Justin Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 This is so cringy. "Atari" is getting into online gambling. Admittedly, nothing new coming out of "Atari" has ever interested me (other than the physical Pong table, that was a licensed product that looked sorta cool) and for the past decade it's been a steady stream of new Flashback revisions, Hotels and Speaker Hats that I shrug off as I put Space Invaders back into my Vader 2600 and fire up a new game. This latest thing though is off the rails. "Atari" is getting into online gambling, and using that as an excuse to launch their own crypto token. Maybe you've read about this by now, maybe not, but it certainly merits a thread and I'd be interested in hearing what you guys think about this. Seems to me like "online gambling" means you're playing against a computer programmed to beat you far more often than it lets you win. Is this a solid opportunity for "Atari" or do you think they're gone bananas? The article below discusses the online gambling project, and the @Atari Creep video gets right to the point: From: CCN This Cryptocurrency Casino Is the Latest Terrible Idea by Atari Atari is trying to launch a casino and a cryptocurrency, along with its new hotel venture. The gaming company has clearly lost its mind. Is there anything that can save this faltering company? https://www.ccn.com/this-cryptocurrency-casino-is-the-latest-terrible-idea-by-atari/ Atari Creep 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DegasElite Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 I know what can save Atari. Competent management. They don't have it! Frederic Chesnais clearly does not know what he is doing. I think that he is very far removed from reality. Atari Creep 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted April 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 6 minutes ago, BlackCatz40 said: I know what can save Atari. Competent management. They don't have it! Frederic Chesnais clearly does not know what he is doing. I think that he is very far removed from reality. Agreed! @Doctor Octagon wrote about Fred Chesnais in 2014 on our Blog when we first launched it. He hit the nail on the head: From: Doctor Octagon, Atari I/O Blog Atari Is Like A Ship With A Hole In The Bottom, Leaking Water, And His Job Is To Get The Ship Pointed In The Right Direction His strategy for making Atari relevant again: “Let other people be Atari” by licensing the name to miscellaneous mobile gaming studios and Chinese manufacturers who have a knack for selling crap to an all-too-fawned-over “new generation.” http://www.atari.io/atari-is-like-a-ship-with-a-hole-in-the-bottom-leaking-water-and-his-job-is-to-get-the-ship-pointed-in-the-right-direction/ For those of you unable to see our Blog page due to the temporary Malware hack from nefarious sources, here's what Octagon wrote at the time: Quote By Doctor Octagon on June 11, 2014 | Opinion His name is Fred Chesnais. Currently he’s CEO and majority shareholder of what we once called Atari and their dozen or so employees that remain on the books. His strategy for making Atari relevant again: “Let other people be Atari” by licensing the name to miscellaneous mobile gaming studios and Chinese manufacturers who have a knack for selling crap to an all-too-fawned-over “new generation.” So far the results have been pathetic. Boring mobile games, cheesy slot machines, zero innovation. Now Fred is squarely placing Atari in the “me too” category with mobile phones, or rather, licensing the Atari name to ravenous Chinese manufacturers to stamp on their off-brand Android devices, because they think “Atari” sounds better than “Mr. Wassonasong Phone”. I mean, Amazon has a phone, so why shouldn’t Atari have one too? Like #omg you guys, Millennials send selfies with those. This guy is the worst CEO I’ve ever seen. That’s not to say he’s special. Atari has had a long succession of myopic CEOs. Yep, some were better than others, but what’s happening right now feels like a desperate move by an ugly prom date. Remember Ray Kassar? For all his sassiness, Ray wasn’t really a bad guy. But he was clueless about how special the brand and the people were that he had been placed in charge of. Atari was the fastest growing company in American history, filled with immense talent of the sort that up until then had never been seen. So in walks this guy Ray from the textile industry whose been put in charge of it all. It’s no wonder he couldn’t understand what he had. It’s like showing your dad how to use Facebook on his iPhone. He probably didn’t know how, and couldn’t relate to those who did. Then there was James Morgan who stood out like a yeti in the desert. James Morgan came to us from Phillip Morris but was a really down to earth guy who nearly saved Atari from the brink of oblivion after Kassar was fired in 1983. Morgan’s vision for restructuring the company and ability to relate to Atari’s talented crew in ways Ray never could earned him the recognition that comes from sincere leadership. Here’s a person whose incredible self-control led to ridiculous achievement. Men like Morgan are rare for a reason. They make choices that allow for success. Even Nolan for all his innovative spirit made some major missteps early on. Chairman Nakamura of Namco, left, with James J. Morgan in 1983 So while Ray wasn’t really a bad guy, I’m sure the same can be said about this guy. Fred looks nice enough. Surely he’s smart. He just doesn’t really understand what to do with what he has. To think that a brand once as recognizable as Kodak or Disney, so platinum that it still shines through its patina, would be willfully stamped on slot machines and off-brand telephones to be dumped on the American public is the epitome of laziness and derivative thinking. This is like writing “Tesla” on a Suzuki. In crayon. Sure, maybe you could’ve gotten Eazy-E to tool around in one with Ray and his houseboys, but even that would’ve been reaching. Every step of the way, Atari in its current iteration is cashing in on the illusionist’s party trick of name recognition and nostalgia rather than coming up with great new stuff. It’s a form of laziness. To anyone over thirty, Atari is synonymous with fun. To adhere that brand to lame products is bait-and-switch, and nothing short of abusive. Even Jack Tramiel’s most ardent detractors would credit the Lynx and Jaguar as both being innovative new products that were ahead of their time. Atari didn’t achieve success this way the first time around, and they aren’t going to now. What made Atari so wondrous 30 years ago, like tech giants today, was that they came up with new ideas and culture-defining products. Apple, Google, Tesla, SpaceX, they didn’t just build great products, they built great companies. They’re establishments of innovation that employed some of the world’s most creative people that every day found new ways to push the world forward. Thirty years ago, this was Atari. For many of us Atari is an institution, like Harvard or Saturday Night Live. Today, Atari is gladly forfeiting their character and culture of innovation for an illusion of it. Barf. This article was penned by Doctor Octagon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 The only things that would "save" Atari are: Shutting it down Completely revamping the brand BACK to what Atari once was Hiring people that actually KNOW how to develop hardware and software Hiring people that actually KNOW how to market the products Having people on board that DON'T believe Indigogo or Kickstarter are the only ways to support a project Hiring people that are not afraid to learn how to develop or actually program from scratch Sadly, the only people that even come close to those that once worked at Atari, under Warner, are those that continue to develop and program things for all the Atari consoles and computers on a regular basis. It's these people who do what they do for the love of Atari. All this new Atari has done is see a popular brand and are trying to use it for a cash cow. They ought to be thrown in jail honestly. But that's just my opinion. Justin and TrekMD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 Albert should buy the name and become the new Atari. After all, he works with folks who develop hardware and software, he markets his products (even if currently it is for a niche group), and he doesn't use Indiegogo or Kickstarter! Quote 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted April 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 44 minutes ago, TrekMD said: Albert should buy the name and become the new Atari. He's not the only one who has looked into doing that TrekMD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted April 7, 2020 Report Share Posted April 7, 2020 If I had the money I'd do it! TrekMD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DegasElite Posted April 8, 2020 Report Share Posted April 8, 2020 Things that can remake Atari: New management A RISC-based system with original architecture, solid OS, and great games (minus the emulator they now call the VCS that we see playing crappy graphics) An effective marketing plan Get Fred Chesnais out! If it can be saved… Bummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted April 8, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2020 This online crypto casino deal just seems like the lowest of the low scraped up from the bottom of the barrel. Tacky and half-assed. Pretty horrible to take advantage of people in that way too, in my opinion. RadioPoultry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted April 8, 2020 Report Share Posted April 8, 2020 I think it's past time to consider the name "Atari" dead, buried, and ancient history. No value. Gets no attention from me. Justin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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