the world and a game changer for music composers and musicians all over the world.
It's mostly Americans that are clueless about the impact it had on music and Midi/hardware recording. Which is now standard. Also the Atari ST was far far more popular than the NES for gaming in the UK. The video is also wrong, the MAC wasn't even used for games or a very popular home computer in Europe. The ST blew it away in gaming use.
@@alexojideagu
Ever heard of something the average American is _not_ clueless about..?
That would be the day.
@@FrankHeuvelman haha. That's why I get triggered by American history videos in gaming and computing. There is so much they don't know or get wrong. Such as the videogame crash only being American, the huge ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari ST and Amiga 500 impact on Home computing, Music and gaming outside America. (Although the video here is Australian it falls into copying the American narrative a bit)
@@FrankHeuvelman Luckily there are British channels that talk about this, and also the Master System console's popularity outside the US and Japan over the NES. If I hear "The NES saved gaming" one more time.........
Damn right brother! It's truly amazing how uninformed so many of the computer experts here Stateside really are.
No doubt, the Amiga was a great machine, especially for games but the ST and its impact and importance in the music scene simply cannot be ignored or downplayed!
This story really shows how important company culture is to the future success of the company. I find it so ridiculous when executives think it's okay to pay the people that actually build the technology so little.
@@cattnipp Lol thanks for letting me know 8 months later
And you know what happened? The market corrected it. Those people left. No need for government or anyone else to step in and force those companies to pay more.
@@joecoolioness6399 imagine still believing in the "free" market at this stage. Tesla is the epitome of the exact opposite. I'm sure the tobacco and the asbestos industries "corrected" themselves without anyody stepping in.
@@cattnipp The crypto market is highly profitable with an expert broker just like Mrs anna. I got recommended to her and since then my financial life has been a success.
@@veronicathoms4979 right on, how do I contact Mr Anna? He sounds like exactly the kind of knowledgeable non imaginary Nigerian Prince I need to invest my spare quadrillions
from every video I have seen every company's downfall is due to these reasons
1)ego
2)not paying attention to competition
3)refusing to change
4)absolutely lazy
yet EA is still going strong, and it baffles me that Activision is one of the posterchilds of crunch culture and straight up work abusers, coming from the people that quit Atari trying to make things better.
@@javierortiz82 EA doesn’t have a very strong competitor
Lol your channel is weirdly funny
@Comics and Animation I would add on the list : 5 ) Making decision based on assumptions and expectations
And not caring for their employees’ financial well-being. And setting up ridiculous production delivery time frames. Overworking the proudest/creators and the same old sick joke... underpaying for their intellectual know how !!!
I smile when I think of how much we paid for the Atari console, around $200. I think. And each game was like $40.-50. which was a fair chunk of change in the late 70s as I recall. But the time we wasted on it...priceless;)
I laugh at people who claim that playing video games develops hand-eye coordination. Well, so does badminton, but at least you don't get fat doing it.
@@davidlafleche1142 yeah, video games are just as much a waste of time as checkers, backgammon, or chess 🤣
ABSOLUTELY. My DOB. 1967.
I AGREE
So, I'll be 48 in May. I still have my Atari 2600, several games with it. Some of the fondest memories I have, is playing hours on end with my Mom, in my bedroom... So, there's a lot to be learned from this, and I'm not going to go into it. But everything we have today, was learned many years ago. This video was special to me, it's the memories of the best time in my life before a nasty divorce, and when Mom passed away 4 years ago. Great video Dagogo!
Please bann the identity fraudster above „ColdFusion“
What were your favourites?
The most memorable ones I remember are River Raid, Popeye, Olympics, and Spiderman. I'm sure there's at least a dozen I'm forgetting.
Atari Consoles taught me about Microprocessors at age 16! I was the luckiest teenager in Sydney!
Repairing and playing them all day. Electronics Trainee nearly 40 years ago.
@@quantumphaser I know how you feel, my Mum died 10 years ago on Nov 14, and Dad joined her 5 years later, and it may sound weird to you, but I still talk to them as though they are still here with me, and can still hear their voices in my head.
@@Puzzoozoo Me too.
14:02 "Apparently, they didn't learn their lesson"
Nearly 40 years later and they still Haven't learned their lesson... nor have other companies learned from Atari's mistake.
Releasing rushed games has become a trend.
da money is more important bro
I noticed that this line along with many of lines were from a video called All your History are Belong to Us: The Video Game Crash of 83.
you gotta get product out to be profitable. I know it sucks but most games, even the worst buggy ones, are still pretty good. And only get better with fixes. Like cars, the first ones off the line are probably not the ones to buy, wait a year and let them fix the bugs.
I wonder if things would have turned out better if they had DLC and updates back then
Yup... Look at 15:25, where they say "their competitors, were also making horrible game but selling them cheaper" shows a picture of Activision LOL
Some things never change...
After the Atari deal fell through, they made their own console, the 7800, which was set to dominate NA, but Atari got tied up in legal disputes that delayed the release from 84 to 86. At that point, Nintendo had taken over the NA market. That is an important part that was left out.
I believe Nintendo approached Atari to sell its game console. Atari said no, so Nintendo decided to market their console themselves.
Two years later came back he Sega Masters System, Turbo Graphics 16, NeoGeo, and computer games started getting a little bit better. They did not have a chance with the 7800.
For 4 or 5 years, Atari was the most influential company in entertainment for sure but even beyond. Their collapse was so quick and so profound it boggles the mind. Within 12 months they went from the biggest thing in the world to completely irrelevant.
Once they lost that case to the 3rd party developers, as the video states, “their business model was shattered.” From then on, it was curtains. Future companies would all have to solve the 3rd party developer problem, and the ones with the best solutions went the furthest
From when till when were these 12 months?
@@marcelbork92 Video game crash of 1983.
@@marcelbork92 I remember the “fire sale” on video games - $4 for games that previously cost $26 in Atari’s heyday.
Interesting thing isn't it. It happens so often too. Companies laying the foundation for others to perfect it.
Have to admit. Nolan Bushnell created a lot of childhoods and worldly happiness. First with Atari that spawn the video game industry as it is, then Chuck E. Cheese. Amazing
He led a company that would eventually make bad games, and a company that would eventually make even worse pizza.
@@aimwell8813 so we shouldn't appreciate him for doing a kickstart to the video game industry?
@@apple_m2_delight Yes. We should, that's why I said "eventually would make bad games". I'm talking about later things like games on the Jaguar. I can name multiple games on the Jaguar published by Atari that are just ripoffs.
I interviewed with him almost 10 years ago - he was working on a VR headset with Virgin. Don't know what happened with that venture but I never believed Oculus devices would be big sellers.
I just wish CeC hadn’t ruined Showbiz Pizza
I vaguely remember being incredibly disappointed the first time I laid eyes on Atari's version of PacMan, it was almost criminal. It was like when you ask your Mom to take you to your favorite restaurant, and she says she can make that at home. You're doubtul, but wonder if you have underestimated youe mom and try to remain optimistic. Right up until what lay on the you plate in front of you was the Atari version of Pacman.
Little did most us know at the time, the console was capable of making a passable representation of the game, even if not quite as pretty. But laziness and greed ended up severely damaging their brand.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Weirdly enough, this is my favourite version of it. I have a like of flops.
When I was a kid, I really wanted an Atari. Instead, Dad bought us a computer. Best decision he ever made.
"It was an Apple III." - memoirs of Mark Jones, on how he learned how to be a computer technician.
@ᴡɪɴᴛᴇʀᴍᴜᴛᴇ _ you beat me to it lol 😂😂😂
No. That was your mom😉
Legend has it, he still uses computer today.
Same. My Dad was a Nortel engineer and knew the market and the tech. He thought Atari was a joke.
So we ended up getting a dorky Tandy Color Computer. I was the loserest kid on my block and...
I learned a ton about tech and loved that thing! Thanks Dad!
The delivery, the voice, the quality! I love this man.
The music, I've been thinking about starting a channel and I would love to have one of his songs, but can't afford it lmao.
Me too
I agree with all those points
1 Thing he could do better is to render the Videos in 4k because 1080p is kinda low quality. Otherwise the videos are always perfect
@@Dgeigerd big pockets of ur dad? Huh
When going over the causes of the crash of 1983, I cant help but feel like we will eventually see a repeat of this due to some recent trends in the modern industry.
ya but for american gamers only tho. lol. yall earned it....
xbox gotta go n sega needs to get back in hardware n reclaim its spot.
nintendo will always be there to redeem yall tho. just like back in 80s after the fall n crash.
At this point the industry deserves to crash. So much corruption and nickel and diming bullsh*t, by companies who think they're invincible. The PS5 and its elitist status is just part of the reason why.
games like "cyberpunk 2077" and "five nights at freddy's security breach" come to mind
@@ssppeeaarr Nintendo's been doing this same garbage recently. I say this as a hardcore Nintendo fan. They have a serious problem with rushing out unfinished games and then letting the sales of said game determine if they'll finish it later with "free updates".
@@FormulaFanboy nintendo is immortal man. they aint gonna anywhere. they aint in danger of falling off gaming any day or year soon.
mario and zelda will always keep them relevant and afloat. been decades long diehard fanbase for those. those games take forever to make and come out just fine. lol the seal of quality remains for more important IP's.
that said... it is very unfortunate they ignore other IP and franchises. like fzero and starfox. the most obvious and painful for this nintendo fan boy. im dying for new games from them. i think DK is also long over due for a comeback. ya sales play a huge part in things nowdays tho. for all companies.
but now with metroid getting a revival after a long hiatus and the recent remaster of prime things looking a little brighter.
Man, Atari had Steve Jobs AND Bill Gates work for them and they still failed... 🤦♂️
It's not about talent but management
@@dariusus9870 luck?
Crappy management
Proves that the myth of these “super tech geniuses” is nothing but a lie. They only got to where they are through a combination of unethical practices, privileged backgrounds, and incredible luck.
And the Nintendo NES could have been the Atari NES. Oof! Dropped balls left and right.
I don't know why anybody looks at Steve Jobs as some kind of great genius ... It was Wozniak that was the brains behind everything
Jobs was the marketing
@@merrymonarch that may be true but I am talking from the technical standpoint.
@@ronanwilding4690 Because Wozniak was the one that made Apple lol, not Jobs.
@@ronanwilding4690 He was a bitch, so yeah he did bitchy things I guess if that's your question?
Apple wouldn't exist without both of them. Wozniak was the tech wizard, Jobs was the salesman. I'd say Jobs was a genius when it comes to marketing, especially later in his career.
Wow, my first computer was an Atari ST when I was 8 in 1997. Spent many hours playing the 100's of classic games on floppy disks. Had no idea of it's Midi capabilities of course.
Also, interesting and funny how Jobs was put on solo nightshift and Gates was fired. They certainly started from (relatively) humble beginnings.
Carrier command.
I needed a computer for college. I bought an Atari ST and then used a cartridge to turn my Atari into a Mac.
I had the Atari 800XL
@@Arnsteel634 my first was a grandstand console.
The programmer referred to at 12:40 works for me today. He's a great human being and is solving really hard problems for our company. Over the years we've had a lot of discussions about this experience at Atari, and the fallout... sounds like it was a wild time. He went on to work on many other games that were well loved and not so notorious.
If this is true, tell us more about this
@@ashthegeek7400 what would you like to know? Here's his Wiki article. He likes to attend the annual Portland Retro Gaming Convention. It's been canceled this year but he says he'll go next year if they have it. I've threatened to tag along with him next time. He often participates in panel discussions there and is available to meet.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tod_Frye
Todd? He still wear his pac-man tshirt everyday? :)
@@darrenporter1850 lol, with WFH and Zoom I consider myself lucky if he's wearing a shirt at all. :)
Had lunch with him last week... our first time out in a year.
@@rickmellor I used to work with him too, same company but in different projects. I worked on same team as the ET guy.
I can't believe he became the guy who founded Chuck E Cheese, that's truly a fun fact XD
Yeap he did - th-cam.com/video/ZcVvlVV5dkU/w-d-xo.html
He ran an arcade in his youth (pinball, skeeball), so why not the same with food.
I've once taught of investing in Bitcoin but was always discouraged by my friends
@@jerrymark9588 You're on a safer side trading with him I met him at a conference meeting in Texas
@@jerrymark9588 Am not here to converse for him but to testify just for what am sure of, he's a genuine and best option ever seen
Nolan, the creator of Atari, is a family friend.
He always said his biggest mistake in life was not listening to one of his first employees’ ideas for a computer. That employee was named Steve Jobs.
Sure
"I'll take things that never happened for $500 dollars, Alex."
@@Some_One_One Google it :)
That's pretty cool. What's Nolan like?
@@themoocow7718 Cool guy. Sees the world a little differently than most of us. Kind of an intellectual hippy who enjoys Burning Man. One of his many children is a very good friend of mine, we went to the Philippines together a few years back.
Atari was such a juggernaut back in the day, but as stated, it was mostly marketing. To this day the Atari font still stirs fond memories. The box design and the artwork on them was far far better than the actual games.
I still have my original 2800 and about 50 CIB games from my childhood.
I'm about to order some TH-cam channel merch for the first time ever. How else are strangers going to know what a nerd I am unless I let it be know across my chest with an awesome 8-bit graphic.
Growing up as pastor’s kids, we didn’t have a tv in our house until the mid 80’s; but even then, it was only for movie rentals. We wanted game consoles like our friends had, but my dad refused to buy any. Instead he bought a Commodore 64. One of my mom’s brothers was a computer programmer and gamer, so he would make copies of games on floppies and mail them to us. Then my older brother and I figured out how we could make really simple games and we had so much fun coming up with stupid title names. The one that eventually got us in trouble was “The Adventures of Pudwacker”. It was literally just a slalom/downhill ski game where the pointer had to go through flags like a skier. We made some really crazy runs.
What got us busted was an idiot friend who started calling everyone a pudwacker. My dad had no idea what he was saying until the kid started making jerk off motions when he called someone the name. We ended up losing all rights to playing on the C-64 for almost 6 months. By the time we were good to play on it again, my brother and I had secretly bought a Nintendo at a garage sale and would hook it up to the tv when our parents weren’t home. As far as the friend, no one in the neighborhood played with him anymore.
What a great story, I remember buying an Atari 2600 at a garage sale, a few years ago, with a box full of games & accessories for $5, the guy then gave me another box full of other consoles & games for free as he thought he had over charged me. My brother who is big in computers joked about what a pile of junk it was, that new years he turned up at my place with some of his computer mates & they hooked it up to my modern system, I have never seen a bunch of 30 year old tech heads have so much fun, we did that on & off for years, pretty sure I still have it all too.
@@bjw4859 These kind of stories are so fun to read and hear about. Makes me happy to know there are so many of us out there who can relate in some way or another.
Never had an Atari, but it's nice to know about its history
@ColdFusion lol nice try
Same
bruh how are u everywhere over youtube?
Same
Huh. Quite the curious sight to see you again.
I remember with fond memories when I got my first console back in 81. Love space invader, thinking how far technology has come to have arcade graphics in your home .
A whole video about Atari without mentioning the 800XL in the 8 bit category. In my country it was a HUGE success, also with their cartridges, not just games, one of them was Basic, which is where I started to programme as a kid! And the games were pretty nice, ET, PacMan, Space Invaders, etc. This was a niche they could have grown in, made decent competition to Commodore 64, a lot better than TI-99 of Sinclair Spectrum, and the Apple II were another category so no competition there. Then came IBM with the concept we have until today, separate keyboard and all, Atari said it would NOT WORK (!), very short sighted, then it was too late for them there as well. Introduced the floppy disk too late too... so yes, their stupidity was their downfall.
That's what I think too. Video skipped Atari 800XL, 65XE and 130XE... I don't know much about their story in the Atari brand.
You need a Part 2 of this Atari series. So much is missing from the Atari later years. The history of Jack Tramiel and his contribution to Atari after leaving Commodore, the Atari Falcon and Atari Lynx.
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YES! There really should be a part 2!
I had several Ataris, my first being a 520ST in 1990, last was the tt030. Amazing change when I finally bought a SCSI hard disk. I spent most of my time using programs. My motto was "if it needs a joystick, I won't play it". Also "If I HAVE to read the handbook, it's not worth learning it". I used the CALAMUS desktop publishing program and have been doing graphics/websites ever since.
They legit named it "Atari Falcon" ? I was just thinking that if Atari Hadn't gone bust in the Videogame game, We'd be playing Atari Puma 6 and Atari Falcon Portable.......
Activision was the greatest game company in pre-nintendo days. I used to love playing dolphin, River raid, keystone capers, pitfall, just to name a few and whatever I purchased on Activision was a load of fun! Atari games? sure.
weren't that great but it was just something nice to add to the collection and I love those days!
Now they're ruining a game by making billions out of it without caring of its community. Yes, Activision in its current state.
@@zsideswapper6718 Microsoft has entered the chat.. :p
Wow, this video brought back so many memories as a child. I remember how much I hated the ET game (friends had it). I also remember after games were so expensive initially, being at a pharmacy and my mom buying all kinds of knock off Atari cartridges at liquidation prices. At the time, in grade school, i didn't understand other than we just got a lot of cheap games. Now I understand the mechanics of how this happened. It was most likely 1983~4.
Man, I remember playing the Atari 2600 when I was 5 years old back in 1986 and it was something out of this world. 😭
This brings back some amazing memories. Looking back now, it seems a bit laughable, but in 1980, this was groundbreaking and hugely exciting.
I still have fond memories of discovering "Created by Warren Robinett." We played the 2600 constantly. Then by 1984 or so friends got Intellivision and Colecovision and my 2600 sat. Such fond memories though. Same with going to the arcade on spring break and spending the day there. Very addicting in that atmosphere of burnouts and smoke.
Had a vastly underrated Odyssey,2
I had a 2600 when i was a kid. But my main Atari was an STE with 2mb Ram upgrade and Cubase 2.0 with TV screen emulator. I used it in the mid to late 90s to produce a music album for part of my college course in AV Design & Music Production. I had a Yamaha TG300 connected to it and a MIDI Keyboard. I got a song on the September 1997 Future Music Magazine cover CD called "Plexi" (my stage name was "A Slight Return".
It’s ironic that a lot of these guys who started these computer companies dropped out of college, but would now never hire anyone who did the same.
16:44 - "video games struggled on in PCs"... LOL. The Commodore Vic 20 and C64 absolutely F***ING DOMINATED!
I still remember seeing my first Atari 2600 console at a Sears & Roebuck store. It was setup as a demo, and my folks had to drag me out of the store each time they went.
Yep they had their store name branded on a 2600. Me and my bro got one in 79’ I think. As memory remains.. I think it was 179.99 or 169.99
I bought my first computer, an Atari 400 with 16K ram. That's back when 400's only came in 8K. I bought the store demo.
I like these stories where people break off from a disrespectful parent company and found eventually more successful companies. Like Activision here, or all the Fairchild offshoots.
Activison is worst then atari
Too bad Activision became the very thing they ran from.
@@spinyslasher6586 here's hoping another company starts from pissed people leaving activision lol
@@spinyslasher6586 Hopefully, the same thing happens to them.
@@spinyslasher6586 And ironically, they are now owned by the very thing that Bill helped to build.
Its amazing that companies like Atari and Commodore went bust while much smaller companies like Amstrad walked away with millions
It is, but when you look at Atari and Amiga they both released numerous failures and had poor vision, and they also made a lot of revenue along the way making some people rich. Atari failures are the 5200, 7800, XEGS, Lynx, Jaguar, Portfolio, and others. Commodores failures are the Amiga 600, 1200, CDTV, and the CD32, along with not released but developed LCD, 65, and 900.
I personally think Commodore failed in not getting MOS to compete with Motorola and use their own chip tech, and Atari failed by trying to release cheap tech without support of third parties help.
Amstrad went simple and safe, and ended up making set top boxes which were rebranded.
@@AFourEyedGeek Fidn't know the Amiga 1200 flopped? Was best machine ever made at the time. I used it for Octamed creating music with its superlative sound card.
@@AFourEyedGeek I definitely agree that commodre should have done something to make MOS more competitive with Morortola's semiconductor fabs , they could have made their own version of the 65816 but I understand why they didn't want to use that when the 68000 was faster.
As for Atari I think Jack Tramiel made a mistake in only buying the computer and video game console division, the arcade division made all the games and made some great games as a 3rd party developer. Also since commodre and Atari computers were both popular as games machines they should have made their own 1st party games which Atari did before the 1984 split and commodre only did 2 times with games like jack attack and international soccer.
@@cryptocsguy9282 I like all of what you said.
Hindsight makes things seem easy but I'm not sure how Jack thought they'd be successful without investment into technology or games while also making 3rd party companies life hard. He was promoting during Atari Jaguar that the lack of 3rd party support will lead to higher profits on each game sold. Just what potential buyers want to read.
I look at Irving Gould, Mehdi Ali, Jack Tramiel, Alan Sugar and wonder what goes through their minds. Amstrad released the GX4000 and Commodore released the C64GS in 1990, 8-bit consoles based on their old computer tech that wasn't even cutting edge at their release to compete with Mega-drive, Super Nintendo, Master System, and NES. Atari had nothing to compete with Sega or Nintendo around this time except the unwanted 7800 or XEGS. The computer sides also had similar mentality approach, with Amstrad re-releasing the 464 in a Plus format, with Commodore doing the 600 in 1992, and Atari not doing much of worth by cancelling computers to go all on on the Atari Jaguar.
@@AFourEyedGeek Yep I think the C64GS & GX4000 as 8bit machine in 1990 would have only made sense 🤔 as handheld consoles like the gamboy & gamegear (repackaged master system basically) .
Atari made such a strange decision to cancel the Atari panther which was supposed to be their 4th generation video game system to compete with the megadrive & SNES & then just drop the Jaguar after the failure of the 7800 & XEGS. They also didn't do enough to encourage game developers on the ST to move over to the Jaguar & killed of the falcon too quickly.
As for the Amiga A600 it's existance in 1992 probably wasn't necessary & the iffy compatability with A500 software because of updated OS that didn't agree with some software designed for older versions of the OS & lack of numerpad was dumb.
Seems like Jobs took advantage of Wozniak in lots of ways.
U are so right about that. He cheated him and took credit for Woz and other organizations' accomplishments like Xerox's Park facility.
Jobs' plant in China had 14 slaves literally hurl themselves off the roof of the building, committing suicide. Jobs response was to put up a net around the building.
@Brent Nuckolls Guess what trump and his daughter ivanka do have sweat shops in china. She has her shoes made theer and he has his ties made over there.
@Brent Nuckolls imagine comparing piece of trash Donald trump to Steve Jobs
@@NeverTalkToCops1
Hahahaha. Good idea 💡 You're not leaving early today.
Music ID at 13:00 - Leon Vynehall - Midnight On A Rainbow
Thank you!!!!!
@17:10 what is the music ID for this track? Any help please, thanks.
@@thevan3293 Search boda junglist on TH-cam. The track is Old School Jungle. (I can't stop playing it) 😀
@@ladycheyne5607 Great, thanks for your help.
@@thevan3293 You're welcome 😊
Loved Atari, intellivision, Nintendo...good times as an 80’s kid. I wish some days I could go back to those simpler times and simpler humans. The world got way more complicated the smarter it got!
Really high quality production value on this doc. I like it, especially hearing from Nolan himself during it. Might wanna stick around to watch more of this channel in case another topic I like got covered.
"Let's make a piece of shit game really quickly!" --Sounds like a great plan, great job
If you've played _Enter the Matrix_ or _Driver 3_ you know they never really dropped that habit.
Now its "Let's make a piece of shit game really quickly and then sell DLCs to fix it!"
I mean, they never learned their lesson to this day. CP2077 is the proof of that.
Todd Howard in the development of Fallout 76
Thank you Nintendo for keeping video games alive. Looking back at the games on Atari 2600, the NES/Famicom was leaps and bounds ahead, in every aspect.
Nintendo brought video games back to life - after they died.
“Now you’re playing with power!”
And SEGA’s Master System was better than the NES…. But it didn’t sell anywhere near as many units…
@@TheYorkMan Haha - back in the late 80’s I wanted my parents to get me a Sega Master System so I could play Choplifter. For some reason I always preferred Sega over Nintendo. I always thought the Mario Brothers games were goofy and dorky, whereas Sega seemed to be “serious”. My father later spoiled me with a Sega Genesis for Christmas 1990.
The NES came years later after the Atari 2600. You might as well argue that a Honda today is "leaps and bounds" ahead of the Ford Model T you clown.
@@MrSupernova111 I'm not the clown here. The Nintendo Famicom (which internally is the same as the NES) released in Japan the exact same year as the Atari crash of 1983. Not years later. 🙄
Steve paying his friend 375$ while he got 5000$: Stonks
Well yeah that was Steve Jobs, marketing to the extreme
The man, the legend, the asshole
He wouldn't even have 375$ if it wasn't for Steve in the first place.
@@link375 😑😂😅
@@link375 Ahahahahha and that's how Apple became a trillion dollar company. Jobs was criticised for introducing the iPhone because it was expensive if I'm correct
I still haven't beaten E.T. since back in the 80s and I feel like somebody owes me money.
I beat it by accident a month after I got it. You have to build the phone by getting the parts. Pretty sure you know this already. Anyway, I was shocked that I sent E.T. home, and after that the game lost its appeal.
Atari's headquarters were located in Sunnyvale, CA. One of the buildings had all their arcade games in it where you could play them for free all day In the late 70's early 80's. It was utter bliss for a kid and comparable to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory
Indeed! I used to take my family and friends there back when I was an employee. Prior to S'vale their headquarters was in Los Gatos at an old winery warehouse.
@@rickeymh Hi Rick. I totally forgot about their humble beginnings in Los Gatos. University Ave, down from Los Gatos Ferrari, right?
@@Foxtrot1967 -Very close! Winchester and Lark Ave. The building is no longer there. After Atari vacated, it housed Snook Mfg and Britton Lee/Sharebase before it was demolished.
Yes! Love Atari. I had the 400, 800xl and 520STFM, and now have a 130XE. Atari were awesome back in the day. Sad how it all fell apart for them.
Agree with you. I was not a gamer but used the Atari PC for word processing and wrote my own programs for statistical analysis. For some of the experimental design analysis, I would enter the data and start the program and it would take many hours to crunch the numbers. When it was done it would print out the results. I still have my collection of the various computer models starting with the 800XL.
Also had the Atari 400. That flat keyboard was awful! You had to stab the keys with your fingers!
@@tyharris9994 Yep. I used to write BASIC on my 400. I'm sure I'll get arthritis in my fingers as I get older! Lol
@@30somethingmanchild Get a hand grip , it's good for increasing bone density and strength in the fingers :)
I’m sure the Executives got out with their millions - as always lol.
Yes the guys at the top still get paid.
Actually, Ray Kassar did get accused of (and got caught) selling Warner stock less than an hour before the quarterly report went public that Warners earnings were down.
@@scottythegreat1 nothing like insider trading. The rich and elite get away with most of the time.
It is insane that the people that started video games, are not only still alive, but young enough to still be involved in the industry. The rate of progress in video games is mindblowing, and the growth of the industry is pretty much in its own class.
Yeah, I remember those days when I was a teenager spending endless days at the video arcade mastering Donkey Kong and missing school. 🤪
@Shoobbie And how did you turn out, fine man? 😀
I just love your stuff
Join the discord sever then
me too
Theres a discord server?
What is discord sever?
PAPA FLAMMY!
I didn't even know I wanted an Atari 2600 till my dad bought one, and it started a love affair with gaming that has brought me much joy thru my life. Thanks Dad! RIP
I could listen to this guys voice all day. Should do audio books :) Atari was a huge part of my childhood.
@ColdFusion fake
I still have very fond memories of my brother and I playing our 2600 as kids.
14:44 What ET? LOL
Double dragon was one of my favorite arcade games. It set the standards for punch and kick games.
I spent hours and hours in the early 90s on my dad's Atari STe making music with Notator (16:50) , unfortunately it required a dongle that over time got bad connectors, making the whole computer suddenly freeze. However, the Atari STe was an amazing computer and probably ahead of its time when it came to performance and GUI, and by being fanless, it was totally silent, excellent for music production.
That's cool man. I had one in '87 and if I'd realised how good it was for music prod instead of playing River Raider and Frogger I'd probably be a famous producer by now! Mind you I was only 8 so was a bit too young. It sparked my interest in computers though which lead to a successful career in IT so it's all good. Did you carry on with music production as a career?
@@Cyba_IT wow, that's cool! I was around the same age as you (around 8) when we got the Atari, I think :) Unfortunately I didn't end up in music production as a career, but as a software developer actually, but it probably wasn't initialized by the Atari, but more with my first own computer at 15 (although my fathers Atari and my brothers Apple || probably played a role) ;)
I used Notator as well, so good for midi, impossible to program glissandos though, you had to play them on the pitch modular on the synth but you couldn't just adjust it on Notator. Apart from that and of course inexistant audio recording it was a very good machine. Wasn't "Creator" a name for a midi DAW on Atari as well ? I think I used both back in the eighties
@@lordclancharlie1325 The name "Creator" sound about right. Although it had its shortcomings, I think Notator was kind of ahead of its time in many areas. And it's fun to see, even today, that some of the principles (although innovated) is found in software like FL Studio etc.
Hey Dagogo much love and
Positive Vibes from India.
There’s some *EXTREME* plagiarism in this! ALL YOUR HISTORY ARE BELONG TO US:
S03E06 - The Video Game Crash of 1983
th-cam.com/video/eTAtWAzFdGM/w-d-xo.html
That video was made 10 years ago, and you’ve copied whole segments right out of it.
DO NOT DELETE THIS COMMENT. I’ll be forced to expose you further.
I’m embarrassed for you in all honesty.
Wow, it's crazy to think that Atari used to be the biggest name in the video game industry, but now they're basically just a brand name. It's really interesting to learn about the company's early days and how they got started with games like Pong. It's also kind of funny to hear about how their first machine broke after just a few days because so many people wanted to play it!
So sad! “Atari” is still the best name & logo for a game company ever! 🤯🤯🤯🤡🤡🤡🌍🌍🌍
ATARI means attack (check) not check mate
@dražen g all the 80s branding was really cool!
No…. Sega is
Had a 2600 as a child and loved it. Also in my twenties I had the 1040 ST for music creation, really fun times as well 🙂
An excellent video, as always. Cold Fusion has the highest quality documentaries. Thank you for all your hard work, Dagogo.
That was a brilliant video. Almost every record made in the late 80's to mid 90's was made using an Atari ST computer. All the dance records and most of the pop.
Yes, and also the ST was excellent for graphics production for newspapers. In the mid '80's I was part owner of a direct mail shopper and we were look into getting into computerized desk top publishing and get rid of our labor intensive and expensive Compugraphics system. Since I had a background in early computers, I first checked out Apples McIntosh. The local Apple dealer wanted $20,000 plus training and I told my partner, let me check out if Atari's new STs could do the job. I made some calls to a computer retail shop in San Jose, Ca. that I had done business with a few years earlier and he recommend the Atari ST520 and software to do the job and it was only $5000 including a laser printer, plus I could learn it myself without outside training. On a Friday, a bunch of large boxes came in and I started working on setting the system up and by Saturday evening I had it up and running and started training my production department how to use it and by Tuesday's deadline, we were ready to go to the printers. Very easy to use and the price was awesome. Compared to the overpriced MacIntosh, the Atari had larger video monitor screens and were in color. It also had multiprocessors making it much faster. As a side note, last week my 14 year old granddaughter came over wearing a brand new sweatshirt with a color correct Atari logo emblazoned on the front. I couldn't believe it...brought back some great memories!
E.T was the only game I convinced my Mom to return. It was $54.99 back in '82 and I felt terrible even as a kid about the high price.
That's really a lot of money back then. And the cartridges ended up in the ground.
Today that is like $161.69 for 1 game!!!
Great and informative video! Had 800XL for about five years as my first computer in teen age. It even got famous "Q-meg" expansion, yes, a 320kB of RAM in total, in software switchable 64kB banks (i think same concept was in Atari 130XE which has 128kB). It was awesome. Lot of graphical stuff could be done simply via Atari Basic. That's where my road to computer graphics career begun (followed with Amiga :)). When speaking about Amiga (my heart jumped by joy wen you mentioned it in video :)) - do you think that you could make similar video on rise and fall of Amiga (and Commodore itself)? Or simply about Commodore company rise and fall (followed by few other vultures trying to squeeze - unsuccesfully, more or less - as much as possible juice from Amiga after Commodore fell)? That would be nice. Thank you for considering it and thank you for this nice video!
My cousin was the first person I knew who had an Atari. Every time my family went to visit, my brother and I wanted to play Atari. But my cousin was bored of it. So I saved up money with plans of buying my own Atari...but instead bought a Radio Shack color computer console...TI-80 I think it was called? For a young kid, it was a pretty forward looking purchase. It had games, but what attracted me more was the programming capabilities. Taught myself Basic and wrote some rather sophisticated programs. Ended up studying pure sciences at University, but the knowledge and interest I gained from that Radio Shack computer has been invaluable.
As usual, greed is always the downfall. Great video and great memories of my childhood.
Fascinating! I didn't know about the involvement of Jobs, Woz, and Gates with Atari.
Please make another version of this, focusing on the computers instead of the consoles.
Yeah I NEVER knew that! That was so interesting that he was involved their
The name comes from the Japanese term atari, used while playing the ancient Japanese board game Go. The word ataru means “to hit a target” in Japanese and is associated with good fortune, while atari means “about to win” (like checkmate in chess).
To clear up matters, Go is a Chinese game but called Weichi or Weiqi there. It's best known in its Japanese counterpart as Go. The word "Atari" is clearly Japanese, but the Chinese equivalent is "Ta chi'ih" but in the West we go by the Japanese terms as it was Japan that brought the game to the West. The game is also played in Korea.
@@Miler97487 Awesome Ben. A few more folks like us and we'll have the world figured out in no time.
I grew up with the Atari and it was so much fun but then I got a commodore computer and it blew my mind to learn code and dial into bbs boards. I saved up and bought a 1200/2400 baud modem. I miss ASCII Art!
you got your ataris the wrong way around in the video footage chronologically :D
Hello, you
There’s some *EXTREME* plagiarism in this! ALL YOUR HISTORY ARE BELONG TO US:
S03E06 - The Video Game Crash of 1983
th-cam.com/video/eTAtWAzFdGM/w-d-xo.html
That video was made 10 years ago, and you’ve copied whole segments right out of it.
DO NOT DELETE THIS COMMENT. I’ll be forced to expose you further.
I’m embarrassed for you in all honesty.
The Atari 400 (shown as the "Video Computer System", or 2600), was actually my first computer. For the money, in 1981, it simply couldn't be beat. That said, the flat membrane keyboard was horrific.
@@thewatcherofawesomecontent It isn't possible that they used the same sources for those segments?
@@thewatcherofawesomecontent you're actually right, many sentences or even paragraphs seem to have been copied completely. wtf
Loved Atari as a kid! We played that all the time. I was in elementary school. The pac man cartridge debut was like the cabbage patch kids craze @the time. #80s
You barely mentioned the Atari 8 bit computer line, these kept atari afloat for over a decade and while not very popular in the US, found reasonable success in Europe and UK. The multitude of models is itself worthy of a video.
Also nothing about Jack T and his take over leading to the ST and almost the Amiga becoming an Atari product!
Atari (65XE) was my first computer and it sparked my love for tech, leading to me doing what I'm doing now. Thanks for this video man, brings back so many memories! ❤️
Same here!
What are you doing now ?
@@AmanKumar-wh8tk What are you wearing now?
Ok, that was not funny. Maybe we should have stuck with computers instead of our day jobs
Wait, so the dude invented Atari _and_ Chuck E Cheese?
sounds like monster cable they invented the field in some ways. they went into nothingless but once controlled 99% of sales of video and speaker cables.
Whoa Activison heh !! Now I understand clearly how they manage their sales and products such a Call Of Duty !!!, amazing video as always man !, I had an Atari when little :) good memories 👍🏼
All the programmers who had left Atari to found Activision had left by the mid-eighties and the the company was hit hard by the video game crash. By 1988 it had changed its named to Mediagenic and was branching into business software. I would say that the Activision that we know today started in 1991 when the company was sold on and the name changed back.
I never knew that they invented a game in the early 60’s. It’s pretty crazy that the employees who designed and programmed the games were never paid any kind of commission. When Nintendo came out nobody cared Atari as it was but then REALLY nobody gave a crap.
I was 15 when Pong came out and I remember that our family couldn't afford one so I had to play at a friends house. It was fantastic and he became my best friend in the world ... until my parents go the 4 of us kids 1 for Christmas (that was the gift for all 4 of us ... nothing else). Those were great times. I remember when I was 19 / 20 going to arcades on Granville St in downtown Vancouver and spending about $20 (the equivalent of 4 hours work back then) and doing so in about 2 hours. I had discovered nirvana!! I miss those days.
The quality of content just keep increasing after each video. Thanks so much Dagogo
The exact opposite of Atari who's quality kept decreasing after each game.
you bought the ATARI t-shirt?
Even back then, as a kid. Atari was Underwhelming. The Arcade was tops on every level.
I swear I thought the same thing. The artwork on the cartridge in comparison to the game made everything worse lol
@@EchoRhythmMusic You're not wrong about the arcade games, but kind of pulling a captain obvious here- it would be at least another decade (arguably longer) before console could compete with free standing arcade games In fact, until the era where the PC was common place and geared towards gaming (mid 90s/early 2000) where I remember be able to get that quality in youe home. As far as where that contest would be today, it's hard to say, since the arcades have all gone belly up.
Thanks for the video!
By the way, that's not the Atari Video Computer System at 04:11. It's the Atari 800 computer.
Also, the Atari VCS used a MOS 6507, not a 6502.
The video recording made of Pac-Man at 13:36 makes the game look far worse than it did--you might want to replace it with a video made with real Atari hardware.
Also, the so-called "rumor" of the New Mexico dump was never a rumor. It was fact, and the municipality told anyone who would ask that yes, Pac-Man and E.T. cartridges are buried here.
I remember feeling stupid as a kid that I could not understand what the hell was going on in the ET game. Glad to find out it wasn't me after all. #childhoodsaved
When you invest you're buying a day you don't have to work.
@Ben Kent Bitcoin investment, but you will need a professional guide on that
I recently got into forex trading and im already marveling over the profits I'm making, I'm like " how the hell have i been sleeping on this
@@mbalimaka6393 Same here, I wish I knew about this Bitcoin trading earlier, brace up and get yourself some Bitcoin before it's too late
Greetings from Australia
Can I get started with 2000 aud
Learn and trade under a guide i do same and I hardly make losses in the market
In 1985 i nearly bought this - but opted for the sinclair zx-spectrum.
A lot of inaccuracies: the home computer was only an idea when Nolan left, Magnavox Odyssey was NOT a competitor to VCS having been introduced in 1972. I hate when “history” is inaccurate with actual events.
Activision started out so purely (as far as quitting and starting your own company because of being severely exploited is pure)
I started my own business after being shafted by my former employer and took many of his clients. It was great. Don't undercut anyone ever.
I am the only one having fond memories playing E.T.? I like that game.
You and GVMERS, currently my best history and stuff channel.
You need to check out a channel called Ahoy (formerly known as Xbox Ahoy).
It has also an amazing documentaries/videos revolving around gaming.
@@maverick2954 thanks m8, I'll check it out
that brings back memories
There's a major correction that needs to be done and said.
Nolan Bushnell took control of Atari AFTER he bought Ted Dabney out THEN sold the company to Warner.
It was a backroom deal between Nolan amd Warner to oust Ted.
Ted Dabney wrote the programming, Nolan was the Salesman of Atari.
I dated Ted Dabney's daughter for a number of years in the 80s.
I heard the entire story from him when we would have Sunday Dinners and Game night at his home.
when i was a kid i played the hell out of the E.T. game and actually kinda liked it lol
Great job on the video! I love vintage gaming stories...reminds me of the good times...the before times...before the world went Mad Max on us...haha. For the record, I love Pac-man on the 2600! I had never played it at the Arcade, so, I saw nothing wrong with the home version when Dad brought it home all those years ago. In fact, I didn't care much for the Arcade version once I finally got to play it. It's all about perspective, I guess...