59 replies to this topic

[blehrer]

I wonder if anybody could help me with some detective work.

A client of mine owns a large inventory of the original 7800 Atari games. He sees a demand for the manufacture of Atari 7800 machines so that he can sell his game inventory and has contracted us to find a manufacturer for the machines. We have identified a factory and qualified engineers for the project. However, they need some help that apparently (I am not an engineer!) only an original Atari engineer would be able to provide. Does anybody know anybody who might be able to help us out?

Thank you

Barney Lehrer
North American Trade Associates
New York

[CPUWIZ]

What sort of help ? The schematics and parts are available AFAIK.

[TXG/MNX]

blehrer said:

I wonder if anybody could help me with some detective work.

A client of mine owns a large inventory of the original 7800 Atari games. He sees a demand for the manufacture of Atari 7800 machines so that he can sell his game inventory and has contracted us to find a manufacturer for the machines. We have identified a factory and qualified engineers for the project. However, they need some help that apparently (I am not an engineer!) only an original Atari engineer would be able to provide. Does anybody know anybody who might be able to help us out?

Thank you

Barney Lehrer
North American Trade Associates
New York

This sounds nice, make sure when you make them to add S-video support for it....

But I think there are still some people selling 7800 systems I think, buying a little stock would be cheaper then making new systems I think..

TXG/MNX

[Mitch]

There are a couple of old Atari engineers that post on this message board but they usually hang out more on the 2600 board.
Also, in case you didn't know, the 7800 wasn't developed internally at Atari but contracted out to another company (GCC).
Incidentally, your client wouldn't happen to be O'Shea's would it?

Mitch
http

[t.skid]

Sorry for the silly question: there isn't legal problems in building a 7800 machine and sell it? I mean, things like copyrights, etc.

[TXG/MNX]

t.skid said:

Sorry for the silly question: there isn't legal problems in building a 7800 machine and sell it? I mean, things like copyrights, etc.

Yeah right do you think ATARI will raise from the dead?

[ATARIeric]

Yeah right do you think ATARI will raise from the dead? [/quote]


LONG LIVE ATARI

[TXG/MNX]

[quote=ATARIeric]Yeah right do you think ATARI will raise from the dead? [/quote]


LONG LIVE ATARI [/quote]

Haha

[t.skid]

[quote=TXG/MNX][quote=ATARIeric]Yeah right do you think ATARI will raise from the dead? [/quote]


LONG LIVE ATARI [/quote]

Haha [/quote]



I was talking about rights... who own the rights for old consoles (2600, 7800 etc)? Hasbro?

[mos6507]

The Activision 10 in 1 was licensed through Activision. As far as I know NO permission was obtained from Hasbro/Infogrames to produce this "clone".

So that should open the floodgates to clones, IMHO.

[holygrailvideogames.com]

Mitch said:

Incidentally, your client wouldn't happen to be O'Shea's would it?

I was thinking the same thing. O'Shea's is the only company I can think of that would have a large enough inventory to even consider producing 7800 systems. If it is O'Shea's, maybe there will be new Atari 2600 units as well.

[JaySeaver]

mcgrail0007 said:

If it is O'Shea's, maybe there will be new Atari 2600 units as well.

I don't see where that would make sense... Why tool up for two different products when just manufacturing a "7800 Jr." would handle all your inventory?

Of course, if you're going for sustained sales, wouldn't you have to get the retail cost of the unit down to less than $50 (the cost of a PSone), or make it a portable? Of course, O'Shea's (if it's them) probably just figures they've saturated the "guys who have a 2600/7800" market and now they're going after the nostalgic folks who don't.

[Video]

I believe Atari made the 7800 Public Domain just like all their other systems. The last system they made PD was Jaguar, in 98 I believe.

One absolute must. If someone makes a 7800 system, put a STANDARD power port on it. The 7800 power supply was, and still is very hard to find, and systems are rarely sold with them.

[desiv]

I've been looking around...

I've seen where Hasbro released the Jaguar as an "Open System", but haven't seen any mention of them doing something similar for the other systems??

Have you seen that somewhere???

(Makes me wonder about those all-in-one Atari 2600 clones with the Activision games or some of the others... Was it PD, or did Hasbro get a piece?)

desiv

[desiv]

I found this post with some more info..
_____________________________
>> In your FAQ for the Jag, you list 1999 as the year that Hasbro released the
>> rights to the Jag to the public.
>>
>> Is there an online document expressing this? I've searched atarihq,
>> USENET, and Hasbro's site but haven't turned up anything other than the
>> common perception that the Jag is an open system.
>
> There *WAS* a press release issued by Hasbro on the topic, though it's not
> easy to find (Hasbro didn't make a big deal over it, natch).
>
> Oh, wait, here's a copy...
>
> * * *
>
> HASBRO RELEASES PUBLISHING RIGHTS
> TO THE ATARI JAGUAR 64 PLATFORM
>
> Beverly, MA (May 14,1999) -- Leading entertainment software publisher, Hasbro
> Interactive announced today it has released all rights that it may have to
> the vintage Atari hardware platform, the Jaguar.
>
> Hasbro Interactive acquired rights to many Atari properties, including the
> legendary Centipede, Missile Command, and Pong games, in a March 1998
> acquisition from JTS Corporation.
>
> This announcement will allow software developers to create and publish
> software for the Jaguar system without having to obtain a licensing agreement
> with Hasbro Interactive for such platform development. Hasbro Interactive
> cautioned, however, that the developers should not use the Atari trademark or
> logo in connection with their games or present the games as authorized or
> approved by Hasbro Interactive.
>
> "Hasbro Interactive is strictly focused on developing and publishing
> entertainment software for the PC and the next generation game consoles,"
> said Richard Cleveland, Head of Marketing for Hasbro Interactive's Atari
> Business Unit. "We realize there is a passionate audience of diehard Atari
> fans who want to keep the Jaguar system alive, and we don't want to prevent
> them from doing that. We will not interfere with the efforts of software
> developers to create software for the Jaguar system."
>
> * * *
>
>> Are all Atari consoles fair game?
>
> Nope, just Jaguars.
>
>> Thanks for your time,
>
> Glad to help.
>
> --R.J.
> B-)
____________________________

desiv

[dirtboy69]

if you start to make atari systems again i wanna buy one

[DracIsBack]

This sounds like an intriguing idea, but I'd have to wonder about the financial vability. The costs of setting up a production run would be huge.

If someone does wanna rebuild the 7800 though, I'm all for some of the ideas here: particularly making a standard power supply and adding in some ports for either composite video or S-Video.

[DanBoris]

CPUWIZ said:

What sort of help ? The schematics and parts are available AFAIK.

The schematics for the basic system are available, but the schematics for the MARIA graphics chip are not, and this is the heart of the system, so it would have to be reverse engineered.

On the legal front you would have to find out if any of the patents that covered the system are still valid and who holds them.

Dan

[CPUWIZ]

Can't you still buy Maria chips from Best ?

[Curt Vendel]

Best only has a few hundred left...

This guy is looking for 200,000 of them. I've already put him in touch wit the GCC Maria designers and some people from VLSI who also assisted in the design, turned over all of the docs, spec's and schematics in the Atari Museum archives and even put him in touch with the tool & die manufacturer, case designers and delivered the TIA schematics as well... still not enough




Curt

[DracIsBack]

"This guy is looking for 200,000 of them."

As much as I'd totally dig a new 7800 (I can't play KLAX on my current one), this just seems bizarre! The 7800 wasn't a particularly successful system in the mid-late 1980s (less than 3 million sold, by all accounts), so resurrectuing it nearly 20 years after it was first released to sell 200,000 seems odd ...

[oesii]

If it was a 7800 clone with a few games thrown in, I think $50-60 would be what the market would call for based on $30 N64's and $50 PS1's. But they probably could only sell a few hundred at a $50 price, most mainstream consumers would get a PS1 instead if they needed a cheap console.

My other thought was maybe they need 7800 chips to design a portable unit like the Activision and Atari 10 in 1 Joystick? I wonder how many of those have been sold, they seemed to be popular the last few Xmas seasons. But if you go that route you would need to design something under $25 or $30 bucks.

[Edit_5]

This is a great idea, I hope it all goes through and eventually gets marketted here in the UK, couple of suggestions:

Internal PSU, just to add a bit of weight to it.
SCART output with composite video, nice audio and A/V switching.
Better joystick plugs, hopefully it will have retro joysticks.
A trendy new design, something sleek, black and sexy.

I could go on, just got to stop drooling at the idea

[MegaManFan]

DracIsBack said:

"This guy is looking for 200,000 of them."

As much as I'd totally dig a new 7800 (I can't play KLAX on my current one), this just seems bizarre! The 7800 wasn't a particularly successful system in the mid-late 1980s (less than 3 million sold, by all accounts), so resurrectuing it nearly 20 years after it was first released to sell 200,000 seems odd ...

I can see why they think it's feasible though:

1. A 7800 can go for $50 or more on eBay used.
2. A 7800 is backwards compatible with the millions of 2600 carts floating around in thrifts, pawns, garage sales, and eBay to boot.
3. People seem to use their 7800 as much or more to play 2600 games than they do 7800. Only a few of us are fanatical about a complete set of 7800 games, a lot of which are admittedly just improved versions of the 2600 games that were available. (A Much Better Donkey Kong Jr, A Much Better Ms. Pac-Man, and so on.) However if they made a 7800 I'm sure people would pick up the better versions cheaply available from places like O'Sheas, and fill in the rest of their collection with cheap 2600 games.

If they can make a good quality product with a price point around $50, I'm willing to bet a lot of people would buy one from them direct for "retro-gaming" instead of fighting with the snakepit of eBay with it's sniping wars and ridiculous shipping charges. They'd pay for the convenience.

[Edit_5]

Some good points there MegaManFan, it would be nice to see this unit and how it affects prices on eBay...