Prom Blaster

[jhd]

In 1983, Atari successfully sued J.S. & A. Group, Inc. for copyright infringement. J.S. & A. Group apparently sold a device called the Prom Blaster to make "backup copies" of Atari 2600 cartridges. It appears that Atari received an injunction prohibiting the sale of these devices.

 

I don't have direct access to the actual decision, but it is cited as 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11084 (Dist. Ct. for the Northern Dist. of Illinios, Eastern Division) and/or 597 F.Supp. 5 (N.D. Ill, 1983).

 

A brief synopsis op the decision is available online:

http://www.patentarcade.com/2005/04/case-atari-v-jsa-c-nd-ill-1983.html

 

I have never seen or heard of such a device; does anybody know if it was actually ever sold? Does anyone have one. It was apparently advertised for sale, at least briefly:

Ad for Prom Blaster

 

A quick Google search indicates that this firm apparently still exists. Who knows what may be in the back of their warehouse...

[yuppicide]

WOW! That is awesome.. here's the most interesting part:

 

Secondly, we offer Prom Blaster Games - a series of nine copyrighted games designed for the Atari 2600, but with a new twist. Each game will allow the owner to make copies and sell them to their friends. Each game costs only $15 and was designed by a top designer.

 

I wanna know what the games are!

 

Look at the price of that thing.. I'd say very reasonable. Imagine going to your friends house and he has the latest game and you just copy it.

 

IIRC I don't think the company made the product, just sold it. They were a sales company I believe. Looking back they also advertised the Bally Astrocade back in 1977 or 1978 for sale.

Edited July 16, 2010 by yuppicide

[tremoloman2006]

Thanks for pointing this out jhd! I stole the ad so I could post it here for everyone:

[mwalden]

Thanks for pointing this out jhd! I stole the ad so I could post it here for everyone:

 

The style of that ad seemed strangely similar to the old DAK mail order catalog.

 

After doing a web search on: "JS&A" "DAK"

 

This came up:

 

http://www.ryanhealy.com/catalog-copywriters-are-working-overtime/#comment-23605518

Old JS&A (Joe Sugarman) and DAK Industries (Drew Kaplan) catalogs are highly

prized now (oh how I regret not saving those).

 

Then I came across this:

 

http://www.trans4mind.com/bookstore/lead.html

"Advertising Secrets of the Written Word" by Joseph Sugarman. Joe Sugarman is the copywriting wizard who wrote those incredibly entertaining full-page advertisements for high-technology gizmos. The company he founded, JS&A, was wildly successful and the precursor to others such as The Sharper Image and DAK Industries. He is also the guy behind the BluBlocker sunglasses. These books are a distillation of the marketing lessons he learnt in a lifetime of entrepreneurship and he is incredibly candid. He tells you what worked and why and what didn't work and why. Lots of real examples.

 

Interesting stuff.

 

Also, speaking of DAK, they sort of still exist. See:

 

http://DAK.com

 

Who knew?

[Rex Dart]

I'm sorry, but I read "Prom Blaster" and I picture some zany Troma movie.

[jhd]

I chased down a copy of the original decision and it appears that this was never actually sold at retail.

 

Atari successfuly applied for an injunction as soon as thye became aware of the product and the company never shipped any units. There was apparently $12,000 worth of inventory on hand -- at a retail price of $119/unit, that is about 100 units.

 

The judgement refers in passing to the nine Atari 2600 games that the company also sold, but none are identified by name or even described:

"JS&A markets only nine games. Since they evidently went on the market with the PROM BLASTER, quite recently [Fall 2003], no one knows if consumers want to play these games, much less copy them".

[A.J. Franzman]

So, where do we write to say, "Yes, we want to play these games, and what's more, copy them."?

[yuppicide]

Yep.. if they produced these units, I'd still want one today.

[tetrode kink]

OMG, I loved the old DAK & JS&A catalogs. I loved the long descriptions, something you just didn't see very often elsewhere. I bought a few things from DAK, including my first CD player (for my stereo system, not a portable), and my first PC-compatible computer.

 

The computer was a 486. It was originally 25MHz and had 4 MB of RAM and a 120 MB hard drive. During its use I bought the 75MHz Overdrive for it, upped the HD a few times, and had to take out a loan from one of those consumer loan companies for $400 to buy 16 MB of RAM!!! I still have it in the basement, though I haven't fired it up in years.

 

I know I still have a few of those old DAK catalogs around here somewhere. I can't believe they're worth anything, though. It's kinda cool that DAK/JS&A were in some way connected to an obscure piece of Atari hardware, whether or not it actually made it to market.

 

-tet

[+Nathan Strum]

I don't think I still have any DAK catalogs around. They had some cool stuff.

 

I still want a Dual-Donzel tape deck.

[Spirantho]

I still want to play a game called "Prom Blaster"! Maybe a hack of Texas Chainsaw Massacre would do it...!

[pinball22]

That's interesting... I'm really curious as to whether the games exist somewhere.

 

And I had forgotten about DAK catalogs... I used to spend a lot of time drooling over things I couldn't afford in them.

[Nesbroslash]

I actually thought Prom Blaster was an extremely violent game before I read this.

[BigCatRik]

I remember seeing ads for that in Popular Science magazine at the time and I searched PopSci's online archive and found it in the October 1983 issue at the following link. There are a zillion similar ads for snazzy gadgets (for 1983) in that issue.

 

http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=PETCVTz_lwUC&pg=165&query=prom+blaster

 

Rik

[Zwackery]

+1 for that great bit of research! Video game history is still unearthing all kinds of interesting information.

 

As for DAK, I ordered many items from them over the years. It was great if you were willing to hang back a generation or two and get discount technology. I know I built several stereos with the components I ordered, all kinds of computer accessories, and the CD player for my first car. That was probably one of the last purchases I made from them. The next time I'm home, I'm going through the basement and looking for old catalogs - my parents have a penchant for hoarding storing all kinds of stuff.