The golden age of Atari: 1978-1981 years (continued)
[ The first part of the article .]
After successful sales of Atari VCS in the Christmas season of 1979, the challenge was to create a large amount of software for the new proud owners of Atari machines. The company began the year with an extensive presentation at the January CES show in Las Vegas.
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“Atari fueled expectations from its gaming machine. The Atari 2600 gaming console was a real gadget of the year, and games that attracted large crowds were displayed on the Atari stand. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
After the presentation at CES in January, Atari continued its marketing promotion, including the largest television advertising campaign in its history. One of the very first advertised games of this campaign in January was Space Invaders , written by Rick Maurer (who had previously worked on Fairchild Channel F) and turned out to be a loud hit. Simply put, Space Invaders saved the VCS.
“VCS was not doing so well - they sold only a few million cars, and it seemed that the console was dying. But then Space Invaders came out , and bam! - the market exploded.
- Larry Kaplan
Although the licensing of Space Invaders was handled by Manny Gerard and Ray Cassar, it was Morera who had the idea to create a version of the game before anyone ever thought of it. Morer began working on Space Invaders in 1978, when he was just beginning to learn VCS programming, and this process was not easy for him.
"When working with VCS, it was necessary to forget about all the good programming practices that I learned."
- Rick Morer
Development began well, but then it seemed that Morer was stumped. The game worked, but it seemed that no one in the consumer equipment department was interested in the Space Invaders version for VCS.
“After a few months, the game was already interesting to play. But almost no one was interested in her, no one wanted to play it. ”
- Rick Morer
Morer went on to create the Maze Craze (also released in 1980), because he thought that programming the Maze Craze would help him develop development skills for VCS and prepare for Space Invaders .
Maze craze
Much later, in early 1979, Manny Gerard persuaded Ray Cassar to license Taito to play for VCS.
“Cassar flew to Japan in 1979 for the sole purpose of getting Space Invaders. He achieved this by turning a brilliant deal that earns Atari millions of dollars and launches 2600 into orbit. ”
- Kevin Bowen, GameSpy, 25 Smartest Moments In Gaming
This allowed Morera to continue working on the game, this time officially. Developing Space Invaders at 2600 was more difficult for Morera. As a graphic, he used a rudimentary “programmers' graphic,” but he wanted the cartridge box designer to draw his illustrations of enemies on checkered paper to transfer to the game. This did not happen, so Morer used his own drawings.
Initially, Space Invaders took 7 KB, but it needed to be trimmed to 4 KB, so Rick rewrote the code for three more months, fighting to save every single byte.
By the end of the development process, its beautifully structured code had become a maze of JMP branches, but was as concise as possible.
The finished product looked amazing. The game had 112 variations, Morera managed to shove all possible Space Invaders variants into a VCS cartridge. Although the game did not completely copy the original, it was played surprisingly similar. Morera's fellow programmers were delighted with the game. Rob Fulop put it better than anyone else: “Fucking brilliant.”
After the release of Space Invaders on VCS in early 1980, it instantly became a hit. Total game earned for Atari more than 100 million dollars.
The game was so successful that it proved the possibility of a long life for VCS. Ray Cassar realized that VCS may not be just a seasonal product. The release of games, previously scheduled for the holidays, stretched out for the whole year.
In addition, it pushed Atari's marketing department to experiment with other arcade games. Began to develop new adaptations for VCS, such as Asteroids and Super Breakout . Simply put, Space Invaders was the turning point for home video games. She prepared the stage for a revolution of arcades on home systems. By Christmas 1980, VCS with Space Invaders became an obligatory holiday purchase.
"... it is expected that one of the biggest blockbusters of this Christmas season will be the electronic game Space Invaders Atari, which collects lines every day at the Woodward & Lothrop store."
- Douglas Chevalier, Washington Post , November 10, 1980
However, the success of Space Invaders had one sacrifice: Rick Morer. Both Space Invaders and Maze Craze were widely recognized as one of the very best games created for VCS, but they were the only games written by Morer. After the resounding success of Space Invaders , who saved Atari and made possible the future of home video games, Morer received a prize of only 11 thousand dollars. Disappointed with the industry, Morer left the company and never again made games for the Atari VCS.
Atari has a new goal: launching games throughout the year and selling them to hundreds of thousands of new customers. For this it was necessary during the 1980s to throw into the market as many VCS games as possible.
One of the first was written by Mike Laurenzen ( Circus Atari) , released in January. Circus Atari was a rewritten version of Breakout (and an almost complete copy of the Exidy Circus arcade game) in which the player launched clowns bursting balls from a platform into the air. Despite its simplicity, Circus Atari was a pretty good game.
Many other inconspicuous games followed Circus Atari and Space Invaders . These games were basically a repetition of the old and an attempt to fill in the gaps in the VCS lineup, and not to become big hits. They were 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe and Video Checkers (both created by one of the first programmers for VCS Carol Show), exclusive to Sears Golf , new games Steeplechase , Stellar Track and Othello .
“I did the Othello version for the 2600 by myself, until my boss caught me at work when I made the last changes before releasing into production.”
- Ed Logg
One really unique game of 1980 was the Championship Soccer by Steve Wright. Although the limited football possibilities were not much better than other stripped-down VCS sports games such as Home Run and Football , the goal score was unprecedented: a salute salute.
“What about the fireworks in honor of a goal scored - isn't that cool?”
- Bill Kenkel (co-founder of Electronic Games magazine)
It was a stunning graphic effect that takes the game to a different level of quality. Some players simply let each other score goals to enjoy the explosions of fireworks. Not surprisingly, programmer Steve Wright no longer created a single game, but instead became a respected and successful guru of digital effects and computer graphics for films and television.
One of the best games of 1980 was Night Driver , written by Rob Fulop and released in August. In this port, from the Atari Night Driver arcade, a pseudo-three-dimensional perspective was used to simulate a fast ride.
Night driver
"My first project in this group was Night Driver , which began when Larry Kaplan handed me a bunch of code and said:" Maybe you can make it work, but for now it looks like an extra headache "... I think then in my heart he was ready to leave the company and did not want to start a new game. ”
- Rob Fulop
The year 1980 witnessed the growing trend of a new type of game for VCS: the unreleased treasure. Atari's marketing team shifted the focus from development and unique concepts to licensed brands. Some finished games for VCS were put on the shelf and never released. Bob Polaro's Stunt Cycle (Bob Polaro) was one of the first such games.
It was originally developed as a version of the game from an Atari arcade machine, but the marketing department tried to turn it into a game under license from Dukes Of Hazzard . As a result, the project has not been released. Another such game in 1980 was Chris Crawford's Wizard , which fell victim to the transition from 2-kilobyte to 4-kilobyte games for VCS.
On April 25, 1980, the Fantastic Four announced that it would create games for Atari VCS in its new company, Activision. At first, there was almost no reaction from Atari. The company announced four games: Boxing , Fishing Derby , Dragster and Checkers . The statement of Activision was not too loud, and very few people paid attention to it.
Mattel intellivision
A big problem for Atari was the emergence of several serious VCS competitors. The test version of Mattel Intellivision was launched on the market in 1979, and mass production began in 1980. In total 200 thousand devices were sold, and in many respects this console was considered better than the Atari VCS. This competition could have been avoided (or at least postponed for a while) if Ray Cassar followed Nolan Bushnell’s strategy to block the production of SLI chips.
“When I sold Warner to the company and after I left, Ray Cassar studied the situation and said:“ Bushnell is a real idiot, why does he need five projects for the production of different chips? ”He canceled all but the best ones. One went to Texas Instruments, the other to Bally, and the third to Mattel. And so, with one stroke of the pen, he created three serious competitors for himself. ”
- Nolan Bushnell
All this has always been from a legal point of view in the "gray" area. Mattel Intellivision equipment specifications were very similar to a project called the Atari 3200. The 3200 was supposed to be the successor system to the 2600, but the development did not start until 1981.
“According to development logs, in 1981, Atari began work on a new video game console that could replace the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. In the process of developing a new console has changed a lot of code names: Sylvia, Super-Stella and even ... PAM (with a note next to it: “Super-Stella: Multipurpose“). This new console should be based on a 10-bit processor and have more memory, high-resolution graphics and improved sound, while maintaining compatibility with all Atari 2600 games released. ”
- Curt Vendel
The most obvious similarity between 3200 and Intellivision was the addition of 10-bit internals, which were unusual, because 8-bit systems were the norm.
The 3200 console was never created, and Atari switched to other projects for the successors of the 2600. However, if this is so, it means that Ray Cassar’s disdain for development and his misunderstanding of Bushnell’s strategy led to fierce competition with Atari VCS in the early 80s.
By 1980, the future of the Atari electronics department was very bleak. Touch-Me was not successful, and new products under development looked doubtful at best. El Acorn, Roger Hector and Harry Jenkins ran a team that developed Cosmos , a separate console that combined an LED screen with holographic images. The holograms looked interesting, but were simple decorations. The games themselves took place on the LED screen.
Atari cosmos
"... you played a board game, and then a hologram appeared. They suggested that GAMES would be holograms!"
- Bill Kenkel
But still, the public had a great interest in Cosmos, and the team was keen to demonstrate the product at 1981 CES.
Atari 8-bit computers in 1979 had very little time for sales, so 1980 was the current year of their distribution. Several games for the platform were released at the beginning of the year, including 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe , Super Breakout and Space Invaders . Space Invaders was especially interesting.
Although Atari was licensed from Taito, and 8-bit computers had enough power to reproduce the game accurately, programmer Rob Fulop decided to create a completely different version.
“The reason why the Atari 800 version was different from the original was simple and somewhat annoying. I was then 23 years old, and I have already created one “port” ( Night Driver for 2600). I decided that I was too cool to make a complete copy of an existing game with machine guns. You have to remember that in Atari no one approved the programmers for the plans. In essence, people like me were given complete freedom in creating any kind of products. There were no approval processes, meetings and requirements.
In retrospect, such freedom was, in my opinion, awesome given the current production requirements. But at that time everything was decided by the programmer. Nobody asked me to do Space Invaders , it was my choice. I decided to change the original, but not because it was “bad.” I just wanted to sign my name, whatever that means. ”
- Rob Fulop
The game was so different that independent developer Joe Hellesen (who would then create many other games for 8-bit systems, ST and Amiga, including Pac-Man for Atari 8-bit computers) created an almost perfect copy in 1981 arcade game.
However, after the initial release of games for 8-bit computers, Atari was ready to stop all the development of games for the machine. Atari leadership sought to emphasize that this is a computer, and to stop comparing with VCS.
"One of the very rare decisions we were confident about was the decision to clearly separate the home computer from the video game console ... The rule was simple: no more games."
- Chris Crawford
Instead of creating games, Crawford began work on several entertainment and educational projects, including a simulator of an energy company called Energy Czar and a nuclear reactor simulator SCRAM . His fellow programmers worked on accounting and business programs.
SCRAM
However, despite the desire of Atari to separate the line of computers from video games to become a serious competitor in the market, the company made one huge mistake that almost destroyed this idea: it released the game Star Raiders .
The game, written by Doug Neubauer, was released in March 1980. Atari hired Neubauer in 1979 as a chip design engineer, but he worked on the Star Raiders third-party project, developing the game on a wire-wrapped 8-bit prototype before models were ready for production. Star Raiders was a 3D version of the game, very popular on college campuses and computer rooms in the 70s.
Star raiders
" Star Raiders was supposed to be a 3D version of the Star Trek game that was played on mainframes at the time. Star Trek was completely text-based and not real-time, but it contained concepts of damage to the ship, sector scanners and charts." .
- Doug Neubauer
Three-dimensional graphics and gameplay Star Raiders did not resemble any previous game. The finished product simply shook Neubauer's Atari colleagues.
“The company's employees were stunned by the game, which was the first real three-dimensional video game ... The visual effects were dazzling, especially the stars flying through the screen while accelerating, and four types of opponents appearing in front or behind.”
- Michael Tomczyk
After the release of Star Raiders was the first "killer application" in computer games. It was the first computer game that could be called a "car seller".
“The game was amazingly exciting. I think it was the first game that combined action with a strategic screen. Fortunately, this concept worked very well. ”
- Doug Neubaur
Even the mainstream press has come down to the excitement of the game.
" Star Raiders is the most important game. This is the best combination of shooting gallery and planetarium. That is why I played it yesterday until one o'clock. It costs about $ 530, provided that you already have a color TV."
- Henry Allen, Washington Post, September 2, 1980
Of course, the success of Star Raiders turned out to be a big hindrance to the Atari home computer department: he reinforced the misconception that 400 and 800 were not serious computers.
“Who will buy a serious computer from the most successful video game and arcade company in the world? Many customers thought that the Atari 400 and 800 were more expensive versions of the Atari 2600 video game machine. Some even doubted that the Atari 400 and 800 were real computers. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
One of the main problems of Atari 8-bit computers was the prevailing stereotype about the lack of software for them. Atari simply could not create enough products on its own, so that a relatively expensive computer purchase would be justified for someone other than keen gamers and game programmers.
“Unfortunately, Atari prevented her own advantage. To everyone's amazement, they decided to keep secret the basic technical information, such as memory allocation and bus architectures, which programmers need to write software. They even attempted to blackmail programmers, saying that they could get technical information only if they signed an agreement to create software under the Atari brand. This scared off an independent community of amateurs and programmers, and as a result, many serious programmers began to write software for other machines. When Atari realized its mistake and started attracting programmers, it was already too late. The only programmers loyal to her were game developers. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
The internal development team continued to discuss the situation with third-party software, trying to convince management that it was making a mistake.
“The management attitude was:“ We want to earn all the money for the software. We don't need competitors. " They had competitors for VCS and programmers tried to explain: “No, things are not being done this way, you need a large library of programs, you need to attract creators,” and I was one of those who talked about this. ”
- Chris Crawford
By the end of 1980, third-party software began to appear for 8-bit Atari computers. Despite the fact that most of it was written in BASIC and had a text-based interface, for example, Midway Campaign and Lords Of Karma of Avalon Hill, many were still on the way.
Despite Atari’s tremendous efforts to close the gaming capabilities of the computer, there were programmers, amateurs, hackers and coders who wrote quality games and brought them to the market.
By the end of 1980, Atari had sold 35,000 computers, and by December sales had grown so much that the cars had to be divided into small lots and transferred to merchants throughout the country.
But even so, the computer business lost 10 million in sales of 10 million, forcing Atari to separate the computer department from the consumer equipment department in October so that it would not harm the huge success of VCS.
The Asari arcade business at the beginning of 1980 was still dominated by the Asteroids . It was created at least two versions of this machine, so that the game could fit in the halls, in which it was impossible to put a standard arcade machine. The "cocktail" version with a seat was released in April 1980. Machines of this version were sold about the same as other arcade machines sold (produced 8,725 devices and sold for $ 1,746 each).
In addition, a new "cabaret" version was released in May. It was a car without a seat, occupying a much smaller space, which allowed it to be installed in automatic laundries, minimarkets and other small establishments.
All-record success Asteroidsdemonstrated a feature of the game that quickly became a problem: a list of the best results. It was not the first game with such a list (the championship was won by Star Fire- inspired Star Fire company Exidy), but Asteroids was the first very popular game that invited players to enter their initials and become famous.
This list of the best results combined with the exciting gameplay Asteroids revealed the weak side of the game in the first half of 1980. More and more players began to play better and better, earning high results, and the operators of arcade machines began to feel a drop in profits.
Players increasingly mastered the game, exploiting design errors. April record Asteroidsin a million points was first put by Paul Wallam from the University of California at Berkeley. Atari loved to advertise such records, but engineers secretly worked on a fix that would make the game more difficult. The modification kit released in May 1980 made the small flying saucer smarter and increased its speed of fire.
Apart from the Asteroids transferred from 1979 , the first great new game of 1980 for Atari was the Missile Command.. She exploited the fears of the children of the “generation X” who filled the gaming halls at the time: the game simulated a nuclear missile attack on six cities that the player had to protect. The project was developed by Dave Terer and Rich Adam, the first names proposed for the game were World War III, Armageddon and Edge Of Blight.
After the release in April 1980, Missile Command was a great success. Not reaching the size of Asteroids , it still became a noticeable hit: a total of 20 thousand machines were sold.
The game captured the imagination of the generation of the Cold War era, and even was a kind of realization of the subconscious fear of nuclear annihilation.
“All of my friends who had played the game had nightmares about nuclear war.”
- Steve Kalfi (designer of Atari arcade machines)
“The game had a slightly frightening message: a nuclear cloud appeared at the end.”
- Ed Rothberg
Missile Command
In addition, Monte Carlo was released in April . Monte Carlo was another long series of single-player Atari racing games. Developed and written by Norm Avellar and Dennis Koble Monte Carlo, players drove the car from the top and scrolling.
Shortly thereafter, in September, Atari launched another outstanding war game. This time it was a revolutionary three-dimensional vector tank simulation Battlezone. The game was written by Morgan Hoff (Morgan Hoff), and developed by Ed Rothberg. It used a math coprocessor called the math box for three-dimensional calculations, designed by Jed Margolin and Mike Elbe. Erupting volcano on the background created Owen Rubin.
“It was developed in one of the brainstorming sessions of our company. Shortly before that, thanks to Howard Delman, we created vector display technology, and of course, one of the first ideas was a first-person game in a three-dimensional perspective. Honestly, I don’t remember who was the first to propose a tank format at these meetings. ”
- Ed Rothberg
Battlezonebecame another massive hit Atari (more than 15 thousand cars were sold), the third for the year. This is how the golden era of the Atari arcade division began. It seemed that no problems could arise, even from the US government. At that time, Atari turned to the army to help the company create a version of Battlezone for combat training.
"A group of army consultants — several retired generals and the like — turned to Atari with the idea of ​​adapting the Battlezone technologyto the training simulator of a new then infantry fighting vehicle (Infantry Fighting Vehicle). The idea was to turn such a simulator into a game in which the soldiers would like to play. They would learn not only the basic operations with the BMP, but also be able to recognize the silhouettes of friendly and enemy vehicles. ”
- Ed Rothberg
Today, information about the Battlezone project for the army is freely available, but in the early 80s it was only rumors passed between magazine editors and children in the yard.
In the absence of official information, more slanderous rumors began to appear about the connection of other Atari games to the CIA conspiracies.
“The rumors were like this: The Pentagon (or the CIA, or the FBI) ​​collaborated with Atari to create a realistic military video game. What followed was not entirely clear, and the explanations were different. There were even suspicions that the Pentagon wants to subconsciously train future employees through video graphics. Or that the Pentagon wants to find and recruit (instantly!) Talented players showing the most outstanding skills. Has the Pentagon achieved its task, and is this story true at all? This is information of the highest degree of secrecy. However, the game was real, and had the appropriate name Missile Command ".
- Matthew White, Joystik Magazine, September 1982
Today, these conspiracy theories seem just bizarre fantasies, but in the 80s, in the era of Reagan, USSR, "War Games" and"Red Dawn" they were damn serious. Although there was no evidence that the US military was going to use these games to search for the most experienced teenage players of the 80s who were able to master the weapons of the 21st century (the role of the military passed in the movie “The Last Star Fighter” and in Robert Max's book Arcade ... America's Army to aliens), there is evidence that the army wanted in the early 80s to use the game to train troops.
“The army noticed that the young people with whom it works love these games, so she wondered:“ Why don't we use them? ”
- Donald Osborne (Donald Osbourne), vice president of sales for Atari arcade machines
... and the top wanted the Battlezone andMissile Command .
"An agreement was signed under which Atari is to produce training prototypes for the M60A1 army tank and the Chaparral anti-aircraft missile system."
- Nathan Cobb, Globe Staff, September 3, 1981
However, Atari’s work on these military projects did not last long. It turned out that some of the key engineers of Atari chose their profession just because they wanted to avoid such contract work for the government. She contradicted everything they believed in.
“I was categorically opposed to Atari even starting such a business. Do not forget, in 1981 the world was completely different. In those years, the Soviet Union still existed, perceived by our nation as the greatest threat. I thought that many of us engineers had the opportunity to work for companies associated with the military, but we deliberately chose to work in a company that had nothing to do with them. ”
- Ed Rothberg
For Atari slot machine designers, creating an alternate reality was more important than simulating reality. In fact, the most important goal was to create a popular game that would at least briefly allow people to leave the real world.
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The Space Invaders game for VCS, along with the success of Asteroids , Missile Command and Battlezone on arcade machines, allowed Atari Inc to earn $ 512.7 million in a year. Suddenly, Atari became the main source of annual revenue for Warner Communications, and was recognized as "the fastest growing company in US history."
In total for 1980, Atari spent 2.1 million dollars on television advertising. Even though almost all of the products that made up Atari’s success in 1980 began under the leadership of Nolan Bushnell, or were the results of the teams that he assembled, these events made Ray Cassar a Wall Street hero. Cassar predictably gained all the glory for the success of Atari.
“When I joined the company, our product was a fad, a Christmas present. We tried to convince the market and the consumer that this is a daily and durable product. ”
- Ray Cassar
By 1981, arcades captured the imagination of a whole generation of children. New games were released almost every week, and the most successful added new interesting tasks and gameplay patterns.
All this led to the fact that by 1981 the business of arcade machines grew into the world's largest entertainment market.
“It was a crazy, highly competitive business. I participated in it when coin-operated automats earned $ 8 billion a year in quarters. These games have surpassed the musical and film industries in terms of revenues combined, and this is at a quarter price! ”
- Dan Pliskin (engineer of Atari arcade machines)
Arcade machines quickly spread beyond the gaming halls. By the summer of 1981, in every fifth of approximately 40,000 minimarkets in the US, an arcade video game machine was installed, and many of them had Atari products.
"The players threw 10 million quarters into the Asteroids machine every day."
- Frank Laney (Frank Laney Jr.) (Ernie Katz), Electronic Games magazine
After the success of Asteroids , Missile Command and Battlezone in 1980, the name Atari and the Fuji Mountain company logo became synonymous with quality gameplay. The Atari arcade department entered in 1981, armed with new vector equipment developments and continuing to work on the design of games.
However, the year began in the wrong direction, with a series of failed ideas and missed opportunities. The first in March was Asteroids Deluxe - not a very good sequel to the most successful Atari game at that time.
" Asteroids Deluxe was done by Dave Shepherd. I didn’t put anything into the game, except the code for the first part with which he worked."
- Ed Logg
Asteroids Deluxe with its automatically shooting shields and killer satellites was too complicated and not good enough to outperform the original Asteroids game. However, it was still selling well, it was shipped 22 thousand cars.
“But wait, is this approaching because of that big asteroid?” This is a flying saucer zailorov, for which you were sent. By dodging and maneuvering, you suddenly realized that they had become much smarter. And this strange asteroid is chasing you? Wait, this is not an asteroid! This is a huge ship! Ambush!"
- Advertising Asteroids Deluxe
At about the same time, the first three-dimensional vector flight simulator Atari: Red Baron appeared in the arcade halls. The game was a bit like the aviation version of Battlezone (in fact, the game was released in the body of the Battlezone machine gun), but with ground and air targets. In total, 2 thousand machines were sold, the game did not become a big hit.
Soon the next arcade game Atari suffered the same fate. Warlords was a favorite, innovative Breakout style game that could be played by up to four players. It was very interesting, but simply could not gather a mass audience to break through the flow of games of many other manufacturers, flooded the limited space of the gaming halls. It sold only 2 thousand machines.
This was unfortunate for the release of three undervalued games in a row. By the middle of 1981, the competition for arcade machines was becoming increasingly fierce. Atari had to contend with the hits of the golden era, set in all corners of the gambling halls. Released in 1980, Namco's Pac-Man and Williams Defender captured the attention of the mainstream market, as it would later happen to Ms. Pac-Man Namco.
Donkey Kong Nintendo, Galaga Namco and Frogger Sega (licensed from Konami) captured attention in the second half of 1981. These hit games attracted women ( Pac-Man , Ms. Pac Man , Frogger ) to the arcade halls, but also liked serious players ( Defender , Galaga ). To stay in the game, Atari needed to find a new hit.
However, she found two.
The first game was released in June, and had tremendous success. Centipede was a garden "insect shooter" designed and written by Ed Logue and Dona Bailey (one of the first female developers of arcade machines). There are some contradictions in the question of authorship of the idea.
“The idea of Centipede emerged as a result of one of the brainstorming sessions held annually by Atari.”
- Ed Logg
Centipede
The playing field was a lawn with mushrooms. To save the lawn, it was necessary to destroy centipedes, spiders and other garden insects. Most of the mushrooms could be destroyed, which gave the game a sense of infinite possibilities, and also made it possible to create different strategies for setting records.
“Today, Centipede would be considered, at best, a“ casual ”game, which makes me very happy, because it was not at all like that. It was an active game with a story, although by modern standards there is no narrative at all! I think today they wouldn't even let her out. ”
- Dona Bailey
A total of 54,000 automata were sold, and for Atari the game was the second best selling ever. In addition, it was very popular with women, which gave Atari an advantage due to the increase in the number of visitors to the arcade halls.
“Many theories have been proposed. One of them argued that the success of women game is obliged to a woman developer. Another is that the destruction of insects is well suited to female psychology. I think women like this game because it doesn’t discriminate on the basis of sex, like fighting games, RPGs or sports games. ”
- Ed Logg on why Centipede liked women
The second major game for Atari in 1981 was Tempest . Originally developed by Missile Command creator Dave Terehr as a 3D version of Space Invaders , it eventually became a three-dimensional battle around the boundaries of a constantly complicating geometric field.
Tempest
“Once I walked in and suddenly saw this round pipe with some things going up along it. I asked: "Dave, what the hell is this?". He replied: “I do not know myself. Maybe aliens from the center of the earth? “It seems he said that he had a dream like that.
I asked: "How does it work?". He answered: “I do not know. They climb the edges of this thing, and I try to shoot them. " He just started with this concept and gradually developed it. I understand why he considers Tempest as his best achievement. He worked incredibly hard on her. It is completely a creation of his thought. ”
- Rich Adam
The Tempest had a controller handle that moved the player’s ship along the boundary of each of the geometric levels. It also used the latest Atari color vector generator (“Color Quadrascan”) and the vector math box to create three-dimensional graphics that have never before been on arcade machines.
The combination of great graphics, intense action and innovative design has created a terrific hit Atari. The game was so hypnotic that some players entered a trans-like state without noticing anything around.
“The management at Tempest was good enough, having studied it, one could practically become one with the machine. That is, a good player in Tempest turned the knob and fired at the right moment, synchronizing with the machine and getting into the rhythm. I do not know what to call it, but the player was so close to the action on the screen that it became part of it. He forgot about what is happening around and where he is. ”
- Lyle Raines
Approximately 30 thousand Tempest machines were sold, only 8 thousand more than Asteroids Deluxe , but the most important advantage was not numbers, but popularity. Thanks to Tempest, Atari looked like a company moving forward and not looking around for its old hits for inspiration.
Teenagers and experienced players who grew up on Pong and Space Invaders , now craved a more complex and disturbing gameplay, and thanks to Tempest Atari met this demand.
Along with the released games, in 1981, the Atari arcade department had several false starts and abandoned games, including Force Field , Hyperspace , Space Shoot (Howard Delman game), Time Traveler, and Thogs .
Even with hits, in 1981, the Atari arcade machines did not go very well. The founding engineer of all this work, El Elcorn, left the company after Atari failed to release the holographic electronic game Cosmos , on which he worked. Despite the fact that Elcorn received thousands of orders at CES, Atari still decided not to release it, thus practically closing Atari Electronics.
"Ray Cassar was too afraid to tempt fate in the market of portable / board games, he believed only in the Atari 2600 VCS."
- El Elcorn
Disappointment was unbearable for Elkorn. 1981 Atari ceased to be the company he helped create in 1972. It is time to leave.
“I left Atari because under Mr. Cassar’s guidance, she became uninteresting to me.”
- El Elcorn
It was followed by other engineers. The most painful loss was the departure of a trio of Ed Rotberg, Howard Delman and Roger Hector, who decided to create their own video game development company.
“In 1981, I, Roger Hector and Ed Rothberg left Atari and founded Videa, Inc. We sought to become a respected developer in the video game industry, as well as in other markets in which we could use our skills. As a result, we developed the arcade game Gridlee for Gottlieb, the merchant company ByVideo, and a couple of games for Atari VCS. ”
- Howard Delman
Such losses had a bad effect on the morale of the arcade department and on its ability to create hit games. However, Atari found a couple of ways to replace this brain drain, but not by hiring the best and smartest game designers.
She began licensing games from other manufacturers. Atari has always had close relationships with Namco, and in November 1981 they entered into an agreement to license several Namco arcade games for sale in the United States. However, these games did not appear in the Atari production schedule until 1982.
Another way was to use third-party software developers to create games. In mid-1981, the opportunity to expand the arcade machine department by a third-party developer literally came into the hands of Atari itself.
In June, a small company GCC (General Computer Corporation), assembled by MIT students, created for the Atari Missile Command arcade machine a “modification kit” called Super Missile Attack , and began selling it for $ 295. The modification kit allowed game room operators to change the game, add options and make it more difficult for players.
Atari found out about this bundle, and since it was in the legally “gray” zone, the company was worried about its impact on the integrity of its products. She filed a lawsuit in the amount of 15 million dollars against the GCC.
"The kit (General Computer modifications) was offered to our customers and the public as an Atari product, which caused confusion and loss of legitimate profits from our research and development investments."
- Frank Baluz, vice president of marketing for Atari arcade machines
It turned out that GCC engineers have good skills in developing arcade games. They created a modification kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto , which Namco sold. He later turned into Ms. Pac-Man .
Atari could recognize talent. The lawsuit never got to court, and Atari reached a peace agreement with the GCC.
“They were very annoyed that we were not retreating, and finally a light bulb lit up over their head:“ GCC can develop games for us, ”so Atari withdrew its lawsuit ... We signed an agreement on developing games for Atari.”
- Steve Golson (GCC engineer)
Atari signed a contract with GCC for the development of new arcade machines for the company. GCC began work on Quantum arcade games, Food Fight and Nightmare (not released), VCS games such as Ms. Pac-Man and Vanguard , on a new Atari 7800 console project, as well as on some of the first games for the system.
However, unlike Grass Valley a few years ago, GCC never integrated into Atari and obeyed instructions from people like Ray Cassar and Manny Gerard. It seems that Atari's management was reinsured with respect to the development department. If you can not find allies inside, you can always buy them outside.
"Our contract was not with Atari, we concluded it with Warner, who owned Atari ... Whatever we did, all these Atari guys had to put up with."
- Steve Golson
Even despite the fact that Atari hid most of the technical documentation needed for third-party software development in the 8-bit computer line, the developers found their own resources for researching machines.
Journals such as Compute began publishing articles about 400 and 800 back in January 1980. They investigated the work of the machine and how to create software for it. Some of the articles were written by Atari employees who desperately wanted the world to learn about their new cars.
“Anyone who saw the Star Raiders at Atari knew that this personal computer has much better graphic capabilities than all the others. Owners of these computers wondered if they could get their cars to do what Star Raiders was capable of . The good news was that it was really possible to write programs with graphics and animation, as good as Star Raiders . ”
- Chris Crawford, Compute's first Book Of Atari, 1981
Even better news for owners of Atari computers was the release in January of the first specialized magazine ANALOG on 8-bit Atari machines. Thanks to ANALOG, Atari owners have an independent news source that can bring the platform closer to computer fans ...
“Atari is also a popular computer of the eighties. At the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the most frequently asked questions were: “What is the best restaurant here, how to get to the toilets and where is the ATARI stand?” "
- The first issue of the journal ANALOG
... and double the pressure on Atari and computer stores to support the platform.
“Compared even with the 400 color, the TRS-80 looks like a joke. APPLE II technologies are archaic compared to the 800, and no other microcomputer on the market can compete with the computing power of Atari. Many computer stores do not acquire 400 and 800 ... "there is no software for them," but we at the ANALOG office receive programs and new products almost every day, and we don’t have time to review them all. I am very impressed with the amount of really good software that has appeared in just a year. ”
- The first issue of the magazine ANALOG
One of the reasons for the emergence of a specialized magazine was a significant increase in computer sales in the late 1980s and early 1981s.
“We were told that Atari sales are increasing, and this is not just a gradual increase that we have seen since summer. The stream has definitely turned into a river, it seems that the conveyor does not have time to produce computers: in mid-December, merchants across the country were selling cars faster than buying them. ”
- Robert Lock (Robert Lock), Compute !, February 1981
However, much of this was made possible thanks to the cult status of Star Raiders . Atari computers provided graphics and gameplay, far superior to everything that was previously, and hardcore gamers bought them just to play games.
"If you have an Atari 800 computer, do not forget - there are other game cartridges besides Star Raiders "
- Robert Baker, Compute !, April 1981
Even despite Atari’s desire to prove that its machines are capable of more than games, the company in 1981 began to release its games again, including an almost perfect copy of the Missile Command arcade game, surprisingly low-quality Asteroids (with raster graphics) and decent Super Breakout , as well as two educational games by Chris Crawford, Energy Czar and SCRAM .
Atari still complemented these games with a bunch of serious software (Conversational Spanish, Bond Analysis, Stock Analysis, Stock Charting, Mailing List, Touch Typing, Calculator, Graph It), but whether she wanted to or not, it was the games that became the lure for new users.
The unique idea of ​​Atari of that time, which allowed supporting the 8-bit platform even more, was the APX software, the Atari Program Exchange. APX became the brainchild of Dale Yocam. The idea was to take the best samples of software created by the Atari user community and sell them to users.
“Dale Yokam, who came up with this idea, tried to explain to management that there are many people ready to write programs, and if we can publish them, it will be beneficial for both parties. The manual is not very interested. Dale prepared a business plan and said: "Look, we need quite a bit of money for this, the system will support itself, and it can also bring profit." The management very reluctantly agreed. He realized his idea and very quickly she received a huge success. She became the main source of income Atari. The management "awarded" Dale with inviting another person to the position of his boss. Frustrated, Dale retired about a year later. ”
- Chris Crawford
It is interesting to note that APX has become a resource not only for Atari customers. Many VCS internal development staff wrote games like APX Lemonade Stand , Mugwump , Preschool Games , Reversi , Space Trek and Dice Poker were written by Bob Polaro. Avalanche and Chinese Puzzle created by Dennis Coble. Centurion , Castle , Alien Egg and Tact Trek was written by Rob Zdibel. Lookahead was created by Bob Johnson (Bob Johnson), and Load N 'Go - Brad Stewart.
However, the most popular game created by the Atari programmer for APX was the Eastern Front (1941) of Chris Crawford, released in September 1981. Eastern Front (1941) was a tactical wargame simulating a battle between German and Soviet troops in World War II.
Eastern Front (1941)
Unlike other tactical wargames of the time, Eastern Front boasted color graphics and joystick controls, which completely simplified the game's interface. Although there were no animated battles in the Eastern Front , it was a cinematic masterpiece compared to text games Avalon Hill. The gameplay was also interesting.
“Without doubting for a second, I will call this game one of the best wargames for a personal computer. In addition, it has become a masterly demonstration of Atari’s amazing built-in capabilities. ”
- Creative Computing
Thanks to such games, Chris Crawford seemed (almost) the only one who was able to simultaneously tell the world about the capabilities of Atari 8-bit computers and show the magic that can be created in them. Sales were good too. Even with a share of royalties of 10%, Crawford earned $ 90,000 on this game.
Immediately began to appear games and applications from third-party sources. One of the best games of the Caverns of Marswas created by high school student Greg Christensen. He sent it to APX, and the game sold very well. It was a multi-level vertical scrolling shooter. The player was deep under the surface of Mars, fought with aliens, until they reached the center of the planet. The game used the capabilities of Atari 8-bit computers in much the same way as Star Raiders .
Caverns of Mars.
Christensen's game won a prize of 3 thousand dollars from Atari and the first check for royalties of 18 thousand. He received a total of 100 thousand dollars for the game as royalties. In 1982, Atari turned it into a line of computer games. Christensen continued his successful career as a game developer and released two Caverns of Mars sequels : Phobosand Caverns of Mars II .
During 1981, more and more third-party developers learned to program Atari computers and release software. Where did they learn the technical information necessary for programming the machine, which they kept in secret? From insiders from Atari, such as Chris Crawford.
“Initially, no one specified exactly what should be kept secret. I was an Atari programmer who came from the outside world and had more contacts with outsiders. Sometimes it happened that I was working on Atari software, a phone call rang and someone from Indiana asked: “Can I get technical documentation?”. I went to the main office, took away the documents, photocopied them and sent them by mail ... there were many tricks by which I could send the documents and not be dismissed. ”
- Chris Crawford
During the year, quality games from the largest software companies of that era began to appear. In March, Automated Simulations (Epyx) released its first three games for 8-bit Atari computers: The Datestones of Ryn , Rescue at Rigel, andInvasion Orion . (Scott Adams) Adventure International, , , Star Trek 3.5 , 10 .
Threshold Sierra On-Line, Tanktics , Avalon Hill, Sierra On-Line — Jawbreaker ( Atari : , Pac-Man , ).
, Upper Reaches Of Apshai and Rescue At Rigel by Automated Simulations and the Abuse Artificial Intelligence Experiment by Randy Simon and Robert Freedman. Dozens of other games from small producers (including from the ANALOG magazine itself) and amateur programmers were released.
Rescue At Rigel
To further stimulate new developers, the Atari home computer department created a new Software Support Group that was supposed to help developers from other platforms work on software for Atari 8-bit computers.
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Finally, by the end of 1981, the attitude of the Atari top to third-party programmers was turned 180 degrees. The Atari development team (with the participation of Chris Crawford) has published (via APX) the book De Re Atari. It contained most of the technical details needed to develop software using all the functions of the 8-bit Atari platform. Later, in 1982, finally released a full set of technical documentation.
“I sent to developers any insignificant information, and once“ the dam broke through, ”the official policy changed and turned around 180 degrees. "We want to tell everyone about the system." I immediately got on the phone, started calling all my contacts and asking the question: “Hello, do you want to receive the full Atari technical documentation?”. We sent many copies. ”
- Chris Crawford
Atari needed to get as much software as possible for the machines, because the computer market that she entered was supposed to be a battlefield. Commodore already had PET on the market before the 400 and 800 appeared, and the company announced the release of the VIC-20, a more powerful computer than the standard Atari 400, but with a much lower price of $ 299.
Atari responded in May, lowering the price of the Atari 400 to $ 399 and doubling the amount of memory, from 8 KB to 16 KB. The plan worked, and sales of Atari computers skyrocketed throughout the year.
“They still sell them as fast as they produce. What else can I say? ”
- Robert Lock, Compute!, March 1981
Atari used other ways to advertise a line of computers. In the second quarter, she released her own magazineAtari Connection , whose target audience was home computer users. Atari also gained celebrity support (writer Robert Ludlam advertised Atari Writer word processor ). These steps received the approval of the world of finance, it seemed that Atari sought to pave a new path.
"Atari Inc. committed to the business of consumer equipment, and despite the fact that this subsidiary of Warner Communications Inc. almost alone believes in the right moment, she puts home computers on the future and ignores today's popular markets. ”
- Business Week, June 15, 1981
In addition, Atari launched the Atari Book Keeper and Star Raiders television ad campaign in the fall. All this led to good sales by the end of the year.
“Atari’s aggressive pricing after the Commodore VIC-20's spring announcement seems to be paying off. We were informed that monthly sales are now comparable to last year’s annual results. And the numbers continue to grow. ”
- Robert Locke, Compute !, October 1981
Still experiencing the aftermath of the departure of the “fantastic four” and the calm response of the management, but spurred on by the huge success of the VCS on Christmas Day 1980, the Atari home appliances department entered 1981 in a precarious position.
In addition, VCS has found a new serious competitor in the face of Mattel Intellivision. She first had to compete with her superior console. And on the software front, a third-party developer, Activision, competed with it. However, the home appliance department continued to produce quality games for VCS.
One erroneous step taken by Atari in early 1981 was the beginning of a trend that will follow Atari to the end of its existence: “puffy” programs. In the first case, it was “blown” equipment in the form of Remote Control VCS.
Atari announced the launch of the Atari 2700 Wireless VCS wireless console along with a pair of 2600 wireless joysticks. Both devices were advertised at the January CES, but only wireless joysticks got to customers.
“The equipment was ready, the boxes had already been released, color flyers were sent to the merchants, it seemed that everything was ready. During testing, the Atari 2700 RC Stella in the quality department revealed that the controllers emit a signal within a radius of 300 meters. This meant that if there were other Atari 2700s nearby, then chaos would arise. The controller electronics were based on the garage door opener scheme, so the controllers could include other remotely controlled devices. ”
- Kurt Wendal, Atari Historian
The games continued to go out, and the Atari VCS began the year with the March release of the very high-quality Video Pinball Bob Smith. Although the playing field did not even come close to the field of the Atari arcade machine of the same name, the gameplay itself was decent.
In 1981, a few more games hit the stores, notably because they were all written by one of Atari’s first female developers, Carla Meninsky. The first was Dodge 'Em , a race in a maze in which the player had to drive and collect objects (points), dodging the computer-driven machines of the pursuers. It was a clever mix of ideas from the Indy 500 and Pac-Man .
"For Dodge 'EmI was placed on the spread of Playboy and High Times magazines, calling it the best game of the year ... Therefore, I believed that it was so. ”
- Carla Meninski
The second game Meninsky became a port for the VCS arcade game Atari Warlords . Although both games were not big hits compared to the following games of the year, they proved that Meninsky had enough programming skills to take on one of the biggest projects for the 1982 VCS: Star Raiders .
One of the most important games for VCS 1981 was released in April. After the success of the licensed arcade game Space Invaders, Atari began to port as many arcade hits as possible to VCS. Missile Command was one of the first.
Along with Space Invaders , Missile Command for VCS became widely known as one of the first arcade ports for the platform, which was more interesting to play than on the arcade machine itself.
Rob Fulop worked on Missile Command as the next project after a “remake” of Space Invaders for 8-bit computers.
“For the changes (to the Space Invaders for 8-bit computers) I received compliments, but not from the management, but from my colleagues. So I decided to make my next project, Missile Command , as complete a copy of the original as possible. ”
- Rob Fuop
Missile Commandhad a terrific success on VCS and sold millions of copies. In addition, it allowed to convey to consumers a sort of message: although there are other systems on the market, such as Intellivision, only Atari VCS can you play real arcade games. However, if Missile Command simply conveyed this message, then another very significant game of the year for VCS, Asteroids, announced it loudly .
To place the arcade game Asteroids in the cartridge volume was not so easy. This task was assigned to Brad Stewart, a VCS version of Breakout , and it turned out to be difficult. To fit all the graphics and gameplay AsteroidsA standard 2 KB cartridge was impossible. In fact, the game wouldn't fit even in a 4 KB cartridge.
“ Asteroids needed 8k. When the game was over, Bob Smith and I used all the tricks we knew to fit it into 4K, but it ... just ... didn't ... fit! ”
- Brad Stewart
To get access to 8K, Stewart used a newly developed scheme under The name “bank switching” (originally invented for the VCS Basic Programming cartridge ). It allowed the programmer to access several 4K banks of memory. For VCS, this was a breakthrough.
“The proposed invention creates a memory with bank switching and a way to increase the number of individual addresses that a digital system can access. The invention extends the available memory beyond standard addressing, in which one memory cell is associated with a unique address. In particular, the invention is used to expand the number of ROM memory addresses stored in the game cartridge of a video game system without requiring additional address trunks. "
- Carl Neilson (Carl J. Neilson), patent for a memory system with switchable banks, registered on May 7, 1981.
Switching banks opened a completely new world of clearer and more elaborate graphics for VCS. It allowed to realize Asteroidson VCS, which in turn turned the Atari VCS into a compulsory Christmas present for 1981.
“You will not find the best electronic toy in the toy department. Together with televisions and stereos, the stores sell electronics like the Atari Video Computer System with 18 games and cost $ 169. ”
- Covey Bean, Daily Oklahoman, December 11, 1981
For the 1981 Christmas season, the marketing side of Atari was fully revealed. She shook the air the largest television and newspaper campaign in the history of the company.
In total, Atari spent $ 18 million on television advertising in 1981, almost tripling the 1980 record. For the massive Christmas of 1981, Atari put everything on the line. She even forced retailers to order large quantities of games that they would otherwise not have bought, “to the load” to popular Atari products.
“Atari has enjoyed its dominance over the years for distributors to operate. When a popular game appeared to her, she forced sellers to buy cartridges with old games that were not sold anymore.
- Howard Scott Warshaw
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Ray Cassar and the top Warner had their own vision of the path to success. Atari was selling VCS, which by then was five years old, helping it build on its success. She invested more money in marketing than she earned money from the game, and the fruits of such a decision quickly became apparent.
Warner was uncompromising to the development teams and good products continued to emerge. Sales proved Ray Cassar and Manny Gerard to be right. Bushnell spent too much effort on technology and development and too little on marketing. Due to the fact that, by 1981, Atari became the dominant power in Atari, it became the largest player in the world.
"I think they sold 2-3 million copies of the game ... they earned 30-40 million dollars ... and I was rewarded with turkey."
- Rob Fulop
Maybe Atari earned the most in 1981, but this does not mean that the creators of the products got something. Even with the huge sales of Missile Command , programmer Rob Fulop received almost nothing. He was expecting some kind of award for the millions of copies of the Missile Command sold , but he didn’t wait for almost anything.
Fulop saw the success of the Fantastic Four, which created Activision, and left Atari at the end of 1981. He joined Asteroids programmer Brad Stewart and Atari veterans Dennis Coble, Bob Smith and Bill Grubb in their company Imagic on developing games for VCS.
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Mattel Intellivision 1981 . , Intellivision VCS, . Mattel , Atari .
“The six-million advertising company praised Intellivision’s graphic superiority over the Atari 2600. The media noticed this and began to cover the“ war ”of video games, increasing the popularity of the entire industry. Although the $ 300 Intellivision was twice as expensive as the 2,600, sales grew and reached 850,000 consoles by the end of the year. ”
- Intellivision Lives
Activision in 1981 also did not rest on its first line of games, and released a bunch of new games for the January CES show. However, by that time Atari had noticed the Activision games and had taken steps to protect the VCS from these “outsiders”. In early 1981, Atari filed a lawsuit to stop Activision.
"They stole our programs, and we, of course, sue them."
- Ray Cassar
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Activision VCS: Tennis Skiing , VCS, Laser Blast . Kaboom! Larry Kaplana was the Atari Avalanche version of the arcade game , and Freeway was Frogger's unique answer with the chicken in the lead role.
Although they were not ports from the arcade machines, the gameplay and graphics were some of the best ones that appeared on VCS, and their screenshots looked great in print.
This turned out to be very useful, because at about the same time, the activity in the video game sector led to the creation of a fan base sufficient for the release of a specialized video game magazine. On October 29, 1981, the first issue of Electronic Games magazine was published. In the first issue, the magazine assessed the condition and size of a rapidly growing industry.
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, Arcade Alley. Electronic Games « » (Q&A) . .
“I think we gave readers a sense of community. It was the only way they could communicate with us and with each other. At that moment, the Q & A section became a link for all fans information about the game world. ”
- Bill Kenkel
Before Electronic Games, consumers did not have any intermediaries, there was only a motley mix of video game companies. On the one hand, it was a place to show and advertise games long before they were released.
On the other hand, journalists could not be controlled, and they were not trusted to convey information from companies such as Atari that were heavily marketing. Electronic Games marked the beginning of the real criticism of video games. Society no longer depended on choosing new video games from marketing messages and box illustrations.
1980: VCS invasion
After successful sales of Atari VCS in the Christmas season of 1979, the challenge was to create a large amount of software for the new proud owners of Atari machines. The company began the year with an extensive presentation at the January CES show in Las Vegas.
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“Atari fueled expectations from its gaming machine. The Atari 2600 gaming console was a real gadget of the year, and games that attracted large crowds were displayed on the Atari stand. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
After the presentation at CES in January, Atari continued its marketing promotion, including the largest television advertising campaign in its history. One of the very first advertised games of this campaign in January was Space Invaders , written by Rick Maurer (who had previously worked on Fairchild Channel F) and turned out to be a loud hit. Simply put, Space Invaders saved the VCS.
“VCS was not doing so well - they sold only a few million cars, and it seemed that the console was dying. But then Space Invaders came out , and bam! - the market exploded.
- Larry Kaplan
Although the licensing of Space Invaders was handled by Manny Gerard and Ray Cassar, it was Morera who had the idea to create a version of the game before anyone ever thought of it. Morer began working on Space Invaders in 1978, when he was just beginning to learn VCS programming, and this process was not easy for him.
"When working with VCS, it was necessary to forget about all the good programming practices that I learned."
- Rick Morer
Development began well, but then it seemed that Morer was stumped. The game worked, but it seemed that no one in the consumer equipment department was interested in the Space Invaders version for VCS.
“After a few months, the game was already interesting to play. But almost no one was interested in her, no one wanted to play it. ”
- Rick Morer
Morer went on to create the Maze Craze (also released in 1980), because he thought that programming the Maze Craze would help him develop development skills for VCS and prepare for Space Invaders .
Maze craze
Much later, in early 1979, Manny Gerard persuaded Ray Cassar to license Taito to play for VCS.
“Cassar flew to Japan in 1979 for the sole purpose of getting Space Invaders. He achieved this by turning a brilliant deal that earns Atari millions of dollars and launches 2600 into orbit. ”
- Kevin Bowen, GameSpy, 25 Smartest Moments In Gaming
This allowed Morera to continue working on the game, this time officially. Developing Space Invaders at 2600 was more difficult for Morera. As a graphic, he used a rudimentary “programmers' graphic,” but he wanted the cartridge box designer to draw his illustrations of enemies on checkered paper to transfer to the game. This did not happen, so Morer used his own drawings.
Initially, Space Invaders took 7 KB, but it needed to be trimmed to 4 KB, so Rick rewrote the code for three more months, fighting to save every single byte.
By the end of the development process, its beautifully structured code had become a maze of JMP branches, but was as concise as possible.
The finished product looked amazing. The game had 112 variations, Morera managed to shove all possible Space Invaders variants into a VCS cartridge. Although the game did not completely copy the original, it was played surprisingly similar. Morera's fellow programmers were delighted with the game. Rob Fulop put it better than anyone else: “Fucking brilliant.”
After the release of Space Invaders on VCS in early 1980, it instantly became a hit. Total game earned for Atari more than 100 million dollars.
The game was so successful that it proved the possibility of a long life for VCS. Ray Cassar realized that VCS may not be just a seasonal product. The release of games, previously scheduled for the holidays, stretched out for the whole year.
In addition, it pushed Atari's marketing department to experiment with other arcade games. Began to develop new adaptations for VCS, such as Asteroids and Super Breakout . Simply put, Space Invaders was the turning point for home video games. She prepared the stage for a revolution of arcades on home systems. By Christmas 1980, VCS with Space Invaders became an obligatory holiday purchase.
"... it is expected that one of the biggest blockbusters of this Christmas season will be the electronic game Space Invaders Atari, which collects lines every day at the Woodward & Lothrop store."
- Douglas Chevalier, Washington Post , November 10, 1980
However, the success of Space Invaders had one sacrifice: Rick Morer. Both Space Invaders and Maze Craze were widely recognized as one of the very best games created for VCS, but they were the only games written by Morer. After the resounding success of Space Invaders , who saved Atari and made possible the future of home video games, Morer received a prize of only 11 thousand dollars. Disappointed with the industry, Morer left the company and never again made games for the Atari VCS.
Atari has a new goal: launching games throughout the year and selling them to hundreds of thousands of new customers. For this it was necessary during the 1980s to throw into the market as many VCS games as possible.
One of the first was written by Mike Laurenzen ( Circus Atari) , released in January. Circus Atari was a rewritten version of Breakout (and an almost complete copy of the Exidy Circus arcade game) in which the player launched clowns bursting balls from a platform into the air. Despite its simplicity, Circus Atari was a pretty good game.
Many other inconspicuous games followed Circus Atari and Space Invaders . These games were basically a repetition of the old and an attempt to fill in the gaps in the VCS lineup, and not to become big hits. They were 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe and Video Checkers (both created by one of the first programmers for VCS Carol Show), exclusive to Sears Golf , new games Steeplechase , Stellar Track and Othello .
“I did the Othello version for the 2600 by myself, until my boss caught me at work when I made the last changes before releasing into production.”
- Ed Logg
One really unique game of 1980 was the Championship Soccer by Steve Wright. Although the limited football possibilities were not much better than other stripped-down VCS sports games such as Home Run and Football , the goal score was unprecedented: a salute salute.
“What about the fireworks in honor of a goal scored - isn't that cool?”
- Bill Kenkel (co-founder of Electronic Games magazine)
It was a stunning graphic effect that takes the game to a different level of quality. Some players simply let each other score goals to enjoy the explosions of fireworks. Not surprisingly, programmer Steve Wright no longer created a single game, but instead became a respected and successful guru of digital effects and computer graphics for films and television.
One of the best games of 1980 was Night Driver , written by Rob Fulop and released in August. In this port, from the Atari Night Driver arcade, a pseudo-three-dimensional perspective was used to simulate a fast ride.
Night driver
"My first project in this group was Night Driver , which began when Larry Kaplan handed me a bunch of code and said:" Maybe you can make it work, but for now it looks like an extra headache "... I think then in my heart he was ready to leave the company and did not want to start a new game. ”
- Rob Fulop
The year 1980 witnessed the growing trend of a new type of game for VCS: the unreleased treasure. Atari's marketing team shifted the focus from development and unique concepts to licensed brands. Some finished games for VCS were put on the shelf and never released. Bob Polaro's Stunt Cycle (Bob Polaro) was one of the first such games.
It was originally developed as a version of the game from an Atari arcade machine, but the marketing department tried to turn it into a game under license from Dukes Of Hazzard . As a result, the project has not been released. Another such game in 1980 was Chris Crawford's Wizard , which fell victim to the transition from 2-kilobyte to 4-kilobyte games for VCS.
1980: home competition
On April 25, 1980, the Fantastic Four announced that it would create games for Atari VCS in its new company, Activision. At first, there was almost no reaction from Atari. The company announced four games: Boxing , Fishing Derby , Dragster and Checkers . The statement of Activision was not too loud, and very few people paid attention to it.
Mattel intellivision
A big problem for Atari was the emergence of several serious VCS competitors. The test version of Mattel Intellivision was launched on the market in 1979, and mass production began in 1980. In total 200 thousand devices were sold, and in many respects this console was considered better than the Atari VCS. This competition could have been avoided (or at least postponed for a while) if Ray Cassar followed Nolan Bushnell’s strategy to block the production of SLI chips.
“When I sold Warner to the company and after I left, Ray Cassar studied the situation and said:“ Bushnell is a real idiot, why does he need five projects for the production of different chips? ”He canceled all but the best ones. One went to Texas Instruments, the other to Bally, and the third to Mattel. And so, with one stroke of the pen, he created three serious competitors for himself. ”
- Nolan Bushnell
All this has always been from a legal point of view in the "gray" area. Mattel Intellivision equipment specifications were very similar to a project called the Atari 3200. The 3200 was supposed to be the successor system to the 2600, but the development did not start until 1981.
“According to development logs, in 1981, Atari began work on a new video game console that could replace the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. In the process of developing a new console has changed a lot of code names: Sylvia, Super-Stella and even ... PAM (with a note next to it: “Super-Stella: Multipurpose“). This new console should be based on a 10-bit processor and have more memory, high-resolution graphics and improved sound, while maintaining compatibility with all Atari 2600 games released. ”
- Curt Vendel
The most obvious similarity between 3200 and Intellivision was the addition of 10-bit internals, which were unusual, because 8-bit systems were the norm.
The 3200 console was never created, and Atari switched to other projects for the successors of the 2600. However, if this is so, it means that Ray Cassar’s disdain for development and his misunderstanding of Bushnell’s strategy led to fierce competition with Atari VCS in the early 80s.
1980: Atari Electronics
By 1980, the future of the Atari electronics department was very bleak. Touch-Me was not successful, and new products under development looked doubtful at best. El Acorn, Roger Hector and Harry Jenkins ran a team that developed Cosmos , a separate console that combined an LED screen with holographic images. The holograms looked interesting, but were simple decorations. The games themselves took place on the LED screen.
Atari cosmos
"... you played a board game, and then a hologram appeared. They suggested that GAMES would be holograms!"
- Bill Kenkel
But still, the public had a great interest in Cosmos, and the team was keen to demonstrate the product at 1981 CES.
1980: home computers
Atari 8-bit computers in 1979 had very little time for sales, so 1980 was the current year of their distribution. Several games for the platform were released at the beginning of the year, including 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe , Super Breakout and Space Invaders . Space Invaders was especially interesting.
Although Atari was licensed from Taito, and 8-bit computers had enough power to reproduce the game accurately, programmer Rob Fulop decided to create a completely different version.
“The reason why the Atari 800 version was different from the original was simple and somewhat annoying. I was then 23 years old, and I have already created one “port” ( Night Driver for 2600). I decided that I was too cool to make a complete copy of an existing game with machine guns. You have to remember that in Atari no one approved the programmers for the plans. In essence, people like me were given complete freedom in creating any kind of products. There were no approval processes, meetings and requirements.
In retrospect, such freedom was, in my opinion, awesome given the current production requirements. But at that time everything was decided by the programmer. Nobody asked me to do Space Invaders , it was my choice. I decided to change the original, but not because it was “bad.” I just wanted to sign my name, whatever that means. ”
- Rob Fulop
The game was so different that independent developer Joe Hellesen (who would then create many other games for 8-bit systems, ST and Amiga, including Pac-Man for Atari 8-bit computers) created an almost perfect copy in 1981 arcade game.
However, after the initial release of games for 8-bit computers, Atari was ready to stop all the development of games for the machine. Atari leadership sought to emphasize that this is a computer, and to stop comparing with VCS.
"One of the very rare decisions we were confident about was the decision to clearly separate the home computer from the video game console ... The rule was simple: no more games."
- Chris Crawford
Instead of creating games, Crawford began work on several entertainment and educational projects, including a simulator of an energy company called Energy Czar and a nuclear reactor simulator SCRAM . His fellow programmers worked on accounting and business programs.
SCRAM
However, despite the desire of Atari to separate the line of computers from video games to become a serious competitor in the market, the company made one huge mistake that almost destroyed this idea: it released the game Star Raiders .
The game, written by Doug Neubauer, was released in March 1980. Atari hired Neubauer in 1979 as a chip design engineer, but he worked on the Star Raiders third-party project, developing the game on a wire-wrapped 8-bit prototype before models were ready for production. Star Raiders was a 3D version of the game, very popular on college campuses and computer rooms in the 70s.
Star raiders
" Star Raiders was supposed to be a 3D version of the Star Trek game that was played on mainframes at the time. Star Trek was completely text-based and not real-time, but it contained concepts of damage to the ship, sector scanners and charts." .
- Doug Neubauer
Three-dimensional graphics and gameplay Star Raiders did not resemble any previous game. The finished product simply shook Neubauer's Atari colleagues.
“The company's employees were stunned by the game, which was the first real three-dimensional video game ... The visual effects were dazzling, especially the stars flying through the screen while accelerating, and four types of opponents appearing in front or behind.”
- Michael Tomczyk
After the release of Star Raiders was the first "killer application" in computer games. It was the first computer game that could be called a "car seller".
“The game was amazingly exciting. I think it was the first game that combined action with a strategic screen. Fortunately, this concept worked very well. ”
- Doug Neubaur
Even the mainstream press has come down to the excitement of the game.
" Star Raiders is the most important game. This is the best combination of shooting gallery and planetarium. That is why I played it yesterday until one o'clock. It costs about $ 530, provided that you already have a color TV."
- Henry Allen, Washington Post, September 2, 1980
Of course, the success of Star Raiders turned out to be a big hindrance to the Atari home computer department: he reinforced the misconception that 400 and 800 were not serious computers.
“Who will buy a serious computer from the most successful video game and arcade company in the world? Many customers thought that the Atari 400 and 800 were more expensive versions of the Atari 2600 video game machine. Some even doubted that the Atari 400 and 800 were real computers. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
One of the main problems of Atari 8-bit computers was the prevailing stereotype about the lack of software for them. Atari simply could not create enough products on its own, so that a relatively expensive computer purchase would be justified for someone other than keen gamers and game programmers.
“Unfortunately, Atari prevented her own advantage. To everyone's amazement, they decided to keep secret the basic technical information, such as memory allocation and bus architectures, which programmers need to write software. They even attempted to blackmail programmers, saying that they could get technical information only if they signed an agreement to create software under the Atari brand. This scared off an independent community of amateurs and programmers, and as a result, many serious programmers began to write software for other machines. When Atari realized its mistake and started attracting programmers, it was already too late. The only programmers loyal to her were game developers. ”
- Michael Tomczyk
The internal development team continued to discuss the situation with third-party software, trying to convince management that it was making a mistake.
“The management attitude was:“ We want to earn all the money for the software. We don't need competitors. " They had competitors for VCS and programmers tried to explain: “No, things are not being done this way, you need a large library of programs, you need to attract creators,” and I was one of those who talked about this. ”
- Chris Crawford
By the end of 1980, third-party software began to appear for 8-bit Atari computers. Despite the fact that most of it was written in BASIC and had a text-based interface, for example, Midway Campaign and Lords Of Karma of Avalon Hill, many were still on the way.
Despite Atari’s tremendous efforts to close the gaming capabilities of the computer, there were programmers, amateurs, hackers and coders who wrote quality games and brought them to the market.
By the end of 1980, Atari had sold 35,000 computers, and by December sales had grown so much that the cars had to be divided into small lots and transferred to merchants throughout the country.
But even so, the computer business lost 10 million in sales of 10 million, forcing Atari to separate the computer department from the consumer equipment department in October so that it would not harm the huge success of VCS.
1980: arcade machines
The Asari arcade business at the beginning of 1980 was still dominated by the Asteroids . It was created at least two versions of this machine, so that the game could fit in the halls, in which it was impossible to put a standard arcade machine. The "cocktail" version with a seat was released in April 1980. Machines of this version were sold about the same as other arcade machines sold (produced 8,725 devices and sold for $ 1,746 each).
In addition, a new "cabaret" version was released in May. It was a car without a seat, occupying a much smaller space, which allowed it to be installed in automatic laundries, minimarkets and other small establishments.
All-record success Asteroidsdemonstrated a feature of the game that quickly became a problem: a list of the best results. It was not the first game with such a list (the championship was won by Star Fire- inspired Star Fire company Exidy), but Asteroids was the first very popular game that invited players to enter their initials and become famous.
This list of the best results combined with the exciting gameplay Asteroids revealed the weak side of the game in the first half of 1980. More and more players began to play better and better, earning high results, and the operators of arcade machines began to feel a drop in profits.
Players increasingly mastered the game, exploiting design errors. April record Asteroidsin a million points was first put by Paul Wallam from the University of California at Berkeley. Atari loved to advertise such records, but engineers secretly worked on a fix that would make the game more difficult. The modification kit released in May 1980 made the small flying saucer smarter and increased its speed of fire.
Apart from the Asteroids transferred from 1979 , the first great new game of 1980 for Atari was the Missile Command.. She exploited the fears of the children of the “generation X” who filled the gaming halls at the time: the game simulated a nuclear missile attack on six cities that the player had to protect. The project was developed by Dave Terer and Rich Adam, the first names proposed for the game were World War III, Armageddon and Edge Of Blight.
After the release in April 1980, Missile Command was a great success. Not reaching the size of Asteroids , it still became a noticeable hit: a total of 20 thousand machines were sold.
The game captured the imagination of the generation of the Cold War era, and even was a kind of realization of the subconscious fear of nuclear annihilation.
“All of my friends who had played the game had nightmares about nuclear war.”
- Steve Kalfi (designer of Atari arcade machines)
“The game had a slightly frightening message: a nuclear cloud appeared at the end.”
- Ed Rothberg
Missile Command
In addition, Monte Carlo was released in April . Monte Carlo was another long series of single-player Atari racing games. Developed and written by Norm Avellar and Dennis Koble Monte Carlo, players drove the car from the top and scrolling.
Shortly thereafter, in September, Atari launched another outstanding war game. This time it was a revolutionary three-dimensional vector tank simulation Battlezone. The game was written by Morgan Hoff (Morgan Hoff), and developed by Ed Rothberg. It used a math coprocessor called the math box for three-dimensional calculations, designed by Jed Margolin and Mike Elbe. Erupting volcano on the background created Owen Rubin.
“It was developed in one of the brainstorming sessions of our company. Shortly before that, thanks to Howard Delman, we created vector display technology, and of course, one of the first ideas was a first-person game in a three-dimensional perspective. Honestly, I don’t remember who was the first to propose a tank format at these meetings. ”
- Ed Rothberg
Battlezonebecame another massive hit Atari (more than 15 thousand cars were sold), the third for the year. This is how the golden era of the Atari arcade division began. It seemed that no problems could arise, even from the US government. At that time, Atari turned to the army to help the company create a version of Battlezone for combat training.
"A group of army consultants — several retired generals and the like — turned to Atari with the idea of ​​adapting the Battlezone technologyto the training simulator of a new then infantry fighting vehicle (Infantry Fighting Vehicle). The idea was to turn such a simulator into a game in which the soldiers would like to play. They would learn not only the basic operations with the BMP, but also be able to recognize the silhouettes of friendly and enemy vehicles. ”
- Ed Rothberg
Today, information about the Battlezone project for the army is freely available, but in the early 80s it was only rumors passed between magazine editors and children in the yard.
In the absence of official information, more slanderous rumors began to appear about the connection of other Atari games to the CIA conspiracies.
“The rumors were like this: The Pentagon (or the CIA, or the FBI) ​​collaborated with Atari to create a realistic military video game. What followed was not entirely clear, and the explanations were different. There were even suspicions that the Pentagon wants to subconsciously train future employees through video graphics. Or that the Pentagon wants to find and recruit (instantly!) Talented players showing the most outstanding skills. Has the Pentagon achieved its task, and is this story true at all? This is information of the highest degree of secrecy. However, the game was real, and had the appropriate name Missile Command ".
- Matthew White, Joystik Magazine, September 1982
Today, these conspiracy theories seem just bizarre fantasies, but in the 80s, in the era of Reagan, USSR, "War Games" and"Red Dawn" they were damn serious. Although there was no evidence that the US military was going to use these games to search for the most experienced teenage players of the 80s who were able to master the weapons of the 21st century (the role of the military passed in the movie “The Last Star Fighter” and in Robert Max's book Arcade ... America's Army to aliens), there is evidence that the army wanted in the early 80s to use the game to train troops.
“The army noticed that the young people with whom it works love these games, so she wondered:“ Why don't we use them? ”
- Donald Osborne (Donald Osbourne), vice president of sales for Atari arcade machines
... and the top wanted the Battlezone andMissile Command .
"An agreement was signed under which Atari is to produce training prototypes for the M60A1 army tank and the Chaparral anti-aircraft missile system."
- Nathan Cobb, Globe Staff, September 3, 1981
However, Atari’s work on these military projects did not last long. It turned out that some of the key engineers of Atari chose their profession just because they wanted to avoid such contract work for the government. She contradicted everything they believed in.
“I was categorically opposed to Atari even starting such a business. Do not forget, in 1981 the world was completely different. In those years, the Soviet Union still existed, perceived by our nation as the greatest threat. I thought that many of us engineers had the opportunity to work for companies associated with the military, but we deliberately chose to work in a company that had nothing to do with them. ”
- Ed Rothberg
For Atari slot machine designers, creating an alternate reality was more important than simulating reality. In fact, the most important goal was to create a popular game that would at least briefly allow people to leave the real world.
« — , , . . , , , . ».
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1980:
The Space Invaders game for VCS, along with the success of Asteroids , Missile Command and Battlezone on arcade machines, allowed Atari Inc to earn $ 512.7 million in a year. Suddenly, Atari became the main source of annual revenue for Warner Communications, and was recognized as "the fastest growing company in US history."
In total for 1980, Atari spent 2.1 million dollars on television advertising. Even though almost all of the products that made up Atari’s success in 1980 began under the leadership of Nolan Bushnell, or were the results of the teams that he assembled, these events made Ray Cassar a Wall Street hero. Cassar predictably gained all the glory for the success of Atari.
“When I joined the company, our product was a fad, a Christmas present. We tried to convince the market and the consumer that this is a daily and durable product. ”
- Ray Cassar
1981: arcade machines
By 1981, arcades captured the imagination of a whole generation of children. New games were released almost every week, and the most successful added new interesting tasks and gameplay patterns.
All this led to the fact that by 1981 the business of arcade machines grew into the world's largest entertainment market.
“It was a crazy, highly competitive business. I participated in it when coin-operated automats earned $ 8 billion a year in quarters. These games have surpassed the musical and film industries in terms of revenues combined, and this is at a quarter price! ”
- Dan Pliskin (engineer of Atari arcade machines)
Arcade machines quickly spread beyond the gaming halls. By the summer of 1981, in every fifth of approximately 40,000 minimarkets in the US, an arcade video game machine was installed, and many of them had Atari products.
"The players threw 10 million quarters into the Asteroids machine every day."
- Frank Laney (Frank Laney Jr.) (Ernie Katz), Electronic Games magazine
After the success of Asteroids , Missile Command and Battlezone in 1980, the name Atari and the Fuji Mountain company logo became synonymous with quality gameplay. The Atari arcade department entered in 1981, armed with new vector equipment developments and continuing to work on the design of games.
However, the year began in the wrong direction, with a series of failed ideas and missed opportunities. The first in March was Asteroids Deluxe - not a very good sequel to the most successful Atari game at that time.
" Asteroids Deluxe was done by Dave Shepherd. I didn’t put anything into the game, except the code for the first part with which he worked."
- Ed Logg
Asteroids Deluxe with its automatically shooting shields and killer satellites was too complicated and not good enough to outperform the original Asteroids game. However, it was still selling well, it was shipped 22 thousand cars.
“But wait, is this approaching because of that big asteroid?” This is a flying saucer zailorov, for which you were sent. By dodging and maneuvering, you suddenly realized that they had become much smarter. And this strange asteroid is chasing you? Wait, this is not an asteroid! This is a huge ship! Ambush!"
- Advertising Asteroids Deluxe
At about the same time, the first three-dimensional vector flight simulator Atari: Red Baron appeared in the arcade halls. The game was a bit like the aviation version of Battlezone (in fact, the game was released in the body of the Battlezone machine gun), but with ground and air targets. In total, 2 thousand machines were sold, the game did not become a big hit.
Soon the next arcade game Atari suffered the same fate. Warlords was a favorite, innovative Breakout style game that could be played by up to four players. It was very interesting, but simply could not gather a mass audience to break through the flow of games of many other manufacturers, flooded the limited space of the gaming halls. It sold only 2 thousand machines.
This was unfortunate for the release of three undervalued games in a row. By the middle of 1981, the competition for arcade machines was becoming increasingly fierce. Atari had to contend with the hits of the golden era, set in all corners of the gambling halls. Released in 1980, Namco's Pac-Man and Williams Defender captured the attention of the mainstream market, as it would later happen to Ms. Pac-Man Namco.
Donkey Kong Nintendo, Galaga Namco and Frogger Sega (licensed from Konami) captured attention in the second half of 1981. These hit games attracted women ( Pac-Man , Ms. Pac Man , Frogger ) to the arcade halls, but also liked serious players ( Defender , Galaga ). To stay in the game, Atari needed to find a new hit.
However, she found two.
The first game was released in June, and had tremendous success. Centipede was a garden "insect shooter" designed and written by Ed Logue and Dona Bailey (one of the first female developers of arcade machines). There are some contradictions in the question of authorship of the idea.
“The idea of Centipede emerged as a result of one of the brainstorming sessions held annually by Atari.”
- Ed Logg
Centipede
The playing field was a lawn with mushrooms. To save the lawn, it was necessary to destroy centipedes, spiders and other garden insects. Most of the mushrooms could be destroyed, which gave the game a sense of infinite possibilities, and also made it possible to create different strategies for setting records.
“Today, Centipede would be considered, at best, a“ casual ”game, which makes me very happy, because it was not at all like that. It was an active game with a story, although by modern standards there is no narrative at all! I think today they wouldn't even let her out. ”
- Dona Bailey
A total of 54,000 automata were sold, and for Atari the game was the second best selling ever. In addition, it was very popular with women, which gave Atari an advantage due to the increase in the number of visitors to the arcade halls.
“Many theories have been proposed. One of them argued that the success of women game is obliged to a woman developer. Another is that the destruction of insects is well suited to female psychology. I think women like this game because it doesn’t discriminate on the basis of sex, like fighting games, RPGs or sports games. ”
- Ed Logg on why Centipede liked women
The second major game for Atari in 1981 was Tempest . Originally developed by Missile Command creator Dave Terehr as a 3D version of Space Invaders , it eventually became a three-dimensional battle around the boundaries of a constantly complicating geometric field.
Tempest
“Once I walked in and suddenly saw this round pipe with some things going up along it. I asked: "Dave, what the hell is this?". He replied: “I do not know myself. Maybe aliens from the center of the earth? “It seems he said that he had a dream like that.
I asked: "How does it work?". He answered: “I do not know. They climb the edges of this thing, and I try to shoot them. " He just started with this concept and gradually developed it. I understand why he considers Tempest as his best achievement. He worked incredibly hard on her. It is completely a creation of his thought. ”
- Rich Adam
The Tempest had a controller handle that moved the player’s ship along the boundary of each of the geometric levels. It also used the latest Atari color vector generator (“Color Quadrascan”) and the vector math box to create three-dimensional graphics that have never before been on arcade machines.
The combination of great graphics, intense action and innovative design has created a terrific hit Atari. The game was so hypnotic that some players entered a trans-like state without noticing anything around.
“The management at Tempest was good enough, having studied it, one could practically become one with the machine. That is, a good player in Tempest turned the knob and fired at the right moment, synchronizing with the machine and getting into the rhythm. I do not know what to call it, but the player was so close to the action on the screen that it became part of it. He forgot about what is happening around and where he is. ”
- Lyle Raines
Approximately 30 thousand Tempest machines were sold, only 8 thousand more than Asteroids Deluxe , but the most important advantage was not numbers, but popularity. Thanks to Tempest, Atari looked like a company moving forward and not looking around for its old hits for inspiration.
Teenagers and experienced players who grew up on Pong and Space Invaders , now craved a more complex and disturbing gameplay, and thanks to Tempest Atari met this demand.
Along with the released games, in 1981, the Atari arcade department had several false starts and abandoned games, including Force Field , Hyperspace , Space Shoot (Howard Delman game), Time Traveler, and Thogs .
Even with hits, in 1981, the Atari arcade machines did not go very well. The founding engineer of all this work, El Elcorn, left the company after Atari failed to release the holographic electronic game Cosmos , on which he worked. Despite the fact that Elcorn received thousands of orders at CES, Atari still decided not to release it, thus practically closing Atari Electronics.
"Ray Cassar was too afraid to tempt fate in the market of portable / board games, he believed only in the Atari 2600 VCS."
- El Elcorn
Disappointment was unbearable for Elkorn. 1981 Atari ceased to be the company he helped create in 1972. It is time to leave.
“I left Atari because under Mr. Cassar’s guidance, she became uninteresting to me.”
- El Elcorn
It was followed by other engineers. The most painful loss was the departure of a trio of Ed Rotberg, Howard Delman and Roger Hector, who decided to create their own video game development company.
“In 1981, I, Roger Hector and Ed Rothberg left Atari and founded Videa, Inc. We sought to become a respected developer in the video game industry, as well as in other markets in which we could use our skills. As a result, we developed the arcade game Gridlee for Gottlieb, the merchant company ByVideo, and a couple of games for Atari VCS. ”
- Howard Delman
Such losses had a bad effect on the morale of the arcade department and on its ability to create hit games. However, Atari found a couple of ways to replace this brain drain, but not by hiring the best and smartest game designers.
She began licensing games from other manufacturers. Atari has always had close relationships with Namco, and in November 1981 they entered into an agreement to license several Namco arcade games for sale in the United States. However, these games did not appear in the Atari production schedule until 1982.
Another way was to use third-party software developers to create games. In mid-1981, the opportunity to expand the arcade machine department by a third-party developer literally came into the hands of Atari itself.
In June, a small company GCC (General Computer Corporation), assembled by MIT students, created for the Atari Missile Command arcade machine a “modification kit” called Super Missile Attack , and began selling it for $ 295. The modification kit allowed game room operators to change the game, add options and make it more difficult for players.
Atari found out about this bundle, and since it was in the legally “gray” zone, the company was worried about its impact on the integrity of its products. She filed a lawsuit in the amount of 15 million dollars against the GCC.
"The kit (General Computer modifications) was offered to our customers and the public as an Atari product, which caused confusion and loss of legitimate profits from our research and development investments."
- Frank Baluz, vice president of marketing for Atari arcade machines
It turned out that GCC engineers have good skills in developing arcade games. They created a modification kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto , which Namco sold. He later turned into Ms. Pac-Man .
Atari could recognize talent. The lawsuit never got to court, and Atari reached a peace agreement with the GCC.
“They were very annoyed that we were not retreating, and finally a light bulb lit up over their head:“ GCC can develop games for us, ”so Atari withdrew its lawsuit ... We signed an agreement on developing games for Atari.”
- Steve Golson (GCC engineer)
Atari signed a contract with GCC for the development of new arcade machines for the company. GCC began work on Quantum arcade games, Food Fight and Nightmare (not released), VCS games such as Ms. Pac-Man and Vanguard , on a new Atari 7800 console project, as well as on some of the first games for the system.
However, unlike Grass Valley a few years ago, GCC never integrated into Atari and obeyed instructions from people like Ray Cassar and Manny Gerard. It seems that Atari's management was reinsured with respect to the development department. If you can not find allies inside, you can always buy them outside.
"Our contract was not with Atari, we concluded it with Warner, who owned Atari ... Whatever we did, all these Atari guys had to put up with."
- Steve Golson
1981: computer business
Even despite the fact that Atari hid most of the technical documentation needed for third-party software development in the 8-bit computer line, the developers found their own resources for researching machines.
Journals such as Compute began publishing articles about 400 and 800 back in January 1980. They investigated the work of the machine and how to create software for it. Some of the articles were written by Atari employees who desperately wanted the world to learn about their new cars.
“Anyone who saw the Star Raiders at Atari knew that this personal computer has much better graphic capabilities than all the others. Owners of these computers wondered if they could get their cars to do what Star Raiders was capable of . The good news was that it was really possible to write programs with graphics and animation, as good as Star Raiders . ”
- Chris Crawford, Compute's first Book Of Atari, 1981
Even better news for owners of Atari computers was the release in January of the first specialized magazine ANALOG on 8-bit Atari machines. Thanks to ANALOG, Atari owners have an independent news source that can bring the platform closer to computer fans ...
“Atari is also a popular computer of the eighties. At the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the most frequently asked questions were: “What is the best restaurant here, how to get to the toilets and where is the ATARI stand?” "
- The first issue of the journal ANALOG
... and double the pressure on Atari and computer stores to support the platform.
“Compared even with the 400 color, the TRS-80 looks like a joke. APPLE II technologies are archaic compared to the 800, and no other microcomputer on the market can compete with the computing power of Atari. Many computer stores do not acquire 400 and 800 ... "there is no software for them," but we at the ANALOG office receive programs and new products almost every day, and we don’t have time to review them all. I am very impressed with the amount of really good software that has appeared in just a year. ”
- The first issue of the magazine ANALOG
One of the reasons for the emergence of a specialized magazine was a significant increase in computer sales in the late 1980s and early 1981s.
“We were told that Atari sales are increasing, and this is not just a gradual increase that we have seen since summer. The stream has definitely turned into a river, it seems that the conveyor does not have time to produce computers: in mid-December, merchants across the country were selling cars faster than buying them. ”
- Robert Lock (Robert Lock), Compute !, February 1981
However, much of this was made possible thanks to the cult status of Star Raiders . Atari computers provided graphics and gameplay, far superior to everything that was previously, and hardcore gamers bought them just to play games.
"If you have an Atari 800 computer, do not forget - there are other game cartridges besides Star Raiders "
- Robert Baker, Compute !, April 1981
Even despite Atari’s desire to prove that its machines are capable of more than games, the company in 1981 began to release its games again, including an almost perfect copy of the Missile Command arcade game, surprisingly low-quality Asteroids (with raster graphics) and decent Super Breakout , as well as two educational games by Chris Crawford, Energy Czar and SCRAM .
Atari still complemented these games with a bunch of serious software (Conversational Spanish, Bond Analysis, Stock Analysis, Stock Charting, Mailing List, Touch Typing, Calculator, Graph It), but whether she wanted to or not, it was the games that became the lure for new users.
The unique idea of ​​Atari of that time, which allowed supporting the 8-bit platform even more, was the APX software, the Atari Program Exchange. APX became the brainchild of Dale Yocam. The idea was to take the best samples of software created by the Atari user community and sell them to users.
“Dale Yokam, who came up with this idea, tried to explain to management that there are many people ready to write programs, and if we can publish them, it will be beneficial for both parties. The manual is not very interested. Dale prepared a business plan and said: "Look, we need quite a bit of money for this, the system will support itself, and it can also bring profit." The management very reluctantly agreed. He realized his idea and very quickly she received a huge success. She became the main source of income Atari. The management "awarded" Dale with inviting another person to the position of his boss. Frustrated, Dale retired about a year later. ”
- Chris Crawford
It is interesting to note that APX has become a resource not only for Atari customers. Many VCS internal development staff wrote games like APX Lemonade Stand , Mugwump , Preschool Games , Reversi , Space Trek and Dice Poker were written by Bob Polaro. Avalanche and Chinese Puzzle created by Dennis Coble. Centurion , Castle , Alien Egg and Tact Trek was written by Rob Zdibel. Lookahead was created by Bob Johnson (Bob Johnson), and Load N 'Go - Brad Stewart.
However, the most popular game created by the Atari programmer for APX was the Eastern Front (1941) of Chris Crawford, released in September 1981. Eastern Front (1941) was a tactical wargame simulating a battle between German and Soviet troops in World War II.
Eastern Front (1941)
Unlike other tactical wargames of the time, Eastern Front boasted color graphics and joystick controls, which completely simplified the game's interface. Although there were no animated battles in the Eastern Front , it was a cinematic masterpiece compared to text games Avalon Hill. The gameplay was also interesting.
“Without doubting for a second, I will call this game one of the best wargames for a personal computer. In addition, it has become a masterly demonstration of Atari’s amazing built-in capabilities. ”
- Creative Computing
Thanks to such games, Chris Crawford seemed (almost) the only one who was able to simultaneously tell the world about the capabilities of Atari 8-bit computers and show the magic that can be created in them. Sales were good too. Even with a share of royalties of 10%, Crawford earned $ 90,000 on this game.
Immediately began to appear games and applications from third-party sources. One of the best games of the Caverns of Marswas created by high school student Greg Christensen. He sent it to APX, and the game sold very well. It was a multi-level vertical scrolling shooter. The player was deep under the surface of Mars, fought with aliens, until they reached the center of the planet. The game used the capabilities of Atari 8-bit computers in much the same way as Star Raiders .
Caverns of Mars.
Christensen's game won a prize of 3 thousand dollars from Atari and the first check for royalties of 18 thousand. He received a total of 100 thousand dollars for the game as royalties. In 1982, Atari turned it into a line of computer games. Christensen continued his successful career as a game developer and released two Caverns of Mars sequels : Phobosand Caverns of Mars II .
During 1981, more and more third-party developers learned to program Atari computers and release software. Where did they learn the technical information necessary for programming the machine, which they kept in secret? From insiders from Atari, such as Chris Crawford.
“Initially, no one specified exactly what should be kept secret. I was an Atari programmer who came from the outside world and had more contacts with outsiders. Sometimes it happened that I was working on Atari software, a phone call rang and someone from Indiana asked: “Can I get technical documentation?”. I went to the main office, took away the documents, photocopied them and sent them by mail ... there were many tricks by which I could send the documents and not be dismissed. ”
- Chris Crawford
During the year, quality games from the largest software companies of that era began to appear. In March, Automated Simulations (Epyx) released its first three games for 8-bit Atari computers: The Datestones of Ryn , Rescue at Rigel, andInvasion Orion . (Scott Adams) Adventure International, , , Star Trek 3.5 , 10 .
Threshold Sierra On-Line, Tanktics , Avalon Hill, Sierra On-Line — Jawbreaker ( Atari : , Pac-Man , ).
, Upper Reaches Of Apshai and Rescue At Rigel by Automated Simulations and the Abuse Artificial Intelligence Experiment by Randy Simon and Robert Freedman. Dozens of other games from small producers (including from the ANALOG magazine itself) and amateur programmers were released.
Rescue At Rigel
To further stimulate new developers, the Atari home computer department created a new Software Support Group that was supposed to help developers from other platforms work on software for Atari 8-bit computers.
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Finally, by the end of 1981, the attitude of the Atari top to third-party programmers was turned 180 degrees. The Atari development team (with the participation of Chris Crawford) has published (via APX) the book De Re Atari. It contained most of the technical details needed to develop software using all the functions of the 8-bit Atari platform. Later, in 1982, finally released a full set of technical documentation.
“I sent to developers any insignificant information, and once“ the dam broke through, ”the official policy changed and turned around 180 degrees. "We want to tell everyone about the system." I immediately got on the phone, started calling all my contacts and asking the question: “Hello, do you want to receive the full Atari technical documentation?”. We sent many copies. ”
- Chris Crawford
Atari needed to get as much software as possible for the machines, because the computer market that she entered was supposed to be a battlefield. Commodore already had PET on the market before the 400 and 800 appeared, and the company announced the release of the VIC-20, a more powerful computer than the standard Atari 400, but with a much lower price of $ 299.
Atari responded in May, lowering the price of the Atari 400 to $ 399 and doubling the amount of memory, from 8 KB to 16 KB. The plan worked, and sales of Atari computers skyrocketed throughout the year.
“They still sell them as fast as they produce. What else can I say? ”
- Robert Lock, Compute!, March 1981
Atari used other ways to advertise a line of computers. In the second quarter, she released her own magazineAtari Connection , whose target audience was home computer users. Atari also gained celebrity support (writer Robert Ludlam advertised Atari Writer word processor ). These steps received the approval of the world of finance, it seemed that Atari sought to pave a new path.
"Atari Inc. committed to the business of consumer equipment, and despite the fact that this subsidiary of Warner Communications Inc. almost alone believes in the right moment, she puts home computers on the future and ignores today's popular markets. ”
- Business Week, June 15, 1981
In addition, Atari launched the Atari Book Keeper and Star Raiders television ad campaign in the fall. All this led to good sales by the end of the year.
“Atari’s aggressive pricing after the Commodore VIC-20's spring announcement seems to be paying off. We were informed that monthly sales are now comparable to last year’s annual results. And the numbers continue to grow. ”
- Robert Locke, Compute !, October 1981
1981: VCS becomes unstoppable
Still experiencing the aftermath of the departure of the “fantastic four” and the calm response of the management, but spurred on by the huge success of the VCS on Christmas Day 1980, the Atari home appliances department entered 1981 in a precarious position.
In addition, VCS has found a new serious competitor in the face of Mattel Intellivision. She first had to compete with her superior console. And on the software front, a third-party developer, Activision, competed with it. However, the home appliance department continued to produce quality games for VCS.
One erroneous step taken by Atari in early 1981 was the beginning of a trend that will follow Atari to the end of its existence: “puffy” programs. In the first case, it was “blown” equipment in the form of Remote Control VCS.
Atari announced the launch of the Atari 2700 Wireless VCS wireless console along with a pair of 2600 wireless joysticks. Both devices were advertised at the January CES, but only wireless joysticks got to customers.
“The equipment was ready, the boxes had already been released, color flyers were sent to the merchants, it seemed that everything was ready. During testing, the Atari 2700 RC Stella in the quality department revealed that the controllers emit a signal within a radius of 300 meters. This meant that if there were other Atari 2700s nearby, then chaos would arise. The controller electronics were based on the garage door opener scheme, so the controllers could include other remotely controlled devices. ”
- Kurt Wendal, Atari Historian
The games continued to go out, and the Atari VCS began the year with the March release of the very high-quality Video Pinball Bob Smith. Although the playing field did not even come close to the field of the Atari arcade machine of the same name, the gameplay itself was decent.
In 1981, a few more games hit the stores, notably because they were all written by one of Atari’s first female developers, Carla Meninsky. The first was Dodge 'Em , a race in a maze in which the player had to drive and collect objects (points), dodging the computer-driven machines of the pursuers. It was a clever mix of ideas from the Indy 500 and Pac-Man .
"For Dodge 'EmI was placed on the spread of Playboy and High Times magazines, calling it the best game of the year ... Therefore, I believed that it was so. ”
- Carla Meninski
The second game Meninsky became a port for the VCS arcade game Atari Warlords . Although both games were not big hits compared to the following games of the year, they proved that Meninsky had enough programming skills to take on one of the biggest projects for the 1982 VCS: Star Raiders .
One of the most important games for VCS 1981 was released in April. After the success of the licensed arcade game Space Invaders, Atari began to port as many arcade hits as possible to VCS. Missile Command was one of the first.
Along with Space Invaders , Missile Command for VCS became widely known as one of the first arcade ports for the platform, which was more interesting to play than on the arcade machine itself.
Rob Fulop worked on Missile Command as the next project after a “remake” of Space Invaders for 8-bit computers.
“For the changes (to the Space Invaders for 8-bit computers) I received compliments, but not from the management, but from my colleagues. So I decided to make my next project, Missile Command , as complete a copy of the original as possible. ”
- Rob Fuop
Missile Commandhad a terrific success on VCS and sold millions of copies. In addition, it allowed to convey to consumers a sort of message: although there are other systems on the market, such as Intellivision, only Atari VCS can you play real arcade games. However, if Missile Command simply conveyed this message, then another very significant game of the year for VCS, Asteroids, announced it loudly .
To place the arcade game Asteroids in the cartridge volume was not so easy. This task was assigned to Brad Stewart, a VCS version of Breakout , and it turned out to be difficult. To fit all the graphics and gameplay AsteroidsA standard 2 KB cartridge was impossible. In fact, the game wouldn't fit even in a 4 KB cartridge.
“ Asteroids needed 8k. When the game was over, Bob Smith and I used all the tricks we knew to fit it into 4K, but it ... just ... didn't ... fit! ”
- Brad Stewart
To get access to 8K, Stewart used a newly developed scheme under The name “bank switching” (originally invented for the VCS Basic Programming cartridge ). It allowed the programmer to access several 4K banks of memory. For VCS, this was a breakthrough.
“The proposed invention creates a memory with bank switching and a way to increase the number of individual addresses that a digital system can access. The invention extends the available memory beyond standard addressing, in which one memory cell is associated with a unique address. In particular, the invention is used to expand the number of ROM memory addresses stored in the game cartridge of a video game system without requiring additional address trunks. "
- Carl Neilson (Carl J. Neilson), patent for a memory system with switchable banks, registered on May 7, 1981.
Switching banks opened a completely new world of clearer and more elaborate graphics for VCS. It allowed to realize Asteroidson VCS, which in turn turned the Atari VCS into a compulsory Christmas present for 1981.
“You will not find the best electronic toy in the toy department. Together with televisions and stereos, the stores sell electronics like the Atari Video Computer System with 18 games and cost $ 169. ”
- Covey Bean, Daily Oklahoman, December 11, 1981
For the 1981 Christmas season, the marketing side of Atari was fully revealed. She shook the air the largest television and newspaper campaign in the history of the company.
In total, Atari spent $ 18 million on television advertising in 1981, almost tripling the 1980 record. For the massive Christmas of 1981, Atari put everything on the line. She even forced retailers to order large quantities of games that they would otherwise not have bought, “to the load” to popular Atari products.
“Atari has enjoyed its dominance over the years for distributors to operate. When a popular game appeared to her, she forced sellers to buy cartridges with old games that were not sold anymore.
- Howard Scott Warshaw
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Ray Cassar and the top Warner had their own vision of the path to success. Atari was selling VCS, which by then was five years old, helping it build on its success. She invested more money in marketing than she earned money from the game, and the fruits of such a decision quickly became apparent.
Warner was uncompromising to the development teams and good products continued to emerge. Sales proved Ray Cassar and Manny Gerard to be right. Bushnell spent too much effort on technology and development and too little on marketing. Due to the fact that, by 1981, Atari became the dominant power in Atari, it became the largest player in the world.
1981: competition grows
"I think they sold 2-3 million copies of the game ... they earned 30-40 million dollars ... and I was rewarded with turkey."
- Rob Fulop
Maybe Atari earned the most in 1981, but this does not mean that the creators of the products got something. Even with the huge sales of Missile Command , programmer Rob Fulop received almost nothing. He was expecting some kind of award for the millions of copies of the Missile Command sold , but he didn’t wait for almost anything.
Fulop saw the success of the Fantastic Four, which created Activision, and left Atari at the end of 1981. He joined Asteroids programmer Brad Stewart and Atari veterans Dennis Coble, Bob Smith and Bill Grubb in their company Imagic on developing games for VCS.
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“The six-million advertising company praised Intellivision’s graphic superiority over the Atari 2600. The media noticed this and began to cover the“ war ”of video games, increasing the popularity of the entire industry. Although the $ 300 Intellivision was twice as expensive as the 2,600, sales grew and reached 850,000 consoles by the end of the year. ”
- Intellivision Lives
Activision in 1981 also did not rest on its first line of games, and released a bunch of new games for the January CES show. However, by that time Atari had noticed the Activision games and had taken steps to protect the VCS from these “outsiders”. In early 1981, Atari filed a lawsuit to stop Activision.
"They stole our programs, and we, of course, sue them."
- Ray Cassar
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Activision VCS: Tennis Skiing , VCS, Laser Blast . Kaboom! Larry Kaplana was the Atari Avalanche version of the arcade game , and Freeway was Frogger's unique answer with the chicken in the lead role.
Although they were not ports from the arcade machines, the gameplay and graphics were some of the best ones that appeared on VCS, and their screenshots looked great in print.
This turned out to be very useful, because at about the same time, the activity in the video game sector led to the creation of a fan base sufficient for the release of a specialized video game magazine. On October 29, 1981, the first issue of Electronic Games magazine was published. In the first issue, the magazine assessed the condition and size of a rapidly growing industry.
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“I think we gave readers a sense of community. It was the only way they could communicate with us and with each other. At that moment, the Q & A section became a link for all fans information about the game world. ”
- Bill Kenkel
Before Electronic Games, consumers did not have any intermediaries, there was only a motley mix of video game companies. On the one hand, it was a place to show and advertise games long before they were released.
On the other hand, journalists could not be controlled, and they were not trusted to convey information from companies such as Atari that were heavily marketing. Electronic Games marked the beginning of the real criticism of video games. Society no longer depended on choosing new video games from marketing messages and box illustrations.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/370585/
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