It's probably easier to convince a brick wall to try out Atari's games than most modern gamer's

[Shaggy the Atarian]

2 minutes ago, zzip said:

Or maybe they quote such a high price to make the asker go away,  because the licensing people have more lucrative IPs they'd rather spend time working on?

Yep, also possible. It's a huge company so there are all sorts of directions things like that can go in - One day you could get someone who is clueless and just throws out the scare number, the next you get someone sensible and who does their research, etc. 

 

Chances of them seeing anything other than Mortal Kombat as being lucrative are pretty low. MK has had the benefit of frequent new releases + it has the original designer behind it. You don't have that with 95% of the AtariG/Midway catalog, Eugene Jarvis being the exception (even he hasn't found it profitable to bring anything else back - he did test out a "World's Largest Defender" a few years ago but found it not worth releasing).

 

[zzip]

2 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Yep, also possible. It's a huge company so there are all sorts of directions things like that can go in - One day you could get someone who is clueless and just throws out the scare number, the next you get someone sensible and who does their research, etc. 

Yeah or maybe they have a policy against doing deals worth less than $1 million,  if that's the case, then maybe multiple titles could be negotiated under the same $1 million contract.    It's hard to know without knowing how the question was asked, or if the Warner side even bothered to do research on the market value of the IP in question.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

9 minutes ago, zzip said:

Yeah or maybe they have a policy against doing deals worth less than $1 million,  if that's the case, then maybe multiple titles could be negotiated under the same $1 million contract.    It's hard to know without knowing how the question was asked, or if the Warner side even bothered to do research on the market value of the IP in question.

Well, I did apply for a position at WB Games recently in their product marketing department so if I land the job, I'll certainly see what I can find out on what the policy is in regards to licensing and such  

[zzip]

11 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Well, I did apply for a position at WB Games recently in their product marketing department so if I land the job, I'll certainly see what I can find out on what the policy is in regards to licensing and such  

Or maybe advocate for it from the inside and help make something happen.    Sometimes it just needs someone to take something on as a passion project to overcome corporate indifference!

Edited January 2 by zzip

[+Zeptari]

7 hours ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

4) I love arcade games and games of a similar design philosophy.

Welcome home. 😄

 

7 hours ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

I'll stick with the disillusioned and/or nostalgic Gen-Xers, thanks.

Yup. That's a lot of us here.

[leech]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I did just see that there was a kid who finally 'beat' Tetris on the NES.  He got far enough that the game crashed on him.  If modern Atari can take something that is old like that and recreate it enough to become an esport challenge, they could perhaps get a whole lot more sales on the VCS / 2600+ going on. 

 

[Warboss Gegguz]

1 hour ago, Zeptari said:

Yup. That's a lot of us here.

I've always been called an "old soul" so it's only natural that extend to my tastes in gaming I guess, lol.

[+Zeptari]

On 12/31/2023 at 5:50 PM, Warboss Gegguz said:

I think what killed the Lynx was more its price and battery life.

I believe this to be true. And that reminds me, the EPYX catalog should be added along with Atari Games and Midway as stated earlier. I'd love to see Gateway to Apshai or Todd's Adventure in Slime World updated in a Recharged Series way.

[+Stephen]

2 hours ago, leech said:

I didn't read the whole thread, but I did just see that there was a kid who finally 'beat' Tetris on the NES.  He got far enough that the game crashed on him.  If modern Atari can take something that is old like that and recreate it enough to become an esport challenge, they could perhaps get a whole lot more sales on the VCS / 2600+ going on. 

 

Would that include spending the 35 years having people play the game almost continually on every format imaginable to man, and then beating it?  I'll be dead before then!

[Living Room Arcade]

11 hours ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

1) I lurked here for homebrew for years

2) I love atari, their games, and the 2600, as I hope is pretty clear from both of my prior replies. My dream is to see modern Atari live up to that legacy, not abandon it. That's just kind of an uphill battle atm.

3) I never grew up with any retro consoles outside of 2 games on the SNES, but thanks to emulation compilations I've been into ALL of them since I was a kid.

4) I love arcade games and games of a similar design philosophy.

5) I got a 2600+ for my dad and made an account so I could keep a pulse on updates as wells as talk with other similar weirdos.

 

The answer I gave to OP wasn't grounded in my personal feelings towards Atari, just in the general evolution of games from gen 2 to gen 3 and how the latter is much closer to modern long-form games than the former. I'm here because I'm an odd man out for my generation. Not in a "I'm not like other 'gamers'" way, but more so in an "I'm an old soul weirdo" way. I also think it takes a lot more skill to make a game that keeps people engaged for hours at a time WITHOUT a heavy narrative focus, so I think the retro and arcade focused scene knows their shit more than the David Cages or Kojimas of the world. Narrative is cool and can even elevate an experience, but it comes second to making a game that's fun to play.

 

This is getting into far deeper philosophical territory than "Modern gamers amirite?" so I'll stop, but ultimately yeah, nostalgia has little to do with why I like this sphere of gaming.

 

 

... also, as much as I may tease, argue, and bant with some of the people here (especially the more "supportive" of modern atari), Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft stans and "Pee Sea MaStEr RaCe" people are INFINITELY worse. 

I'll stick with the disillusioned and/or nostalgic Gen-Xers, thanks. There's a reason my only posts here have been on the Arcade board and the Atari boards, and NOT the modern gaming boards, lol.

@Warboss Gegguz  Thank you for your kind reply.  So, are you saying that you are not an employee of Atari?  And that, basically, you're just like the rest of us, just hanging out here because you love Atari games and like to talk about them with other fellow retrogamers?  I just find this hard to believe.  I understand that since Atari has purchased Atari Age, now we will see some Atari employees here in the forums.  And that's fine with me.  I think it's great that now we will have opportunities to give feedback directly to employees of Atari in these forums.  I just think that when Atari employees do come to the Atari Age forums, they should say they are Atari employees.  I even think that it should say "Atari employee" under their screen names and avatars every time they post in the forums.  That is fair to all and not unreasonable, is it?  

Edited January 3 by Living Room Arcade

[Cris1997XX]

8 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

@Warboss Gegguz  Thank you for your kind reply.  So, are you saying that you are not an employee of Atari?  And that, basically, you're just like the rest of us, just hanging out here because you love Atari games and like to talk about them with other fellow retrogamers?  I just find this hard to believe.  I understand that since Atari has purchased Atari Age, now we will see some Atari employees here in the forums.  And that's fine with me.  I think it's great that now we will have opportunities to give feedback directly to employees of Atari in these forums.  I just think that when Atari employees do come to the Atari Age forums, they should say they are Atari employees.  I even think that it should say "Atari employee" under their screen names and avatars every time they post in the forums.  That is fair to all and not unreasonable, is it?  

You're either trolling all of us or you haven't taken your coffee yet

[+littaum]

13 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

@Warboss Gegguz  Thank you for your kind reply.  So, are you saying that you are not an employee of Atari?  And that, basically, you're just like the rest of us, just hanging out here because you love Atari games and like to talk about them with other fellow retrogamers?  I just find this hard to believe.  I understand that since Atari has purchased Atari Age, now we will see some Atari employees here in the forums.  And that's fine with me.  I think it's great that now we will have opportunities to give feedback directly to employees of Atari in these forums.  I just think that when Atari employees do come to the Atari Age forums, they should say they are Atari employees.  I even think that it should say "Atari employee" under their screen names and avatars every time they post in the forums.  That is fair to all and not unreasonable, is it?  

 

it is a well known fact that if you ask someone if they are an Atari employee, they have to tell you.

[+Stephen]

46 minutes ago, littaum said:

 

it is a well known fact that if you ask someone if they are an Atari employee, they have to tell you.

So, Atari employees and cops are the same huh?  Good to know!

[zzip]

15 hours ago, Zeptari said:

I believe this to be true. And that reminds me, the EPYX catalog should be added along with Atari Games and Midway as stated earlier. I'd love to see Gateway to Apshai or Todd's Adventure in Slime World updated in a Recharged Series way.

There's a bunch of Epyx stuff on Steam, you can even buy Epyx Lynx titles there!    Would be nice if Atari could at least make a deal to offer these in the VCS store.

 

 

[zzip]

22 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

I don't know what the asking prices might be among console buyers but I know a few people inside the arcade industry who have tried to just to license old Midway or Atari G. IP and they were saying that it was "around $1 million" regardless the IP. That's greed for you. Eugene Jarvis has floated the idea of resurrecting SF Rush but it hasn't happened yet - likely in part due to insanely high licensing costs(I'll ask him next time I see him).  

Also when was the $1 million figure quoted?   Before latest Warner-Discovery merger?     There's been reports in the last month that Warner has a 60% chance of going bankrupt,  that could make selling off assets such as AG/Midway/Williams more likely.

[leech]

7 minutes ago, zzip said:

Also when was the $1 million figure quoted?   Before latest Warner-Discovery merger?     There's been reports in the last month that Warner has a 60% chance of going bankrupt,  that could make selling off assets such as AG/Midway/Williams more likely.

That would be really interesting for the stuff that used to be Atari Games was merged back into being part of what is now called Atari.  2024 is going to be interesting from a whole lot of angles...

[zzip]

1 minute ago, leech said:

That would be really interesting for the stuff that used to be Atari Games was merged back into being part of what is now called Atari.  2024 is going to be interesting from a whole lot of angles...

And somewhere along the line, Atari SA actually reacquired the "Atari Games" brand, but not the IP.     There was trademark filing someone posted that showed that

[leech]

19 minutes ago, zzip said:

And somewhere along the line, Atari SA actually reacquired the "Atari Games" brand, but not the IP.     There was trademark filing someone posted that showed that

Lots of great IP under Atari Games... I'm still hoping they somehow manage to get Battlezone back.

[Video]

Tetris, really? I guess I'm remembering wrong, but I thought it ended after beating level 14 or so anyways? I think the dmg version continued on, but it gets so fast you can no longer keep up with it. Lots of twitch games did that, just get gradually faster till you can't react fast enough to play further.

 

I don't remember on columns or klax, never got far on those, but Dr mario has an unofficial end if you get to 20 or so (shows an end scene and everything) but then goes on forever beyond that I think.

[Living Room Arcade]

17 hours ago, Cris1997XX said:

You're either trolling all of us or you haven't taken your coffee yet

Not trolling.  I want to ask @Albert about this when he is back from the holidays.  

[Giles N]

On 1/3/2024 at 6:25 PM, zzip said:

There's been reports in the last month that Warner has a 60% chance of going bankrupt,

What’s background for this…?

Not disputing such an estimate since I have nothing to measure it against, but could be nice to know why someone/some source, think that may happen. 
Is it Warner-everything, like including WB-studios, or (only) Warner-games?

[Giles N]

Anyway - reading the last 2 pages here, I see that the intial obsession with modern Atari games is a bit waning, - or at least a tiny bit absent from a thread concerning, well, modern Atari games…

 

[guess oldschool-gamers were considered to be already unbrickable on the subject anyway]
 

[ {    I can become un-bricked on modern Atari games if done right… at least hypottetically    } ]

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4 by Giles N

[zzip]

11 minutes ago, Giles N said:

What’s background for this…?

Not disputing such an estimate since I have nothing to measure it against, but could be nice to know why someone/some source, think that may happen. 
Is it Warner-everything, like including WB-studios, or (only) Warner-games?

It was claimed by some financial analyst

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/warner-bros-heading-towards-bankruptcy-financial-analyst-claims/ar-AA1lyK6T

 

The claim is controversial, so take it with a grain of salt

 

But if it did happen, I assume it would affect everything owned by Warner Bros/Discovery, and assets would be sold off.   If that were to happen, it might be a chance to get the arcade IP on the cheap at a bankruptcy auction,  depending on how many parties were interested.

 

But there also have been reports that Warner is interested in buying Paramount,  not a likely move for a company on the verge of bankruptcy.

[Giles N]

42 minutes ago, zzip said:

It was claimed by some financial analyst

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/warner-bros-heading-towards-bankruptcy-financial-analyst-claims/ar-AA1lyK6T

It says:

 

 «Moreover, traditional media companies have been facing heat over the last few years because of the rise of streaming services and a distinct change in consumer preferences.»

 

I get that a change to streaming services can play a part here, but ‘distinct change in consumer preferences’… really…?

 

Like what; sitting at home instead of at a cinema watching movies? 
 

check out this list of movies

 

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls565349251/

 

Does this^ represent a distinct shift in consumer preferences?

 

If so, in what ways? Content, presentation, … or just format, where they watch it…?

 

I mean… Avatar, Spiderman, Top Gun and Jurassic Park has like never been popular in movie history…?

 

… or James Bond or Godzilla or Batman… like classic Batman…?

 

Where is the massive shift in audience tastes/preferences…?

Edited January 4 by Giles N

[zzip]

4 minutes ago, Giles N said:

I get that a change to streaming services can play a part here, but ‘distinct change in consumer preferences’… really…?

 

Like what; sitting at home instead of at a cinema watching movies? 
 

check out this list of movies

 

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls565349251/

 

Does this^ represent a distinct shift in consumer preferences?

 

If so, in what ways? Content, presentation, … or just format, where they watch it…?

 

I mean… Avatar, Spiderman, Top Gun and Jurassic Park has like never been popular in movie history…?

Well there's been a string of flops lately.   Studio heads, and the media outlets that try to stay on their good side will run with the narriative that "well gee, consumer preferences must have changed, can't possibly be us putting out bad content!".   This analyst sounds like they bought into that excuse.

 

But as you point out there are some movies that have done extremely well in the last few years, people will still show up for a good movie.