Sad news about Jack Tramiel passing away, I still own both a working C64 and C128 stored away in my attic too.
http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technology/in … y-age-83-690158
No matter where you go, there you are...
This is the 2nd great computer developer that's died in the past couple years that I know of.
I salute you, who have contributed so much to the computer world.
I wasn't a C64 user, but my condolences.
Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.
RIP for a great business man. Not going to call him a visionary or anything, but he along with a few other guys like Clive Sinclair, made computers accessible to a ton of homes. Things may have been different today if it weren't for them!
Can't say that I will miss him. He ran Atari into the ground.
wrote:Can't say that I will miss him. He ran Atari into the ground.
I don't want to get carried away into an arguement with this and I understand that you are merely pointing out your opinion, but I just wanted to reiterate that computers may not have been the same today if not for his efforts.
That said, I guess you do have a point about him sharing responsibility for the fall of Atari.
wrote:Can't say that I will miss him. He ran Atari into the ground.
In some ways I can see you point, however, do the folks that pushed out Jack from CBM have a better argument about running Commodore into the ground as well 😉
No matter where you go, there you are...
He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.
wrote:He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
He only bought Atari to use to bludgeon Commodore to death after him and his sons were ousted by the board at Commodore. He also made a lot of questionable decisions like dumping the arcade and technology divisions, releasing the 7800 2 years late, and then dropping out of the home computer market altogether and betting the future of the company on the Jaguar, which never caught on. For every product they did release, they weren't able to get many good games because other companies, mostly Nintendo, got to them all first. Keeping the arcade division would have given a steady flow of arcade ports for the computers and game systems but he was short sighted in letting it go.
wrote:wrote:He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
He only bought Atari to use to bludgeon Commodore to death after him and his sons were ousted by the board at Commodore. He also made a lot of questionable decisions like dumping the arcade and technology divisions, releasing the 7800 2 years late, and then dropping out of the home computer market altogether and betting the future of the company on the Jaguar, which never caught on. For every product they did release, they weren't able to get many good games because other companies, mostly Nintendo, got to them all first. Keeping the arcade division would have given a steady flow of arcade ports for the computers and game systems but he was short sighted in letting it go.
By the time the Jaguar was released, arcade games were starting their downhill slide, never to recover. The majority of home players wanted longer, different games that weren't available in the arcades. Arcade ports wouldn't have save the Jaguar or Atari.
wrote:wrote:wrote:He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
He only bought Atari to use to bludgeon Commodore to death after him and his sons were ousted by the board at Commodore. He also made a lot of questionable decisions like dumping the arcade and technology divisions, releasing the 7800 2 years late, and then dropping out of the home computer market altogether and betting the future of the company on the Jaguar, which never caught on. For every product they did release, they weren't able to get many good games because other companies, mostly Nintendo, got to them all first. Keeping the arcade division would have given a steady flow of arcade ports for the computers and game systems but he was short sighted in letting it go.
By the time the Jaguar was released, arcade games were starting their downhill slide, never to recover. The majority of home players wanted longer, different games that weren't available in the arcades. Arcade ports wouldn't have save the Jaguar or Atari.
At the time of the 7800 they would have helped. Look at the 7800 games library. It is mostly home computer games like you would find on the C64 because Nintendo snagged all the good games for the NES. The 2600 was also still on the market at the time as well as the 8 bit and ST computers. You really think those systems wouldn't have benefited from good arcade ports?
And yes, the Jaguar would have benefited from arcade ports. Look at games like Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and Mortal Kombat that were wildly popular on the Playstation and Saturn. I guess none of those arcade games was any good according to you, right?
you sound like the kind of person who would yell that at a funeral.
wrote:wrote:He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
He only bought Atari to use to bludgeon Commodore to death after him and his sons were ousted by the board at Commodore. He also made a lot of questionable decisions like dumping the arcade and technology divisions, releasing the 7800 2 years late, and then dropping out of the home computer market altogether and betting the future of the company on the Jaguar, which never caught on. For every product they did release, they weren't able to get many good games because other companies, mostly Nintendo, got to them all first. Keeping the arcade division would have given a steady flow of arcade ports for the computers and game systems but he was short sighted in letting it go.
Warner kept the Atari Arcade division. Jack only bought the consumer division- the arcade division was never his to shut down. Blame Warner for that, not Jack.
For better or for worse, Atari had sunk and Jack needed to do something to bring it back afloat.
If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.
wrote:wrote:wrote:He didn't really 'run it into the ground' anyway, by most accounts the company was profitable, Jack just wanted to retire and decided to wind up the business.
BigBodZod has a point, the likes of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould are much more deserving of your ire.
He only bought Atari to use to bludgeon Commodore to death after him and his sons were ousted by the board at Commodore. He also made a lot of questionable decisions like dumping the arcade and technology divisions, releasing the 7800 2 years late, and then dropping out of the home computer market altogether and betting the future of the company on the Jaguar, which never caught on. For every product they did release, they weren't able to get many good games because other companies, mostly Nintendo, got to them all first. Keeping the arcade division would have given a steady flow of arcade ports for the computers and game systems but he was short sighted in letting it go.
Warner kept the Atari Arcade division. Jack only bought the consumer division- the arcade division was never his to shut down. Blame Warner for that, not Jack.
For better or for worse, Atari had sunk and Jack needed to do something to bring it back afloat.
Warner kept it because Jack didn't want it and that's what I meant. By not buying ALL of Atari, he was being very shortsighted. The technology division, Atari Labs, was doing some pretty amazing things apart from just being their design center. Even if he ditched all the side projects they were working on, it still would have been good to have around because he wouldn't have to outsource the design of new systems like was done with the 7800 and Jaguar.
Yeah arcade games were THE shit in the 90's. Just ask Sega with their 32x and Sega Saturn!!!
