| Andrew |
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Girl Watcher
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Posts: 5082
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Loc: Boston, Mass.
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Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
#353568 - 04/27/16 01:12 PM
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Andrew]
#353582 - 04/27/16 06:52 PM
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They can say "Oh, if only.." all they want, but I don't think it would have succeeded even if they HAD launched. It probably would have hurt Nintendo's launch, for that matter.
See, gaming needed time to cool down and it still required Nintendo to be somewhat deceptive in order to get the NES into the market. Atari's name was still mud, and I think no matter what they tried it would have hurt the industry more than it could help them at that point.
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Try checking the MAME manual at http://docs.mamedev.org
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Firehawke]
#353583 - 04/27/16 06:58 PM
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> They can say "Oh, if only.." all they want, but I don't think it would have succeeded
> even if they HAD launched. It probably would have hurt Nintendo's launch, for that
> matter.
>
> See, gaming needed time to cool down and it still required Nintendo to be somewhat
> deceptive in order to get the NES into the market. Atari's name was still mud, and I
> think no matter what they tried it would have hurt the industry more than it could
> help them at that point.
The whole 'crash' thing is interesting, because we really didn't experience it here in the UK.
We had a healthy and open industry for a long time, 8-bits thriving, plenty of original output. Just as much trash, but it ended up getting terrible reviews, sinking to the bottom of bargain bins and being forgotten, companies publishing good games (especially those at cheap prices such as Codemasters) gained a good reputation, as you'd expect in a market..
Piracy was rampant, yes, but it didn't seem to really stop the industry, systems had a long life-span.
That was even when the NES etc. out with everything locked down and 'seal of quality' plastered on stuff which was still really just any old shit anyway.
There were missteps, things like the Amstrad GX4000 were just a bit of a joke (all the disadvantages of a NES, none of the advantages of the computer on which it was based) but again the market rejected them and went with the better systems.
Eventually our systems just weren't good enough to complete tho, as much as something like the Amiga wanted to be able to pull off Sonic the Hedgehog, it couldn't.
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| R. Belmont |
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Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Posts: 9716
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Loc: ECV-197 The Orville
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Andrew]
#353585 - 04/27/16 07:31 PM
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For MAME purposes, it's important to remember this is the guy who went on the Crazy Otto publicity tour and then refused to give us the ROMs.
Regarding the 7800, the NES hardware was far more flexible, and based around the dominant paradigm (sprites/tilemaps), while the 7800 was more of a blitter/display list type of system. Thus, it was far easier to port arcade and SMS/MSX(2/3) games to the NES than the 7800.
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Haze]
#353586 - 04/27/16 08:34 PM
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As a kid gamer I didn't notice any crash. Arcades were always there and the home market went from Pong to Atari to secret home PC game collections to NES.
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Smitdogg]
#353595 - 04/27/16 09:43 PM
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It's a shame the 7800 failed, but by that point the company was busy self-flagellating. I never owned an NES - I jumped to a PC ASAP.
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Andrew]
#353598 - 04/27/16 11:13 PM
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Atari didn't lose the market to Nintendo. They lost the market because all systems they released, after the 2600, were crap. The 5200 failed & was retired quickly. Most planned games for it were cancelled. They made plans to release a better system (7800), but that was scrapped late into it's production. Once the NES was released, they decided to compete and finally release the 7800. But they didn't try to update the technology to compete with the more advanced game system. NES was a lot more successful because it was a better, more powerful system, and they had a lot of great games for it. The 7800 didn't feel much more advanced than the 2600 and they had a pathetic game library. Even if the NES didn't come out, the 7800 was doomed to fail.
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Re: Atari 7800 engineer reflects...
[Re: Smitdogg]
#353608 - 04/28/16 04:47 AM
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I remember buying ET and a whole bunch of other games for 99 cents at Big Lots, then I just quit gaming and collected Baseball cards until the 7800 came out. Chose that over an NES for whatever reason. At the time, I think I just wanted to play the same old games with better gfx. Played a NES a few months later and got one for XMAS. Damn was Rad Racer, Super Mario/DuckHunt a refreshing change!
Lots of good times with the NES. Games were so much deeper than anything Atari released.
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And therein lies the tale.....
[Re: R. Belmont]
#353619 - 04/28/16 07:31 AM
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> Regarding the 7800, the NES hardware was far more flexible, and based around the dominant paradigm (sprites/tilemaps), while the 7800 was more of a blitter/display list type of system. Thus, it was far easier to port arcade and SMS/MSX(2/3) games to the NES than the 7800.
Technology develops (like religion changes) or it dies.
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Scifi frauds. SF illuminates.
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I didn't notice no crash, either.....
[Re: DiodeDude]
#353620 - 04/28/16 07:33 AM
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But I recall many of the small arcades disappearing. I'm sure many of the adults noticed it, and saw it for what it was.
On that note, it was apparently a US thing - again, I say, because of Capitalism, and indignance of americans. You offered us cabbage? No, we're not eating anymore!
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Scifi frauds. SF illuminates.
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Culture General Contact Unit (Eccentric)
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