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Atari Accuses Journalists of Making Stuff Up So They Produce Recordings of the Interview (theregister.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Legendary games company Atari has accused a Register reporter of making stuff up and acting unprofessionally following an interview earlier this year in San Francisco at the launch of its new games console, the Atari VCS. In that article, we were critical of the fact that the machine did not work, and that its chief operating officer Michael Arzt, whom we spoke to, appeared unable to answer even the most basic questions about the product. We were shown "engineering design models" that were said to be "real" yet turned out did not work, and pointed out as much.
In the article, we wrote: "What happens if we plug this into our laptop, we ask Mike. I don't know, he says. Will it work? I don't know. If we plug it into a different games machine, will it work? No. So it's custom hardware and software? I don't know about that." Presumably this is where Atari feels that the reporter "wrote what he wanted instead of what was discussed with him." Which makes this clip tough to explain -- and we'll give you a clue: your humble Reg hack is the one with the British accent... This is a clip of Atari having no idea about its own controller. The Register goes on to provide more examples of how Atari "is so full of crap..." The accusations started via the company's Facebook page, where a potential buyer of an Atari VCS posted a link to the Reg article and asked the company to explain it. The full interview between the journalist and Atari can be found here.
In the article, we wrote: "What happens if we plug this into our laptop, we ask Mike. I don't know, he says. Will it work? I don't know. If we plug it into a different games machine, will it work? No. So it's custom hardware and software? I don't know about that." Presumably this is where Atari feels that the reporter "wrote what he wanted instead of what was discussed with him." Which makes this clip tough to explain -- and we'll give you a clue: your humble Reg hack is the one with the British accent... This is a clip of Atari having no idea about its own controller. The Register goes on to provide more examples of how Atari "is so full of crap..." The accusations started via the company's Facebook page, where a potential buyer of an Atari VCS posted a link to the Reg article and asked the company to explain it. The full interview between the journalist and Atari can be found here.
Atari is wrong to have accepted an interview to talk about an unfinished product and the journalist was wrong for posting an article about said unfinished product.
#DeleteFacebook
So you're saying a company COO had no clue as to what was being developed at his own company? Color me shocked, simply shocked.
Elegy For *BSD
I am a *BSD user
and I try hard to be brave
That is a tall order
*BSD's foot is in the grave.
I tap at my toy keyboard
and whistle a happy tune
but keeping happy's so hard,
*BSD died so soon.
Each day I wake and softly sob
Nightfall finds me crying
Not only am I a zit faced slob
but *BSD is dying.
Why even continue with the interview when 3 minutes into it, it's apparent there's going to be no substantive information exchanged? Listening to the 10 clips there was painful. Hard to listen to someone who's supposed to be a COO making up shit / having to cover for lack of any product. At that point you would just save your dignity and end the interview huh?
Why? Certainly if Atari is willing to give interviews on it, the reporter not only can but should publish about it. But even if Atari hadn't, why shouldn't the reporter report?
The reporter was INVITED by Atari.
'Nuff said.
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
The Atari of today has nothing to do with the original Atari that actually made games and computers.
Atari is now nothing more than a brand name and some IP that has been passed around several times until Infogrames, a French holding company, bought the name in an attempt to capitalize on the good will and nostalgia gamers had for the original brand. What they've really done is dilute that good will even further.
Well ... actually ... we don't know, that's why we're [expletive] here.
of Events t0day,
I just don't get why this hasn't been out and on the market for over a year already. This is such a simple product. You can run an emulator on a Raspberry Pi or equivalent. Ideally you put in original joystick ports (use the Stalladaptor or something like that to make them show up on the computer as USB devices). If you really want to bring in the nostalgia crowd, build a cartridge reader that works as a USB flash reader. Outsource it all to Foxconn.
To really cash in, create a web store where you can lease any Atari cartridge game for $1/month or buy it outright for $20. Or set up a Netflix subscription model for $10/month for the full library.
Oh, and if you manufacture joysticks compatible with the original, don't be surprised at how many people buy them to use with their old equipment.
Doesn't matter who they are. They're all liars and should be shoveled into the fires of hell.
Atari now is not the "Legendary" company of days gone by.
Atari says, none of these things work, and they are just manufacturing design models.
Journo comes out and makes you believe the final product will function like them.
Hmmmm.... Smart guy.
After listening to that whole recording, it sounds to me like there is no device, and there sure as hell wasn't a device for the December launch. It sounds too much like a con, trying to pull in some foolish investors. Can't set anything in stone because then it couldn't do and be everything to everyone.
Keep in mind that this is the same company that showed "test footage" of Tempest 4000 running on their hardware only to back down when the maker of Tempest 4000 said they never ported the code, let alone even get approached about licensing. Atari backed down later saying it was just the PC version to show what could be running on it. Daily reminder that if its on Indiegogo, its a scam.
Atari is wrong to have accepted an interview to talk about an unfinished product
I know it's Slashdot but if you RTFA it states that: "Atari was extremely clear about the reason it had invited us – during the very busy Games Developer Conference – to meet up with it". I think that's one of the reasons why the Reg journalist was so annoyed with them.
This is a disaster entirely of Ataris own making. They invited a journalist from a technically-savvy website to see product that wasn't there being presented by a guy with no technical knowledge of it. Even they knew that this was going to turn out badly by the end if you listen to one of the clips.
go in with no shit to show, what did they expect except sarcasm and ridicule?
It is the newsletter that bites the hand that feeds the IT.
Been so since before y2k.
Fucking google it.
There's no such thing as 'Legendary games company Atari' anymore.
It's just various more or less scumbags buying the label, trying to cash out on nostalgia.
... never ever. Bin Laden ordered the sleeper cells to attack from his cave base in Afghanistan. He got tired of fighting Russians for America and decided to go all jihad. There you have it, opportunity, means and motive, just like a real investigative journalist. Bwahahaha.. AE911Truth org
There is enough inertia behind Atari nostalgia that there has to be some sort of a product soon, and with rise of casual gaming and streaming services they might actually find the holy trinity of mass appeal required to ship a fantastically successful platform. If not someone else will try again, eventually.
Atari are only legendary In the same way that dragons and centaurs a re.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...is not complete without at least one mention of Hitler
Atari has gone bankrupt and changed owners so many times that viewing them with any nostalgia because they bought the rights to an old companies name is silly. They are not Atari. They are business/finance/scam majors who paid to use Atari's name to fool suckers like you out of some cash by using someone else's legacy.
I am an electronic hardware designer at a very small company. We are new and have produced a two designs that were wildly successful compared to expectations. I feel for the guy. Many of you are assuming he is a marketing dude, but to me he sounds like a hardware engineer trying to give honest answers about where they are in development. They have an idea of what they want to do and they have prototypes that probably have hardware that can accomodate that. The last step in the process is the glue (firmware and hardware) that makes all the pieces talk to each other. It sounds like it's one round away of development from what you're used to seeing at trade shows. If this was a marketing guy he'd have made you feel good and shown you a bunch of fake-out conceptual stuff. This instead represents the reality of hardware development. You do your best to get to a platform that's close to a finished product, but your main goal is to give software developers something they can start working on while you iron out the final design. That's my experience. This is just a moment in time for this design, and it could be pretty close to a marketing-ready demo. It's not quite there yet, but it sounds close
The Atari guy is clearly saying that's an engineering sample, so he doesn't know if it will work with on a PC (yet) but the final version will be universal. Either that "journalist" is deliberately trying to twist what he said or he's too clueless about computing to work for a "technology news" site.
Actually, there is a a third option: both. And seeing what the Reg has turned into since Mike Magee left, my money is on option #3.
The audio shows the Atari COO not being certain of what a particular engineering board would support as far as working with other off-the-shelf hardware. This is a nothing story. First, the COO is not the CTO or the V.P. of Engineering or the system lead designer. Why would anyone expect the COO to know _anything_ about an engineering prototype?