Thank you for your detailed reply. It straightened a few things out for me. I was disappointed to realize that Nolan Bushnell did it for the money - especially knowing that he went off to do something notably non-profitable - help schools and kids in school use computers...
However. Those photos you see of Nazi concentration camp victims showing their number on their arms - those correspond to an IBM punch card number which tracked their data. Sadly enough. Think about THAT for a little while.
I appreciate you trying to paint Atari as nothing more than a great gaming company again. The truth is, their goal was to be THE COMPUTER on everyone's desk in the 1980s. They did this through their great games - that is what the lure was for most people. But go to the Atari History web site and view such devices as the 1090 XL Expansion box. This box was going to transform the 8-bit Ataris into the PC world and make them compatible. They were just about to make the leap - until the Tramiels took over and white washed everything to the XE line and basically turned Atari's superior 8-bit technology into nothing more than an elaborate re-marketing scheme. They trashed all of the forward-looking projects like the 1090 XL Expanson box! That would have been THE LINK to keep the Atari 8-bits up to speed and forever expanding. Why did Tramiel trash all these great innovations? Could it be that HE was a sort of double-agent working for the complete abolishment of everything non iBM compatible? He sold off Commodore and he bought Atari and did the same thing he did with Commodore... effectively killing off both companies in the long run. WHY?
What I would like to see is someone take the helm of the Atari computer division and COMPLETE those projects like the 1090 XL Expansion box to make Atari 8-bit computers as up-to-date and useful as possible. Then move on from there. Re-aquire Amiga and move forward from there as if the Tramiels had never interfered. Certainly it would not cost that much to make these days. But it would be useful for all of us.
Lastly, I believe that Microsoft is ripping off Atari one last time. The Microsoft X-Box is supposed to be better than a Playstation 2. There is a rumor that when X-Box takes hold, it could be the basis for the next generation of hardware to run Windows. Now think back when Atari made the 5200 game system or the improved 7800 system (or the copycat XE Game System) based on the lorrels of Atari's superior 8-bit computing technology. That is exactly what Microsoft seems to be doing. Still riding the back of the superior ideas of the original Atari Inc.
