pacman000

Well, I’ve already seen Demon Attack, Solar Fox, & Dragonfire mentioned... Shooters: Worm War I - Feels like Demon Attack, but with a scrolling play field. Vanguard - Defeat enemies in a series of caverns. Has rapid fire, power ups, a boss. Bezerk - Blast robots in an electrified maze. Starship - Early release. Hit targets in outer space. More of an historical curiosity; you might skip this one if you’re not interested in Pong-level crudeness. Sports: Winter Games - Advanced late release. Participate in several Olympic-style events as your favorite country. Realsports Football - Atari showed Mattel what the 2600 could do when well-programmed. You’ll need a manual Miniature Golf - Early release. Crude, but fun. Arcade: Midnight Madness - Late release. Vastly improved pinball game.

So, would GameStop be better off if Nolan Bushnell was at its helm?

From the ads, that's what Atari Corp was going for; they were promoting the XEGS as a game system which could play more complex games than the NES or 7800. Don't know how true that is with all the mapping chips Nintendo could put in their carts, but an ad is an ad; it's supposed to emphasize theoretical strengths, so I'll forgive it of it exaggerates.

In these 1987 ads it was advertised as a game system which could also play computer games: In this 1988 ad it was advertised as a game system and a computer: This 1988 ad calls it a game system which can play computer games: They were definitely trying to position it against the NES, like a game system, but they were also trying to spin the added computer functionality as an advantage. Not a bad idea, &, tho they couldn't stop Nintendo, they did sell enough for it to last a couple of years.

Atari designed a smaller, cost-reduced 5200, the 5100: http://atarihq.com/museum/5200/5100.html

K-mart had been struggling against Wal-Mart for years by that point. A lot of discount chains sprang up in the 60's & 70's which went bust in the 80's & 90's. Kmart was just the biggest to fail. (Tho technically they're still around, like Ben Franklins & Sears are still around.) In my opinion, K-Mart was over when Wal-Mart started adding full grocery stores to all their stores. K-Mart couldn't afford that, so they only added an aisle or two of cold goods to most their stores.

Sears' decline was long & slow, & it doesn't have a single cause. They invested in a bunch of side businesses in the 80's which split their focus, & made them ill-prepared for the changing retail environment of the 90's. They began falling apart in the 90's, when Walmart became the dominate retailer in the U.S. Consumers wanted lower prices, & consumers didn't want to travel to malls. Then Sears got rid of their catalog program, right as online sales became possible. Classic "dodged when you should've weaved; hindsight is 20/20" move. There were a few other things, but these are what began their fall. It'll take too long to list everything, & it would be outside the scope of this forum.

Sears actually owned a lot of different things in the 80's. Coldwell Banker, Discover Card, part of Prodigy, etc. I could see Sears being a good fit for Atari, for awhile. Sears lost focus, & that kinda led to their decline. If Sears bought Atari, they probably would've sold it off in the 90's, or it would be another brand which got auctioned off right before their bankruptcy, like Craftsman.

If you pay by word I have some very, very, very good articles for your printed magazine publication about video games, computer games, and other types of electronic games. Kidding; what would you like? Does it matter if it’s been published elsewhere?

RCA was too big, bloated, & indecisive to make Atari a success; that’s why their own console failed; they released it 2-3 years after it was designed, then discontinued it’s already-developed successors when it wasn’t an immediate success.

I was probably thinking of Bushnell as a creative director, or as the head of R&D, with someone else handling the business side of things.

Back on topic, before this thread is shut down... 1) Would Atari have been better off if Nolan hadn’t sold it? 2) If he stayed involved after then sale? For #1 I say no; he had too little business experience , & he has a bad track record with his later businesses. Question 2 is more interesting, & I’m not sure what I think would happen. Any ideas?

Zero Racers, planned but canceled, along with the rest of the VB’s second wave of games: https://www.virtual-boy.com/games/zero-racers/ Someone found & released Bound High; still Hoping Dragon Hopper is found someday.

I’m sorry...

It’s illegal for individuals too; someone should’ve sent that to the FTC. Exception: Minimum & Maximum Advertised Prices are generally legal. (I’m no lawyer; I just find this interesting. This is NOT legal advise; get a lawyer for legal advise.)

Couldn’t a programmer do scrolling using a collection of large sprites as background objects?

Please don’t do that; it looks good so far. Take a break; take a breath, then begin again.

Indeed. Which is why I said there was no overt threat to retailers, only the impression of a threat. Did Nintendo really mean to threaten retailers? Can't say; in my mind it seems possible, but the courts want more than a possibility of a threat. Nintendo would be less explicit when communicating; they came from a different country, with a different communication style that the U.S. & most of Europe. A business leader would know that, & take that into consideration when dealing with them. https://www.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/blog/high-and-low-context/

Reading interviews with Satoshi Tajiri & other Game Freak employees, the story of Pokémon's origin seems to change from interview-to-interview & from person to person. Was it a clone of Dragon Quest, with the ability to exchange items? Was it inspired by Ultra Seven? Bug Catching? The Gameboy's link cable? Are they contradicting themselves? No; each story compliments the other, letting us see bits & pieces of a long, difficult development. I'd take most interviews with developers the same way. On Starfox, it makes sense that Argonaut would start development on the NES as a port of Starglider; Starglider came out in 1986, so it was the right time. Bringing it to the SNES makes sense, since it was near the end of the NES' life, & Jez San developing some sort of Battlezone-type game for the SNEs makes sense, since he'd need to learn the hardware. If I were to try to synthesize a story from these, I'd guess development went something like this: Starglider, ported to the NES. Nintendo says the NES is nearing it's end of life. Argonaut gets a SNES development system, develops demos, including a Battlezone clone, to see what they can do & to get used to the new system. Starglider is ported to the SNES, relatively quickly. Nintendo asks for a better version; Argonaut asks to develop a 3D-chip. The FX chip is developed; Starglider is re-worked into Starfox. Of course, this could change if I got more info from other interviews. Someone should sit down with Jez & get him to lay things out, from the beginning to the end. Maybe interview other Argonaut employees, to add even more data, & to create a more complete story. Perhaps with a timeline?

Not an overt threat, but enough to make a store manager leery of crossing them.

If there was a general perception that video games were on their way out, would companies still have considered buying it?

Courts were looking for overt threats, but a threat need not be overt to be effective. Nintendo did check store shelves regularly, to make sure they were well-stocked. It wouldn’t take too much more effort to check for other brands, or to withhold shipments if they found some. Just claim that the new products were back ordered, & point out the store could sell the other system. The manager would get the message. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-19-fi-223-story.html