A bit of advice for Atari as a brand in 2024

[Video]

Well Atari is making a Mr run and jump for modern consoles. If it gets a physical release I'd certainly be interested.

 

More games for sure. I don't mind merch, if it ever comes back up I'd love some of those steel Atari USB sticks. Those look slick.

 

Just different folks for different folks. Shirts are easy, even I can have a short order custom made, but the games, modern are probably lrg or something. (My tempest switch says lrg) and what's the limit on say a classic console? Albert could do one off and small batches, but I assume other business have minimum orders like 1-10k or something.

 

I just find it humorous, and simultaneously sad, that something like billy butcher box (500) and each of the games independent (500, each) PRE sellout, so that's like 1k copies of each of those games, including outlaw, which is fairly common, and widely available, so there IS demand, so why not try for higher production runs? Maybe not 10k, but certainly bump it to 2k and see how it goes. Or, take how many 2600+ consoles sell and run like 10% of that for games.

[Marc Fiorillo]

On 3/7/2024 at 3:27 PM, shane857 said:

I would pay $60 for an Atari T-shirt. I would use it as a dust cover for my 2600+ to replace the generic one I currently have. 💪😂

I think dust covers for the 2600+ are a great idea!  I keep a dust cover on each of my gaming systems.

[Sean_1970]

10 hours ago, Marc Fiorillo said:

I think dust covers for the 2600+ are a great idea!  I keep a dust cover on each of my gaming systems.

I’d certainly get one. I’m currently using the plastic cover from the box with strategic cuts to accommodate cables.

 

12 hours ago, Video said:

Well Atari is making a Mr run and jump for modern consoles. If it gets a physical release I'd certainly be interested.

 

More games for sure. I don't mind merch, if it ever comes back up I'd love some of those steel Atari USB sticks. Those look slick.

 

Just different folks for different folks. Shirts are easy, even I can have a short order custom made, but the games, modern are probably lrg or something. (My tempest switch says lrg) and what's the limit on say a classic console? Albert could do one off and small batches, but I assume other business have minimum orders like 1-10k or something.

 

I just find it humorous, and simultaneously sad, that something like billy butcher box (500) and each of the games independent (500, each) PRE sellout, so that's like 1k copies of each of those games, including outlaw, which is fairly common, and widely available, so there IS demand, so why not try for higher production runs? Maybe not 10k, but certainly bump it to 2k and see how it goes. Or, take how many 2600+ consoles sell and run like 10% of that for games.

I probably would have bought the Billy Butcher box if it was available in my part of the world so agreed, there’s probably some money being left on the table depending upon how much they make on those runs and what the order multiples are from the manufacturer.

[John Stamos Mullet]

There’s a sucker born every minute…

[Rodney Hester]

18 hours ago, Varanis Ridari said:

I think even the old-school Bushnell Atari had t-shirts and ball caps though, just probably only sold (or earned as prizes with tickets) at arcades 50 years ago. I see no harm in selling that stuff online, since few of us have an authentic arcade nearby (Dave & Busters does not count).

The vast majority of the OG swag from the 70s and 80s was actually sold to employees at the company store.

 

Weird - it won't let me delete a double post.

Edited March 9 by Rodney Hester

[Albert]

Just now, Rodney Hester said:

The vast majority of the OG swag from the 70s and 80s was actually sold to employees at the company store.

Do you have a source for this?

 

 ..Al

[Rodney Hester]

15 minutes ago, Albert said:

Do you have a source for this?

 

 ..Al

Yes, the people that own it and have sold some of it on eBay.  There's also photos of the company store somewhere, with the merch on racks and shelves, though I haven't seen them for quite a long time now.

 

EDIT: I want to say HSW also touched on this during one of his many interviews, but again, this was _years_ ago...I wouldn't begin to know which one, but it's easy enough to reach out to him and ask.

 

EDIT2: Here's actual swag with the original company store tag still attached:

 

Edited March 9 by Rodney Hester

[Giles N]

Too late now: later…

 

Edited March 10 by Giles N
afterthought

[roots.genoa]

On 3/8/2024 at 3:09 PM, John Stamos Mullet said:

Well, it appears I was wrong, or at least, my opinion here doesn't line up with the consensus.

 

I'll be over here in the corner drowning my misery in Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka.

 

 

 

(well, except the children here are 50-year-old guys)

Edited March 10 by roots.genoa

[+GoldLeader]

On 3/8/2024 at 6:07 PM, Giles N said:

They could release both CDs and Stream-albums with relevant/quality sound-music: it would feel like relevant merch, both a bit ‘cool-ish’ and also a media-thing.

 

-

- - -

 

If they get NASA or Space-X (in the year 2054) to have an Astronaut wear an Atari-Logo on his/her space-suit, they’ve made history…!!! 😉😁🚀

 

- - -

 

Owell…well

Ice-gun…? What about Atari icecube machine…? Atari church-organ…? Hmm; what about an Atari synth-keyboard - something that has a huge library of 8-bit-ish sounds, synthwave, etc, but released on huge label like Korg or Roland…? That’d be cool!
 

 

 

Just chiming in to say I'd buy a Roland Keyboard (Already have 2), with an ATARI Logo!...That'd be Sweet!

[shane857]

On 3/9/2024 at 8:48 PM, Rodney Hester said:

Yes, the people that own it and have sold some of it on eBay.  There's also photos of the company store somewhere, with the merch on racks and shelves, though I haven't seen them for quite a long time now.

 

EDIT: I want to say HSW also touched on this during one of his many interviews, but again, this was _years_ ago...I wouldn't begin to know which one, but it's easy enough to reach out to him and ask.

 

EDIT2: Here's actual swag with the original company store tag still attached:

 

Cool merch 👍

[shane857]

13 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

 

(well, except the children here are 50-year-old guys)

No...50 year old kids 💪

[Video]

I will say Atari is trying though. The Atari 50th collection was a limited run of 100, and said the individual carts were 100 each, so the billy collection increased by 500%. Just appears that wasn't nearly enough.

 

Not a knock on Atari, everybody seems to fail to realize the purpose of preorders is to find interest level in games and make a production run based on that. Idk, being a weird classic console instead of modern, maybe the same rules don't apply, but with modern tech, a preorder should represent 1-10% of total sales. Even 10k copies seems a bit high, no way there's enough interest for 100k copies (though I could be wrong) but a preorder should NOT sell out, that defeats the purpose. I get the box set limit, it was supposed to be a limited run, but the non boxed set versions shouldn't sell out in preorder. Like I say, next game, try doubling production run again.

 

I wanted the games, should have ordered when I saw it, but thought erroneously I'd wait till the weekend. Heh. Yep, sold out.

 

Last Atari, probably unofficial merch I bought was a neon Fuji logo sign. Looks cool, despite really being led.

[Rodney Hester]

35 minutes ago, shane857 said:

Cool merch 👍

It really was - I'd love to have a time travel machine (and an Atari ID badge!).  😃

 

I know for certain Sunnyvale sold ball caps, t-shirts and jackets, in addition to discounted systems (console and computers), accessories and software.  I'm pretty sure the *didn't* have sneakers, but that's been remedied.  LOLOL

[Albert]

22 minutes ago, Rodney Hester said:

It really was - I'd love to have a time travel machine (and an Atari ID badge!).  😃

I'm hoping to have an old-style Atari ID badge at some point.

 

 ..Al

[Rodney Hester]

4 hours ago, Albert said:

I'm hoping to have an old-style Atari ID badge at some point.

That's actually not a bad idea at all - replica Warner-era badges that we could put our own names and pictures on would be really cool!

[Giles N]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:50 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

My bosses want me to exceed sales performance next FY, so I, along with Atari need to beat 2600+ launch sales, the only way for me to do this is to sell consoles, games and accessories that people want to buy in greater numbers. The commercial attractiveness of the 2600+ range has to grow and get better.

Do you and Atari have a synchronized plan for this?

The generation who would most naturally feel the nostalgic power of the 2600 may have other expections than the (later 1/2) generation which wanted the 7800 to have become a full-fledged competitor to the NES and SMS.

Both groups should be considered seriiusly into the potential widening-range of 2600+.
 

So, there may be quite a number of people who may just decidd they’ll pick a 2600+, once they encounter widespread information that shows them both nostalgic gsmeplay and sounds, lets them know the easy way to do firmware updates (the information of how to do this, being used as occasion for re-advertisement; how much more it can play etc), and let the 2600-folks discover the 7800-world and the 7800-generation (those who usually won’t play anything older than NES), discover the technically best stuff on the 2600.

Synchronizing such information & advertisement together with relevant re-issues, re-releases and perhaps while tapping much deeper into the homebrew-world (on the note that the 2600 and the 7800 is fully alive today) than what would be ‘common’ for a big brand (on the note that Atari take their fans, old and new, really seriously with respect, - like rock-bands often aknowledging the importance of theig fan-support at concerts or in press-releases) could go quite some way broaden the range and reach those who still haven’t gotten one.

 

Of, course, it seems the Gamestations very broad appeal also is indepted to the sheer number of titles included.

 

As a user/consumer/buyer/fan, - I would believe releasing a second 10-in-1 for the 2600 and a 10-in-1 for some of Ataris 7800 titles, which could help bring on the feeling of Atari -continuity, would go a long way to make more people interested.

 

The NES mini had 30 inbuilt games, and that was all you could do with it.

 

If the 2600+ can come in bundles where you affordably can get 30 (of more) classics to start with, and after that expand the library as much you bother, it will be create the feeling of ‘plenty to start playing’ and ‘endless to collect for’. Thats more than the NES mini can offer, and the audience ougth to know.

 

Since it’s you and Atari who’ll do this, I’ll tag @TrogdarRobusto to read this also.

 

This is just one gamers take on this.

 

But I was among those who got lots of Nintendo and Sega retro-stuff (first), only to discover my retro-world was incomplete, and finding out that throughout Ataris complex history there were old, genre-defining, timeless classics, obscure systems with hidden gems, a world full of experimental and quite original takes on games. And it felt somehow refreshing and new and really filling out the missing part. 
I am among those looking throughout Ataris catalogue of systems and games, thinking that there are planty of cool stuff here to get to grips with, only to find it a headache to get a full-on retro setup with crt-tvs and the region-limitations.

If I could have something like a fully working 2600+ and perhaps 400Mini (or an Atari 8-bit+ - yes that, double-dumper and all) back in 2017/18,  I’d be your front-line-customer.

Just thought that could make for relevant background.

 

Anyway - hope the best stuff gets out there!

 

Thanks for all the work and efforts put into making this become as good as possible and for getting more stuff out there! 👍🏻

 

Cheers,

Giles

[Glorkbot]

On 3/8/2024 at 10:32 PM, Video said:

Well Atari is making a Mr run and jump for modern consoles. If it gets a physical release I'd certainly be interested.

You can find the physical release here, for Nintendo Switch:

https://www.play-asia.com/mr-run-and-jump-kombinera-adrenaline/13/70gtkd

 

And here for PS5: https://www.play-asia.com/mr-run-and-jump-kombinera-adrenaline/13/70gtjx

[Hawkeye68]

I don't remember many Atari t-shirts and hats back in the day.  What would have been the point?  Everybody had an Atari.

[MikeM_]

I’ve never been much of a logo t-shirt kind of person. 
 

The kind of memorabilia I seem to gravitate to is more around things with a cool display potential. The Lego 2600 is a great example of desirable merch.
 

I would love to see more Atari themed Lego sets. Maybe some more mini sets based on games like the ones that came with that set. There is still plenty of IP owned by Atari that would make great mini sets. 

[Rodney Hester]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye68 said:

I don't remember many Atari t-shirts and hats back in the day.  What would have been the point?  Everybody had an Atari.

At the time, given they were only available (at least as far as first point of sale goes, and without benefit of eBay) to employees (and thus downstream to local family members of same), I'd have to assume it more or less came down to bragging rights.

 

(Standing in line at the local pizza joint)  "Hey, isn't that an Atari game on your shirt?"  "Sure is...I work there."  "HOLY CRAP!" (followed by I'm Not Worthy bows, etc.)

[JetmanUK]

On 3/10/2024 at 7:57 AM, roots.genoa said:

 

(well, except the children here are 50-year-old guys)

Hey! I'm still in the decade below! Just. 😬

[Maztr_0n]

meh, the merch is FINE, although i mainly have issues with fast fashion that kind of goes with any brand making clothing. so i wont preach "recycled thrift clothing" as i think we get the message about that. However i do think if they haven't already they should fully drop the "web 3.0/NFT/blockchain" BS, the fans who are far young like myself ALREADY know that shit is a scam and the equivalent of a 2020's beanie babies fad and the fans from the 80's probably dont even know what the fuck an NFT is and likely shouldn't, clothing i ACTUALLY see viability in compared to NFT scams, but in general i do think they should focus on their games.

The REASON i'm even here as someone who is only just 18 is because when i was younger i got an atari flashback as a kid out of the blue and played the crap out of Air Raiders, i think making their games more accessible to the general public and providing support for their products is going to keep atari alive indefinitely, because there is a difference between Out-Dated and Old-School, and Atari needs to stick to the latter and not fall into the former as they sadly have many times in the past, ensure that in 20 years that there will be another batch of younger folk who grew up with atari games via stuff like the 2600+ will be here. ^{They've already outdone SEGA's attempts at updating their old hardware anyways} so they should keep going.

[hizzy]

More hardware. The microswitch joystick was cool as heck.

[Marc Fiorillo]

If we are going to have a dream list, then I would love to see a cartridge based 5200+ with updated/upgraded joysticks!!  But after all the 2600+ issues are ironed out!