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So today i went to the house of 80's General Manager of Atari


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There came a customer in the store last week because he wanted some data transferred from his old iphone to his new one. So while that was busy, i found out he was the general financial manager of Atari Benelux back in the 80's. Ofcourse being a atariage member, i became very excited. I mean, its not everyday that you can meet someone from atari. So after all that talking, he asked if i wanted some atari stuff, because he had some at home and otherwise he would throw it away. So ofcourse i said yes and so i went today to his house with an atari cake to see whats what.

 

This is what he gave me:

 

Atari 2080ST

Atari SH205

Atari 130XE (with lots of games, and a special keyboard cover made specially for that model)

Atari Portfolio with a modem and a serial port as well as some pads that look like a seperate headphones... Very weird. Together with books and i am not sure, but i think its a video tape also, since there seems to be a video tape box inside of the suite case.

 

All in all, a very kind guy and something that i wanted to share with you guys. I also told him about atariage, but it seems he doesnt want to do much with atari anymore, since he is getting older, and losing interest. However, we can ask him whatever we want about atari. and he will reply as much as he knows. Apparantly Atari USA used to call him alot because they needed his help, and so he flew alot to the usa.

 

If you guys want, i can make some decent pictures thursday, as i am free then. Just wanted to tell you my little story :)

Edited by Dragonforce-Europe
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Unfortunately, it isn't entirely uncommon that people who used to have fairly leading roles in computing/gaming companies in the 80's and 90's, have moved on entirely and almost wants to neglect it ever happened. I've hunted down a bunch, both household names and in particular those barely anyone has spent a thought of in the past 25+ years.

 

Online forums aren't really their thing. Some may be persuaded to come to an event to meet people, perhaps hold a shorter speech and get amazed how many people suddenly have a genuine interest and appreciation of their former work.

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Unfortunately, it isn't entirely uncommon that people who used to have fairly leading roles in computing/gaming companies in the 80's and 90's, have moved on entirely and almost wants to neglect it ever happened. I've hunted down a bunch, both household names and in particular those barely anyone has spent a thought of in the past 25+ years.

 

Online forums aren't really their thing. Some may be persuaded to come to an event to meet people, perhaps hold a shorter speech and get amazed how many people suddenly have a genuine interest and appreciation of their former work.

When you're in the technology business you always have to be thinking and moving forward, especially back in the 1990s. No point in accumulating useless information in your head. Not sure how helpfull it is being part of a failed business for your resume.

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Wow, i am getting quite an arguement at home for bringing these stuff. " Old Crap" "Disgusting yellow thing" are the common things to hear. Well its true that i dont have a good space for it, on one hand i dont want to part with it. But if i do, then it should go to someone that loves Atari from the bottom of their heart.

 

What do you guys think? Got any arguements or should it go to someone that cherish it?

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When you're in the technology business you always have to be thinking and moving forward, especially back in the 1990s. No point in accumulating useless information in your head. Not sure how helpfull it is being part of a failed business for your resume.

Yep. Also, this was Atari Benelux, and the guy was in the finances.

His job was dealing with finances, not with gaming, so it's likely he choose to work for Atari because at the time, it was a major and respected name in the computer industry, not a fan of gaming.

Maybe if he had been a developper, or working for translating/adapting the computer to Benelux standard he would have been more involved, but here... nah.

Even peopel that were more closely in the business can lsoe their passion... Or always saw the video gaming industry as an industry in which what matter is to earn money, not into bringing joy to the customers.

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Wow, i am getting quite an arguement at home for bringing these stuff. " Old Crap" "Disgusting yellow thing" are the common things to hear. Well its true that i dont have a good space for it, on one hand i dont want to part with it. But if i do, then it should go to someone that loves Atari from the bottom of their heart.

 

What do you guys think? Got any arguements or should it go to someone that cherish it?

Heh, I get that too. She has just reduced it to,"I'm gonna have a hell of a bonfire when you die!"

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What was the name of this manager?

 

Back in the day I wrote 2 or so letters to Atari Benelux and got a reply from Jurek Ceglarek (Customer support?). Another Atari Benelux name was Wilfred Kilwinger (Technical support?). What were the other names at Atari Benelux?

 

Robert

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  • 1 month later...

There came a customer in the store last week because he wanted some data transferred from his old iphone to his new one. So while that was busy, i found out he was the general financial manager of Atari Benelux back in the 80's. Ofcourse being a atariage member, i became very excited. I mean, its not everyday that you can meet someone from atari.

 

All in all, a very kind guy and something that i wanted to share with you guys. I also told him about atariage, but it seems he doesnt want to do much with atari anymore, since he is getting older, and losing interest.

 

Yes, this is pretty common among people who have done something almost their entire lives... they get burned out. Musicians, inventors, whatever... after a while, that "one thing" seems to be the highlight of their life and they want to move on or have equal meaning / value to other things they've done in their life. Just happens I suppose. I dunno, I'll let you know one day if I get to that point. But still cool never the less... and so nice that he gave you all that stuff.

 

 

 

Wow, i am getting quite an arguement at home for bringing these stuff. " Old Crap" "Disgusting yellow thing" are the common things to hear. Well its true that i dont have a good space for it, on one hand i dont want to part with it. But if i do, then it should go to someone that loves Atari from the bottom of their heart.

 

What do you guys think? Got any arguements or should it go to someone that cherish it?

 

Don't feel bad for a second on selling that stuff. You SHOULD put it all together and play the crap out of it for a couple of weeks... maybe even do some YouTube videos if there's anything unique or rare, and then get rid of it... sell it on eBay. The thing about stuff... after a certain point, it begins to own you, rather than you owning it. It's never good to be in that situation. I got rid of a good 80-85% of my video game collection over the past few years (a couple of years ago). It feels nice not having all that stuff in the closet, I just can't really explain.

 

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Wow, i am getting quite an arguement at home for bringing these stuff. " Old Crap" "Disgusting yellow thing" are the common things to hear. Well its true that i dont have a good space for it, on one hand i dont want to part with it. But if i do, then it should go to someone that loves Atari from the bottom of their heart.

 

What do you guys think? Got any arguements or should it go to someone that cherish it?

 

 

Another overbearing wife?

 

If I had a dime for every time i heard this....

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  • 1 month later...

In the 80s, we had the Atari CLub Eindhoven (Netherlands). Only 8bit Atari computers (not ST !). Once, I wrote a nice letter to Atari Benelux, asking for some free promotion material, to show at our club and at computer fairs in Eindhoven. Atari Benelux then send me a big box with hundreds of 130XE information folders, 3 nice Atari baseball pets (red plastic with white in front and big Atari logo), 3 nice golden Atari metalpins and some other stuff. All for free. We were very gratefull for that. In the 90s, I spoke with Atari Benelux at a large computerfair in Eindhoven (or Maastricht) and they decided to hand me over, their original Atari 8bit rainbow flag. We (as Atari Club) were very honored to receive the flag from Atari Benelux. Sadly I forgot all the names of the people of Atari Benelux i have spoken with. My name is Richard Vermeulen, so maybe somebody on in this topic can recall the names of them.

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