1981: The Competition Mounts
"I think they sold 2-3 million
copies of the thing... it made 30-40 million dollars... and I got a turkey." cxciv
- Rob Fulop
Atari may
have experienced it largest sales ever in 1981, but that did not mean the
people responsible for the products saw any of it. Even with huge sales for Missile Command, programmer Rob Fulop
saw almost no benefit. He expected some kind of bonus for the millions of Missile Command games sold but he saw
almost nothing.
Fulop eyed the success of the "Fantastic Four" who
had formed Activision, and he left Atari in late 1981. He joined Asteroids programmer Brad Stewart, plus
Atari vets Dennis Koble, Bob Smith, and Bill Grubb in their new third party VCS
software venture, Imagic.
"I was considering going out on
my own. I had been with Atari for five-and-a-half years, which is a long time
in this Valley. The standard dream of every engineer is to start your own
company someday and become rich. Hey, this was the opportunity I'd been waiting
11 years for. I knew a lot about engineering, but nothing about marketing. The
more Bill and I talked, the more we seemed like a natural match." cxcv
- Dennis Koble
 All
of a sudden, the programmers who had made some of Atari's biggest hits of 1979-1981
(Adventure, Space Invaders, Night Driver,
Missile Command, Asteroids, Breakout) were not only gone, but forming the
competition against them.
Added to that, other companies were forming without
Atari insider know-how. In December of 1981, Games By Apollo (started in Texas by Pat Roper using the
talents of Ed Salvo) released its first 3 games for the VCS: Skeet Shoot, Lost Luggage,
and Space Chase. cxcvi
Mattel
was still pushing Intellivision as well, and had great success in 1981. It ran
commercials showing the Intellivision sports games alongside games of the VCS,
making the VCS games looked primitive by comparison. By year's end, Mattel was
a serious contender nipping at Atari's heels.
"A $6
million ad campaign touts Intellivision's graphic superiority over Atari 2600.
News media take note, start covering video game 'war', raising profile of
entire industry. Although the $300 Intellivision is twice as expensive as the
2600, sales soar, reaching 850,000 consoles by year's end." cxcvii
- Intellivision
Lives
Activision
had not rested on its original game line-up in 1981 either, and blasted out a
bunch of new games for the January CES show. However, by that time, Atari had
taken notice of Activision's games and moved to protect the VCS system from these "outsiders".
Atari filed a lawsuit early in 1981 to stop Activision.
"They stole our programs, we're
suing them, of course." cxcviii
- Ray Kassar
However,
Activision had no intention of stopping its work. In fact, all the lawsuit did
was bolster its cause.
"...the lawsuit was timed
perfectly. It was front page news at the January CES in Las Vegas and catapulted the
unknown Activision to a big player and our sales skyrocketed and we never
looked back." cxcix
- Larry Kaplan
In
the end, Atari efforts were for nothing. The multiple lawsuits were thrown out
of court, and they set the precedent for multiple third party vendors to start up
by the end of 1981.
"After we started Activision, they
sued us three times, every six months, both personally and as a
corporation. Their total damage claim as I recall eventually stood at $26
million. It was sheer harassment. There was no basis for their claims and
it was eventually settled for nothing. Activision was funded by one of Silicon Valley's most prominent and
experienced venture capital companies. In starting the company, we did
everything perfectly properly, under the strict guidance of our attorneys and
investors." cc
- Alan Miller
 Activision
backed-up its premier third party status with a host of great games for the
VCS: Tennis and Skiing were two of the most realistic sports games ever to grace
the VCS, Laser Blast was a hypnotic
twitch shooter. Kaboom! Was Larry
Kaplan's version of Atari's Avalanche
coin-op, while Freeway was a unique
take on Frogger starring a
chicken.
While
these were not coin-op conversions, gameplay and visuals were some of the best
the VCS had ever seen, and their screenshots looked great in print.
Which was
fortunate -- because at about the same time, the flurry of activity in the
video game sector had solidified into a fan base large enough to support a
dedicated magazine about video games. On October
29, 1981, the first issue of Electronic Games magazine was published. The
magazine started by stating the size of the fledgling industry.
"Nearly four million homes now have
programmable videogame systems.This year alone, Americans will buy two million
videogame systems -- and 20 million cartridges to use with them." cci
- Frank Laney Jr. (Arnie Katz), Electronic Games Magazine
Arnie
Katz and Bill Kunkel started the magazine on the heels of a column they had
written for a video magazine named Arcade Alley. Two of the most popular
sections of Electronic Games were the letters sections -- "Reader Reply"
and the Game Doctor's "Q&A" column. The simple back-and-forth between the
editors and the readers in these sections over the course of multiple issues
formed the basis for all video game fan/press interactions to follow.
"I think it gave the
readers a sense of community. It was the only way they could really interact
with us and with one another. And Q&A was, at that point, the nexus for all
fan information on the world of gaming." ccii
- Bill Kunkel
There
had never been a real consumer advocate for video games prior to Electronic
Games. While this was good news for consumers, it was a mixed bag for video
game companies. On one hand, there was a place to preview and advertise games
long in advance of their release.
On the other hand, journalists could not necessarily
be controlled, and thus they could also not be trusted to deliver the exact
message that marketing heavy companies like Atari had been crafting to lure the
public for several years. Electronic Games marked the beginning of true video
game criticism. No longer would the public have to subsist on marketing
messages and box-art alone to make their choices for new video games.
[For further Gamasutra-posted
reading on the subject, in addition to Fulton's piece on Atari from 1971 to 1977, please refer to Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton's look at the Atari
2600 (VCS) and Atari 800/400 series of computers.]
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Thanks for the great article, although I must say that I find the claim that the VIC-20 was more powerful than an Atari 400 a bit tough to swallow... ;-)
-Clay
Thanks. That probably should read "arguably more powerful" or "perceived as more powerful". In retrospect, it wasn't.
-Steve
Having worked at Time Warner, back in the SF Rush / Rise of the Robots era, I totally recognize the pattern that has also poisoned most large developers :)
Sorry to be a pingeek but I think there's a misplaced comma: Superman the pinball, more like 3500-5000 units sold according to the ipdb. 10 K sales from the late 70's on was blockbuster.
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7749/fairchildchannelfcartrihz0.jpg
Channel F's Videocart 12 was baseball, released in 1977.
Good catch, but I believe it says that it was the first "single player" baseball game. I believe the Fairchild game (which I played many times at my friend's house BTW...but my favorite game was Alien Invasion) required two-players. I was trying to highlight the A.I. of the VCS game.
-Steve
We'd like to translate a decent articles "The History of Atari: 1971-1977" (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2000/the_history_of_atari_19711977.php?pag
e=1) and "Atari: The Golden Years -- A History, 1978-1981" (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3766/atari_the_golden_years__a_.php) into Polish language and publish it on a popular portal jakilinux.org (and/or osnews.pl). Do you mind us doing so? Obviously proper attribution would be paid to you as the author.
Please let us know what you think about such re-publication. (My e-mail address is tprimke_at_gmail_dot_com.)
Best regards,
Tomek
Moreover, it is very unlikely that the Atari 3200 was to be based on the same chipset as the Intellivision. The Intellivision was mostly a knee-jerk reaction to the Atari 2600 from Mattel, and therefore consisted of an pre-built, off-the-shelf game system created by chip maker General Instruments. In fact, it was an actual sku item on their 1978 parts catalog. It was later customized a little, mainly to allow for more ROM and custom graphic tiles, but it was generally an off-the-shelf product.
Therefore it seems unlikely that Atari would plan to replace their aging custom-designed Atari 2600 with an off-the-shelf product, whose technology, although having some more capabilities, was just as old.
-dZ.
Thanks for that!
I'd say that from your description, the Intellivision processor could have still been one of the chips that Bushnell had tied-up in development, especially if GI was one of the companies he used. Remember, the idea that the Intellivision was based on one of those processors did not come from myself, but from a direct quote that Bushnell gave to me in an interview. Still, it's a very gray area and this why that part of the story is painted as "not definite".
-Steve
Thanks for your response. You are right, the GI microprocessor could still have been the planned successor to the Atari 2600. However, I still think it unlikely due its many limitations (weird architecture, 10-bit memory addressing, etc.).
My point was that the only reason Mattel used it was not because it was considerably better, but because they needed a quick release, and chose the General Instrument's pre-built system in haste in order to jump into the new Video Game market.
The entire Intellivision console was indeed superior, with better graphics resolution and 3-channel DSP'ed sound (although the graphics were tile-based instead of pixel-based, limiting its practicality; not to mention the ill-conceived Disc Controller!), but its microprocessor and chip technology were the products of early 1970s technology, hardly state-of-the-art; and unlikely the first choice for a successor.
But, of course, we can't ever know, and I do concede it's possible.
I do agree that competition from Mattel could have been avoided if only Atari had adhered to Bushnell's strategy.
All in all, a very interesting and satisfying article; one that brought back wonderful memories. Please keep up with the thoughtful historical accounts of our wonderful technological roots.
Thank you,
-dZ.
P.S. Why, yes, I did (and currently) own a Mattel Intellivision, thank you.
Perhaps Gamasutra can showcase the Mattel Intellivision on a future article and fulfill my well of nostalgia, as it has already done with the Atari VCS, the Commodore 64, and Video Game arcades in general.
-dZ.
No problem! Thanks for adding to the discussion. I agree, the Intellivision story needs to be told. I'd love to try to tackle it someday, especially since it all went down near my home town (they used to frequent the local arcade here while making games), Keith Robinson from the Blue Sky Rangers draws a cartoon for the local paper, and Intellivision Productions is in the same office building as my favorite Sunday breakfast coffee shop)...plus, I currently work for Mattel.
mason,
I'm happy you noticed. The quotes, to me, are the most important part.
It was Atari that really changed my life. Starting with COMBAT. My brother and I played that till the wee morning hours and although it was simplistic. I never had so much fun in my life. That would be followed by Space Invaders. Asteroids, Adventure, which was the first game that gave me the sense I could explore a world in a game. I liked the Sword Quest series as well.
Seeing a TV ad for Atari. Going to store and seeing the box art for each game. Buying a game and taking it home and opening it up. Taking the cart out and putting it into your Atari. That was pure bliss when I was growing up.
Atari is my childhood. I love Nintendo as well, but I'm not the Nintendo generation. I'm the Atari generation. Atari forever!
We re-developed 2-3 years ago Intellivision cartridges as Keith acquired the rights to unreleased games and wanted to release them for the retro crowd.
The carts are not simple ROMs, but use a time multiplexed bus for address and data, and the Intellivision hardware is definitely odd...
We've also re-developed a 2600 clone, for a product that hasn't been released (distributor problem), so I can answer a lot of questions about the 2600 hardware and some of its history if you want to do a followup.
you can contact me at: my first name that you can see on this post @ retrogamesllc.com
>>box art for each game. Buying a game and taking it home
>>and opening it up. Taking the cart out and putting it into
>>your Atari. That was pure bliss when I was growing up.
Ryan,
That is exactly what I can't shake Atari from my mind. Somehow i want to recreate those moments, but it is very difficult these days.
-Steve