THE RANT: Around 1984 after the crash Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to a man named Jack Tramiel and went on to start the Chuck E.Cheese pizza chain. At the time there were already warehouses full of 7800 game machines ready to go but Tramiel (who sounds like an jerk) had some kind of dramatic press conference where he threw all of Atari's past consoles on the floor and announced that the company would focus solely on the home computer market from now on. I guess this strategy made sense at the time because in 1983/84 the home game console market was pretty much dead (which was mostly Atari's fault for pushing the same shitty products on an increasingly jaded public. I guess if I went to the arcade and saw cool games with awesome graphics and then came home and the only option I had was the Atari 2600 or Intellivision I'd get a little jaded too.)
What happened was that people got sick of buying crappy game systems with expensive games that didn't deliver and so decided to go the home computer route, which could play better games, cost about as much as the game consoles, and plus you had a computer too. So anyway Atari shifted it's focus to the home computer market, and if all things remained the same no doubt would have destroyed that market in due time as well. But from out of nowhere Nintendo released the NES and singly handedly revitalized home gamming. Little kids went nuts for Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. By 1985 Nintendo had like a 90% share of the market and was laughing all the way to the bank.
Tramiel must have realized his mistake because his own 7800 machine could have been released two years earlier, easily undercut the NES and kept Atari profits from getting flushed. So in 86 he finally gives the go-ahead to put these on store shelves but by then it was too late. The 7800 never got the market penetration it should have which is too bad because it's probably the one post 2600 system that could have made it. That's what happens when some fool with no brains takes over your company. I've never met the man and I'm sure he's a nice person but I wouldn't let this bozo run a hot dog cart. Atari ended up getting liquidated in the 90's and now survives solely as a (not half bad) software publisher, all because of Jack Tramiel. Well Jack, if no one has said it yet, "Good job."
THE GOOD:The system is what the 5200 should have been. It has decent controllers, decent games, and not halfway bad graphics. Plus it can play 2600 games (whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you.) Most of the Atari arcade conversions (like Crossbow, Gauntlet, etc.) get a pretty good translation on this system.This console is particularly friendly to the homebewer as it is possible with some engenerring knowhow to hook the expansion port directly to your PC to dump 2600 and 7800 ROMS.
THE BAD: Because Atari go so toughly squashed by Nintendo there's no good games from all the famous 3rd party developers like Konami, Capcom, etc. This is partly due to Nintendo's draconian licensing agreements which forbade 3rd parties from releasing games for other systems. It is probably also partly due to 3rd parties getting tired of spending all this money to make an Atari game and then getting shafted when the bottom of the market falls out. You know I've got no sympathy for Atari because they were the leaders in the home console business, thus they could have easily stopped the crash in 84 by putting out good games and good systems. But they didn't, they put out garbage. Then everyone bitches and moans when the Japanese show up and take over. It works the same in the auto industry, by the 80s American cars started to suck ass so everyone bought Japanese cars instead. No doubt eventually Japanese consoles (and cars) will also start to suck ass then some other company from some other country (maybe Bulgaria, who knows?) will capture the lead. It's how capitalism works. The American auto industry knew it and started to make decent cars again, that's why they didn't go out of business. Too bad Atari was too confident that people would continue to buy their dreck and continuously shot themselves in both feet over and over again until it was too late.
The controllers are joysticks. I do not like joysticks. The buttons are placed on the side of the controller, which means in order to hit them effectively you have to cup the controller in one hand and use the joystick with the other. But since most people are right handed they instinctively hold the controller with the right hand, leaving the less dexterous left hand to work the joystick. It's just awkward.
THE UGLY: All the other kids laughing at you because you got this thing for Christmas and not an NES.
