===¢ * 30 SECRETS OF ATARI by Steve Bloom¢ (ED.NOTE: ARTICLE IS INTERESTING!)¢ Reprinted from Z*net 92-05, and by¢ THE OL' HACKERS ATARI U.G.,Inc.N.Y.¢¢ [Author's note: Here presented is¢ information I had compiled through¢ research and interviews with people¢ from Atari, Inc. (a.k.a. the "old"¢ Atari)] While I wrote this article a¢ while back, I felt that much of the¢ information was still interesting¢ today. This is not an exhaustive list¢ I used only information I felt was¢ not common knowledge. Because the¢ magazine that originally published¢ this, Computer Games- FEB.2/84 is no¢ longer in circulation, I felt that in¢ the best interest of all that I re-¢ acquire publication rights. This is¢ why I have placed this in the public¢ domain for everyone to enjoy.¢ Steve Bloom, May 29, 1989.¢¢ 30 SECRETS OF ATARI: ***¢ The real story of Asteroids, Space¢ Invaders, Pac-Man, Pong, and Pole¢ Position. *** FORWARD *** In its¢ 11-year history, Atari has become one¢ of the biggest, flashy, most¢ influential companies in history.¢ They have had their share of¢ incredible successes and embarrassing¢ failures. Perhaps more than anything¢ else, they have had their secrets.¢ Atari is very tight-lipped. At one¢ point employees were asked to sign¢ confidentiality agreements and use¢ magnetic ID cards to walk through the¢ company's corridors. Aside from the¢ actual cartridges, the public learns¢ little about Atari's games and the¢ people who created them Until now.¢ We have interviewed dozens of¢ employees of the company, past and¢ present. We have guaranteed them¢ complete anonymity in exchange for a¢ tip, an insight, a never-before-heard¢ anecdote. From these interviews, we¢ have compiled the following secrets¢ of Atari, which are published here¢ for the first time.¢ 1. Nolan Bushnell, Atari's¢ founding father, originally named the¢ company Syzygy (the sun, moon, and¢ earth in total eclipse). He renamed¢ it to Atari because another company¢ already owned the name Syzygy.¢ 2. Bushnell is generally believed¢ to be the author of Pong, Atari's¢ first game. Actually, Magnavox¢ released the Odyssey 100, the first¢ home video game system, which¢ included a game remarkably similar to¢ Pong, several months before Pong's¢ debut in the arcades in 1972. Years¢ later, Bushnell admitted in court¢ that he had seen an Odyssey prototype¢ on display earlier in 1972. The¢ Odyssey 100 was designed by Ralph¢ Baer.¢ 3. Bally/Midway rejected¢ Bushnell's Pong when he demonstrated¢ the game in its Chicago offices in¢ 1972. Bushnell went back to¢ California and started Atari.¢ 4. Given a choice between Mappy¢ and Pole Position, two arcade¢ creations by the Japanese firm Namco,¢ Bally/Midway amazingly opted for¢ Mappy. Atari had to settle for Pole¢ Position, which went on to become the¢ biggest game of 1983.¢ 5. Gravitar was one of Atari's¢ worst-selling arcade games. So they¢ took the game out of the cabinets and¢ converted them all to Black Widow.¢ 6. Mike Hally designed Gravitar.¢ He recently redeemed himself as the¢ project leader for Atari's¢ spectacular Star Wars game.¢ 7. Rick Mauer never programmed¢ another game for Atari after he did¢ Space Invaders for the VCS. He is¢ said to have earned only $11,000 for¢ a game that grossed more than $100¢ million.¢ 8. Todd Fry, on the other hand,¢ has collected close to $1 million in¢ royalties for his widely criticized¢ VCS Pac-Man.¢ 9. The man for bringing Pac-Man¢ home to Atari- Joe Robbins, former¢ president of coin-op- was severely¢ reprimanded by the chairman of the¢ board Ray Kassar for making the deal¢ with Namco without consulting him. It¢ seems Robbins was in Japan¢ negotiating a legal matter with Namco¢ at the time, and Namco demanded that¢ Atari buy the home rights to Pac-Man¢ as part of the settlement. Pac-Man¢ had yet to take off, but when it did,¢ Robbin's gutsy decision paid off as¢ Pac-Man went on to become the¢ company's best-selling cartridge¢ ever.¢ 10. The man for bringing E.T. to¢ Atari? None other than Warner¢ Communications chairman, Steve Ross.¢ So convinced was he that E.T.¢ possessed video game star quality,¢ Ross paid Steven Spielberg an¢ enormous sum (did I hear $21¢ million?) for the rights to the¢ little extraterrestrial bugger.¢ Designer Howie Warshaw spun the game¢ out in four months, only three¢ million cartridges were sold and¢ Atari began to announce million¢ dollar losses. E.T. is now selling¢ for as little as $5 (or less) in some¢ stores.¢ 11. Warshaw also designed Raiders¢ of the Lost Ark cartridge, and Yar's¢ Revenge, which started out as a¢ licensed version of the arcade game,¢ Star Castle. "Yar" is "Ray" Kassar¢ backwards.¢ 12. One of Atari's most popular¢ early arcade game was Tank, only it¢ didn't say Atari anywhere on the¢ cabinet or screen. Instead, it said¢ "Kee Games," which was another name¢ for Atari from 1973-78. Atari and Kee¢ (named after Joe Keenan, Bushnell's¢ longtime partner) put out identical¢ games in order to create more¢ business for Atari. For instance,¢ Spike (Kee) and Rebound (Atari) were¢ volleyball games that came out a¢ month apart in 1974.¢ 13. Tank was designed by Steve¢ Bristow, who is still with the¢ company after all these years. Most¢ recently, he has been in charge of¢ Ataritel, Atari's telecommunications¢ project which had been code named,¢ "Falcon." (Ed. Sound familiar?¢ "FALCON 030"?)¢ 14. Code-names have always been¢ popular at Atari. The VCS was¢ "Stella," the 400 computer was¢ "Candy," the 800 was "Colleen," the¢ 5200 was "Pam." All were named after¢ well-endowed female employees working¢ at Atari (except for Stella, which¢ was a bicycle trade name).¢ 15. And there was "Sylvia," the¢ 5200 that never was. Pam, as everyone¢ by now knows, was a stripped down 400¢ computer for the sole purpose of game¢ playing. Sylvia was intended to be¢ Atari's answer to Intellivision and¢ was in the works long before Pam was¢ born. But problems developed largely¢ because the 5200 was projected to be¢ compatible with VCS software, which¢ limited the design of the hardware.¢ When push finally came to shove,¢ Sylvia went out the window, and Pam¢ walked in the door.¢ 16. Cosmos, This was truly one of¢ Atari's experiment with holography,¢ was a battery-operated game system¢ that was introduced at a New York¢ press conference in the spring of¢ 1980. Created by Al Alcorn, Cosmos¢ was never to be seen again.¢ 17. Alcorn was the first engineer¢ hired by Nolan Bushnell. His first¢ project was Pong. His second project¢ was Space Race, the forerunner to¢ Frogger.¢ 18. Another project announced was¢ a remote-control VCS. Since it was¢ wireless, you could play games at 30¢ feet without having to hassle with¢ the console. It too mysteriously¢ disappeared from Atari's catalogue.¢ (Note: it looked almost exactly like¢ the 5200).¢ 19. Nobody in Atari coin-op liked¢ Dig-Dug, the company's first Japanese¢ import, except for Brian McGhie, now¢ with Starpath. It was McGhie who¢ added the finishing touches to Dig¢ Dug. His latest game is Rabbit¢ Transit.¢ 20. Quantum and Food Fight were¢ not designed by Atari. They were the¢ work of General Computer Corp. of¢ Cambridge, Massachusetts. GCC broke¢ into the business selling kits that¢ would speed-up Missile Command. Atari¢ sued and settled with GCC for the¢ above mentioned games.¢ 21. Tempest was originally¢ intended to be a first-person Space¢ Invaders -type game. Then Dave¢ Theurer came up with idea for tubes¢ on the screen. Theurer also designed¢ Missile Command.¢ 22. The first 200 Asteroid¢ machines were actually Lunar Landers.¢ Atari was so hot on Asteroids, that¢ it cut short the production run on¢ Lunar Lander- Atari's first vector¢ game- and released the 200 complete¢ with Lunar Lander art.¢ 23. Asteroids had two incarnations¢ before it achieved its spectacular¢ success. The first, Planet Grab,¢ simply required you to claim planets¢ by touching them with your spaceship.¢ The second version, allowed you to¢ blow up the planets and duel with¢ another ship, Space-Wars style. Only¢ in Asteroids, which came along two¢ years later, did Atari engineer Lyle¢ Rains introduce the concept of¢ floating rocks.¢ 24. Many at Atari, past and¢ present, dispute Rains' claim that he¢ was solely responsible for Asteroids.¢ Ed Logg, who programmed it, and who¢ also had his hand at the design of¢ Centipede and Millipede, is said to¢ be the true mastermind behind¢ Asteroids.¢ 25. One of Ed Logg's game that has¢ never been released in the arcades is¢ called Maze Invaders.¢ 26. Battlezone Ed Rotberg left¢ Atari after he was forced to convert¢ his favorite game to Army¢ specifications. Dubbed the MK-60 by¢ the Army, it included 30 game¢ variations, improved steering and¢ magnification, and simulations of¢ Russian and American tanks. It sold¢ for $30,000.¢ 27. Rotberg joined two other Atari¢ engineers, Howard Delman and Roger¢ Hector, and formed Videa, which not¢ too long ago was bought by Nolan¢ Bushnell for more than $1 million amd¢ renamed Sente Technologies.¢ 28. President of Apple Computers¢ Steve Jobs began his high-tech career¢ at Atari. He was known to walk around¢ barefoot, kick up his dirty feet on¢ executives' desks, and talked¢ continuously of going to India to¢ meet a guru. Not only did he do the¢ latter, he designed Breakout before¢ leaving Atari for good.¢ 29. Before they left Atari,¢ designers Al Miller, David Crane,¢ Larry Kaplan, and Bob Whitehead were¢ working on games that would later¢ become Activision cartridges. Crane's¢ Dragster was a spin-off of the Atari¢ coin-up Drag Race and Kaplan's Kaboom¢ was based on the Atari coin-op¢ Avalanche.¢ 30. Warren Robinett, tired of¢ Atari's policy of no author credit¢ for game designers, decided to sign¢ his game, Adventure, in an obscure¢ secret room in the program. He never¢ told his fellow designers about this¢ for fear of word getting out and he¢ being reprimanded. Ultimately, a 12¢ year-old in Salt Lake City discovered¢ the room where it was written: ¢ "Created by Warren Robinett." To his¢ surprise, Robinett was never¢ punished. He too left Atari shortly¢ thereafter.¢ +++ End ***¢¢