Justin

Yes, all of the original Pole Position II material is Copyright 1983. I agree.

Pat & Ian have weighed in on this - basically expressing concern that Atari 2600+ is running on Stella and not an improvement from the Retron 77:

If you're about to say "Atari Corporation didn't exist in 1983, Atari, Inc. did" - that is not a "mess up". Atari Corporation aquired those IPs including ROMs for 2600 and 7800 cartridges and their associated copyrights, which then became copyright of Atari Corporation. One "mess up" you could reasonably cite is that Pole Position II was released for the Atari 7800 in 1984 (yes, Atari 7800 video game systems and software had retail availability in 1984 and should be thought of in my opinion as 1984 technology) however it reflects a 1983 copyright. This could be because work commenced on Pole Position II for the 7800 in 1983, or more likely it could be because Pole Position II was released in arcades by Atari in 1983, and that is where the legalities of the copyright for "Pole Position II" date back to between Atari and Namco. Who knows.

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Welcome @D r Clu!

@Silver Back If you go to the navigation menu at the top of any page and click on the "YouTube" dropdown menu, you'll find that we've added a permanent link to your YouTube channel. I hope this is helpful in sharing your videos and driving more viewers to your YouTube 🙂

@Video 61 and then he tried to apply that same "no first party software support" philosophy to Atari Lynx and Jaguar. Most money is made on software anyway, hardly any on hardware. In the video game industry hardware is typically a loss leader at this point. Sell the razor handle below cost, and make profit by selling endless razor blades.

@Smell Dawg This would be a great time to jump into the Atari 7800!

Jack Tramiel introduces the Atari ST and discusses business practices on The Computer Chronicles, April 8, 1985. His son Leonard Tramiel, VP of Software Development at Atari demonstrates the Atari ST and TOS. Interesting to note that once again Jack Tramiel touches on something @Video 61 has been pointing out in his Blog posts - that Jack Tramiel's philosophy was that it was "not our job to develop software - we develop the hardware product, it's up to the third party publishers to develop the software." Jack Tramiel recalls how people told him the C64 would fail without software, and yet with third party publishers the C64 ended up with an endless array of software. Jack applied this same philosophy to Atari products, namely the Jaguar, with different results. Also discussed is what was going on at Commodore after Jack's departure and just prior to the release of the Amiga, as well as spending time with a Commodore User Group as technical support was nearly non-existent. Additionally the ROM chip format that became the TurboGrafx-16 TurboChip and the PC Engine HuCard was shown off for the first time at COMDEX Japan, at the 26:30 mark in the video. Very cool to see this so early.

YES absolutely! I totally agree. Good call, @RickR! 🙌 I was a little surprised when you called out Pole Position for having lame box art - the indy car looping around the track with the green grass, red and white checkered track lines, Mount Fuji and the red sky always stood out as so iconic in my mind, both on the 2600 and 7800 boxes. I respected your opinion but I thought "geez how can Rick think that!" Atari Corp. under Tramiel recycled artwork a few times over the years. Most notably to me is the Asteroids starship from the 2600 box, on the box art for Gates of Zendocon on Atari Lynx.

Pole Position is some of my favorite box art of all time ☺️

Totally agree. I really appreciate what the new Atari is trying to do with XP, and broadly with the Atari 2600/7800 and other legacy platforms - Atari, if you're listening I'd like to offer some constructive feedback: Atari should focus their efforts on creating a dozen simple games that are good looking, responsive and fun for the whole family. They should think of them almost like "launch titles" - a nice mix of games, again similar in look and gameplay to what Nintendo did with the "Black Box" games at the launch of the NES in late 1985. Similar titles can be done for the 2600/7800. That would be incredibly redeeming for the 2600 and Atari in general, and create a ton of buzz and goodwill among fans. Atari should focus on releasing NEW Atari 2600 cartridges with "arcade graphics and gameplay" on par with 2600 Stargate / Defender II (1984) "Lost" games such as Swordquest: AirWorld (2600), Rampart or Crystal Castles (7800) on cartridge Improved games - such as what Champ Games did with 2600 Galaga. Top-Notch "Basic" games for 2600/7800 - along the lines of what Nintendo did w/ the "NES Black Box Games" - Golf, Pinball, Ice Climber, Wrecking Crew Sequel games with superior graphics and gameplay - How about Yars', Berzerk, or Crystal Castles for 7800? Warlords for Atari 7800 using paddle controllers? Scrapyard Dog 2: Lost in the Sewers,- Again, compare 2600 Defender to Defender II and see the difference. Releasing common and early titles such as Outlaw feels very stale. How about a new Outlaw game for 2600 (or any NEW game!) with "arcade graphics and gameplay" on par with 2600 Stargate / Defender II, and give 2600 players something really fun, new and high quality. I bring up Defender II because it's a 2600 game that looks nearly as good as a 7800 game and can play on both systems. Do this and we will line up around the corner to buy these games at that price. Absolutely right. Berzerk is a licensed title. Atari brought something new enhanced to the table. Imagine if they released an improved Berzerk game for 7800, what that might look and sound like? I want to commend the new Atari for making an effort. We appreciate it, we support it and we want to encourage you. I hope if Atari is reading this they are getting a sense of direction we would like to see them go, and that we want to see them succeed.

@Video 61 Lance I also should thank you for always including free shipping on these special Atari I/O bundles. $8.32 for a CIB Atari 7800 game with shipping is pretty generous. Better than eBay. Thank you!!

THANK YOU once again Lance @Video 61 for providing special bundles like this one at discount prices exclusively to our Atari I/O Members. We don’t have a homebrew shop in our Forums, but we have you!

As much as I want to always support Atari first - the question for me was "What does Atari 5200 offer that ColecoVision doesn't?"

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing this @MaximumRD. If anybody runs into @nosweargamer out there in cyberspace can you let him know we miss him around here? Excellent video as always, and his coverage of the whole Intellivision thing was superb. 1980-1981 is a really special time in the 2600's lifespan. Very cool that @nosweargamer is covering this specifically. This is when the 2600 was really coming into its own, having grown past super simple early games like Outlaw, Slot Racers and Video Checkers, and began to move into licensed games after the release of Space Invaders . Yet this was before all of the silver box games got going, and before third party publishers like Activision and Imagic really got established. It's fun to examine the 2600's lifespan and divide it up into these distinct eras. I always saw it as: 1977-1979 1980-1981 1982-1984 1986-1992 1999-2004 - Early, definitive Atari Age Homebrews

@RickR These are all excellent, excellent points that I could respond with paragraphs about. Totally agree! There's some strange Atari paradox where some people - some in the general public, some on YouTube, some gamers, some trolls - love to kick Atari when they're down. I don't know why things turned out that way, but my guess is it's not just one thing, it's a perfect storm of things, and it's like hitting your elbow at just the wrong spot.

And the nastiness of it, the clickbaityness of it, and the amount of it. All game systems and platforms are open to criticism, particularly the disappointing ones. In my experience Atari receives its own level of trolling and mockery especially from people who don't really know much about Atari.

Scathing reviews, yes. Venomous mockery at the level of Atari, no. That wasn't my experience at the time.

It's on our shoulders to change the narrative and foster a stronger, more optimistic conversation about Atari, and that is my primary goal in creating Atari I/O. It's okay to acknowledge these were niche systems, enjoy them and play them until their ICs pop. It's okay to play different!

https://forums.atari.io/swapmeet/ Swapmeet received it's own page today! Think of Swapmeet as Craigslist for Atari I/O where you can trade with trusted friends We've added an additional page to Mutiny just for Swapmeet, which is linked in the navigation menu at the top of the page under "BROWSE" where "Marketplace" used to be. The Swapmeet page acts as an aggregator, pulling from across Atari I/O to display the 25 most recent listings in our Wanted, For Sale, Ebay, and Trading Post forums, and includes quick links to popular Atari vendors. It's my hope this will enhance the trading experience and give a lot more value to posting trades here, and make Atari I/O a fun destination to buy, sell and trade with friends! The Swapmeet boxes on the Mutiny Community home page will always be there to give, at a glance, a quick overview of what's for sale and trade on our site. The Marketplace Forums will continue to function the same as always, with Swapmeet providing an aggregated view of everything for sale and trade in one place. Enjoy!

@socrates63 I'm surprised how often I've heard this, even today. It speaks volumes not just about the Atari Jaguar's lack of mainstream popularity, but about Atari's incredible lack of marketing and advertising at the time. When you say "Atari", so many people in the world think of Atari 2600 (or possibly Atari 8-Bit computers) but rarely does the general population think of or are even aware of the Atari Jaguar (both today, and even at the time the Jaguar was being sold. Similarly for Lynx and Atari 7800) There might've been one generic print ad during the Jaguar's run, that you could search for in Next Generation Magazine or Die Hard Game Fan Magazine. Every other advertisement was something for Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis and they were all memorable. "Sega Does What Nintendon't" etc. Most of the ads were for new games from 3rd party publishers that were pushing their games for almost every system BUT Atari Jaguar. The whole thing made the Atari Jaguar feel "niche" at best, and "left out" when you really thought about it. This proves my point. Imagine this sort of advertising for Nintendo or Sega. What was Atari thinking???