Atari Flashback

[Jess Ragan]

I don't harbor a grudge against Infogrames. I think they've shown more respect to the Atari brand name than, say, Hasbro, which spent years driving it into the ground with ultracrap like the remakes of Centipede, Galaga, and Q*Bert. Compared to those titles, Infogrames' games are masterpieces. I'd rather play twenty hours of Kya: Dark Lineage (and I have!) than even a minute of Centipede.

 

It was unfortunate that Infogrames decided to sink its teeth into Atari's most devoted fans, but it's nothing that other companies like Nintendo and Activision haven't already done. Activision was just more polite about it... instead of DEMANDING that AtariAge stop distributing ROMs of all of their games, they requested it. I think a little etiquette could have gone a long way toward preserving Infogrames' reputation with classic gamers.

 

JR

[SteveW]

Did Infogrames really crack down all that hard? I remember when it first happened, and it didn't seem too heavy handed at all. It's just that some people here took the information, kicked it around, distorted it from repeated retellings, until it sounded like Infogrames was practically sending out teams of ninjas to assassinate all the homebrew programmers. Personally, I understand that they have to protect their intellectual property. You can't sell hacked versions of someone else's game, without expecting a little trouble. It sounded more like a lawyer move than a corporate move.

[Stingray]

There are cultists that feel exactly the same way about the new Mini

 

Anyone who doubts this statement needs only to sign up for an account on the forums at minimania.com, then say anything nice about the new MINI. The classic Mini vs. the BMW MINI infighting makes the Bushnell Atari vs. Infogrames Atari look like a pre-school playground squabble.

 

-S