On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 10:33:42PM +0000, the hatter said: > jaguar and missile command, and today I bought a second jaguar (for 10ukp, > rather than 8ukp for just a second controller, which I wanted) and a > couple more games. R.I.P Atari, I will think of you every time I look > towards sunnydale.
I bought one from EB a few weeks ago for that price along with a second controller, Attack of the Mutant Penguins, Bubsy and Val D'Isere Ski and Snowboarding. There are a few other games I plan to pick up just for completeness and nostalgia's sake. I've also just read, in quick succession, Insanely Great and Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari. Apart from the fact that Zap! is far worse written and hasn't been updated for 16 years and doesn't have Levy's occasional, err, fawning for want of a better word the history of the two companies seems to be quite similar in much the same way as the childhood of any two SAS autobiographers seems to be hauntingly familiar - they both mention brainstorming in hot tubs and weekend team breaks to Californian costal hotels replete with bad behaviour and drunkeness. Nolan Bushell even turned down the chance to build the Apple II. Atari seemed to have a knack for continually snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - the ST could have killed the competition but a series of blunders (including the whole Amiga Inc. [0] debacle) meant it just ended up dying - although I noticed that Notting Hill Music Exchange is selling a 520 STFM for more than I bought mine for originally. The Jaguar was woefully under marketed and the Lynx, whilst brilliant, just didn't have the games or the battery life of the Gameboy. I blame the Tramiel twins although, have read Zap! there does seem to have been this rot festering ever since the Warner takeover. Bah, insomnia sucks. Simon [0] Depending on who you ask - Atari commisioned Amiga Inc. to build some new graphics chips for the ST but ended up falling out (legend has it over 20,000 USD) at which point Commodore bought the smaller company and produced the Amiga which, if I'm trolling, was little more than a poorly reverse engineered ST with these new chips and a different OS. And a foot warmer. :)
