Sam Tramiel and the Atari Jaguar.

[VideoGameCritic]

[QUOTE=R. Jones]

I love how he says that the Saturn is going to have trouble competing with the Jaguar, because the Saturn is a "mess inside" and difficult program for.

[/QUOTE]

That's actually one of the more accurate points he makes.  Even Sega conceded that their dual CPU architecture had a steep learning curve.  That's why they were always saying that the games would get better in the future, once the developers learned to harness the system's power, although that never really happened.

[Zenzerotron]

I about fell out of my chair when he swore that Jaguar had the same amount of  technical-power as the Saturn and Playstation.

I also thought he was very childish and psycho about wanting to sick the law on Sega and Sony if they didn't price their systems at $500 vs $250.

[Anayo1]

Sam Tramiel's optimism and know-everything choice of words makes me laugh. He sounds like some warlord from ancient history contemplating political affairs right before he gets assasinated and his country gets overrun by another bigger, better empire. That, or an infomercial spokesperson.

[Alienblue]

...I wish I could start a campaign that sez "BRING BACK THE REAL ATARI!" the one that died under Tramiels shoe! He took the worlds best videogame company and destroyed it playing "big biz man"!

And the Jaguar "As powerful as the playstaion/Saturn"..uh. waitaminit...wasn't the JAG supposed to be 64-BIT!? ("DO THE MATH")....meaning it was TWICE AS POWERFUL as those systems (falls over laughing). Really, the jaguar was totally designed by idiots and only a half dozen decent 16-bit quality games! (again ANY system can have good games, but stuff like CLUB DRIVE and F-1 ZERO did not help this thing....nor the fighting game with the scotsman wearing a kilt!)

Nolan, you shoulda stayed....*sigh* ):

[Anayo1]

Atari Jaguar - twice the bits as competing consoles, but only a fraction of competing clock speeds.

[Funkmaster V]

[QUOTE=Atarifever][QUOTE=Funkmaster V]

[QUOTE=Atarifever]The thing is though, although they didn't save Atari, they did give us the Lynx, Jaguar, a good computer line, and they put out the 7800 which likely wouldn't have seen the light of day otherwise.  Compare that to the owners of the Atari name since them.  They're far from the worst owners of the name.
[/QUOTE]

 

Nope. All the really bad sh*t hit the fan under the Tramiels reigns. The video game crash happened before they got there but they never got the plane off the ground. Nintendo wanted to be distributed by Atari... they said no. They were the ones that buried the 7800 and stepped on the 2600's throat. Good computer line? What happened to Atari computer line? The Jaguar was also a huge flop with many many lousy games... I'm sorry, I don't see how they did that well in the home market under those idiots.

 

The Lynx was awesome, though. I guess they got lucky on that one... even though some other company designed it.

 

Vinnie

[/QUOTE]
Yes, but name me a group of owners since who has even risked anything like a 32/64 bit system, a handheld, a computer line and distribution of another system under that name.  I'm not saying they did well; I'm just saying that at least then they were still trying something.  The best thing any Atari named company has done since is the Flashback 2, and even the Tramiels were pushing 2600 games.  I
Atari was dead during the crash and I'm sooo sure were anyone else in charge of the company when Nintendo came and said "hey remember those videogame things that crashed awhile ago?  Remember how much money everyone lost on those? Remember how you couldn't give them away?  Yeah, how'd you like to bank the company on them instead of the personal computer market, which seems to be doing well", then they'd have said "saddle up Nintendo, let's ride!"  Hindsight lets us think turning down a big ugly toaster toy that was in a dead market was a bad idea.  It isn't lke the NES was already enjoying record North American sales and Atari said "no thanks, we hate money".  
[/QUOTE]

 

Brutha, I love you... but I just think you are wrong. The Atari 2600 sold over ONE MILLION UNITS in 1985 and Atari released NO GAMES FOR IT. They did not support the Atari home consoles at all until Nintendo came in to whip ass

 

Vinnie

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=Funkmaster V]

 

Brutha, I love you... but I just think you are wrong. The Atari 2600 sold over ONE MILLION UNITS in 1985 and Atari released NO GAMES FOR IT. They did not support the Atari home consoles at all until Nintendo came in to whip ass

 

Vinnie

[/QUOTE]
Well how can I continue an arguement when you start off like that.  You had me at hello, Funkmaster... you had me at hello.

[Alienblue]

..I'm GLAD someone finally pointed out that fact about the NES. As much as I hate the tramiels, if anyone here had been CO of a company right after "the crash" and was approached by Nintendo asking them to risk all on ANOTHER video-game, I doubt one single person would take a chance. I doubt Coleco, Mattel or ANY other company would jump back into a dry pool at that time! Nintendo was able to release it (very smartly and we forever thank them) because the Famicom was still doing well; even if it bombed they still had Japan. Remember, when PAC-MAN came out everyone at the show thought it was a DUMB game! Every company but Bally bet their shirts on RALLY-X at that show (and how well we all remember that!) Hindsight is easy...still, the tramiels never DID support the 7800 the way they should have. It COULD have competed with the NES had they not been so scared of losing money, and releasing OLD already-made games instead of new ones!

[PacMan000]

Atari had just won lawsuits against Sega and Nintendo, so I can understand why Sam Tramiel would threaten to sue Sony for dumping. I can also understand why Atari didn't do sue Sony. Sam Tramiel had a heart attack, and Jack Tramiel didn't want to run a company that was bleeding cash.

Of course Sony could have avoided a dumping charge by lowering the PS1's price in Japan. Does someone know if they did that?

[PacMan000]

[QUOTE]

Originally Posted by The Video Game Critic

Quote:

Originally Posted by R. Jones

I love how he says that the Saturn is going to have trouble competing with the Jaguar, because the Saturn is a "mess inside" and difficult program for.

That's actually one of the more accurate points he makes.  Even Sega conceded that their dual CPU architecture had a steep learning curve.  That's why they were always saying that the games would get better in the future, once the developers learned to harness the system's power, although that never really happened.

 [/QUOTE]

Yes, but the Jaguar was also supposed to be hard to program. In fact, if I were to "Do the Math" as Atari urged in the Jaguar's marketing campaign, I might conclude that the Jaguar is harder to program than the Saturn (5 vs. 4 processors).  Of course you're the technical expert, not I.

P.S. Sorry for bringing this back to the top (again), but I like Atari, and I like obscure/failed game systems.  When combined the two topics are too much to resist.  Also, I still don't know if Sony changed the PS1's Japanese price when they released the system in America.  Does any one at least know where I can find the information?