Considering Atari's Console Woes...

[mos6507]

I think mascots are an outdated concept.

 

It didn't matter pre NES, and it didn't matter when the Sony Playstation came on the scene with no Mascot (they tried using Sophia from Toshinden but that was't really serious).

 

Mascots seemed to matter when kids wanted to play 2D platformers like Sonic and Super Mario Brothers more than any other genre. It's like they looked at videogames as interactive cartoons. While 3D platformers are around today, the dominance of that genre is gone. The gaming demographic has also gotten older in the last 15 years.

 

Sonic lost most of its luster, for instance, during the Dreamcast's run. Nobody really cared anymore about that icon.

 

Nintendo still clings to Mario, though, but that just illustrates their difficulty responding to changes in the industry.

 

If you are talking about branding, branding is merely a reputation for a company. It doesn't have to be a mascot per se. Sony developed a representation for good 3D games and variety in titles. Atari had a good reputation with arcade action type games before.

[ubersaurus]

Let's go make Nolan Bushnell the atari mascot ;p

[Lemmi]

if ya ask me i think sony was trying to make Crash bandicot(sp?) there mascot thats the only commercials that stick out in my mind and they played them alot

[Malix]

Good point Lemmi, Crash was an attempt at a mascot!

[StanJr]

Kind of glad that failed. Crash and I had a love/hate relationship. I loved the commercials (that cat in that suit was obnoxious as you could get), but hated the game and overall concept.

I for one, do not really pay much attention to mascots, but when they start to damage a company's rep, then it bugs me.

 

San Diego Chicken, Stan

[Adriana]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet, but those janky-looking Space Invaders were -- for many years -- the Atari mascot. I mean, you talk about establishing a mascot to nail down your supremacy in the marketplace, and those Space Invaders did it. THAT'S what took Atari to the top of the heap. Before 1981, it was just a little gaming console. After Space Invaders, Atari became synonymous with home videogames. ("I want an Atari!") AND they were INSTANTLY recognizable, just as much as the Fuji logo.

 

BTW, speaking of Atari logo shirts, I have a cute red girly one with a glittery Fuji logo on it, but I'm always on the look-out for others. If anyone sees any other Atari shirts that are NOT size large and up -- or white -- please let me know!

[mos6507]

I always thought one row of the invaders looked like the McDonalds "Fry Guys".

[Mindfield]

Problem is, officially, those Space Invaders are a Taito property. Atari were simply the first to exclusively license the arcade title for conversion to the VCS. Although the excitement of the time of being able to bring a killer hit home probably gave the VCS version of Space Invaders more notariety than its real arcade counterpart, it's still a conversion of a Taito title, so I couldn't consider it any kind of official mascot. Plus, there's no real singular, identifiable character in there. A collection of bug-like invaders, and your little mobile missile launcher. Definitely not huggable plush material. :-)

[StanJr]

Huggable Plush really grates my cheese! I hate it when people take something and make it all cuddly and loveable. I'd go nuts if somebody made a plush Space Invaders space ship (like the one on the label).

 

if its not cuddly and loveable on its own, don't stuff it and expect me to love it! Stan

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by StanJr:

Kind of glad that failed. Crash and I had a love/hate relationship. I loved the commercials (that cat in that suit was obnoxious as you could get), but hated the game and overall concept.

---

 

I wouldn't say that Crash failed as a mascot, it's just there are so many big titles on the Playstation that it's difficult to choose just one mascot to represent the platform. I think we're well beyond mascot's for platforms anyway. Maybe when a system is first launched there might be a game with a predominant character that a company will push for a while (Mario 64, anyone?) but as more titles are available the need to push that mascot lessons. Also, third-party developers aren't going to be too crazy about pushing a mascot unless it's a character from one of their games.

 

And I really enjoyed the Crash Bandicoot games. They sure did frustrate me at times, but I always came back for more. I'm really looking forward to the first Playstation 2 Crash title.

 

..Al

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rhindle The Red:

You could always sell AtariAge t-shirts.

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Heh, I like your mockup of the AtariAge t-shirt. We need to create a high-resolution logo that we can use on such creations (as well as mice, mugs, hats, boxers, bumper stickers, pens, sheets, shower curtains, license plate frames, belt buckles, watches, kites, umbrellas, postcards, and so forth).

 

 

 

..Al

[Rhindle The Red]

quote:

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Originally posted by Albert:

Heh, I like your mockup of the AtariAge t-shirt. We need to create a high-resolution logo that we can use on such creations (as well as mice, mugs, hats, boxers, bumper stickers, pens, sheets, shower curtains, license plate frames, belt buckles, watches, kites, umbrellas, postcards, and so forth).

 

 

 

..Al

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CafePress will do most of that stuff for you. And you don't have to carry any inventory.

 

And as for the newCrash Bandicoot, it appears to be just more of the same, only prettier. You might want to wait for the GameCube version, as it'll look just as good (if not better) and probably load faster.

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rhindle The Red:

CafePress

will do most of that stuff for you. And you don't have to carry any inventory.

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Yeah, I've looked around on their site before but they're somewhat expensive so you don't make very much profit on items sold unless you charge quite a bit for your items. If the goal is just to give people an opportunity to buy AtariAge-branded merchandise, then that's cool. If we want to do that and make a little bit to help support the site (which we've spent thousands of dollars on), then I'm not sure CafePress is the way to go. We need to research it a bit more. But we'll definitely do t-shirts and other AtariAge merchandise soon enough.

 

As for Crash, I didn't know they were doing a Gamecube version. Is Naughty Dog doing both versions? I figured Sony had exclusive rights to the Crash franchise. Interesting if that's not the case.

 

..Al

[StanJr]

Oops! I forgot about Crash Team Racing! That is the best cartoon racing game for the PSX. I've wasted many many hours on that thing. So I guess there is a Crash game I like.

[Atari-Jess]

Hmm nolan bushnell as a mascot....

[Rhindle The Red]

quote

But we'll definitely do t-shirts and other AtariAge merchandise soon enough.

 

That's cool. As always, if you need design help, let me know...

 

quote

As for Crash, I didn't know they were doing a Gamecube version.  Is Naughty Dog doing both versions?  I figured Sony had exclusive rights to the Crash franchise.  Interesting if that's not the case.

 

Universal owns Crash and (despite the fact that they are owned by Sony) are bringing him to all platforms; GCN, GBA, XBOX, PS2. Naughty Dog are not working on the new Crash games. The console games (at least the PS2 version) are being handled by Travellers' Tales. The GBA game is handled by Universal Interactive and will be published by Konami. The XBOX and GameCube versions are supposedly ports of the PS2 version and no announcements have been made as to who will port them.

[Inky]

Someone on another message on AtariAge suggested the AtariAge logo on the front and the adventure map on the back...

 

I'd buy THAT for a dollar!