Added by Ryan on Nov. 21, 2008
15 comments
For the significant role that
Atari played in the burgeoning video-game industry of the late '70s and early '80s, it doesn't seem like much is known about the people who made the company what it was.
Nolan Bushnell and
Eugene Jarvis are the only names from that era that I can pull out of my skull, and Jarvis was more of a
Midway man anyway. Much to my delight,
Howard Scott Warshaw--the man behind
Yars' Revenge, as well as the game most often cited for sparking the video-game crash of the early '80s,
E.T. for the
2600--got together with a number of Atari engineers, animators, and managers, as well as Bushnell himself, to share some of their fonder memories for a DVD called Once Upon Atari.
IGN has been posting four-minute clips from Once Upon Atari (which is available for purchase on
Warshaw's website) for about a month now, and while Warshaw's corny tarot-based interludes can be real eye-rollers, the interviews offer plenty of insight into what the culture was like at Atari, where management was almost non-existent, stress was high, and pranks and casual drug use were common occurrences. It's a good way to totally destroy a Friday afternoon, and it puts to rest my doubts about just how interesting
Leonardo DiCaprio's upcoming Nolan Bushnell biopic could be.
on Nov. 21, 2008
on Nov. 21, 2008
on Nov. 21, 2008
on Nov. 21, 2008
on Nov. 21, 2008
on Nov. 22, 2008
One of the mistakes we make is to assume business is for businessy types. The recent economic climate shows that even businessy types don't understand what they're doing sometimes. It's sort of up to us, if we're really down with this capitalism thing, to get on the ball and start learning about how these things work. Then I think we'll have a more varied idea of what business models can be successful, not just the narrow outlook of folks like Mr. Suntan.
on Nov. 22, 2008
i agree completely with ahoodedfigure
on Nov. 22, 2008
on Nov. 22, 2008
on Nov. 22, 2008
on Nov. 23, 2008
on Nov. 23, 2008
on Nov. 24, 2008
on Nov. 24, 2008
on Nov. 24, 2008
My first video game system was the Atari 2600 and it came with Combat.
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