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t.tulip schmulip
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2022-08-26
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T U L I P S C H M U L I P
Editorial by Dave Moorman
WHAT is it with modern corporate
business in the 21st Century. Tulip
buys the Commodore Brand, gets all
over anyone who has ignored uninforced
copyright laws, uses the "Chicken
Lips" and famous names like PET and
VIC on several music devices, produces
the C64 DTV...
Then sells the rights to someone
else. For 24,000,000 Euros, no less. I
did some web searching for the
purchase price in 1997 -- an event
that went completely unnoticed. But
I'm willing to bet they weren't hurt
by this latest deal. These faceless
immortal beings always land on their
feet!
The C-64 came out of the
individual pursuits of human beings.
They may not have been nice human
beings. Jack Tramiel was noted for his
"No quarter asked, no quarter given"
business style. But he provided a
"face" to Commodore and the drive to
produce a "Computer for the Masses,
not the Classes."
But once Jack bugged out, CBM
became a faceless mass of golden
parachute knitters -- "Consistantly
Bad Management" -- which did
everything in its power to get free of
the lowly C-64. There was cheering and
partying in Westchester when the C-64
sold 800,000 units in 1992. But the
hurrah was not because of the success.
It was finally a [failure]! By
dropping below 1 million units a year,
the C-64 became officially
unprofitable enough to drop.
One year later, Commodore was in
receivership.
Hmmmm. In 1997, Softdisk happily
let LOADSTAR spin away to J & F
Publishing, Inc. Whew -- got THAT
loser off our backs! In about a year,
Softdisk ownership was sold, and the
company got out of publishing all
together.
Meanwhile, ordinary people, people
with faces and brains and a remarkable
lack of greed have made the "chicken
lips" logo mean something. WE have
taken this "intellectual property" and
added value to it, kept it going,
found new ways to enjoy computing
through it. We have attached all sorts
of gizmos, even a PC or two. But we
never slapped a "chicken lips" on an
iPod and called it an "e-VIC" -- as if
the NAME itself had magical properties
that would cause millions of people to
rush out and buy one!
Actually, I have every respect for
the ordinary joe or jill who is making
a living within these faceless
immortal behemoths or (in the case of
Tulip) behemoth-wannabes. They have a
job to do: to wit, make a profit for
the company. So they talk themselves
into a strange trance with mantras
like: "chicken lips will sell egg
beaters..." Soon they believe it. Then
they spend a big chunk of money. Then
they discover they were only fooling
themselves. Then they have to get some
other behemoth into a strange
trance...
Fortunately, all this happens far
away from my desk. The mighty LOADSTAR
Tower was built, floor by floor, by
LOADSTARites who want a bit of good,
interactive entertainment each month.
And we do our best to provide it. No
big intellectual property right
purchases. No golden parachutes. No
marathon executive marketing meetings
in a darkened room, lit only by the
PowerPoint projection (and soft
snoring from the editor).
Just a guy, a bunch of hobbyist
programmers and writers all around the
world, and a gal to stuff the
envelopes.
Good bye, Tulip. It's been nice.
Thanks for the C64 DTV. That one was a
real surprise. But if the past is any
indication, Tulip will be gone in
about a year. But LOADSTAR will be
here until issue 256.
At the very least.
DMM