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Part 1: The Atari Factor |
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The Atari Company was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was known for popular arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's games, such as PONG and consoles like the Atari 2600, helped define the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. In 1984 Atari was effectively split up and became the second generation Atari. The Atari that most kids today know is simply a game publisher and is actually third generation. After the 1984 collapse, Warner (as in Time-Warner) sold off Atari's assets and intellectual property. Warner sold all rights to the name and logo to Hasbro Interactive. Which was later bought by GT Interactive, now known as Infogames. Infogames now uses the Atari name to publish and distribute games made by Infogames studios. Of course for proving the landfill story, we are only interested in the first generation of Atari (referred to as the "real Atari" in some purist circles). There is much history in the 1970's for Atari but this is not in the relative scope of the project. So I'll focus right in on the 1980's. Fast Track to Destruction Okay, I lied back there. There are two very important events in the 1970's that are keystones to the story. The first event was in 1977 when the most well known video game system was launched. The Atari VCS Console (later known as the Atari 2600) took the world over by bringing then hugely popular arcade games home. The Atari VCS/2600 arguably punched a generation in the face and brought us from Pong! to the latest supercomputers that hook to our TV sets today. The other event, is one of the most important aspects of this story. Prior to 1978, Atari was a relaxed company under Bushnell, and spawned some of the most well known video games of all time. Making games of that caliber laid in the highly skilled hands of the best programmer minds of the time. This is particularly interesting to myself (being a programmer), so the respect for the work being done is hard to understand for non-programmers and the modern jaded eyes of playstation addicted teenagers. With what could be considered bear skins and stones by today standards, most Atari games ran on 4 kilobytes of memory space. To put that in perspective, this html page your reading now is more than likely 500 times larger. (Just the background image is 1000's of times larger). Mr. Nolan Bushnell was of the philosophy that if you treat your people right and keep a relaxed environment your programmers will produce better work and you could keep the best people working for you. (A 1970's Google I would figure.) Mr. Bushnell was right and his vindication would come many years later, too bad it destroyed his vision for Atari. The path to that destruction happened in 1978 when Warner hired Ray Kasser to head Atari. Ray "The Czar" Kasser had a extensive background of twenty-five years at Burlington Industries. Kasser had a deep love for order, efficiency, and (of course) sales and marketing. Kasser is best known for enraging the programmers when he made deep financial cuts to research and development. Therefor putting all the company's money into marketing. This conflict came to full steam when Kasser publicity called Atari programmers "high-strung prima donnas" in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News in 1979. There are two sides to this coin however. As bad as Ray Kasser was to the games and products, he was a holy saint in making money. Atari's annual earnings went from $75 million USD to 2.2 billion USD in the Kasser years. Warner seemed to only care about that one fact, because Kasser was also known for incredibly high turnover rates in management. Kasser's style and Hitler-ish control was to blame for this turnover, yet he was never held accountable. But the "The Czar's" path of self destruction didn't end there. The one move to which mostly contributed to Atari's downfall was Kasser's Atari not allowing programmer recognition or royalties. This sole event prompted many of Atari's best programmers to leave Atari and form their own companies to make Atari games. Such companies include Imagic and Activison. This provided the market with higher quality games than what Atari was producing and stole game sales from Kasser and Co. For the programmers that remained in Atari, they rebelled in their own ways. Warren Robinett the creator of the Atari game Adventure, introduced the modern video game easter egg by placing a hidden room with his name in it. A young man found the room a few weeks after the game was released. Warren Robinett was not punished officially, but left Atari slightly thereafter. Howard Scott Warshaw designer of Yar's Revenge got the names of the Yar race and the planet Razak by spelling Ray Kasser backwards. The 1980's The 1980's simply were the beginning of the end for Atari. Under the Kasser rule, profits were up and the 2600 was a huge success despite many internal dissidents forming competing companies. These companies and the runaway success of the 2600 bombed the market with piles of shit. Literally hundreds of garage games that were either incredibly bad or rip-offs/clones of already released games. There were torrents of lawsuits, one of the more infamous was targeting a Pac-Man rip off by Magnavox called K.C. Munchkin. Of course one of the most pointed out examples of the crap being released was E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Known for bad ego driven rushed design, bad annoying gameplay, and confusing game objectives.This all gave the E.T. game a bad rap. Another game often blamed as well, was the bad arcade translation of Pac-Man. In which Atari produced 12 million copies, when they only had sold 10 million Atari 2600's sold. The 1980's also introduced scandal at the end of the Kasser years when Mr. Kasser was accused of insider trading. For illustrative purposes here's a helpful timeline of that event:
Warner banked 50 percent of its earnings on the Atari division, this proved to be a fatal mistake. Mr. Kasser was later officiall cleared of wrong doing. But the damage was done and Warner cut and run. Mr. Kasser later resigned from Atari. Important Events Timeline 1978
Atari quits the pinball business. Taito's Space Invaders arrived in America. Interest in video games skyrocketed. Ray Kassar dismisses Atari's engineers as "high-strung prima donnas," angering the remaining staff. Atari released the Asteroids coin-op. It becomes a major hit, eventually selling 70,000 units, and dethrones Space Invaders in arcades. Atari sells 400,000 VCS consoles. Gross
income was marked at over $200 million, operating income at $19 million. 1980 Atari released Space Invaders for the Atari VCS, the first home license of an arcade game. Atari released Adventure for the VCS, the first commercial game to include a hidden "Easter Egg" (credit for the programmer, Warren Robinett). Activision was founded. Founded by four former Atari employees -- David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan -- it became the first third party video game developer. Atari sued Activision, alleging its founders with violating non-disclosure agreements. Atari released the Battlezone coin-op. It was the first arcade game from Atari to feature a first person view. Atari eventually sells 75,000 units. Atari's
gross income was marked at $415 million, operating income at $77 million.
Atari forms one third of Warner Communication's total annual income
and becomes the fastest growing company in the history of America. 1981 To avoid a shortfall of games and increase profits, Atari asked distributors to commit to ordering games for all of 1982. Not wanting to be caught short, distributors placed huge orders for the next year. Atari's
annual sales were $35 million. Peripherals and software were in demand. 1982 Atari won its lawsuit against Magnavox for its K.C. Munchkin video game, a copy of Pac-Man. Atari released Pac-Man for the Atari VCS. Poor game play, bad graphics, and crappy sound crippled Atari's credibility. Atari settled a lawsuit from Activision, and allowed the development of third party video games in return for royalties. Dozens of companies began making games for the Atari VCS. Atari's upper management suffered severe turnover rates. Ray Kassar's management style was blamed, but Kassar was not held accountable. Atari released E.T. for the Atari VCS. Confusing game play and bad design further disillusioned the public on Atari. Game sales plummeted and Atari's reputation was diminished further. Distributors were stuck with excess games due to their commitments from the previous year. Atari released Earthworld for the Atari VCS, the first title in a planned four part adventure series, along with an accompanying contest. The series was never completed. December
7 (Scandel Day), 2:41 p.m. EST - Ray Kassar sells 5,000 shares of Warner
stock, with a (net) worth of $250,000 and a profit of around $81,000. Under pressure from the Mattel Intellivision and the Colecovision, Atari released the Atari 5200 (and renamed the Atari VCS to the Atari 2600) Atari's annual sales reached $203 million, but profits were low. Rumors
of a video game market crash began. 1983 Atari layed off 600 employees and moved its manufacturing facilities to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Atari closed its El Paso manufacturing plant. Fourteen trailer trucks filled with unsold games were dumped in an Alamorgordo, New Mexico landfill and buried in concrete. Atari claimed the games were defective. Warner reported second quarter losses of $283.4 million, the worst quarter in the company's history. The market for Atari VCS games became over saturated. New games were dumped on the market at unprofitable prices, which cut into the sales of other titles and prevented new games from being developed. July
7 --CEO Ray Kassar resigns over mounting allegations of illegal insider-trading
activity. September
6 --James Morgan is named CEO of Atari Inc.
Part 1 Conclusion That, I feel, concludes part one. These are the events which lead to and provide insight to why Atari wanted to dump unsold video games in New Mexico. The next segment I cover the event itself. Please continue along... |
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