WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Rise and Fall of Atari: Part Two 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.280 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.800 Jonathan Strickland, EMIT executive producer with iHeart Radio and I 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.439 love all things tech. One of these days, I'm just 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:24.680 gonna make that one unintelligible rant. I mean it's pretty 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.640 close already. Right. Anyway, it is time for a tech 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.240 Stuff Classic episode. We are going to continue the story 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.920 that we started last week with the last classic episode. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.520 So this week's episode is titled The Rise and Fall 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:43.000 of Atari, Part two. Part one was last week. This 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.720 episode originally published on March fourth, two thousand and fifteen. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:51.760 Hope you enjoy so nineteen seven this we were teasing 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.519 it at the end of the last episode. This is 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:58.880 when Atari releases The Revolutionary And I mean that sincerely. 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:03.320 I am not being Archy Revolutionary Atari Video Computer System 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.440 a k A. The Atari VCS a k A. Yeah, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:09.920 and where I didn't even know, but I saw that 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.000 you research where the name from. Yeah. So all right, 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.039 when you're a company and you make stuff, you give 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.640 units part names. Right, So like in a hardware store, 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.320 you might have a typical, like a type of screw 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.640 of a certain length that's a Phillip's head screw, and 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.240 to describe the whole thing would take you like five 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:31.839 lines of text because you're talking about the length, the 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.760 type of screw head, you know, how how close the 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:36.360 treads are, or you could just give it a part 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.759 name and then you say, I need fifteen of hc 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.440 X blah blah blah blah blah. Well, the part name 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.360 for the this unit, this this system was the c 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.160 X to six hundred. So they just said, all right, 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.760 we're just gonna call it the AY because it sounds, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.680 you know, futuristic. Yeah, whereas the rest of us are thinking, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:01.520 like where we're atari is one? I always thought that, yeah, 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.360 so this this is just an identifier that that makes 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.440 it easy to refer to a part. Now in this case, 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.400 it just made a really compelling sounding device. Uh. And 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:12.920 it goes on sale in the United States for a 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.360 hundred ninety nine on the low end. The high end 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.519 was to twenty nine. Sure it chipped with two joysticks, 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.000 I guess the two nine version came with the paddles. 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.679 I guess. So I had that. I had the paddles, Yeah, 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.400 I had the paddles to there's no other way to 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.480 play breakout properly without paddles. Um and uh. It came 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.440 with Combat. Yeah, it came with one game, which was 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.680 really I can't remember actually how many variations there were, right, 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.640 because they had the tanks, they had the airplane jets. 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.400 I told you in the last episode. My brother and 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:44.800 I were playing Combat last week at his house on 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.320 and we were kind of cracking up at um. You know, like, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.280 here's one version where it's the two tanks, and then 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.000 the next version is it's the same thing, but they're invisible, 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.520 and the next version is it's the same thing, but 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.600 the bullets bounced off the wall. So that was my 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.639 favorite one. Yeah, where you could bank shots into each 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:06.640 other and or you could hit yourself. Oh I didn't. Yeah, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.160 if you if you bake it, if you bank it 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.639 so that it it bounces back and hit goes through 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:13.840 your tank and it could actually hit yourself and that 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.120 was really fun. Yeah. And then of course they had 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.280 the air combat games of you know, you could be 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:21.240 fighter pilots, or you could be biplanes, you could be 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.040 that giant whatever that was. And there were clouds in 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.560 some versions you fly behind clouds, not in other versions. 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.440 So they managed to really Milk Combat for many, many 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.919 different versions of essentially the same game. Yeah, And as 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:35.960 I recall, the way you would play that is there 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.080 were physical switches on the Atari itself that you you 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.040 could manipulate and get different versions as well. It was 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.720 there one that was it Like, it wasn't a menu system, right, 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.600 it was it was a menu. It was a toggle 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:48.560 on the front of the game, just toggle through the 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:50.840 different versions, which is kind of interesting. Like it was 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.600 the actual console itself that had physical switches in the 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.000 upper down position, and that's how you could determine which 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.280 version you were playing. And um, yeah, so those days 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.520 of having video screen with the menu where it's like start, 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:08.760 load game, save game didn't exist. And and once that game, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:10.880 like we mentioned in the previous episode, once you turn 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.480 that console off, all that information disappears because it's only 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.000 in read only memory. That's right. And I think any 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.560 of us that got three quarters of the way through 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:25.200 Raiders of the Lost Art and someone accidentally flicked the 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:31.400 reset switch, bad. Yeah, oh man, And that and that 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.880 game was one of the most complicated Atari games that 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.320 I can recall. And what we're talking about it Yeah, 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.320 we'll save that, we'll save it. We'll we'll talk on 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.160 our reflections of some of our favorite games later on. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:48.200 But technically the system was ready for shipping a year 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:52.560 before it came out, but Atari sat on it. And 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.840 the reason they sat on it was because of something 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.760 we mentioned in the last episode that that big agreement 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.200 they had with Magnavox. Part of that agreement was they 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.960 would give Magnavox the rights to anything Attari produced within 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.720 that year, and so they thought, well, if we wait 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.200 a little longer, we don't, Yeah, we won't give them 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.440 the rights to the all will retain them ourselves. So 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.000 they sat on it and released it a year late. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.320 And originally they were only going to create ten titles 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.080 for this thing. They thought that the market for it 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.599 would be something that would last two or three years, 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.000 and they would just produce it for that before moving 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:32.920 on to something else, and therefore you would have more 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.840 flexibility because you could switch out titles. But they thought, well, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.960 there's there's no real market here. We're not gonna go 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.000 beyond that. But some of the programmers started playing around 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.600 with and said, wait a minute, we have the opportunity 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.880 here to make stuff that has never been in the arcades, 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.599 that that could be totally new, groundbreaking. There's a lot 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.560 more potential with this hardware. Like here's where the money is. Yea, 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.120 how about two hundred titles right that you can sell 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.960 for thirty dollars a piece. Yeah, and so they said 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.440 this sounds like a good idea. Well, yeah, but Uhtar 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.520 was not was not a smash hit right out of 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.360 the gate. No. It actually there's a couple of years 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.240 were sort of lackluster because people didn't really get that 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.880 it was more than pong right at first, and one 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.880 of communications didn't really market it well either, So there 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.040 was there was some some downfalls in the market. They 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:28.919 weren't a video game company, they didn't really know what 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.160 to do with it. And it was expensive. I mean, 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.200 you know, hundred nine dollars that that doesn't sound like 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.159 it's expensive today, but keep in mind we're talking nineteen 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.000 seventies money. You know, that's like more than seven hundred 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.000 bucks for this thing that, at least at first was 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.479 only going to play ten titles. That's not that's not 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.840 a big selling point for someone who's I'm gonna I'm 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.000 gonna shell out the better part of a grand to 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.039 get a machine that can play ten games. Yeah, I 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.600 remember my brother and I how, um, you know how 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.840 you would submit the Christmas list to the to the parents. Yeah, uh, 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:02.960 here's what Scott wants, here's what Chuck wants. We had 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.200 to share. Um, we had to both go in all 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.720 in on Atari this Christmas. All both of us went 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.720 together is this one item of my parents are like, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.840 all right, well, you better play it. It's funny because 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:21.880 I actually got may Atari fairly close to the um 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.480 not not too long before the Great video game Crash, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.320 which we will get to, which meant that the price 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.720 had actually come down because there was a lot of 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.440 competition in that space pretty early on. Yeah. I wish 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.120 I could remember what year, but um, I don't think 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:37.680 it was seventy eight, but I bet I bet it 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:42.240 was eight. Yeah, my I was probably closer for me. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:48.080 Uh so in eight that's when Nolan Bushnell leaves Atari. Yeah, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:49.840 And we talked a little bit in the last episode 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.120 about the corporate structure at Warners and um, how it 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.280 just did not jib at all with these creative, sort 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:01.320 of pot smoking hippie the game designers, and um, he 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.960 just got more and more upset and discontented and or 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:10.760 discontent discontent. He felt discontentment to where he basically tried 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:15.240 to get himself fired to and he had a huge 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.640 fight with a Warner executive in front of the board 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.720 of directors and that was that. He was told to 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:27.920 pack his things and go. So he leaves. Um and uh, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.920 it was a big bummer after that. I mean he 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.480 was already sort of a bummer, but him leaving was 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:37.960 a very symbolic deal for Atari's sort of the downfall 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.960 of Yeah, some people refer to the sale of Atari 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.679 to Warner as the first quote unquote death of Atari. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.240 Some people refer to Nolan's departure as the first death. 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.000 But at any rate, they're kind of tired. I think 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.080 it was. It's a big change. I mean, they did 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.640 happen fairly close to one another in time. He didn't 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.600 last long there. Uh, there was a c E. The 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:01.359 new CEO of Attari is Ray cassaw Are. Yeah, he 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.360 was not well liked, but no developers. No. In fact, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.880 at least his name would be used for a famous 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.800 Autori title later on. What was it? Yards Revenge? It's 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.719 just Ray backwards, It's pretty yards Revenge. And then apparently, uh, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:21.120 Cassar said that's clever. So it must have been a 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:27.000 few moments where at any rate, al Al Corn, Harry Jenkins, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.120 and Roger Hector at this time begin to work on 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:35.120 a handheld electronic game system that used holography as its display. 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:40.160 So so a holographic display and it was called the Cosmos. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.960 I haven't heard of that. Yeah, it was a handheld thing. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.480 It was supposed to have nine games with all the 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.240 game information actually on the device itself, but you would 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.880 switch cartridges out because the cartridges had the information for 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:56.000 the holographic display. Yeah. I had a Merlin, remember that. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:58.320 I do remember the Merlin, a little red. It looked 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.120 like a telephone. Yeah, and then I can't remember the 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.080 name of it. Again. If someone knows this, I know 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:08.360 you'll right in. It was a really great handheld UM 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.200 that had a dial on the bottom and it was 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.240 about nine inches tall about three inches wide, and I 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.920 had a screen and it had cartridges you load had 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.880 like breakout. I can't remember the name of it, but 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.800 it was really advanced for the time. Yeah. I did 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.840 a tech Stuff episode, a series of them actually about 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.960 a lot of the consoles and handheld consoles that came 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.800 out during this time. UM which was fairly extensive, but 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.080 not exhaustive. We didn't can't cover everything. There's just there's 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:37.760 a lot of no name ones that sort of came 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.920 and went. Yeah ones that or or they had like, uh, 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.760 you know, a very limited release in South America, and 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.040 they're like three people in the United States who have 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.840 one that kind of thing. Yeah, I can't. I think 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.880 I want to say that they were both named after cats, 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.360 and one of our one of our listeners drew me 0:10:55.559 --> 0:11:00.360 as one of the two cat uh characters you sing this, 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.480 and Lauren was the other one. So I've I've got 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.520 I've got that picture somewhere. Uh. Nineteen seventy nine, one 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.720 of the great arcade games of all time comes out 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.480 from Atari Asteroids. That's right, that's you know, fantastic game, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:20.400 addictive gameplay, the one that still holds up. Very challenging still. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.319 Once you start flying that spaceship around, right because because 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.319 it actually used inertia and momentum, right, you you had 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.040 to actually turn your ship and thrust in the opposite 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.160 direction to stop yourself at the plan ahead. Yeah, the 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.400 asteroids when you would when you shoot them, would break 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.440 apart into different directions, and if you were flying around 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.439 and if you've got going too fast and those asteroids 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.360 you start shooting them, you broke apart into little sticks. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.600 For they have that little teleport button that you could 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.400 use like once a game and yeah, but that would 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:50.719 often drop you right in the path of a big asteroid. Yeah, 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.800 it wasn't necessarily a way to to save yourself. We'll 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:59.559 be back to talk about more of the amazing, amazing 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:11.280 story of Atari after these brief messages. This is also 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.240 when Atari would release a game for the home game 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.800 market that that Chuck. I think you have a few 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.640 things to say about. It's a little game called Adventure. 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.360 Oh talk about my favorite thing every please do. Let's 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:30.079 do that. Yes, Adventure was was created by Warren Robinette 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.640 and it I played it yesterday online. Um, had a 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:42.080 great time. Still holds up, well, maybe it's nostalgia. Playing 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.640 a little little is definitely paying a role. It does 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.000 hold up in a way, though. But when you look 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.960 at it now, and if you're younger, you will scoff 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:54.440 at the square that represents the night, and the arrow 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:59.679 that represents a sword, and the ducks that represent the dragons. Um. 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.560 But at the time it was, there was nothing like 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.440 it there. It was the first game that put you. Uh. 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.280 It was the first first person adventure game. Yeah, it's 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.719 the It's considered the first action adventure game ever. It 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.200 spawned a genre of games. Yeah, and but I don't 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.319 think we can get across like when we were kids 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.559 playing this game, we didn't see a square in an arrow. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.240 We had imagination to go along with it. And it 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.880 sounds corny, but you really did, in your mind's eye 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.960 see the dragon, the red dragon, coming at you, and 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:37.320 you felt like you were the night and you had 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.439 this great, big sword. So it really played on kids imagination, which, um, 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.240 I mean, I love the games now. Don't get me wrong. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.480 I'm not saying you should go back and do things 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.080 like this anymore, although there are some games that have 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.680 come out recently that have more of this old school 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.880 feel to it and they're phenomenal. Uh. For example, if 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:57.959 you want a game that looks like it was made 0:13:57.960 --> 0:13:59.719 back in the early this would be more like in 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.679 the computer game era. Papers Please. Now let me tell 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:05.959 you what Papers pleases, and you're not going to believe 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.600 that this is a game. In Papers Please. You play 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:14.439 the part of a border patrol agent who reviews documentation 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.600 of people passing from one Soviet style nation to a 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:22.760 different Soviet style nation. But it's fantastic and it's done 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:24.840 in this style, and like I said, it's more of 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.960 a computer game style than the video game, like the 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:32.200 home video games very retro. But the gameplay is phenomenal, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:38.920 The style is perfect, the oppressive Soviet music and and 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.920 uh and game. The writing in the game is fine. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.720 So we're seeing some people who are kind of going 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.920 back to it, maybe a little later in the development 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.080 cycle and adventure, but they're going back to those basics 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.760 of gameplay is really important and imagination can make up 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:59.840 for a lot of of what other people would see 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:01.960 is like a drawback. You know, this idea that the 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.840 graphics are not realistic or or or you know, they 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:11.440 they're very abstract. These days, I'm seeing more developers say 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.280 that's not a problem. You know, that's something you can 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.760 embrace if the game is good. Yeah, exactly, And an 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.440 Adventure was that. I mean, uh, there are three big 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.440 things that Adventure brought to the table um. There was 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.000 a large space for the first time, I think thirty 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.360 rooms and eight regions. Yeah, you move from screen to 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:32.400 screen and it would take you into a new region 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.800 with new new things that you had to maneuver around. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.880 You could pick up objects and drop them and move 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.600 them around and use them and manipulate them. That was 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.040 a new thing one of the time, as I recall well, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.120 which turned out to be brilliant because it's because of 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.680 the lost ark made things very convoluted, right. Yeah, It 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:49.920 meant that you didn't have to have an inventory screen. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.760 All the action could take place within that game, like 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:55.920 you had to plan out what you needed, like are 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:57.960 you going to need the sword on that next screen? 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.000 If you don't, do you want to move? The whole 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.080 point of the game was getting the chalice to the 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.880 exactly so you might not need your sword, so dropping 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.040 the sword, moving the chalice further along might be the 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.160 best thing to do. But there was also another element 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:17.760 that could really mess with you if you yes. The bat. Yeah, 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.080 there was a bat that would fly around and there 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:24.040 were several levels of difficult from three I think, and 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.560 I think the bat came out of number two. Um, 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.600 but either on level two or three, the bat would 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.080 just fly around and you would be so close to 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.040 getting what you needed, and it took work. This game time, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.440 there was no timer, which was another genius move. Um, 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.480 And it would take a lot of figuring out to 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.880 to find your way through these mazes and catacombs, and 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.320 sometimes you would have to use this bridge to get 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.760 through a wall, and it was really pretty genius. And 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.720 then the bat would come and steal the things and 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.120 steal the thing you wanted, or occasionally it would fly 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.760 away with like a dragon, which was funny. Yeah. And 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.200 then basically then you had to go on a us 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.480 to find this bat because the bat had the key 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.920 to the Black Castle. Black Castle had you know, Alice exactly, 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.119 So it's it was. It was levels of complexity. Also, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.399 another really cool thing about Adventure, it's the first video 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.680 game that I know of to have an Easter Egg 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.440 in it. Yeah, it is the first game. I'm reading 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.680 Ready Player one right now. Fantastic. They talk a little 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.600 bit about that. Um, there's actually a game inside Ready 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.040 Player one. Oh really, Yeah, there was this game within 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.359 the book itself that if you figured it out, you 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.800 could win a prize. I can't remember the details. Yeah, 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.040 that's pretty cool. It's actually one of those things where 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.919 they released the information that that there was stuff hidden 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.640 in the book that if you figured it out would 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.639 lead you down a pathway where you could want a 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:46.679 prize at the end. That's pretty cool. It was a 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.920 neat idea. Yeah, the easter reggon Adventure though at the time, 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.680 and we'll talk about this in a minute, with um 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.360 developers not getting credit, they didn't get credit at the time, 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.120 and so he hid a uh he hit his name. Basically, 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.040 there was this little invisible dot that you can only 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.719 find in certain rooms, hidden away, and you could pick 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.520 up this dot and bring it to a certain place 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.760 and it would basically take you. It would it would 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.600 show his name on the screen as the creator of 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.840 the game. And it was the very very first Easter Egg. 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.600 Pretty neat story, really cool, really cool. I can talk 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.040 about Adventure for the next hour, so we'll have to 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.080 move on, but we need to go back in time 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:30.400 to Space Invaders and an instrumentally important video game, one 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:35.320 of the most um popular arcade games to ever come out, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.320 in fact, Asteroids in a way was Atari saying how 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.080 can we capitalize on that same kind of level of 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.480 of of obsession and it was a Tito Tito game 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.360 in the arcade And I think the last we left 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:53.359 off with the home unit was it wasn't selling super well. Um, 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.080 and everything changed when they brought licensed and it was 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.439 the first license game. When they licensed Space Invaders, it 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:02.560 was a huge hit. Yeah. And also it was a 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.439 very faithful port of the game, Like it was a 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.639 good representation of what the Arcade game was. You know, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.240 it wasn't as as uh. I mean, if you look 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:12.840 at a space and very game game, you're not going 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.040 to think of it as being slick or sophisticated. But 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.119 the Atari version was you know, a little a little slower, 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.240 a little block here. But it was pretty good version though. Yeah, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.919 it was very The gameplay was there, the important elements 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.480 were there, and so while it might not have been 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:30.800 quite the same experience as the Arcade, it was a 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.479 good representation of it. So it was a great move 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.240 on Atari's part, very savvy and ended up really turning 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.320 things around. Started helping with the push to market this. 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.800 And also we should point out another interesting thing was 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.960 in the early days, Atari strategy was really to just 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.280 market around the holidays. This was like a Christmas line. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.120 Because it was such an expensive thing. They thought, well, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.560 this is a big ticket, this is when people are 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.280 going to be buying something for their kids, really was. 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.600 That was when I got my cartridges. I didn't like 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.720 buy one in June. Yeah, it would only be later 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.520 on when they said why don't we promote this all 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.879 year round? And that started to really boost the sales 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:16.120 to Also around this time, they were debuting home computer systems, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.000 the Atari four hundred and the Atari eight hundred. Now 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.159 these were both eight bit home computers, so you know, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:29.560 they were based around that same microprocessor technology that there used, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.680 although the version that they us was technically the six 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:35.840 five oh seven, which had fewer pins than the six 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.720 five oh two microprocessor. Um they could only address or 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.600 the vcs rather, the twicet center could only address eight 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.360 kilobytes of memory. So we're talking really really simple stuff here. 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:49.920 Now between the four D and hundred. You might wonder, 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.320 what's the difference. Is the hundred twice as good as 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:57.360 it twice as powerful? No? Maybe a little more expensive, Yeah, 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:59.040 but it was this was these were two of the 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:02.000 units that had code names that were named after women 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.720 in the office. We mentioned that previously. So the four 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.119 hundred was marketed more as a gaming console and the 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:13.120 eight hundred was marketed more as a home computer. So 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.960 the four hundred had essentially the same stuff as the 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.040 eight hundred, but a lot of it was inaccessible to 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.240 the users. So, for example, your memory slots are closed 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.000 off the four hundred, So what you buy all the boxes, 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.400 what you get, whereas the eight hundred had things where 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.960 you could swap stuff out. I remember seeing that, but 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.200 only to a certain degree. It had like five available slots. Yeah, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.600 it wasn't It wasn't like you could just continuously upgrade this. 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.840 Obviously the hardware itself had a limitation too, but it 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.200 did mean that you could uh customize they hundred more 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.360 than you could the four hundred, which was a big 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.679 deal at the time. Yeah, so, uh, seventy nine is 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.840 a big year for them. They make twenty million dollars 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:57.680 in nineteen nine. Yeah, undred units started basically, you know, 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.560