What was Atari's biggest mistake? To truly be inside The Vertical Blank is to ruminate on "what could have been." For Atari, there are many "what could have been" moments. What if they produced The Amiga computer? What if they released the NES? In this two-part season opener we delve into, what we believe, was the biggest mistake Atari ever made. Any mention of the games Pac-Man and E.T. for the Atari VCS elicit groans from Atari fans because they have heard the arguments before: they are "the worst ever", they "caused the crash". But what if those games were only a small part of much bigger and more fundamental mistake that Atari made in the 80's, that still has repercussions today?
Show Note Links
Atari Age Issue 1 - Pac Man Interview: https://www.atariage.com/magazines/magazine_page.php?MagazineID=1&CurrentPage=2
Atari Age Issue 1 - Word Find : https://www.atariage.com/magazines/magazine_page.php?MagazineID=1&CurrentPage=10
Atari Pac Man Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FHkMqHx5xM
Right before the Atari VCS, Star Wars toys, and Lego hit big in the 70's there was the 1977 Sears Wish Book. It's like an archive of everything "cool" before things got real. Every year in September or October, the Sears Wish Book would arrive in the mail, and our job was to circle the things we wanted for Christmas. In this episode we dive into the top-50 weird and wonderful products from the 1977 Sears Wishbook (plus some extras) You can follow along in the links below: Wishbook Pages To Follow-along: 60-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-212.html# 59-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-181.html 58-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-198.html# 57- Oops. 56-https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n_PeDI7eu0mTv1T6BVFwyowA-ZFspwJP9Yio-HV-uLk/edit 55-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-562.html# 54-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-604.html# 53-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-599.html# 52-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-479.html 51.http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-530.html# http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-338.html# 50-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-575.html# 49-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-352.html# 48-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-478.html# 47-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-477.html# 46-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-418.html# 45-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-443.html# 44-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-444.html# 43-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-468.html# 42-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-503.html# 41-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-410.html# 40-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-521.html 39-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-511.html 38-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-504.html 37-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-435.html 36-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-408.html 35-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-501.html# 34-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-506.html# 33-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-584.html# 32-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-580.html# 31-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-404.html 30-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-617.html 29-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-542.html 28-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-528.html 27-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-542.html# ...
In this two-part series we delve deep into Star Wars (or Star Wars:A New Hope for those who didn’t see the movie in the summer of 1977). We examine the movie’s affect on us as 70’s kids and how Atari’s 1983 coin-operated “Star Wars: The Arcade Game” finally gave us the chance to be Luke Skywalker. See the photos from Sept. 26th, 1977 here: http://www.8bitrocket.com/2019/09/22/s22es2e11-star-wars-and-atari-in-the-vertical-blank-part-1/ References: -Coin Connection, May 1983 -Jed Margolin, Ed Rotberg “First Person Space War Memo” Dec 21, 1979 http://www.atarigames.com/safestuff/fpswidea.pdf -Dane Flansburgh former Project Archivist at The Strong https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/play-stuff/2015/07/star-wars-and-atari-documentation-of-a-classic-arcade-game -Jed Margolin, Atari VAX Email March 7, 1983 Mike Halley Interview http://www.atarigames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218:july-1983-mike-hally-interview&catid=14:news-articles&Itemid=5 https://www.jmargolin.com/vmail/Stat82.txt -Jed Margolin “Unit Vector Math For 3D Graphics” https://www.jmargolin.com/uvmath/uvmenu.htm Mike Halley Interview http://www.atarigames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218:july-1983-mike-hally-interview&catid=14:news-articles&Itemid=5 Lucasfilm memo to Atari Star Wars development team http://www.atarigames.com/safestuff/lucasstarwars.pdf - (Internal Atari email, Jan. 31 1984) https://www.jmargolin.com/vmail/Vax84.txt -(Internal Atari email response, Feb 1, 1984) https://www.jmargolin.com/vmail/Vax84.txt -Michael Blanchett, Electronic Fun, Nov. 1983 -Jostik, Nov. 1983 -Bill ...
From 2019: The best @#$! Chrustmas Ever!The Season 2 finale of Into The Vertical Blank. In this episode we pull out all the stops and explain exactly why Atari means so much to us. This honest, naked, all-cards-on-the-table, frank episode includes an Eponymous Story named "The Best #*@! Christmas Ever" that tells all. There is also discussion and a remix that incorporates the entirety of Season 2. This is probably not the final episode ever of Into The Vertical Blank, but if it was, we'd be satisfied that we achieved what we set out to do: exorcise the demons of our past and discover why we are here in the first place. ...
