WEBVTT - The Rise and Fall of Atari: Part Two 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.120 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from Hey there, 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.280 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and joining 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.599 me again is Chuck Bryant from Stuff You Should Know? 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.759 How do you do? How do you do? To you, Chuck. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.640 If you tuned into our last episode, you heard the 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.960 beginning of the epic tale of the rise and fall 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.680 of Atari. We talked about Atari's founding up to the 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.199 point where it's founder, Nolan Bushnell, sells the company to 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.680 Warner Communications, and now we're going to talk about where 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.000 things went from that point forward. Yeah, I should say 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.640 I almost said hello by doing my impression of the 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.639 home version of pac Man, but I didn't do it. 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.160 I appreciate that. I'll do that when we talk about 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.360 it in ten minutes. Yea, we will get there. So 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.880 nineteen seventy seven, this we were teasing it at the 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.320 end of the last episode. This is when Atari release 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:05.000 is the revolutionary and I mean that sincerely. I am 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:09.560 not being snarky. Revolutionary Atari Video Computer System a k 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:14.520 A the Atari vcs a k A. Yeah, and where 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.199 I didn't even know, but I saw that you research 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.399 where the name came from. Yeah, So all right, when 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.960 you're a company and you make stuff, you give units 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.840 part names, right, So like in a hardware store, you 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.280 might have a typical like a type of screw of 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.640 a certain length, that's a Phillip's head screw, and to 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.319 describe the whole thing would take you like five lines 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.039 of text because you're talking about the length, the type 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.039 of screw head, you know, how how close the treads are. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:42.760 Or you could just give it a part name and 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.160 then you say, I need fifteen of hc X blah 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.560 blah blah blah blah. Well, the part name for the 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:53.000 this unit, this this system was the c X to 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.240 six hundred. So they just said, all right, we're just 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:01.240 gonna call it the AY because it sounds, you know, futuristic. Yeah, 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:02.920 whereas the rest of us are thinking, like where we're 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:07.520 atari's one or two. I always thought that, yeah, so 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.280 this this is just an identifier that that makes it 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.240 easy to refer to a part. Now in this case, 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.200 it just made a really compelling sounding device. Uh. And 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:18.720 it goes on sale in the United States for a 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.160 hundred ninety nine on the low end. The high end 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.480 was to twenty nine. It chipped with two joysticks. I 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.280 guess the two nine version came with the paddles. I guess, 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.519 so I had that. I had the paddles. Yeah, I 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.800 had the paddles. There's no other way to play Breakout 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:37.919 properly without paddles. Um, and uh, it came with Combat. Yeah, 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.399 it came with one game, which was really I can't 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.840 remember actually how many variations there were, right, because they 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.000 had the tanks, they had the airplane jets. I told 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:48.480 you in the last episode. My brother and I were 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.440 playing Combat last week at his house on and we 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.120 were kind of cracking up at um. You know, like 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.079 here's one version where it's the two tanks, and then 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.799 the next version is it's the same thing, but they're invisible, 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.320 and the next version is it's the same thing, but 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.400 the bullets bounce off the wall. So that was my 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.440 favorite one. Yeah, where you could bank shots into each 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:12.440 other and or you could hit yourself. Oh I didn't. Yeah, 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:14.960 if you if you bake it, if you bank it 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.440 so that it it bounces back and hit goes through 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.800 your tank and it actually hit yourself, And that was 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.160 really yeah. And then of course they had the air 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.720 combat games of you know, you could be fighter pilots 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:27.600 or you could be biplanes, you could be that giant 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.440 whatever that was. And there were clouds in some versions 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.880 you fly behind clouds, not in other versions. So they 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.960 managed to really milk combat for many, many different versions 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.160 of essentially the same game. Yeah, And as I recall, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.280 the way you would play that is there were physical 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.600 switches on the atari itself that you you could manipulate 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.240 and get different versions as well. It was there one 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.520 that was it Like, it wasn't a menu system, right, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.400 it was. It was a menu. It was a toggle 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.400 on the front of the game, just toggle through the 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.640 different versions, which is kind of interesting. Like it was 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.440 the actual console itself that had physical switches in the 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.800 upper down position and that's how you could determine which 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.080 version you were playing. And um, yeah, so those days 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.720 of having that video screen with the menu where it's 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:13.560 like start, load game, save game didn't exist. And and 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.200 once that game, like we mentioned in the previous episode, 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.600 once you turn that console off, all that information disappears 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.520 because it's only in read only memory. That's right. And 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.919 I think any of us that got three quarters of 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.080 the way through Raiders of the Lost Art and someone 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:36.240 accidentally flicked the reset switch, bad Yeah, oh man, And 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.760 that and that game was one of the most complicated 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.440 Atari games that I can recall. And what we're talking 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.560 about it, Yeah, we'll save that, we'll save it. We'll 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:47.679 we'll talk on our reflections of some of our favorite 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.640 games later on. But technically the system was ready for 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.320 shipping a year before it came out, but Atari sat 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.360 on it. And the reason they saund it was causes. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.160 Something we mentioned in the last episode that that big 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.520 agreement they had with Magnavox. Part of that agreement was 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.479 they would give Magnavox the rights to anything Atari produced 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.240 within that year, and so they thought, well, if we 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.800 wait a little longer, we don't. Yeah, we won't give 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.520 them the rights to the all will retain them ourselves. 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.800 So they sat on it and released it a year late. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.120 And originally they were only going to create ten titles 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:31.880 for this thing. They thought that the market for it 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.400 would be something that would last two or three years, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:36.799 and they would just produce it for that before moving 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:38.720 on to something else, and therefore you would have more 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.680 flexibility because you could switch out titles. But they thought, well, 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.760 there's there's no real market here. We're not gonna go 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.799 beyond that. But some of the programmers started playing around 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.400 with and said, wait a minute, we have the opportunity 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.000 here to make stuff that has never been in the 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.200 arcades that that could be totally new, groundbreaking. There's a 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.320 lot more potent chill with this hardware. Like here's where 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.640 the money is. Yeah, fellas, how about two hundred titles 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.920 right that you can sell for thirty dollars a piece. Yeah, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:15.000 And so they said this sounds like a good idea. Well, yeah, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.080 but Uhara was not was not a smash hit right 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:20.800 out of the gate. No. It actually there's a couple 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.520 of years were sort of lackluster because people didn't really 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.480 get that it was more than Pong at first, and 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.680 One Communications didn't really market it well either, So there 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:32.800 was there was some some downfalls in the market. They 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:34.719 weren't a video game company, they didn't really know what 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:36.960 to do with it. And it was expensive. I mean, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.200 you know, hundred dollars that that doesn't sound like it's 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.799 expensive today, but keep in mind we're talking nineteen seventies money. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.320 You know, that's like more than seven hundred bucks for 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.200 this thing that at least at first was only going 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.560 to play ten titles. That's not that's not a big 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.159 selling point for someone who's I'm gonna I'm gonna shell 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.080 out the better part of a grand to get a 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.640 machine that can play ten games. Yeah. Remember my brother 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.160 and I how, um, you know how you would submit 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.000 the Christmas list to the to the parents. Yes, here's 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.400 what Scott wants, here's what Chuck wants. We had to share. Um, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.160 we had to both go in all in on Atari. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.440 Like this Christmas all both of us went together is 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.960 this one item. And my parents are like, all right, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.160 well you better play it. It's funny because I actually 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:28.040 got may Atari fairly close to the um not not 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.600 too long before the Great video game Crash, which we 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.760 will get to, which meant that the price had actually 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.280 come down because there was a lot of competition in 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.280 that space pretty early on. Yeah, I could remember what year, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.720 but um, I don't think it was seventy eight, but 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.960 I bet I bet it was eight. Yeah, my I 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.080 was probably closer for me. Uh so in that's when 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.680 Nolan Bushnell leaves Atari. Yeah, and we talked a little 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.280 bit in the last episode about the corporate structure at 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.240 Warners and um, how it just did not jib at 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:04.800 all with these creative sort of pot smoking hippie the 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.200 game designers, and um, he just got more and more 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:14.920 upset and discontented and or discontent discontent. He felt discontentment 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.720 to where he basically tried to get himself fired to 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:23.640 and he had a huge fight with a Warner executive 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.280 in front of the board of directors. And that was 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.400 that he was told to pack his things and go. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.360 So he leaves. Um, and uh, it was a big 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.560 bummer after that. I mean it was already sort of 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:41.199 a bummer, but him leaving was a very symbolic deal 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.000 for Atari's sort of the downfall of Yeah, some people 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.640 refer to the sale of Atari to Warner as the 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.679 first quote unquote death of Atari. Yeah, some people refer 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.719 to Nolan's departure as the first death. But at any rate, 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.320 they were kind of tied. I think it was. It's 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.920 a big change. I mean, they did happen fairly close 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.840 one another in time. He didn't last. There was a 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.559 c E. The new CEO of Attari is Ray Kassar. Yeah, 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.880 he was not well liked, but now developers no. In fact, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.679 at least his name would be used for a famous 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.600 Attori title later on. What was it yards Revenge? It's 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:21.200 just ray backwards. It's pretty yards revenge. And then apparently, 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:26.600 uh Cassar said that's clever. So it must have been 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:32.760 a few moments where at any rate, al Alcorn, Harry Jenkins, 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.920 and Roger Hector at this time begin to work on 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.920 a handheld electronic game system that used holography as its display, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.959 so so a holographic display, and it was called the Cosmos. 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:48.760 I heard of that. Yeah, it was a handheld thing. 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.280 It was supposed to have nine games with all the 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.040 game information actually on the device itself, but you would 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.679 switch cartridges out because the cartridges had the information for 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.800 the holographic display. Yeah. I had a Merlin, remember that. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.120 I do remember the Merlin, a little red. It looked 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.920 like a telephone. Yeah, and then I can't remember the 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:08.839 name of it again. If someone knows this, I know 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:14.160 you'll right in. It was a really great handheld um 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.000 that had a dial on the bottom and it was 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.040 about nine inches tall about three inches wide, and I 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.719 had a screen and it had cartridges you load had 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.680 like Breakout. I can't remember the name of it, but 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.600 it was really advanced for the time. Yeah. I did 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.640 a tech Stuff episode, a series of them. Actually about 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.760 a lot of the consoles and handheld consoles that came 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:39.359 out during this time, um, which fairly extensive but not exhaustive. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.040 We didn't can't cover everything. There's just there's a lot 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:43.839 of no name ones that sort of came and went, 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.000 Yeah ones that or or they had like, uh, you know, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.280 a very limited release in South America, and they're like 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.199 three people in the United States who have one. That 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.920 kind of thing. Yeah, I can't. I think I want 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:57.800 to say that they were both named after cats, and 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.560 one of our one of our listeners through me as 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:06.480 one of the two cat uh characters using this and 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.559 Lauren was the other one. So I've I've got I've 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.720 got that picture somewhere. Uh. Nineteen seventy nine, one of 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.719 the great arcade games of all time comes out from 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:22.920 Atari Asteroids. That's right, that's you know, fantastic game, addictive gameplay, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.560 the one that still holds up. Very challenging still once 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:30.160 you start flying that spaceship around, right because because it 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.200 actually used inertia and momentum, right, you you had to 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.160 actually turn your ship and thrust in the opposite direction 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.599 to stop yourself at the plan ahead. Yeah, the Asteroids 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.440 when you would when you shoot them would break apart 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.280 into different directions. And if you were flying around and 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.320 if you've got going too fast and those asteroids you 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.520 start shooting them, you broke apart into little sticks. They 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.720 have that little teleport button that you could use like 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.760 once a game and yeah, but that would often drop 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:56.520 you right in the path of a big asteroid. Yeah, 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.240 it wasn't necessarily a way to to save yourself. This 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.000 is also when Atari would release a game for the 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.680 home game market that that chuck, I think you have 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.080 a few things to say about. It's a little game 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:13.719 called Adventure. Oh talk about my favorite thing ever? Yes, 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:18.040 please do, let's do that. Yes, Adventure was was created 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:24.600 by Warren Robinette and it I played it yesterday online. Um, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:31.079 had a great time. Still holds up, Well, maybe it's nostalgia. 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.320 Playing a little is definite role. It does hold up 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.840 in a way though. But when you look at it now, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.080 and if you're younger, you will scoff at the square 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.880 that represents the night, and the arrow that represents a sword, 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.400 and the ducks that represent the dragons. Um. But at 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.680 the time it was, there was nothing like it there. 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.920 It was the first game that put you. Uh. It 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.720 was the first first person adventure game. Yeah, it's the 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.439 It's considered the first action adventure game ever. It spawned 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.640 a genre of games. Yeah, and but I don't think 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.000 we can get across like when we were kids playing 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.840 this game, we didn't see a square in an arrow. 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.520 We had imagination to go along with it. And it 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.160 sounds corny, but you really did, in your mind's eye 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.280 see the dragon, the red dragon, coming at you, and 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:26.640 you felt like you were the night and you had 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.720 this great big sword. So it really played on kids imagination, which, um, 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:32.520 I mean, I love the games. Now, don't get me wrong. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.720 I'm not saying you should go back and do things 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.400 like this anymore, although there are some games that have 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.960 come out recently that have more of this old school 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.280 feel to it and they're phenomenal. For example, if you 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.480 want a game that looks like it was made back 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.160 in the early this would be more like in the 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.000 early computer game era. Papers Please, Now, let me tell 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.360 you what Papers pleases, and you're not gonna believe that 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.040 this is a game. In Papers Please, you play the 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:03.880 part of a border patrol agent who reviews documentation of 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.320 people passing from one Soviet style nation to a different 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:12.160 Soviet style nation. But it's fantastic and it's done in 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.240 this style. And like I said, it's more of a 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.400 computer game style than the video game like the home 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.480 video games is very retro. But the gameplay is phenomenal. 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:28.160 The style is perfect, the oppressive Soviet music and and 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.200 uh and game. The writing in the game is fine. 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.000 So we're seeing some people who are kind of going 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.240 back to it, maybe a little later in the development 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.400 cycle and adventure, but they're going back to those basics 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.080 of gameplay is really important, and imagination can make up 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.160 for a lot of of what other people would see 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.240 as like a drawback. You know, this idea that the 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.560 graphics are not uh realistic or or or you know, 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.760 they they're very abstract. These days, I'm seeing developers say 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.600 that's not a problem. You know, that's something you can 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.040 embrace if the game is good. Yeah, exactly. And an 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.120 Adventure was that. I mean, there are three big things 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.800 that Adventure brought to the table um. There was a 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.760 large space for the first time, UHL, thirty rooms and 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.080 eight regions. Yeah, you moved from screen to screen and 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.200 it would take you into a new region with new 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.000 new things that you had to maneuver around. You could 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.760 pick up objects and drop them and move them around 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.160 and use them and manipulate them. That was a new 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.600 thing one of the time, as I recall well, which 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.480 turned out to be brilliant because it's us of the 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.240 lost Ark made things very convoluted, right. Yeah. It meant 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.600 that you didn't have to have an inventory screen. All 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.520 the action could take place within that game, like you 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.320 had to plan out what you needed, like are you 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.560 going to need the sword on that next screen? If 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.680 you don't, do you want to move? The whole point 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:55.200 of the game was getting the chalice exactly so you 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.800 might not need your sword, so dropping the sword, moving 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.960 the chalice further along might be the best thing to do. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.960 But there was also another element that could really mess 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.280 with you if you yes. The bat. Yeah, there was 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.880 a bat that would fly around and there were several 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.000 levels of difficult from three I think, and I think 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.240 the bat came out of number two. UM, but either 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.240 on level two or three, the bat would just fly 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.880 around and you would be so close to getting what 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.880 you needed, and it took work. This game time. There 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.880 was no timer, which was another genius move UM and 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.880 it would take a lot of figuring out to to 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.000 find your way through these mazes and catacombs, and sometimes 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:35.800 you would have to use this bridge to get through 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.200 a wall, and it was really pretty genius. And then 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.360 the bat would come and steal the things and steal 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.760 the thing you wanted, or occasionally it would fly away 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.280 with like a dragon, which was funny. Yeah, and then 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.560 basically then you had to go on a quest to 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:51.920 find this bat because the bat had the key to 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.200 the Black Castle. Black Castle had you know, the chalice exactly, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.400 so it was it was levels of complexity. Also, another 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.880 really cool thing about Adventure, it's the first video game 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.080 that I know of to have an Easter Egg in it. Yeah, 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.479 it is the first game. I'm reading Ready Player one 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.920 right now. Fantastic. They talk a little bit about that. Um, 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.560 there's actually a game inside Ready Player one. Oh really, Yeah, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.640 there was this game within the book itself that if 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.720 you figured it out, you could win a prize. I 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.639 can't remember the details. Yeah, that's it's actually one of 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.240 those things where they released the information that that there 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.399 was stuff hidden in the book that if you figured 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:33.480 it out, would lead you down a pathway where you 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.360 could want a prize at the end. That's pretty cool. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:40.160 It was a neat idea. Yeah, the Easter eggon Adventure 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.359 though at the time, and we'll talk about this in 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.760 a minute. With UM developers not getting credit, they didn't 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.159 get credit at the time, and so he hid a 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.040 he hit his name. Basically, there was this little invisible 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.000 dot that you can only find in certain rooms, hidden away, 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.000 and you could pick up this dot and bring it 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.159 to a certain place and it would basically take you. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.480 It would it would show his name on the screen 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:05.720 as the creator of the game. And it was the 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.040 very very first Easter Egg. Pretty neat story, really cool, 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.160 really cool. I could talk about Adventure for the next hour, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:13.439 so we'll have to move on, but we need to 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.760 go back in time to Space Invaders and an instrumentally 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:23.439 important video game, one of the most UM popular arcade 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:25.840 games to ever come out, in fact, Asteroids in a 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.840 way was Atari saying how can we capitalize on that 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.199 same kind of level of of of obsession and it 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.520 was a Tito Tito game in the arcade And I 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.680 think the last we left off with the home unit 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:44.119 was it wasn't selling super well UM and everything changed 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.119 when they brought licensed and it was the first licensed 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.720 game when they licensed Space Invaders, it was a huge hit. Yeah, 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.240 and also it was a very faithful port of the game, 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.800 Like it was a good representation of what the Arcade 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.280 game was. You know, it wasn't as as uh, if 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:01.959 you look at a space and very game game, you're 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.160 not going to think of it as being slick or sophisticated. 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.720 But the Atari version was you know, a little a 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.480 little slower, a little block here, But it was pretty 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:14.200 good version though. Yeah, it was very The gameplay was there, 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.960 the important elements were there, and so while it might 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.879 not have been quite the same experience as the ArKade, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.520 it was a good representation of it. So it was 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.520 a great move on Atari's part, very savvy and ended 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.520 up really turning things around. Started helping with the push 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.240 to market this. And also we should point out another 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.639 interesting thing was in the early days, Atari strategy was 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.760 really to just market around the holidays. This was like 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:43.879 a Christmas line. Because it was such an expensive thing, 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.400 they thought, well, this is big ticket, this is when 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.120 people are going to be buying something for their kids. 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:51.879 That was when I got my cartridges. I didn't like 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.000 buy one in June Yeah, it would only be later 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.800 on when they said why don't we promote this all 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.800 year round? And that start had to really boost the 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.520 sales to Also, around this time, they were debuting home 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.639 computer systems, the Atari four hundred and the Atari eight hundred. 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.440 Now these were both eight bit home computers, so you know, 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:16.200 keep in mind they were based around that same microprocessor 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:22.080 technology that there used, although the version that they years 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.320 was technically the six five oh seven, which had fewer 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.920 pins than the six five oh two microprocessor. Um they 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:32.000 could only address or the vcs rather, the twice center 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.679 could only address eight kilobytes of memory. So we're talking 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.200 really really simple stuff here. Now between the four hundred 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:39.960 and the hundred, you might wonder, what's the difference. Is 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.240 the eight hundred twice as good as it twice as powerful? No? 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.280 Maybe a little more expensive, yeah, but it was this 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.840 was these were two of the units that had code 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.439 names that were named after women in the office. We 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.280 mentioned that previously. So the four hundred was marketed more 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.439 as a gaming console and the eight hundred was marketed 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.080 more as a home computer. So the four hundred had 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.000 essentially the same stuff as the eight hundred, but a 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.560 lot of it was inaccessible to the users. So for example, 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.080 your memory slots are closed off the four hundred, so 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.480 what you buy, all the boxes, what you get, whereas 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.080 the eight hundred had things where you could swap stuff out. Yeah, 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.760 I remember seeing that, but only to a certain degree. 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:22.960 It had like five available slots. Yeah, it wasn't It 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.479 wasn't like you could just continuously upgrade this. Obviously the 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.600 hardware itself had a limitation too, but it did mean 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.720 that you could uh customize they hundred more than you 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:34.960 could the four hundred, which is a big deal at 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:39.240 the time. Yeah, so, uh, seventy nine is a big 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.840 year for them. They make twenty million dollars in nineteen 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:47.000 seventy nine. Yeah, the hundred units started basically, you know, 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.480