Author Topic: Atari is going down...  (Read 6570 times)

Offline Pugnate

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Atari is going down...
« on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 10:56:14 AM »
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6182469.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Quote
Atari running out of quarters?
Publisher expresses "substantial doubt" about its own future in belated earnings filing; revenues shrink to $10M as losses rise to $12M.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Nov 7, 2007 12:04 pm PT

The Atari name has been tied to periods of tremendous success and financial failure. It is currently weathering a rocky couple of years that has seen the Infogrames subsidiary cease all internal development of games, sell off valuable studios and properties, institute wide-ranging layoffs, repeatedly flirt with delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange, fight to retain the lucrative Dragon Ball Z license, and unexpectedly overhaul its board of directors, much to the chagrin of some investors.

Now the publisher isn't sure if this is a slide from which it can recover. Last month Atari announced a change to an existing line of credit. However, in its just-filed report for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2008, Atari said the maximum amount it can borrow through the agreement won't even provide the funding it needs to make it through the current holiday season. Atari management is looking for additional financing, though by the company's own account, there's no guarantee it will materialize.

"The uncertainty caused by these above conditions raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern," Atari said in its filing. The publisher is considering another round of layoffs and suspended development on multiple games to save some money.

"The above actions may or may not prove to be consistent with our long-term strategic objectives, which have been shifted in the last fiscal year, as we have discontinued our internal development activities and increased our focus on online and casual gaming, among other things," the filing reads. "We cannot guarantee the completion of these actions or that such actions will generate sufficient resources to fully address the uncertainties of our financial position."

The filing was actually the publisher's belated quarterly report for the three months ended June 30, 2007. For the quarter, Atari brought in $10.42 million in revenues, down from $19.47 million for the same period the year before. It also saw its net losses spike to $11.94 million from the prior year's $7.30 million shortfall. At the end of the quarter, the company's total assets measured $34.99 million.

While that is sad, some guy's comment really made me chuckle:

Quote
hwatney:

Aw come on everyone! Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! I say we all pitch in $20 a piece and buy Atari ourselves! We can sell tee shirts, maybe Bono can hold a benefit concert...Brangelina could show up...it'll be great! Who's with me?

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #1 on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 11:24:56 AM »
Quote
Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

It was funnier when Belushi said it in Animal House.

The only longterm survivors in the gaming industry seem to be the rats that can leap from one sinking ship to another as they all sink at different rates.

Offline scottws

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #2 on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 11:27:02 AM »
Atari has already died a bunch of times already.  Isn't current-day Atari really Infogrames?  I never really understood that decision.  Atari is more of a household name, but at the time Infogrames took over the name I personally thought "Infogrames" brought better thoughts to my head than "Atari" did.  I never understood that decision.

When I hear "Atari," it makes me think of old 80's U.S. publishers like Acclaim, Williams, and Midway that are all crappy and/or defunct now.  The only U.S. publisher left from the 80's that has a good name is Activision.

Offline Xessive

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #3 on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 12:02:49 PM »
Didn't this happen years back right after Atari developed the Jaguar? That was a funky console.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #4 on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 01:34:48 PM »
But then Atari became a publisher. They published NWN, Ikaruga to name a few.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #5 on: Thursday, November 08, 2007, 03:08:50 PM »
But then Atari became a publisher. They published NWN, Ikaruga to name a few.

Wait.

Someone bought Atari before NWN got published, right???
Infogrames was it?

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #6 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 12:20:24 AM »
Atari is Atari in name only.  Anything Atari ever did has nothing to do with the company that exists now.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Xessive

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #7 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:43:26 AM »
Atari is Atari in name only.  Anything Atari ever did has nothing to do with the company that exists now.
The 2600 was a long time ago ;D

Offline nickclone

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #8 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 06:02:06 PM »
It was funnier when Belushi said it in Animal House.


Forget it, he's rolling.

I say let them die, as its been stated in this thread, Atari isn't the same company it was when my ancestors were playing videogames. The name is only nostalgic now, let it go and die before its dragged through the mud even worse.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #9 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 07:17:44 PM »
Ancestors . . . *sigh*  Do you realize I'm the only person here who is older than videogame history?  Not only that.  I'm old enough so that I could have played and understood any videogame ever created when it was new.

I got the Sears TeleGames equivalent of the Atari 2600 when it was in full swing.  That started the obsession.  I had played Pong, Breakout and Space War before, but those were hardwired consoles.  The 2600 opened the door to endless variety with cartridge games.  I ended up passing the console and all my games on to my nephews, and they didn't even really want it.  They got NES not long after.

Offline nickclone

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #10 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:17:32 PM »
Ancestors . . . *sigh*  Do you realize I'm the only person here who is older than videogame history?  Not only that.  I'm old enough so that I could have played and understood any videogame ever created when it was new.

I got the Sears TeleGames equivalent of the Atari 2600 when it was in full swing.  That started the obsession.  I had played Pong, Breakout and Space War before, but those were hardwired consoles.  The 2600 opened the door to endless variety with cartridge games.  I ended up passing the console and all my games on to my nephews, and they didn't even really want it.  They got NES not long after.

Woah, don't take what I said as disrespect. I'm just saying that just because a company has been around for a long time doesn't mean it shouldn't die. Atari did their part back in the day, now they make crap games. Its time for them to either stop making crap or move on.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #11 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:35:14 PM »
They don't even make games.  They're strictly in publishing, as far as I know.

And I don't think our gaming ancestors were the ones to play Atari... a lot of us did.  It was the first thing I played, though not the first I owned, and I had a Vectrex machine, too.

Man, now that I think about it, I'm really, really fucking sad that I don't have that anymore.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #12 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:44:47 PM »
Woah, don't take what I said as disrespect. I'm just saying that just because a company has been around for a long time doesn't mean it shouldn't die. Atari did their part back in the day, now they make crap games. Its time for them to either stop making crap or move on.

No no.  You weren't even speaking about me.  How can I take offense?  And I really am old enough to be your dad.  That's all there's to it.   ;D

The current Atari is definitely nothing like the innovators from 30 years back.  I feel no ties to them at all, as I once did.  They really did move me into the professional direction I took, for better or worse.


Offline TheOtherBelmont

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #13 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:52:32 PM »
That's cool of you to post that and that you got to work with them back in their glory days.  Does that say Cribbage on the bottom of the brass plate?  I've never even played the real life version of that game before.  Also why does it say Consumer?

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #14 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 08:57:10 PM »
Tell me they gave you that for Lord of the Orb.  Because that is the best game ever made.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #15 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 09:08:34 PM »
Hahaha!  Thanks man.  It feels great to be appreciated.  :)

The award is for Cribbage.  It does say "Consumer, Summer 1982".  $3000 in Atari hardware and software came along with that.  Cribbage was programmed in BASIC on a membrane-keyboard 400 with an off-brand upgrade to 32 KB or RAM (from 8 ) and a cassette drive.  The prize made it possible for me to get an 800 with 48 KB or RAM, an 88-KB floppy drive and the Atari 6502 macro-assembler.  That made Lord of the Orb possible (which is completely written in assembler).

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #16 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 09:10:32 PM »
Then I owe a debt of gratitude to that prize.  No joke, I have the game on my PSP right now.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #17 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 09:17:21 PM »
Whoa, whoa...
Did I miss something???
What is this Lord of the Orb game?
And did Cobra make that?

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #18 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 09:22:26 PM »
I cut that image down by a factor of 4 to keep the size reasonable online.  This is the plate at full res.



By the time I finished Lord of the Orb, the end of the era was at hand.  It got published by ANTIC magazine, and never did very much commercially.  1983 was a sad year.  I got my first "real" job in '84, working with PCs and Apple II+s.  Atari was pretty much on the way out.

Edit:  D, it's an Atari 800 arcade game similar to PacMan and Tutankam.  I wrote it in late '82.  Here is a RAR of the bin file.  You will need an Atari 800 emulator to run it.

Offline scottws

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #19 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 09:52:53 PM »
Hahaha!  Thanks man.  It feels great to be appreciated.  :)

The award is for Cribbage.  It does say "Consumer, Summer 1982".  $3000 in Atari hardware and software came along with that.  Cribbage was programmed in BASIC on a membrane-keyboard 400 with an off-brand upgrade to 32 KB or RAM (from 8 ) and a cassette drive.  The prize made it possible for me to get an 800 with 48 KB or RAM, an 88-KB floppy drive and the Atari 6502 macro-assembler.  That made Lord of the Orb possible (which is completely written in assembler).
My friend has the cassette drive too.  It would take ages to load games off that thing.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #20 on: Friday, November 09, 2007, 11:10:42 PM »
Holy shit Cobra. I had no idea.

This is like one of those movie moments where the young rookie discovers that his newly made friend used to be a hotshot back in the day.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #21 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 06:57:09 AM »
Cobra, you are just too damn cool, man!

I'mma have to find an A800 Emulator and check that out!!

Offline Xessive

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #22 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 07:16:27 AM »
I've always been aware that Cobra is arguably the most experienced among us but DAAaaaaamn! That's amazing man!

haha I was barely a year old, drooling and pooping my diapers, and you were winning awards! ;D

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #23 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 10:28:23 AM »
Oh, jeez.  Thanks guys.  I know I talked about this once before, though this is the first time I post a pic of that award.  I guess you missed it.  I appreciate the kind words, very much.  It's been so long now that it seems surreal.  Everything has changed so much.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #24 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 10:47:59 AM »
Cobra if you know currently used languages, you should start coding again.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #25 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:19:40 AM »
*Sigh*  C++ is still current, isn't it?  I can pick up anything quickly enough, and this is really what matters, not that businesses know that.  Companies want you to walk in the door with exactly the right experience in the right 17 different disciplines all at once.  The worst thing is that headhunters don't want to talk to me.  Being out of the field for several years seems to be like death.  I tried last year in New York, with someone who a friend of the ex's family referred me to.  He was very nice and tried to be helpful, but the bottom line was that he could not present me to any clients.  I had similar, and shorter, rejections following that.

My way back in probably involves working for myself in some fashion.  But I know nothing about business.  I have no business sense at all.  It's clear to me now that software coding is a young man's profession, and it's not meant to be a lifelong career.  It should be used as a stepping stone to something else.  What that means to someone at this stage of life I can't really say.  I have not been stepping across those stones.

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #26 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:24:14 AM »
LET'S MAKE A GAME BITCHES! WITH NINJAS AND PIRATES AND NEKKKID WOMEN!

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #27 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:25:45 AM »
Hahaha!  I'm down for dat!

Offline Pugnate

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #28 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:26:42 AM »
I am quite frustrated that I can't help somehow. Your talents must be put to use.

edit:

As for the business aspect of it, I know that if you have a good product, someone wise enough will always invest in it.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #29 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:33:32 AM »
Thanks for thinking of me, really.  Imagine the frustration at this end.  I've been through a succession of hard knocks which I have not been able to field well at all.  I admit to being apathetic at this point.  In other words, I've stopped fighting for myself.  After the fists got bloody enough against the bricks, I've sort of let things happen as they will.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #30 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:40:28 AM »
Well, if you ever become interested in independent game development, I can't help with coding or art, but I *can* come up with good gameplay ideas, write a good yarn, and throw together decent music.  And that's said in all the (relative) seriousness that it can be.  Nobody's creative talents should be wasted, and I think between you, idol, and myself, there's an awful lot of creative juice to be squeezed.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #31 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 11:44:42 AM »
Assuming all the art, technology, story, and game design talents can be covered, how would you envision a very small concern working in the gaming industry.  It would be going up against the huge behemoths that dominate and get all the market share.

Offline idolminds

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #32 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 12:17:50 PM »
Dont aim at the behemoths. Indie/casual games seem to be doing quite well.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #33 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 12:22:20 PM »
Exactly.  You don't aim high, you aim at making something fun in the lower arenas.  Trust me, the casual zombie game market is still looking for its magnum opus.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #34 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 12:38:52 PM »
I casually looked over on youtube for Lord of the Orb, not expecting anything.  Shock and awe.  I found a vid of someone actually beating the game.  The difficulty of that last level is brutal.  He got down to his last dart and almost completely out of life.  (Time and shooting the baddies both drain life.)

Offline idolminds

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #35 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 12:54:49 PM »
Casual zombie game. Hmmmm...

Dont know if you checked it out last night, but try Zombie Engine Test. For a simple test its rather fun. Also Rat Cave, which uses the engine to create an actual game. Very simple but rather cool. I could see building a really cool zombie game using similar mechanics.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #36 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 02:17:46 PM »
Rat Cave is broken on my system.  The cursor only comes down about 3/4ths of the way.  Switching to window shows that he's screwing up coordinate calculations.  The Windows cursor is much lower than the game cursor, and the window is partially above the display (and I can't get to the title bar, assuming there is one, to try and bring it down).

Edit: I tried the engine test.  I don't know.  I can picture it with real graphics instead of rectangles and dots, but I can't see a lot of commercial viability even so, even in the casual market.  Would anyone plunk down $10-20 on something with these mechanics, do you think?  I guess if it's suitable for frenzied activity with lots of things happening at once, maybe.  I was not terribly impressed by Cottage of Doom, and if that's the sort of thing we're going to be able to do with this engine, I'm skeptical.
« Last Edit: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 02:44:22 PM by Cobra951 »

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #37 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 03:21:21 PM »
Heh, I loved the engine test, but didn't try the rat one.  Then again, I'm rather a sucker for shooting zombies.

Honestly, what I've always wanted to try is writing the deepest, most literary story that I could possibly write, and putting that into a visually expressive but simplistic 2D game.  Think something along the lines of the first and second GTA games, or maybe that old Mageslayer gauntlet clone by Raven, or that other game that used the same engine, I forget the name.  But basically: just fully embrace the mediocrity of the technology and then glaze it with layer upon layer of story and character as you cook it.  The joys wouldn't be graphical (though again, I think you can do much stylistically if you plan carefully), but would be entirely in the realms of fiction and mechanics.  That's what I'd love to do.  Keep sizes small, don't throw in voice acting or whatever (or keep it minimal), and just instead focus on what you know your strengths to be.  I always want things like that for my PSP and such.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #38 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 03:52:16 PM »
Well Cobra, Crimsonland wasnt much more than whats in that zombie test and it did quite well for itself. A more freeroaming Crimsonland-style game with zombies would be pretty cool. Explore a city, find weapons, kill zombies, attempt to locate some way out.

But I wasnt suggesting using that engine, just using it a simple gameplay demonstration. It'd be fairly easy to expand on it.

But you'd be amazed at what people buy. Bejeweled, anyone? Or Alice Greenfingers. That game is pretty crap but quite popular. Seriously, play the demo and tell me if you'd pay money for it. I'll give you a hint: you wouldn't.

Que, we totally need to do the point-and-click adventure thing. I know we could make something kickass.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Atari is going down...
« Reply #39 on: Saturday, November 10, 2007, 08:29:26 PM »
LET'S MAKE A GAME BITCHES! WITH NINJAS AND PIRATES AND NEKKKID WOMEN!

Something's missing....

...Like vampires and zombies!!!