Atari is finally embracing their Japanese heritage

[JPF997]

2 hours ago, digdugnate said:

Ignoring the troll bait of the OP, Atari is about as Japanese as Cashew Chicken is Chinese.

[+Fred_M]

13 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

😂 😂😂

 

I can do that too!

 

Look! Atari is Dutch!

 

 

And now Atari is German

 

 

No, wait! Atari is French!

 

 

What a ridiculous argument that Atari has a Japanese heritage! Yes, the failed 2800..... So when you meet a person and his name is Karl he must be German???

 

Häagen-Dazs ice cream sounds Danish, but is American

Ginsu knives sounds Japanese but is american

 

Here is a nice Reddit topic for you to read: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-US-based-companies-that-sound-like-theyre-foreign

 

 

[+KaeruYojimbo]

13 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

OMG! Mickey Mouse is Japanese!

 

So are the New York Yankees!

 

I had no idea! Thank you for opening my eyes to my ignorance!

[+Fred_M]

3 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

OMG! Mickey Mouse is Japanese!

 

So are the New York Yankees!

 

I had no idea! Thank you for opening my eyes to my ignorance!

😂 Stupid of you that you did not know that.

 

The Simpsons are japanese too! 😂

 

 

 

[MateusSolo]

38 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

Even hotter, hot-take. Video game magazines shouldn't review games. Or give games bad scores  I guess the NA video game crash of 1983 was a mistake. No one should have sounded the alarm against games like Chase the Chuckwagon (10/10), and we should have kept buying the slop they put out.

Wow, that's exactly NOT what I said. Reviewing games is important, as long as you have real understanding about the things you're reviewing. Trash-talking things that mean a lot to other people, not so much. That's what I said.

[JPF997]

21 minutes ago, MateusSolo said:

Wow, that's exactly NOT what I said. Reviewing games is important, as long as you have real understanding about the things you're reviewing. Trash-talking things that mean a lot to other people, not so much. That's what I said.

Don't even bother bro, this entire thread has basically devolved into snarky bad faith takes ad infinitum, trying to respond to these troll responses is a waste of time.

 

My basic points for making this thread were the following  :

 

1- Atari is a Japanese name, more specifically a term from the Japanese game Go which Nolan Bushnell loved playing.

 

2- Atari rose to prominence roughly at the same time as Japan did ( 70s/80s the Bubble era ).

 

3- Atari especially the logo is heavily featured in genres where Japan is very prominent in the setting (cyberpunk).

 

 

4- Atari collapsed in the 90s just as Japan was entering a major recession they haven't yet recovered from.

 

5-  Modern Atari isn't just focused on pleasing western audiences ( the  mistake Jack Tramiel payed dearly for ) and is now branching out and incorporating aspects of other cultures ( especially Japan ) into it's games in order to reach a wider audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by JPF997

[+DrVenkman]

7 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

Don't even bother bro, this entire thread has basically devolved into snarky bad faith takes ad infinitum, …

Seriously?!? Your entire premise is the ultimate bad take. 

 

Let go of your fantasies and get a grip on reality.

[+Fred_M]

14 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

Don't even bother bro, this entire thread has basically devolved into snarky bad faith takes ad infinitum, trying to respond to these troll responses is a waste of time.

 

My basic points for making this thread were the following  :

 

1- Atari is a Japanese name, more specifically a term from the Japanese game Go which Nolan Bushnell loved playing.

 

2- Atari rose to prominence roughly at the same time as Japan did ( 70s/80s the Bubble era ).

 

3- Atari especially the logo is heavily featured in genres where Japan is very prominent in the setting (cyberpunk).

 

 

4- Atari collapsed in the 90s just as Japan was entering a major recession they haven't yet recovered from.

 

5-  Modern Atari isn't just focused on pleasing western audiences ( the  mistake Jack Tramiel payed dearly for ) and is now branching out and incorporating aspects of other cultures ( especially Japan ) into it's games in order to reach a wider audience.

 

You seem to me like a person who has a late late late late grandmother from Ireland and because of that you call yourself Irish.

 

[+KaeruYojimbo]

19 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

 

You seem to me like a person who has a late late late late grandmother from Ireland and because of that you call yourself Irish.

 

Nah, that actually would give him Irish heritage. He's more like if I claimed Mexican heritage because I'm making tacos for dinner tonight.

[youxia]

45 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

Don't even bother bro, this entire thread has basically devolved into snarky bad faith takes ad infinitum, trying to respond to these troll responses is a waste of time.

 

My basic points for making this thread were the following  :

 

1- Atari is a Japanese name, more specifically a term from the Japanese game Go which Nolan Bushnell loved playing.

 

2- Atari rose to prominence roughly at the same time as Japan did ( 70s/80s the Bubble era ).

 

3- Atari especially the logo is heavily featured in genres where Japan is very prominent in the setting (cyberpunk).

 

 

4- Atari collapsed in the 90s just as Japan was entering a major recession they haven't yet recovered from.

 

5-  Modern Atari isn't just focused on pleasing western audiences ( the  mistake Jack Tramiel payed dearly for ) and is now branching out and incorporating aspects of other cultures ( especially Japan ) into it's games in order to reach a wider audience.

 

You make a really strong case here. Which in turn got me thinking that Nintendo should finally come clean and admit its totally Western roots.

 

1) They started as a card-making company. Everyone knows that Western people like to play cards.

2) Dragon Quest series was based on Western RPGs such as Ultima and Wizardry

3) Link's name is an English word and Zelda came from F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife

4) Mario! Nuff' said

5) Their fortunes rose and fell and rose again, just like Western empires

6) There's a verb "do" in Nintendo, I bet that's for a reason

 

I'm sure there's more, but that should be enough to convince anybody...

 

 

[+Fred_M]

25 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Nah, that actually would give him Irish heritage. He's more like if I claimed Mexican heritage because I'm making tacos for dinner tonight.

 

Personally I think it is weird that a lot of Americans are digging into their ancestry and if they find a foreign relative many generations ago they call themselves (for example) Irish. But that is, I guess, a cultural thing.

 

I am eating sauerkraut tonight, so I guess I am German 😂

 

The 5 "basic points" JPF997 is stating would make me very afraid if he was part of an American jury in court. With the slightest circumstantial evidence he will get you convicted 😂

[zzip]

Atari doesn't have much of a Japanese heritage.  It was a Silicon Valley company with a Silicon Valley culture.   Yes they took their name from the Japanese game Go

 

They published some arcade game from Namco and home versions of Nintendo games,  but that's about the extent of it.

[JPF997]

6 minutes ago, zzip said:

Atari doesn't have much of a Japanese heritage.  It was a Silicon Valley company with a Silicon Valley culture.   Yes they took their name from the Japanese game Go

And the logo, they didn't just take the name  they also took Japan's most iconic symbol the Fuji as their logo.

6 minutes ago, zzip said:

 

They published some arcade game from Namco and home versions of Nintendo games,  but that's about the extent of it.

It's never too late to start building a legacy , Sega was originally an American company that became Japanese over the course of several decades, nothing is stopping Atari from doing the same.

Edited 1 hour ago by JPF997

[Razzie.P]

52 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Nah, that actually would give him Irish heritage. He's more like if I claimed Mexican heritage because I'm making tacos for dinner tonight.

Yep, that's actually quite accurate.

[+bent_pin]

36 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

The 5 "basic points" JPF997 is stating would make me very afraid if he was part of an American jury in court. With the slightest circumstantial evidence he will get you convicted

He's not American

[+Fred_M]

19 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

And the logo, they didn't just take the name  they also took Japan's most iconic symbol the Fuji as their logo.

 

source: https://www.logohistories.com/p/atari-logo-design-history-story

 

"George Oppermann and assistant Evelyn Seto of Oppermann Harrington Inc., under the direction of George Faraco, Atari Creative Director, and Bushnell, were tasked with the redesign of the company’s logo, moving it beyond the “SA” monogram towards a more professional image.

 

Oppermann generated a range of options, and were documented in the book, The Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino. These were variations on the letter ‘A’, some abstract, others more literal. There were also dynamic compositions of lines and then what came to be known as ‘The Fuji’. As later explained by Oppermann, despite the form, the design had very little to do with the Japanese mountain."

[CapitanClassic]

1 hour ago, MateusSolo said:

Wow, that's exactly NOT what I said. Reviewing games is important, as long as you have real understanding about the things you're reviewing. Trash-talking things that mean a lot to other people, not so much. That's what I said.

You understand that SeanBaby/AVGN are characters. I'm pretty sure SeanBaby has fond memories of 2600 games (about the correct age, 48), and i know James Rolfe does for NES (44).

 

Quote

If I remember correctly, GamePro used to make fun of Atari, calling its games trash when compared to the 16-bit generation.

What's wrong with making fun of a company or it's games? People are responsible for their own feelings, and shouldn't get upset if people trash/make fun of the things they create.

 

I would say that the vast majority of Atari 2600 games are trash, when compared to 16-bit generation. If you took a random 2600 vs random SNES/Genesis/TG-16 game and sat down a random person, i would bet that 80% of the time that person would prefer to play the 16-bit game.

[+Fred_M]

35 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

And the logo, they didn't just take the name  they also took Japan's most iconic symbol the Fuji as their logo.

 

And here from "The Art of Atari", chapter George Opperman - The Logo

 

(click to enlarge)

[JPF997]

24 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

 

source: https://www.logohistories.com/p/atari-logo-design-history-story

 

"George Oppermann and assistant Evelyn Seto of Oppermann Harrington Inc., under the direction of George Faraco, Atari Creative Director, and Bushnell, were tasked with the redesign of the company’s logo, moving it beyond the “SA” monogram towards a more professional image.

 

Oppermann generated a range of options, and were documented in the book, The Art of Atari by Tim Lapetino. These were variations on the letter ‘A’, some abstract, others more literal. There were also dynamic compositions of lines and then what came to be known as ‘The Fuji’. As later explained by Oppermann, despite the form, the design had very little to do with the Japanese mountain."

This is just post modern critical theory being applied to gaming history, you aren't achieving anything using these reddit tier arguments all you're doing is tearing down Atari's origin myth replacing it with a boring/soulless Realism interpretation of history.

Edited 1 hour ago by JPF997

[+Fred_M]

13 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

This is just post modern critical theory being applied to gaming history, you aren't achieving anything using these reddit tier arguments all you're doing is tearing down Atari' origin myth replacing it with a boring/soulless Realism interpretation of history.

Just read the chapter of The Art of Atari I just posted 😉

 

"The facts we do know are here: George Opperman designed the logo for his cllents at Atari, while working at his own agency, Opperman-Harrington Inc. Atari creative director George Faraco and co-founder Bushnell were involved in the creative direction and final selection as well. But Opperman's creative process and actual intent are much less clear. In a 1983 interview with Video Games, Opperman explained the origins of the logo this way: "Symbols are Just visual nicknames that combine first letters and Interpretive design elements. I kept trying to stylize the 'A,' then I looked at PONG, their big game at the time. PONG had a center line and a force (the ball) that kept hitting its center from either side. I thought that (force) would bend the center outward. And that's what I designed."

 

This explanation was Intended to solidify Opperman's Intent behind the logo, but not all parties agree with the "official story." In other interviews, Faraco insisted the logo had no such concept behind it, and suggested that Opperman imputed this explanation after the fact. "That's all utter bullshit," Faraco said. "It's Just a design. There was none of that linguistic, storytelling crap. That's somebody's invention. He gave me a bunch of doodles, so I said 'Use this one,' and that was it."

 

For his part, Bushnell believes that Opperman purposefully offered multiple, conflicting origin stories for the logo-like the Idea that it represented a Japanese character, or its similarity to the famous Mt. Fuji."

 

So even Nolan Bushnell does not believe the Mt. Fuji story.

[JPF997]

7 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

Just read the chapter of The Art of Atari I just posted 😉

I know what's said in the book,  I  just think  that putting so much  emphasis on the rather mundane real origins of the Fuji  logo's creation takes  all the fun and  mystic away from it. 

Edited 1 hour ago by JPF997

[+Fred_M]

1 minute ago, JPF997 said:

I know what's said in the book,  I  just think  that putting so much  emphasis on the rather mundane real origins of the Fuji  logo's creation takes  all the fun and  mystic away from it. 

So you know more about the origins of the Atari logo than Atari's founder?

[zzip]

56 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

And the logo, they didn't just take the name  they also took Japan's most iconic symbol the Fuji as their logo.

Well they named it the "Fuji logo", but I haven't found any evidence that the iconic Atari logo was used in Japan or anywhere else besides Atari.

[Razzie.P]

53 minutes ago, bent_pin said:

He's not American

But it's nice to see him fully embracing his American heritage because <insert reasons here, whether applicable or not> 

[+DrVenkman]

33 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

This is just post modern critical theory being applied to gaming history, you aren't achieving anything using these reddit tier arguments all you're doing is tearing down Atari's origin myth replacing it with a boring/soulless Realism interpretation of history.

I see. So just making up nonsense like “Atari’s Japanese heritage” (which doesn’t exist anywhere aside from your imagination) is better than reality. Got it. 

 

So you admit you’re just a bullshitter. Good to know.