The first time that I wrote the name Atari

[Rob Mitchell]

The first time that I wrote the name Atari .. I misspelled it!

 

I was flipping through an old math book that I had in school in fall 1977. Inside the front cover I wrote, "Altari, Inc" and then I marked it out and then I wrote "Atari, Inc. 1265 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, Calif 94086".

 

I am sure that I wrote this while reading the Nov77 article in Consumer Reports about video games and listed the Atari VCS. I wanted to get the company name and address so that I could convince my Dad that this Atari unit was the one to buy. Soon thereafter in late Oct77 we saw the Telegames Video Arcade and I recognized it as the Atari and convinced Dad to buy it on the spot!

 

Just a reminiscence here ..

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Synthead]

Heheh, that's neat. Nice story

[SteveW]

I'm glad I got my first Atari 2600 around Christmas 1981 instead of 1977 like you, Rob. Those early VCS games didn't show a lot of promise back then. By 1981, though, the quality started going up once the programmers knew the hardware better. Instead of Slot Racers, we got Asteroids and Space Invaders. I think I would have been pretty bored with the 2600 early in it's lifespan. Luckily, I got in when Activision and Imagic were just coming up.