Xbox co-creator Rob Wyatt sues Atari for failure to pay for VCS console design | Hacker News Reader

Xbox co-creator Rob Wyatt sues Atari for failure to pay for VCS console design

venturebeat.com

83 pointsdanso31 comments

How many times now has "Atari" come back as an investor stripping scam, based on nothing but memories of the one time there was a real company using that name?

At least they can blame the Coronavirus (which they did). I think you’ll see a ton of insolvent companies doing this.

If you want an Atari, buy a real console. Better yet, build a MAME cabinet. You can run all the 2600-7800 games in there, with much better controls. CRT emulation (raster and vector) is pretty impressive on a 4k monitor.

I’ve always wanted to build a MAME cabinet. Do you have any good resources you could share on how to build one?

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/introduction.html for building joysticks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cade/ has a lot of people building/rebuilding cabinets.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

Another approach: I picked up an Atari Flashback 2 from Goodwill a while ago for about $6. It can be modded with a real cartridge port to play actual Atari 2600 games, plus uses Atari-compatible joysticks (side note: the joysticks that came with the Flashback 2 work out of the box on my VIC-20).

Real hardware consoles like the Flashback 2 are great!! The later Flashbacks are inferior (IMHO) as they use software emulation and lack the cartridge port solder points. :(

Of course you need a real CRT also. The Flashback also works with paddle controllers (which are necessary for several built-in games) although they can be hard to find.

Or just run Z26. There's was joke going around a long time ago that if Z26 is doing something wrong it's probably an error with the Atari hardware.

I wonder how corporate liability works in this case, does the original legal entity still exists? Who bought it?

The entity being sued here is the same one that commissioned the design work.

If you're not in the loop, do note that the "Atari VCS" referenced in the article is not the original 70's console but a recent, crowdfunded console that has nothing to do with the original Atari except trying to capitalize on brand nostalgia.

Yes - I would have thought 40+ year of interest would have driven even the most modest claim for damages beyond ~260K

To be fair, Infogrames were a real video game publisher when they bought out the name and for a time at least published real games like Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and Civ 3.

The first time I heard of an Atari reboot was... Pong 3D I think? Must've been twenty years ago. I mean it was an enjoyable enough game but it definitely wasn't Atari's revival.

I think at this point the company will work best for just selling merchandise, Atari T-shirts and stuff. Maybe mobile versions of their games like they did recently with Missile Command. But that would be purely financial, definitely nothing revolutionary.

What was the true essence of the original Atari? How can this be revived in a contemporary manner?

Here is my take on it:

- Gameplay was superior to other offerings and compared to other entertainment of the day exciting enough to draw an audience.

- It was niche. Yes, a niche in a growing field: "the digital revolution" if you will, but a niche.

- Competitive. Highscores were a zeriou$ thing in the arcardes.

I would say, therefore, the //new Atari// has to be a esports league, the best, which produces it's own games. Focus on a few but well-balanced games. Focus on 1-2 types of sports. "Space Invaders", "Pac Man" and a "3D" thing, to speak in old-Atari terms. Quality. Like StarCraft.

Sell a special .MOD to "professional" players. Have exclusive deals with YouTubers who do the "broadcasting". Have the league finals in Las Vegas with many exciting things!

Honestly, dealing with Atari wasn't that great even when you're talking about the "real" Ataris. (The Warner Atari might have been okay to work with, but with the Tramiel Atari you really had to watch your back in any kind of business deal).

I wish I had never backed this train wreck. The last 'update' I got from Atari was that they're building a cryptocurrency casino: www.casinoatari.com

That didn't give me quite as much pause as the "Atari Hotel" they were promoting a few months ago.

Nothing inherently wrong with crypto itself, but yeah that project looks really scammy and has little to do with Atari, IMO.

There's nothing inherently wrong with snake oil [1], either.

[1] That is, "mineral oil often mixed with various active and inactive household herbs, spices, and compounds": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil

Unless the snake oil salesman convinces you to consume aquarium cleaner.

I agree, even though there are a plethora of scams in the crypto-world (I'd say 90% of projects are scams), crypto gets a lot of hate. I assume it's because people were burned early on during the 2017 craze. That's also when every company realized VCs would throw money with anything related to the word blockchain.

Kodak (or whoever has bought the rights to the name) tried to start some stupid cryptocurrency. Worse, the investors actually bought into the bullshit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KodakCoin

Not only start a silly cryptocurrency but got into the mining hardware business [1]. As a number of family members were and are lifelong photographers, seeing Kodak's long fall from grace was particularly hurtful for nostalgia's sake.

[1] https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/11/kodak-kashminer-bitcoin-...

Note that they also released not one, but two ICO tokens - one Atari Token, in Gibraltar, and one Pong Token, in Kenya.

They also released plans for cryptocurrency casino, called Atari Casino - https://casinoatari.com/ - connected with the first, Gibraltar-based ICO

I think SEC are going to be highly entertained

Atari Token is under Atari Chain Limited, which is a licensee - a new company registered in Gibraltar. Their online imagery has the logo of ICICB Group.

A quick search reveals Atari gets 30% of the revenue from the token sale. This is presumably for lending their name to ICICB.

ICICB Group get 70% of the revenue raised from the token sale. Can't find any details on who these people are.

In case anyone else is as confused as I was when I started to read this article, this has nothing to do with the original Atari VCS, but relates to a new upcoming console which Infrogrames has ingeniously decided to also name "Atari VCS".

What is all involved in being a 'co-creator' of something like the Xbox? I realize it's a huge project but Rob Wyatt's name isn't even mentioned on the Wikipedia page.

His profile [1] states he was the systems architect of the original xbox. He also worked on the PlayStation 3 according to an interview [2]. Another reference at [3]. Wikipedia is not an exhaustive or authoritative resource; a starting point at best.

[1] https://about.me/rob_wyatt

[2] https://venturebeat.com/2011/11/15/the-making-of-the-xbox-pa...

[3] http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/02/exclusive_getting_u...

Shady clients is what retainers are for.

Yup, as a consultant, this was poor client and accounts receivable management.

Wow, that is a really large irrelevant video that site just forced on me for trying to read that article.

Install NoScript, it makes the web far more usable.

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