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Atari's 30th Anniversary
Atarian writes "Atari was officially incorporated 30 years ago. While many thought Atari started the video game business, that was not correct, it was Magnavox and its Odyssey console designed by Ralph Baer that would be the first. Atari would be the company that would put videogames on the map right from the start back in 1972 with the release of PONG, its coin-op arcade machine first setup in Andy Capps Bar in California, the game was a smash hit and people begin lining up first thing in the morning at Andy Capps just to get inside and play games on this magic box with a TV inside. Atari would then release its VCS (Video Computer System aka The Atari 2600) and launch Atari from its meager $500 starter capital beginnings into a $2 billion dollars in sales monster in 1982. Atari would later fall to the wayside to be replaced by Nintendo, then Sega, and othes that followed. Atari is still around in a small way, and still keeping the name and spirit alive to this very day, 30 years later. 'Have you played Atari today?'"
The Atari logo is on the Neverwinter Nights box. Feaky eh?
Oh yeah.
Pitfall.
Word.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Why yes, yes i have... its on each Neverwinter disk, as well as the first screen you seen when you hit "play".
;)
I am not sure their offical role in the developmental process, however, but I did play Atari today!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Depends what's wrong with it. Cleaning it out usually works. Open it up and clean all the dust off all the boards and chips. We have a working 7800 here, and quite a few games. Trying to get the 2600 sticks though, they are so much better than 7800 sticks.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
If you're in Vegas August 10th or 11th, stop by and meet some of the people who made it happen: cgexpo.
can be found at Warren Robinett's Adventure here. Arguably the coolest Atari game of all time, it was one of the first games with an easter egg, and a "Zelda" type interface. Dragons, castles, goblets, and a bat, and it all fit in 4K of memory. The most telling thing about this, they paid him $22,000 a year, and they sold 1 million copies of the game, at $20 a pop.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
The Atari logo is also in Blade runner. Maybe Ridley Scott should get Lucas to go in and replace it with an sony logo.
Interestingly enough, most of the companies that were featured in the futuristic world of Blade Runner have since gone bankrupt. So many, in fact, that this observation has been dubbed The Blade Runner Curse
GMD
watch this
Reissues of arcade classics (centipede, tempest, asteroids) for my PC.
Screw the reissues. Just download MAME and you get to play the EXACT SAME game you remember as a child.
I always thought a very underrated Atari game was Warlords which was kind of a 4-person cut-throat version of Breakout. You had to defend your "castle" against a bouncing ball and use it to destroy the castles of your 3 opponents. Cool game.
GMD
watch this
Try looking at AtariAge.com. Either the site or their forums should be able to point you in the right direction on where to go.
On the Moulin Rouge DVD, Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, talks a bit about how he uses his Atari Computer to do his electronic music. He said that he uses it because it's all he knows how to use. Plus, it still works great, so why upgrade?
Atari is before woc logo. Just got the linux server running. Life is good
I believe NwN is an Atari game. Am I mistaken? Atari doesn't do so much hardware anymore, but they still have a hand in many popular games.
Another source of joysticks are Commodore 64 joysticks, which can be up to ten years younger, and IMHO many of them were much better designed and more likely to last. They can make River Raid a lot more fun, since it's far less frustrating to crash when you feel more like it was your fault, and not your input device's fault.
Commodore 64 joysticks can do diagonal, but it doesn't seem to confuse the Atari's too much.
Also an option are the original Genesis controllers. Use "B" as the fire button, and the pad as the directions. Again, Genesis can do diagonal, but that's OK.
You would be surprised that contact control spray will "fix" many old electronic parts. It has gotten me out of jams many times and I'd highly recommend it.
Hardware store usually carry it and brand doesn't really matter.
I have fixed quite a few Atari joysticks with this.
If you liked that, you should check out Solar Wolf. It's an updated Solar Fox, written in Python, with modern graphics and sound.
I've spent too many hours playing this game...