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Hi Larry,
I read your review of Atari 7800 history
(in Issue 25). Well written, just had a
few corrections via Leonard Tramiel (whom I'm currently interviewing for my
Atari historical book).
"The 7800 would've crushed every other system in
its path, but one thing held it back from gaming glory: the infamous video
game crash of 1984 [screams in the background]. Because of this, the 7800 was
put on hold. Well, let's jump ahead to 1985. The Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES) was released [in the US], and was a mega hit. Games like Super
Mario Bros. brought gaming back, and soon video games were returning to
homes. Atari, seeing the success of the NES, decided to release the 7800."
Actually, this is not the case. All projects were put on hold when
the Tramiel's took over, so they could look over what they had all
inherited, what employees they were going to have for support or expansion of
any past and present projects, etc.
The 7800 was not canned and
suddenly brought out again because of the NES. In actuallity, they were
planning on still bringing it out yet in '84. However, Jack wanted to
re-negotiate the original deal with GCC to be more in his favor pricewise.
This resulted in on again and off again talks (mostly off again according to
Leonard) with GCC until they finally reached an agreement at around the same
time the NES was being test marketed in New York during Winter
'85-'86.
"Ol' Jacky was more interested in the home computer division
of the company, and so the 7800 got little attention. Marketing was dismal,
and the games were rehashes of old arcade games."
This is not the
case either. Atari was certainly initially bought for it's manufacturing and
distribution facilities. However, the Tramiels low advertising budget and
presence has always been across the board and is more or less a family
philisophy. It had little to do with only caring about the computer
division.
Marty Atari Gaming Headquarters,
www.atarihq.com ClassicGaming.Com,
www.classicgaming.com
E-mail update Matthew writes: It
has been drawn to our attention that Mathy van Nisselroy,
the author of an article in our May 2001 issue
has changed his e-mail address. His new address
is mathy.van_nisselroy@post.rwth-aachen.de.
Please update your address books.
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