Albert Posted July 26, 2004 Share Posted July 26, 2004 Any fans of the 7800 will want to check out the recording of a talk at the recent Vintage Computer Festival about the 7800, given by Curt Vendel and Steve Golson of GCC. Here's the news blurb I just posted to the events forum: Applefritter.com has posted recordings of the talks that took place at the Vintage Computer Festival just over a week ago in Boston. One of the talks covered the Atari 7800's 20th Anniversary, and was presented by Curt Vendel of Atarimuseum.com and Steve Golson, one of the original designers of the 7800. The presentation and accompanying slide show covered the history of GCC (the company that designed the 7800 for Atari, as well as many 7800 games), Atari, and the 7800. Sitting in the front row of the audience were 10 former GCC employees, who provided additional insight during the presentation. You can listen to the full talk here, and can find more talks from the Vintage Computer Festival here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Fantastic panel. Thanks for alerting us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 A few words about the encryption might have been nice, but basically it was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwiliteZoner Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Does anyone have the powerpoint presentation that was shown at the show? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip_Cannon Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Wow! That was pretty cool! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Does anyone have the powerpoint presentation that was shown at the show? The slides I used during the presentation were actual 84' press slides of the console, packaging, joystick, games and then I put the copy of Time Magazine with the Crazy Otto photo and then several pages of the GCC corporate profile folder up onto the slide viewer. The presentation was taped and I will be putting some video together in the coming weeks. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Does anyone have the powerpoint presentation that was shown at the show? What if some of us want it in Flash? Quicktime? Keynote? Presentations? Death to Microsoft! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 For those interested in Crazy Otto information, here is what I've been able to find: Video Games Magazine, Feb 1982 (it's on page 2, so use the second link) http://www.gamearchive.com/General/Article...2-83DrVideo.htm http://www.gamearchive.com/General/Article...-83DrVideo2.htm And a screen shot from http://www.beercade.com/video/mspacman/mspacman.htm : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mot Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Here are some random thoughts: I wish I could have been there but better yet I wish I was a smart MIT guy in the day. I would like to know what Curt Vendel thinks about the CC2 and maybe if he has one. Also, when did Curt Vendel have his son play the 7800? (Because my son is 4 and he likes playing Adventure, Cookie Monster Munch but right after that he wants to shoot ducks in Duck Hunt on the NES). I was thinking about no new sound chip on the 78 and if anyone in the day though about having a sub cart (like the High Score cart) so you could plug a cart with a Pokey into the 78 and then plug in a cart that used the pokey into that cart. I didn't know the high score cart knew when you had a trackball vs. joystick. I remember back in the day seeing people play Missile Command for as long as they wanted on one quarter. (but I was busy playing Centipede.) And of course there is the whole thing about “I wish you had the ROM’s for Crazy Otto”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LU8 Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 I really enjoyed that talk. The point about the poor 2600 games that were around before the 1983/84 crash was hard to ignore. I remember reading an article in "Fortune" magazine 7 A.P. i.e. 7 years after Pong, something like that, and they described the video game industry in 1981 and they interviewed one businessman that was getting into the software side for the 2600 and he made a comment like "there's not much too these little 2600s carts, I can get into this area an make a load of $$$" It was that mindset that brought on the crash. If all the games for the 2600 were like Klax & Oystron the crash wouldn't have happened for consoles. The other thing that stuck with me were the comments about the horrible Jack Tramiel. That narrow minded idiot really killed it for Atari fans. As was said, with the "84" Summer Olympics in the offing (Atari one of the sponsors) and a decent TV campaign, software support, the 7800 could have been the leader. All those great peripherals that never came, a real missed opportunity. Remember the news stories about angry parents when SNES came out because it wasn't backwards compatible with NES? To think the 7800 had that problem solved 7 years earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 But if you noticed, Ray Kassar had a hand in it too, by getting in trouble with the SEC, and eventually having to resign from Atari, thus paving the way for Jack Tramiel to screw things up in his own way. GCC was tight with Warner management and could have helped lead Atari out of its own arrogance, if things hadn't completely fallen apart with the Warner sell-off and the Tramiel lay-offs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LU8 Posted July 28, 2004 Share Posted July 28, 2004 Ray Kassar coasted on the success of the VCS 2600, and then when they mismanaged the 5200, which could have been a very good thing, Mr Kassar had the audacity to say the 5200 was lousy. Those people dug their own graves. And what about messing up the deal to sell the famicom under the Atari banner? Insane Atari management never sorted things out so that the hardware got fully utilized. With the 2600 it was ok because there were so many games some turned out good, but with the other consoles they never seemed to realise the importance of good software at introduction stage. The scary thing about the 7800 was that not only did the GCC team come up with the console, they also did the great games as well. Which just shows you only need a few people who know what they are doing to create something sound. Yeah, GCC were close to Warner management, the trouble was that Atari mismanaged Atari so badly Warner had to sell. I think everyone in industry at that time didn't think video games had a Pac Man's ghost of a chance, not even Warner because even they were looking at the money losses. Of all the people in the world they had to sell to Tramiel. The absolutely golden line from the talk was when it was mentioned that Tramiel eventually wanted to get people to write games for the 7800, but didn't want to pay them anything. It's just too sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 The other thing that stuck with me were the comments about the horrible Jack Tramiel. That narrow minded idiot really killed it for Atari fans. As was said, with the "84" Summer Olympics in the offing (Atari one of the sponsors) and a decent TV campaign, software support, the 7800 could have been the leader. All those great peripherals that never came, a real missed opportunity. There are two sides to every story. I appreciated hearing GCC's side and thought the insight was great. On the other hand, look at it from the perspective of "that narrow minded idiot." When he "bought" Atari, Atari had lost $2 million/day for the last year and built up one of the biggest losses in history at that time. Several of his key competitors in the software and hardware industry were folding because the industry collapsed. All of the major retail chains were left with millions upon millions upon millions of unsold cartridges. Given those criteria, I can understand why he was reluctant to invest in video games initially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 But if you noticed, Ray Kassar had a hand in it too, by getting in trouble with the SEC, and eventually having to resign from Atari, thus paving the way for Jack Tramiel to screw things up in his own way. GCC was tight with Warner management and could have helped lead Atari out of its own arrogance, if things hadn't completely fallen apart with the Warner sell-off and the Tramiel lay-offs. Well, the additional factor is that while Ray stepped down, there was a 2 month lapse in management, John Farrand was temporarily assigned and quite frankly he had the right outlook for the firm and knew what needed to be done, but unfortunately he was only kept in that position until Sept 83 when James Morgan took the position (James actually had taken it in July 83 right before Warner let Ray go (or allowed Ray to gravefully resign, bottom line Ray was fired...) So then James Morgan steps in.... shuts down all production of the XL computer line for 30 days while a decision on where product should be made (in the existing factory which cost more to produce the XL's or a new facility that was not ready yet to begin production...) Plus all projects where placed on HOLD until they could be evaluated... which meant any products that wouldve been kept were then 30 days behind schedule... the XL production and shipping for the holiday season was shot and lost, Commodore was given the 83' holiday season on a silver platter... All of this critically hurt the company, which needed to right itself so by April 84' Warner had enough and in the meantime Jack was shopping around to Mindset, checking out Amiga and having the utter nerve to say to them that he was very interested in their system, but not in their staff... and then Atari, Warner and Jack were in talks for 2 months, all the while Warner is having Manny Gerrard fly out to CA. to do an inventory of the facilities and personnel on the down-low... Morgan is working on streamlining the firm with a proposal for a new company called NATCO (New Atari Company) and from what I can gather from internal memo's, Morgan was NEVER brought into the loop that Warner and TTL (Tramiel Technologies Limited) were already 2 months into talks and then July 2nd rolls around and the company is sold, Jack is immediately on a plane to go personally examine his new prize that he bought for a song & a dance... Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted July 30, 2004 Share Posted July 30, 2004 into talks and then July 2nd rolls around and the company is sold, Jack is immediately on a plane to go personally examine his new prize that he bought for a song & a dance... I'd love to know what song he did to swing that deal So Curt when are you going to publish the definative book on Atari? I'd like to place a pre-order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LU8 Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 I still say Tramiel is an idiot. His purchase of Atari sounds like my ebay purchase of a 7800 system for $30!!(very pleased with that actually) You can't blame the 7800 system for the mistakes of the 82-84 years. Many got onto the 2600 cart bandwagon to make a quick buck, flooding the market with low quality carts. Atari also messed up big time with the 5200. I was one of the millions of 2600 owners in 1982 and Atari didn't give me a good enough reason to trade up. Tramiel's home PC mantra was "It can play games, and the keyboard is there for those curious enough to investigate", but, you can't beat a dedicated home console for games, that's what NES was and what the 7800 could have been if it had got its foot in the door first. I only found out about the 7800 system in 1989/90 when I was in the music/games section of a large store in Australia. I was there looking for 2600 carts. I don't think I was given the chance to buy a 7800 (little advertising, poor distribution). I bought PS1 to play Gran Turismo, I am sure many would have bought the 7800 to play Klax or other good games if they were ready early enough. The 7800's backwards compatiblity is great if you have loads of 2600 games, and personally the joypad controller is my favourite. And why didn't US 7800s have a built in game like export models Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy the Atarian Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 I just listened to this MP3 today and I have to say I was very impressed. I already liked the 7800 and after hearing all that it makes me like the system even more and dream of it's potential. Hopefully more will feel that way and start making more homebrews for the system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 I just listened to this MP3 today and I have to say I was very impressed. I already liked the 7800 and after hearing all that it makes me like the system even more and dream of it's potential. Hopefully more will feel that way and start making more homebrews for the system I made a CD of it and listened to it on the way back from vacation. Very cool. I'm really sorry I didn't go. Can't wait to see the video. When I heard the last part my jaw dropped. It was something like "oh buy the way. Here's a box of emproms for you Curt. I don't know what's on them." Anybody want to take a guess at what's on the emproms? Remember, GCC did 2600 and 5200 games as well as 7800 games. 7800 Crystal Castles? Rescue on frac., Eidolon, Elavator Action, Jungle Hunt, Midi Maze, etc. or could this be unknown software for the computer modual? If I could pick what games would be found it would be Sinistar, or Elevator Action for the 5200. Hopefully there is something new on them. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedijeff Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Elevator Action on the 7800 would be a dream come true. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Vinnie Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Who do you gotta sleep with from GCC to get programming info for the 7800? Cousin Vinnie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Programming info for the 7800 can be found with Google. All the 7800 programming info documents have been scanned (and available as a PDF of scans), and also as plain text. I'd search for register names (P0C1 P1C1 P2C1 OFFSET DPPH DPPL) as the most efficient way to find something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Who do you gotta sleep with from GCC to get programming info for the 7800? The tall one in the back. But it was well worth it... Seriously though, I do plan on trying my hand at a 7800 game. I want to do a Mappy clone. I think the 7800 could produce an arcade perfect Mappy. The real question is can I PROGRAM an arcade perfect Mappy... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBall Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 (edited) Who do you gotta sleep with from GCC to get programming info for the 7800? http://www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/webpage?w...ge_id=atari7800 has links to all of the 7800 information I could find (though it hasn't been updated recently). I'd also recommend taking a look at my Balldemo sample code or even SpaceWar! 7800. And don't forget to subscribe to the Atari 7800 Programming mailing list. Edited April 18, 2005 by EricBall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavv Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Course there is also the strange story that was related from the Atari developers side (think it was Rob Zdybel in the 2002 CGE atari programmers pagnel) that ray kassar personally had demanded and got a controlling interest in GCC in the whole lawsuit deal, and was a main reason why gcc got the 'sweetheart contracts' (not in terms of terms but got to do a lot of the premiere titles ie battlezone,poleposition,digdug, etcetc) and things like ms pac man being budgeted 8k isntead of the 4k that Pac Man had to be done in. gavv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LU8 Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 I would love to see Mappy on the 7800. I already play the classic Namco version on my PS1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.