A Brief History of Atari After the 2600

It should be noted that I did not intend to go in depth on anything in this video but rather make an overview hitting the most important era's and reasons for failure after the 2600. And honestly we hit a lot on the 2600 too but it helped tell the tale of the failure of the 5200. We can hit on more area's in detail later, and sorry if the video was a little safe. But it ends on a positive note, so that's something right? Right?!
Games that appear in this video in order are:
Night Driver
Space Invaders (2600)
Centipede (7800)
Arcade Game
Missile Command (5200) via Gamestation Pro
Asteroids (7800)
Phoenix
Combat
Missile Command (2600)
Defender 2 (or Stargate)
Sprint Master
Adventure
Jungle Hunt (2600)
Jungle Hunt (5200)
Vanguard (5200)
Pac Man (2600)
Pac Man (5200)
Sea Hunt
California Games (2600)
E.T The Extra Terrestrial
Demon Attack
Kangaroo (5200)
Food Fight
Ninja Golf
Fatal Run
Solaris
Hover Strike
Cannon Fodder
Alien Vs Predator (Jaguar)
Cybermorph
Iron Soldier
Atari 50th Collection
Haunted House (2023)
Atari Mania
Tempest 2000
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The Atari Network has 3 goals (besides entertainment) that I hope embodies everything the channel does:
1. Bring awareness to Atari, especially the often ignored Tramiel and 7800 era
2. Make sure the hardworking people both new and old (from the old guard at Atari corp to the new developers keeping Atari alive) get the recognition that they deserve for their hard work
3. Preserve the history of Atari in the video game hobby so that it survives long after us
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atari7800forever.com
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#atari #atarihistory #atari2600 #atari5200 #atari7800 #atarilynx #atarijaguar #atarivcs #atari2600plus #retrogaming #videogames

[@pinebarrenpatriot8289]

The Atari Lynx was a great hand-held. With better marketing and affordability the Lynx could of been so much bigger. The graphics and games look great.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I really like the lynx. It should've been so much more than it was.

[@ViciousAlienKlown]

I still have one. @@TheAtariNetwork

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

​@@TheAtariNetworkfor Atari to kill promising Lynx titles such as Cabal, Rolling Thunder, Indicators, AVP.. To say they didn't need Mortal Kombat as they had Pitfighter To withhold the first milestone payment to John Carmack, so he killed Lynx Wolfienstien 3D... The Tramiels were simply clueless how to support a handheld console

[@captaincorleone7088]

@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 If it wasn't for the ST's popularity in the music industry due to its MIDI ports, Atari Inc would've collapsed much sooner.

[@fattomandeibu]

The issue with the Lynx was exactly the same as the Game Gear and why the monochrome, crappy screen Game Boy won. Battery life made it less than portable. Unless you were willing to spend a fortune on batteries, rechargeables were not up to the task of powering it for more than an hour or 2, it was not fit for purpose.

[@mrmojorisin8752]

Atari wasn’t “destined” to fail. It failed owing to many dumb business decisions. You hit upon one of the most important of those decisions: the failure to phase out the 2600 and push consumers full bore to the 5200 and 7800. Consider how gracefully Nintendo transitioned from the NES to the SNES to the N64. Were they “destined” to succeed? No, they simply made intelligent decisions.

[@therealjaystone2344]

When the old empire falls, another one rises

[@makaveli4205]

The 5200 had bad controllers. They broke pretty easily. Another reason it failed. It had better graphics than the 2600.

[@scooterboi8761]

I wish I had kept my 2600. My 5200's controls broke after 6 months.

[@mrmojorisin8752]

@@scooterboi8761 Mine broke after 3 weeks. Toys R Us gave me new ones, but those eventually broke, too. I guess you had to be really dedicated to the 5200 to stick with it, because even working controllers were no good for games like Pac-Man. In less than a year, alternative, third-party controllers came out, in addition to an interface that allowed you to use any 2600 compatible controller. I loved the 5200.

[@themidcentrist]

​@@mrmojorisin8752 I bought my 5200 at a garage sale a few years ago for $20. After spending another $100 to acquire a few working controllers I was able to actually play it. Still not a horrible deal I guess. This is what happens when controllers are designed by accountants rather than engineers or even just a person who has actually played a video game.

[@feralstorm]

There are so many circumstances that might have made big differences for Atari. What if they won their case against Activision and could excersise more control over the cartridge market? What if the 7800 came out when originally planned, beating Nintendo to the US market? What if Nintendo didn't put such a stranglehold on developers and retailers? What if Atari took up the offers from Nintendo or Sega to market their consoles in the west? What if the Tramiel family weren't such cartoonishly ruthless penny pinchers?

[@ViciousAlienKlown]

I got an Atari 5200 as a present the year it came out. Pacman and Star Raiders looked great but found out about those controllers the hard way. But I don't remember having trouble playing games but the controllers broke a lot.

[@michaelturner2806]

I know there wasn't enough time to include everything, and there's hours-long documentaries that still leave things out, but I feel there's something worth mentioning. The idea of interchangeable game cartridges that stored new games (and not just as a selector for built in games) was pioneered by Fairchild and their Video Entertainment System console (later renamed Channel F after Atari entered the market), by Black developer Jerry Lawson.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Absolutely and that probably should've been mentioned. Atari wasn't pioneering the idea but felt they could do it better to be sure. Thanks for pointing that out and keeping discussing and pointing out more stuff guys! You can't hurt my fragile....weak little feelings...I tried

[@Jolt7800]

What a great fresh look at a pivotal time for Atari. I remember seeing the 5200 on displays in the store, and although intrigued; I was not drawn into another console. Glad for my recent 7800 revival.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thank you very much Jolt I appreciate it. We're glad for your recent 7800 revival too.

[@Hamdad]

7800 was the good one, they shoulda stuck with that and got it out on time.

[@brianwerth3703]

I had a 2600 and then later the Lynx. I still own the Lynx. It is too bad that it did not flourish. It is a good system.

[@munroborisenko7278]

I got my nephew the Lynx back when it was new. Wasn't it the 1st. colour hand held ? It was good; sad it failed.

[@kidgrebo1]

Did you skip nintendo and sega?

[@brianwerth3703]

@@kidgrebo1 no

[@lorensims4846]

Interesting perspective. I don't think I've heard the story told quite this way before. We never had the original Atari VCS. We were still shoving quarters into the arcade games and the home units just couldn't compare. I got an Atari 800 on closeout (the only way I could afford it) after the Atari 1200XL was released. Being originally designed as the next-generation VCS (it was the basis of the 5200 game system - I can't even look at an Atari 2600 game after that), it had superior sound and graphics to any other home computer on the market. I learned everything I ever needed to know about computer science on my Atari. Oh, and the games were great, too. Most of the software assumed you had a joystick attached because that was considered easier to use than the keyboard in many circumstances. When Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, I knew that's what I wanted, but who had a spare $2400 in 1984? Later I was able to get a used Atari 520ST "Jacintosh" which got me familiar with the now-standard 'mouse and windows' graphical user interface. Atari 8K BASIC was notoriously slow which very quickly pushed me into 6502 Assembly Language. Now I was anxious to get into the Motorola 68000 in that ST. Warner had no idea about how to market home computers or video game systems. To them, it was like selling towels. They just kept shoveling out more game cartridges. The only progress I ever saw in the Atari Home Computers came in the very early days before Warner got deeply involved, or from third-party developers. "Mad" Jack Tramiel came in and cut prices right and left. My ST was much faster than my old 800 had been, but it wasn't built nearly as well, had only three sound channels instead of four, and generally felt more like a fast Commodore 64 to me. When I met a girl online who lived in California and had just bought a Mac to start desktop publishing and graphic design, I jumped and never looked back.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I tried to give information in a different way because this story has been told to death. Quality definitely took a tumble under "mad Jack" but things were infinitely more affordable. But pushing a cheap product seemed to be the goal, quality and support after the fact was never very good. Thanks for watching and sharing your story.

[@PG-gs5vb]

@@TheAtariNetwork On the other hand, even the cheaply built systems from Tramiel era do hold up pretty well 40 years later. E.g. they're much less prone to capacitor leaking than Amigas or Macs, which were much more expensive.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@PG-gs5vb very good point. My 7800 still works great!

[@lorensims4846]

@@TheAtariNetwork I'm still looking forward to getting a new Atari VCS, if only to play that 50th Anniversary Collection. Again, I'm here for the arcade games, and they look GREAT on there!

[@trip2themoon]

I loved the ST and a few years ago my mate gave me a 520 STE that belonged to his brother. It's a real shame that not many games were made using the STE's enhanced chips. I've heard that the STE was as powerful as the Amiga. I even enjoyed lots of the tunes on the ST games even though they did sound a bit wobbly compared to the Amiga versions. That seemed to be an Atari thing: using old and under powered sound chips.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Sadly the STE wasn't the Amiga beater the Tramiels promised, it can still only display 16 colours vs 32 on the Amiga, only it now has 4096 to choose from vs 512 of the original ST. It's Blitter is weaker than the Amigas. Still has a slightly faster CPU mind. It arrived far too late for developers to really use it's features, ST market was already long into rapid and steady decline.

[@cryptocoffee13]

I was so disappointed with the 5200. Never had the trackball either.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Yeah it has to of been disappointing to anybody already owning or familiar with the 8 bits. But I'm sure it was great for other people. We sometimes forget that life was very different in the early 80s and gaming is a relatively new industry and hobby.

[@socrates0603]

For this kid who grew up poor, I wanted the VCS so much and was thrilled when my dad bought one for me. However, the VCS didn’t grip me as I thought it would. Even though I didn’t have many quarters and spent the majority of time watching other people play, I was a big fan of the coin-op games in the neighborhood arcades. The home versions on the 2600 were very disappointing to me-Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Defender. I still remember drooling over the TV whenever ColecoVision ads showing Donkey Kong played and as a kid kind of resenting the VCS. Did I buy the wrong console? The biggest personal legacy of the VCS for me is that it introduced me to the Atari brand and kept me loyal to Atari through the 80s. After drooling (I seem to have done this a lot as a kid) over Commodore PET computers in middle school during sixth grade, I fell in love with computers and programming. In seventh grade, my parents were willing to buy me a computer, and I chose the Atari 800 despite all my friends going with the C64 or Vic-20. Later, that led to getting the ST, and decades later, I started reconnecting with all things Atari. And it all started with the venerable Atari VCS. I like a lot of things that the current Atari company is doing. I bought the VCS last year. With you talking up the 2600+ so much, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t get one later this year 😂 I suppose it may be cool to play 2600 and 7800 games on the 4K TV.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Way to destroy my narrative by going against it! Lol I'm kidding of course. It is interesting that despite your less than stellar introduction to Atari, and your friends going the Commodore route, you still stayed loyal for a while. Heck through the ST computers! I'm really glad you've found your way back to Atari as so many of us have. You always have interesting views and opinions and great stories to tell. I'm excited to start covering the 400, 800 and 8 bits in general and I hope the 400 mini facilitates that in a matter that allows me to provide HD video to you all. But if not I promise I'll pick up some real hardware to cover it with!

[@Monhamd1000]

Long story short, Atari couldn't capture the Atari 2600's success afterwards.

[@kevinstrade2752]

You make some good points. Atari was a Frankenstein,impressive,capable, intimidating to competitors. But as with all Frankensteins, what makes them so awesome to behold also dooms them to. I think about Sega. Exploding with innovation and cutting edge ideas but poor direction and eventual mismanagement lead to its downfall. Atari had a similar fate. So much innovation that it just didn't know what to do. It was a new business, I think Atari expected the market to be bigger than it was. They made decisions upon an ever expanding videogame market not realizing that it had peaked for the time or was changing. Home computers began to bite out of the console market as computers were simply more capable and educational. The market reached saturation and yet Atari pushed for more than what interest held. I think of the game ET. Wasn't there more E.T. carts ordered by Atari than there were Atari 2600's to play on them? Again, Atari expecting that single game to push even more hardware when in fact everyone that wanted a 2600 by that time had one already or mostly. E.T. ' s disaster wasn't that it was a bad game, mediocre in my view, but that Atari bet the farm on it... It didn't pan out. That event by itself wasn't an Atari killer but that was one of a handful of bad decisions or unpredicted influences that eventually chipped away at the giant of Atari. Thanks for posting, I enjoy learning and discussing Atari and videogame history. I lived it buddy, I'm 51 and a collector. Been an Atari fan my whole life. Thank you for your time

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I swear some of you guys need to make videos too. Very well thought out and yes, there were more cartridges than consoles produced for some games. The argument was they expected to sell not only one unit to every owner but also have massive growth and new consumers jumping in for those games as well. Today we know about attach rates and how even the best games never sell 1 for 1 with consoles but back then I guess they just didn't have the data to make good decisions.

[@kevinstrade2752]

@@TheAtariNetwork You are doing a great job yourself and I enjoy watching your videos. I frankly don't have the time but if I were retired and needed something to do...I already love history in general and coupled with gaming, I like to see and read different perspectives. I still to am learning about new events or decisions that impacted gaming.

[@OGHUGO]

Great edioting on the video Jon.. Another great informative one here !

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thanks Hugo I appreciate it!

[@fernandoorozco3751]

As somebody who played one, the real death nel for Atari home consoles was when the 5200 released with a very sub-optimal controller that made these cool new games that were on the platform pretty much unplayable. It was something as simple as the fact that the joystick did not recenter that made playing games like Pac-Man and asteroids basically unplayable messes. My friend had one and we only played with it for a month or two before it sat in the corner and collected dust. The games really were much better than anything else that was out there the controller destroyed this console.

[@CharlieWyvill]

I think it all comes down to advertising. I barley saw any adverts for Atari growing up in the 80s / 90s in Scotland. I was into computers during that time and I had the 2600 but I never really heard much more about Atari after that. I had an ST but only because I sought it out after getting into music production. None of the later Atari consoles were on my radar, they seemed almost mythical. It was only years later I heard about the Jag and I finally got one as a gift a couple of years ago. Great video thanks

[@TheAtariNetwork]

You are 100% right that advertising played a huge part in Ataris failures. You have to be able to spread the word after all!

[@captaincorleone7088]

Nice summary that covers a tremendous amount of ground in less than 14 minutes! The Jaguar was doomed because the Tramiel's notorious treatment of developers and publishers came back to haunt them. They were seen as untrustworthy, so why bother with them when you can deal with Sega and Nintendo instead?

[@TheAtariNetwork]

There was a lot I wanted to get into especially about the lynx and Jaguar that I just couldn't for multiple reasons. But we are going to dive into that more to be sure in a future video!

[@KrunchyTheClown78]

Very good video. As a life long Atari fan, there history is a painful one to remember. But as long as Atari embraces there history, I think they stand a good chance of making a comeback. And I think right now is a great time to make one, with AAA games costing mountains of money, and bankrupting companies, and gamers gravitating to much lower budget single A, and double A games, Atari has a lot of appeal in the field with there simpler games like Qomp, and Mr. Run & Jump.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

They do seem to be finding success today and I couldn't be happier. I'm glad they are focusing on what made them great to begin with, but also doing it in a way that is appealing to fans and people in general. Good points krunchy!

[@rameybutler-hm7nx]

Great video! Informative and fun. I still wonder about the "what if" between atari and coleco. Atari could have been the distribitor for the famicom and coleco and sega almost merged . Can you imagine what the landscape of videogames would have been now? Instead of the super nes would it have been the super atari? Or the atari 8400? Would the famicom had woodgrain? Or instead of the master system it would have been the coleco2? It boggles the mind. Anyhoo great vid keep it up!🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Those are fun what ifs. Atari had a mountain of opportunities, more than their fair share really. But in the end things are what they are, but maybe a video about Atari merging the entirety of the industry until Sony arose would be an interesting what if

[@TBoneTony]

Atari 5200 was the SEGA Saturn of Atari's legacy. It burned the consumer really badly and most never returned to Atari's consoles. Also the controller may as well be a log of shitake mushroom because it wouldn't work after it broke.

[@C_Money206]

Just taking a break from my VCS and see an Atari Network video dropped! That’s perfect timing!!

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I hope you enjoyed it! It's a little different than the usual stuff I release. Well not really but regardless I hope you enjoyed it

[@C_Money206]

Yeah, was a little short but an easy to enjoy watch! Hope to see some Jag (and lynx) stuff in the future!

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@C_Money206 yeah I want to keep it brief partially so people would watch it all but also because my computer keeps crashing when I edit long videos.

[@C_Money206]

Ah yeah I remember you saying that about your computer, hope you get that sorted, glad to hear you are investing everything back in the channel!! Hope to see it pay off!

[@MercyOnASinnerLikeMe]

By the time the 7800 came around, Nintendo was already getting the SuperNES ready and Sega had clearly muscled itself into position as Nintendo's strongest competitor. Atari also seemed to get stuck on old style arcade games like Donkey Kong and Joust whilst Nintendo had begun pioneering plot driven games that could be saved and continued and also included some real replay value.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Here in the UK, a lot. Industry folk and magazines, really liked the Lynx and Jaguar hardware, they seriously doubted the Tramiel's ability to market and support the systems. Their cynicism was soon proved correct

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Atari should've focused on the UK with the Jaguar. You guys were hot for it and the US wasn't. Good points!

[@jaysonhill2000]

Disappointed that you did not mention the Hasbro Interactive era. They did several games under the Atari name. That was the era I worked for the brand.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Initially this was going to be a part one with several more to follow but I didn't want to leave it hanging and not get back to it for a long time. My plan is to do a video on every era of Atari including the Hasbro one but I'll be honest I know the least about that one. If you do have knowledge about the inner workings and would be willing to talk about it with me behind the scenes I would appreciate it.

[@jaysonhill2000]

I would be glad to. I was hired by Hasbro Interactive to do PR for The Atari brand. I have pretty much all of the console Atari games from Hasbro and a few bits of memorabilia from the company. Feel free to write me. And for the record, I never liked what Hasbro did to the fuji.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@jaysonhill2000 [e-mail] is where you can reach out to me. Shoot me an email and we'll start correspondence at your convenience.

[@fensthespook]

Did I mention in another comment I love the 2600 plus? 😅 I think it indicates the right direction for the company, that and them partnering up to release the GSP shows that they understand there are at least two different markets here. The niche nostalgia collector who will appreciate things like the 2600 + playing the original carts and then the modern gamer who expect emulation ability from these kind of systems. This and their purchase (and maintenance) of Atariage gives me hope for the future. I think in terms of the vision for the company they are smarter than they've been in a long time. The issue that I see for them is they seem to be a little out of touch in regards to price point. $400 for the VCS initially? $30 for berserk enhanced edition which is basically just an addition of three voice lines? Selling extension cables for the 2600 plus because they chose to make them extremely short? I don't think it's greed so much as it is just not reading the room. And while this will sound somewhat contradictory based upon what I just said, I do think there's room in the high-end collectibles market. How cool would a really sweet centipede sculpture be? Or some kind of sick diorama that represents a scene from Haunted House or something? That's the kind of thing I pay top dollar for! Their collector's edition cartridges are a great example of what I mean. Basically I'm saying they need to play both ends of the field. Continue to provide cheap access to their retro library, continue to promote the recharged brand in arcade bars, and also produce higher end but high quality collectibles/nostalgia items.

[@PixelsNcreatureS]

My first Game Console was the Atari 5200. I was amazed by it (i was 6 or 7) in my tiny brain I thought the system was better because it was larger 😂 but technically it was. My games looked better than all my friend's 2600 games. But the term "Dead System" wasn't really a thing back then. I didn't know it was dead already when I got it. I remember finding games on tables right when u walked in the store, cheap and lots to choose from. Those were the bargain bins 😂 junk inventory that I just didn't know at the time what it really meant. I loved that thing regardless and still have it now. With only 1 working controller left and a goofy replaceable fuse mod for the power supply

[@MercyOnASinnerLikeMe]

They didn't have to fail. It was little things. Rather, a whole stack of little things. Things like trying to compete with Nintendo using the 7800 with the sound quality of the 2600. Marketing strategies that were just out of touch, and wasting boatloads of money on licensing, rights, a large game library but a whole stockpile of largely forgettable games. I was so excited to get to play a 5200 as a kid and was utterly disapointed by it. The updated games really weren't worth the cost.

[@pierregareau6590]

They did some bad marketing and they didn't get involve enough of third partys publisher for their Lynx and Jaguar that were good product but without enough a good variety of games at launch and after

[@poil8351]

funny thing is atari seems to now be making a big comeback and actually seems to be resurrecting good classic games unlike some of the big player in the industry like ubisoft and ea games and sony who seem to be almost at risk of becoming the new ataris of the 21st century.

[@adm712]

Great video! Thanks.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Anytime

[@bildo1977]

4:19 Atari falsely claims that’s Pac-Man on Colecovision. I’m surprised that Atari didn’t get sued over that.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Maybe it technically was thanks to the VCS adapter? I'm sure coleco didn't mind people thinking they had one of the biggest games from the arcade.

[@JB-js4xi]

"they offered a lot of the same stuff just enhanced". Nintendo has always done this too but has success with it. I lived in the Atari age. Most of us that had a big 2600 library...which back then a person with a lot of games had about 25 games. Most of us werent interested in the 5200. It felt like starting over. Today i do love a few 5200 games but back THEN i had a friend with one and you know we actually got together to play games. I think it was 2000 before i picked up a 5200 with about 10 games for cheap...around 30 bucks I think. I have several original 2600s including a heavy six. I honestly play the Flashback 9 the most these days...its just easier and scan lines do NOT thrill me. LoL. I wish i could buy an Atari 2600 controller with multiple adapters that i could use on Xbox and Switch. Because i really dont enjoy many Atari games on those platforms with the respective controllers. Yuck

[@TBoneTony]

Nintendo learned how to fly with the SNES. Unfortunately the Atari Jaguar only claimed they learned how to fly but they ended up crashing and burning 64-bit style.

[@oldschoolcompsci]

awesome video. can you do a video on the Jaguar 2 that never came out?

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I could. Let me do some research and see what I can do...

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

There's not a lot to cover, software wise, Imagitec Design were approached by Atari, who wanted them to convert a handful of PlayStation titles, from Gremlin, Actua Soccer etc, but wanted Imagitec to pay for a Jaguar 2 development kit, so Imagitec didn't proceed

[@oldschoolcompsci]

thanks for looking into it. if there isn't enough material to make a video no worries!@@TheAtariNetwork

[@ecdhe]

This video is missing so many things! I feel it's spending too much time on the intro and old commercials and not enough on the actual issues that plagued Atari. Like the fact the succsesor to the 2600 was released as a computer (the Atari 400) because Ray Kassar didn't listen to Nolan Bushnell's advise to follow a blade/razor model. It was eventually released as the 5200 but way too late and incompatible with 8-bit computers (even though they shared the same custom graphic chips). Any many other issues that plagued the Jaguar were missed, as well as the fact that the Amiga 500 and the PC ended up decimating Atari's computer business.

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thanks for noticing

[@ecdhe]

@@TheAtariNetwork for having being a die-hard Atari for my whole teenhood and having studied a bit computer history, there's quite a lot I can say about Atari's ups and downs ;-)

[@TheAtariNetwork]

@@ecdhe that's what we're all about. Sharing information with one another. Everything can be expanded upon and I'm sure people love to read it!

[@ecdhe]

@@TheAtariNetwork There is probably too much to say for a comment, but just talking about the time Atari was part of Warner Communications: - If they had kept Nolan Bushnell as the CEO of Atari they may have avoided competition from the game side, as Ray Kassar is directly responsible for the creation of Activision - Likewise, Bushnell had an exclusive lock-in on the main graphic chips in the market. Once he left, Kassar cancelled all these contracts so the vendors went to Coleco and Mattel - Pac-Man and ET: It doesn't appear that Ray Kassar understood video games, likening them to toys or plushes and without understanding the creative aspect - Atari management wanted to make money both on the systems and on all the games. On the video game console side that led to higher-priced systems (Bushnell argued on a console sold at cost). On the computer side, Atari initially did *not* want third party developers to write software for their 8-bit computers. They did not disclose the system APIs and even threatened to sue developers - The Atari 400/800 were too expensive (a whole other story behind this) - The competition between divisions, which led to the Atari 5200 being *on purpose* incompatible with the 8-bit computers despite sharing most of its electronics! - Atari lost the Amiga team *twice*. First by driving them away. Later on, Atari tried to be cheap and screw the Amiga team, ending up losing it to Commodore - To Atari management's credit, they were smart enough to hire the GCC company instead of suing them into oblivion. GCC made several games for Atari and designed the 7800 - More generally, when you release a new system with beefed up hardware, it is *critical* to also release software that will showcase said hardware, whether a cool demo or an exclusive killer game. To be fair, this is easier said than done and many companies made this fatal mistake which doomed many systems

[@pixelpaisa]

I love this video

[@TheAtariNetwork]

Thanks

[@ViciousAlienKlown]

Warner ....clueless Tramiels..cheap and clueless.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Tramiel Atari unable to support 2 console launches at once, was Panther put back, whilst they launched Lynx, then killed in favour of Jaguar. Jaguar launch saw all Falcon game projects put on hold.

[@chriskutz7144]

Ahh ,Atari's lost touch with reality . Always has,always will.

[@MercyOnASinnerLikeMe]

The Jaguar was such a mishandled disaster. So much potential there for Atari and their fans but ultimately a rushed, overstuffed, over-hyped, clunky blunder that obviously showed Atari's desperate attempt at a cash-grab to stay afloat. Plus, that stupid controller.... ugh.

[@johneygd]

The best thing atari did was using nintendo’s ip’s into marketing and advertising their game consoles and use that against nintendo itself due a agreement between nintendo in the past before the famicom,if only nintendo did knew that this deal could worked against them in the long run,,,o,o,o,then they probably never would,ve accepted that deal with atari, I garantee such thing will never ever happen again, Don’t ever expect sony or microsoft making a deal with nintendo for their ip’s and then put those nintendo ip’s on their newest xbox or playstation to compete against nintendo that way,sure it would be cool if that will happen but it never will,and with that in mind i think the 80’s was a unique age in videogaming history wich no other age of time could ever match😁

[@TheAtariNetwork]

I loved seeing Mario all over the posters from the games and featured in games on the 5200 and 7800 especially! It was definitely a different time and something we'll never see again. I'm working on taking a look at some of those Nintendo games so stay tuned for that one week soon!

[@themidcentrist]

Atari did stupid things to be sure, but the home video game market was a new thing that they mostly created by themselves. They had to start out by flying by the seat of their pants and couldn't learn from the mistakes of others. They weren't destined to fail, but the odds were that they were going to blow it at some point and that somebody else would learn from their costly mistakes *cough* Nintendo *cough*.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Would kill for a Jaguar mini

[@3581richard]

Once Nintendo started to really gain momentum in the mid 80s It was all but over for Atari

[@moseslabadie]

😕 Promo*SM

[@salvadormendoza5045]

Jack tremmiel was a ruthless cold-hearted business man. so im glad he found no success and had to sell atari 😁

[@deg6788]

Cannot stand his face