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I'd make sure we were working with the best developers and so I'd hire Steve Ballmer as a consultant to help us figure out how to do that

No contradiction, I explained myself in the part of my post you chose not to quote. Pokey sounds harsh to my ears, I'm no huge fan of it, but it does sound better than TIA in general. Of course programmers can always make a better chip sound worse and a bad chip do impressive things.

Right but the difference is NES games seemed to take advantage of this more. My understanding is only two commercial 7800 games used Pokey? If more games had done so, it might change my opinion of the system. But even Pokey was kind of dated by the 7800 launch. (it has a harsh quality to it compared to other sound chips- Can't imagine what the happy, bouncy music of NES games would sound like on Pokey) Maybe this part of the 80s was a time when the good sound chips were just out of reach, or custom like SID, Amiga, and Atari's own ill-fated AMY, and that's why even the ST has a rather disappointing YM2149. I'm sure it wouldn't, because games sell consoles. But I would expect certain things at a minimum to be in a late 80s console. I wanted both. The competition was showing both. 160 is just not enough because it gives weird elongated pixels that limit the amount of detail you can have in sprites. That's fine for early 80s, with the 5200 or C64, but by the late 80s I believe it needed more. Even 240 or 256-width would be an improvement if 320 was too much. No it's price and games that win a console war. My thinking is more like this-- 1. Atari had no business releasing a new console in 1984, the 5200 was too new 2. The Atari sale turned the 7800 effectively into a 1986 console built on 1983/4 tech. 3. What if Atari had told GCC in 83 that they aren't quite ready for a new console, but they think the 7800 tech is promising. If they go back and refine it and add this and that, it will be the eventual 5200 successor, by the time it does come out, it would be built on newer 1986ish tech that would certainly crush the NES's (1983) specs, but of course Atari still has to bring the games (and if Jack & Co are in charge in that timeline, it would probably end just as poorly) The 7800 as it was suffers from bad timing, Yeah the other way out of Atari's 5200 quandry is not release the 5200 at all. If Candy was released a couple years earlier, then maybe the time would be right for the 7800 in 84. 7800 seems to have been designed as a Colecovision killer and it has the specs for that- Although Colecovision had a 256x192 graphics mode and could sometimes produce visuals Atari systems of the time would have a hard time matching. Part of the problem was it got delayed for two years, probably kept on the market for too long with no real successor until the Jag, and the hoped-for carts that would have extended the systems capabilities were few and far between. So it ended up competing in an era that made it look dated.

You could be right, I don't remember the exact timeline, but I do remember Atari having a series of fairly impressive arcade ports right before Pac-man dropped. I spent a lot of time playing the arcade Vanguard machine (the local laundromat had it making it the closest arcade game to my house ) So the VCS version was slightly disappointing. I think the worst problem was my favorite zone, the "stripe zone" was vertical instead of horizontal. But from a purely technical standpoint, it seems like a good effort.

Maybe I'm a brick wall, but as much as I like what Wade has done, Atari would still have a long way to go to be able to take Nintendo on. Nintendo has a multiple-decades long reputation for quality games while Atari has been an extremely bumpy ride. I don't know if most recharged games will appeal to people who haven't played the originals (but maybe the new Haunted House could) The big different between modern gamers and retrogamers is modern gamers expect games to last 30 hours or more, while retrogamers were brought up on arcade-style games that might last five minutes but has high-replay value. Modern gamers don't seem to know what to do with those types of games.

This too is a function of the sale to Jack. Atari Corp never had the development and marketing budgets needed to compete. Under Warner, Atari had marketing muscle that scared even Nintendo. They would have spent the money to keep the competition at bay.. that free-spending was part of their undoing.

Oh wow, I thought it was shorter than that, but I know they've adjusted the copyright lengths over the years.. (Thanks Disney!)

I've read about this requirement as well. But I can name a number of non-space games that violate it. So I don't know if it was a real rule or urban legend. Or maybe it was a rule that was in effect for a limited time? "Too many black background games, we want things to be more colorful" and maybe the backlash to PacMan caused them to re-evaluate? IDK I had a friend who got an Atari before I did, and he seemed to get a new game every week that we'd all play. So when I got mine, I had a pretty good idea of which games I wanted and which I didn't. Then after I got mine, the bargain bins started appearing, so if I spent $4.99 on a game that turned out to be a dud, it wasn't a huge deal. But I think even in the bargain bins, I only bought one game I didn't like because I'm still kind of choosy. I'm not going to buy a game just because it's $5, it has to look interesting. Right and those blocky graphics were all we expected of the console at first. But then Activision showed up and revolutionized what could be done with the 2600 graphics, and soon Atari was following suit with improved graphics. And Atari seemed to hit a stride with arcade ports. Berzerk looked closer to the arcade game than I thought a 2600 game could. Phoenix seemed like a decent effort, and then suddenly Pac-Man comes and wrecks that streak.

Even the 2600 can sound good at times. Still when you get into any kind of distortion, the 7800 clearly reminds you of it's TIA sound. Even at TIA's best, Pokey sounds better, and SID and YM 2151 sound better than that. There's simply no excuse for a 1984 console to have such an ancient soundchip as its primary. No my argument was always bringing the 7800 for 1984 release was a mistake. Atari's most loyal fans just shelled out $270 for 5200 (a lot back then) on the promise of great games to come, only to have the system killed well before its 2nd birthday. How many of those burned by that would have enthusiastically embraced a 7800? Not many I would guess. I cannot overstate how bad this move was, brand loyalty is crucial in this industry. The eventual 5200 replacement could have been based on some 7800 tech. The Maria chip was ahead of it's time. But GCC would have had an extra 2 years at least to refine it. At minimum it has a decent soundchip and a resolution fix. 7800's 320 mode has issues that kept many games from using it. Either fix the shortcomings if possible, or come up with a 256 mode like some of Atari's competitors had. 160 just doesn't cut it for the late 80s. Well yeah, I'm sure Jack & Co would have screwed whatever console they inherited. They weren't videogame focused, and it took them a long time to get there. In the meantime Nintendo ate their lunch. Part of my scenario assumes Atari was better managed and perhaps a panic sale to Jack wouldn't have been necessary. I don't think the Tramiels could ever have beaten Nintendo, but I think Warner could have.

How long does a copyright on a videogame last? If Imagic hasn't done any business since ~84, then their games will go public domain at some point, right?

Even a blue maze with a dark blue background (like Ms. Pac Man did) would have been an improvement. Also why did this "rule" not apply to other platforms? Pac-man on 400/800/5200 had the colors more or less arcade correct. Also Centipede and Swordquest were non-space game that were allowed to have a black backgrounds, so it's not clear if this was an actual rule or an excuse people have given over the years. Worst game "ever" is hyperbole. But it is easily the worst experience on the 2600 for me. Yeah it was a craze that might be like our generations "Beatlemania". What people have to understand is Pac-Man was a videogame that was like nothing we had ever seen before. For one, it was full color. For most of the 70s, arcade games were still black and white. It had catchy music and sounds that became iconic, it had characters with personalities, it had cut scenes, it had fruit/pretzels and you would always know what level you were on by what fruit you had. You can look at the games released in the arcade and on the 2600 before say 1981 to get an idea of what gaming was like before Pac-man changed everything. People became obsessed with it, It got all the merchandise you mention, plus a Saturday Morning Cartoon (I think the first ever for a videogame), breakfast cereals and so on. The 2600 version stripped out almost everything we loved about the game. Ghosts had no personalities, The music/sounds are not even close. no fruits-- you will eat your vitamin pill and like it! Yes and I maintain that this is what ultimately lead to the Crash, as all those people who usually wouldn't play games eventually went back to not playing games, and much of the astronomical growth gaming experienced from 81-83 evaporated

Too bad developers weren't able to get this level of performance out of it in 1984-88 when it mattered. It didn't need ST performance, it just needed to squash the NES, and that includes not just hardware, but games library. Instead playing a 7800 felt like playing a glorified 2600 because of the horrid sound. It really should not have been that way

Maybe his name is actually Bob and he starts to get paranoid that there's a bounty on his head?

It's it's old it might be USB 2.0. A USB 3.x stick will be much faster. As far as size goes, there's no limitations as far as I'm aware.

I'm not necessarily opposed to having an inventory, but it could change the game quite a bit. For instance, should the bat be able to steal any item from your inventory? It is more isometric than true 3D. I think the challenge is to create dragons that look like dragons, yet still remind you of the "duck dragons" from the original.

I believe this is also the phone number shown on the title screen, so no need to memorize it

This is very true based on my experiences speaking to people on this subject over the years. It is nice that the 2600+ gives you a choice. Yeah learned the hard way when widescreens first came out. When I see someone watching SD TV stretched, I'd assume they just didn't bother to adjust their TV and I'd offer to fix it... only to discover their distaste for black bars was as strong as my distaste for incorrect aspect ratio!

Of course there is, they would need to write up a contract that specifies which properties can be used, for how long and in what contexts, what the licensing fees are and make sure the language in the contract is not ambiguous. Also since game licensing can be tricky, they might have to research if they are free-and-clear to license out the property to begin with.

I don't want something with the original graphics. Those already looked dated by 1982. I liked the graphical direction taking with the Adventure II homebrew for the 5200/8-bit. Maybe they could do some pixel-art thing like they did for Atari-mania, Gameplay shouldn't be radically different, I guess, or it risks not feeling like Adventure, so I guess that means no inventory, other than carrying one item at a time. I'd like to see more items, a larger world with more puzzles. Maybe add things from fables and fairy tales? Trolls that guard a bridge, Rapunzel's hair, Magic Beans you can trade for and grow a beanstalk if you plant them in the right place. Music- maybe just location based, like wandering minstrels that set the mood. And randomization so that maybe the solutions to puzzles are different, not every element shows up in every game.

It would also need a Jag controller. Right now you'd either have to memorize the awkward keypad mappings of the BigPemu or hook up a keyboard.

I think it's something you would have discovered in the unreleased AR games

And Evil Otto, Scraps, from Scrapyard Dog, Charley Chuck from Food Fight Tarra and Torr from Swordquest and a Ninja Golfer. Guess Atari has more characters than we realized

You'd be surprised, some people would rather fill the screen, even if the aspect is wrong and the video is stretched.

I think GCC was more of a band of hackers than a company as such. Atari was going to sue them for producing bootlegs and decided to hire them to create 2600 carts instead, at least according to a video by one of the GCC guys. Probably didn't have the funding or business expertise (or recognizable name) to launch their own console.

But opportunity costs- they in-house lawyers could be working on multi-million dollar deals instead.