* “International Business Machines Corp. signed a contract today to acquire the privately-held Atari, Inc. for cash and debentures…” – New York Times, 1976
“Computer industry insiders wonder whether IBM is making a wise move. Unlike microcomputer companies like MITS, Atari does not sell general-purpose computers, but specialized gaming machines that are much cheaper. Some industry insiders, including a Burroughs executive who spoke with Business Week on the condition of anonymity, feel that IBM will have a hard time moving Atari towards computing.” – Business Week magazine on the Atari takeover
“Nolan Bushnell, founder and head of Atari, Inc., the gaming company recently purchased by International Business Machines Corp., announced that he would resign from the company effective at the end of the month… Mr. Bushnell has not given a reason, but sources close to Atari say that the cause is disagreements with Atari’s new parent company…” – New York Times, July 1977
“Now you can play most all the video games you’d ever want to play. Introducing the Atari Video Computer System… but you can get more cartridges that have: tank games, space war games…” – A 1977 advertisement from Sears touting Atari’s Video Computer System
“Even though IBM claimed they trusted the people at Atari, there were conflicts. Atari engineers have claimed that IBM wanted to move the system from the 8-bit 6502 chips, similar to the VCS, to a 16-bit chip developed at Intel, which would have dramatically raised the price of the system. While Atari won the day there, they had to compromise on other issues... A major IBM decision was to make all the specifications, including the Serial I/O port, publicly available, ensuring a wide variety of third-party accessories.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“The Atari division of International Business Machines Corp. announced today the release of two new microcomputers based on the MOS 6502 processor: Atari 800 and IBM Atari 1600. The 800 is designed for a home audience, with 8KB of RAM, and an ‘all-in-one’ form factor with a rubberized spill-proof keyboard. The more expensive 1600 features a desktop case with a separated keyboard, and with 16KB of RAM and the backing of IBM, seems primed to bring gaming pioneer Atari into the workplace.” – “Atari announces new computers”, New York Times, 1978
“Activision, Inc., a start-up which hoped to produce games for the Atari VCS… announced today that it would have no choice but to cease operations following the court’s decision.” – “Court declares for Atari”, New York Times, 1980
“Atari v. Activision is sometimes held as a primary culprit of the video game collapse of 1983. Both Mattel and Coleco followed Atari’s lead, hoping to realize huge profits by controlling games and the console. However, personal computers had more power, better graphics, and wide ranges of software. Once they came down in price, it is unlikely anything could have saved the older consoles. Except, perhaps, for the ‘Video System X’…” – Racing the Beam: A Retrospective of Atari’s VCS, 2004
“A picture of the Video System X prototype. This system would have utilized the GTIA, ANTIC, and POKEY chips from the Atari 800/1600, but without the keyboard or operating system of the latter. But IBM killed the project; they believed the dedicated video game console was nothing more than an extremely simple computer, and that releasing a machine inferior to the existing machines would confuse the market.” – Atari Museum.com
“In 1981, seeing the lowered prices of RAM, Atari raised both its 8-bit models to the full 48KB of RAM, which eliminated the need to purchase add-on chips. This would prove to be insufficient, however, for what would be announced in 1982.
The first hit on Atari’s dominance was the announcement of the Commodore 64, which dramatically undercut the Atari 800. At its announcement, the IBM executives were said to dismiss, believing that the Atari machines were a ‘real computers’ while the Commodore was a glorified gaming system. Atari engineers, however, saw what was going to happen, and sales of the Atari 800 soon reflected their worst fears.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“Intel Corporation announced today that it had signed a definitive contract to acquire the Western Design Center, which produces chip designs related to the 6502 processor used in the IBM Atari machines, as well as by Apple and other companies…” – New York Times, June 5, 1982
“The 8086 was, by all accounts, better than the 6502. But IBM had gone with the 6502, so Andy said was going to be the standard, and so we had to own it.” – Anonymous Intel employee, on the WDC acquisition
“The problem IBM faced with the 1600 was that it was, at its core, an 8-bit machine, doomed to be outclassed by the upcoming 16-bit machines based on processors like Intel’s 8086 and Motorola’s 68000. On the other hand, these processors were not compatible with the MOS 6502, so all software would have to be re-written. But the Western Design Center, later a subsidiary of Intel, changed that with the 65c816 processor they had in development. In August of 1982, the 800 and 1600 were replaced by the 800XC and 1600XC machines, which had much cheaper case and motherboard designs, and then Atari was ordered to cease all development of future 6502 machines in favor of the new 65c816-based Charlotte project.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“The Qualic Computer Corporation is proud to announce the Qualic Light, a portable personal computer running CP/M on Intel 16-bit processors, faster than IBM Atari.” – November 1982 press release
“IBM announced dramatic cuts to their profit expectations for 1983, mostly due to losses by the Sunnyvale, California-based Atari division, which is responsible for not only the VCS video game console, but also IBM’s entry into the growing personal computer division. An IBM representative stated that ‘dramatic changes’ would be put in place to ensure future profitability.” – Forbes Magazine
“Atari, Inc. was to be dissolved into the parent company, and the offices would henceforth be known as IBM Sunnyvale. The dying VCS had the plug pulled, and IBM sold the rest of the video game divisions to Warner Communications, where it became Warner Games.
The decisions were not well-received by Atari, who saw IBM’s stifling control as the problem. A group of engineers, led by Jay Miner, left the company in 1983 rather than sign new employment contracts, and formed what became known as the Lorraine Corporation.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“IBM’s Atari division has had a tough year. It’s lost the product that made it a household name, the VCS. However, it feels it can reclaim business market share from companies like Osborne with its newest machine, the IBM Atari/PC, which is the first computer to be powered by the powerful 16-bit Intel 65816, and features the Microsoft XENIX operating system, with compatibility with older IBM Atari diskettes and software via an emulation layer or optional add-in card. For home users, the IBM Atari/jr features the same 16-bit processor, but reduced RAM and an updated version of the Atari DOS operating system.” – New York Times, December 1983
“Introducing Macintosh. See why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’.” – Apple Computer’s famous advertisement, January 22, 1984
“BUSINESS BRIEFS: SANTA CLARA, California - Lorraine Corporation, a privately-held startup consisting primarily of former IBM employees, announced today it had hired a new CEO, former Commodore International head Jack Tramiel.” – New York Times, April 4, 1984
“The Atari PC architecture radically changed things. The GTIA, ANTIC, POKEY combination had successfully stifled cloners. But the new system had a single graphics chip, the SGA (Single Graphics Adaptor), with off-the-shelf chips and a third-party operating system that Microsoft and SCO already sold to other OEMs. This was cheaper than the custom architecture of the older machines, but it also meant that for closers all they needed was a third-party chip that could duplicate the functions of CGA, and AMD was willing to provide with their Am3950. Their first customer was none other than Commodore International.” – Microcomputers: A History
“Within a year, we’re going to release a new computer that will far surpass anything we’re making now; it’ll run everything the new Atari will run, plus CP/M and everything else.” – Rod Canion’s infamous boast in December of 1984, as quoted in the 1987 essay The Qualic Effect. Nowadays considered apocryphal.
“[IBM submits that it has been] irreparably harmed by [AMD]’s willful infringement of IBM patents and copyrighted materials... [IBM requests that] the court issue an immediate restraining order preventing AMD from selling any infringing microprocessors to prevent further harm to IBM.”– IBM Brief, International Business Machines Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., et. al. (1985). The motion was not granted, and IBM would go on to lose the case.
“In 1985, the final major player in the 16-bit market came into view: the Lorraine Amiga. Architecturally, the Amiga was much more of a successor to the IBM-Atari machines than the Atari/PC was, depending on a custom chipset. Like the Macintosh, it had a GUI, though some criticized it as less advanced. Lorraine executives pushed the multimedia capability of the machine. While the Macintosh had the earliest desktop publishing software, it was on the Lorraine machines that it really took off.
Very quickly, Atari DOS’s menu-based interface looked hopelessly outdated, and XENIX’s command-line seemed incomprehensible. Microsoft and SCO delayed the XENIX 2.0 project to early 1986 in order to address these concerns.” – Microcomputers: A History
“Digital Research, Inc., the company behind the CP/M operating system, announced today the availability of GEM/1, a window manager and disk operating system targeted at the Atari/jr, which gives Atari’s cheaper machine graphics capabilities not dissimilar from Apple's Macintosh.” – Boston Globe, July 1985
“Computer industry insiders wonder whether IBM is making a wise move. Unlike microcomputer companies like MITS, Atari does not sell general-purpose computers, but specialized gaming machines that are much cheaper. Some industry insiders, including a Burroughs executive who spoke with Business Week on the condition of anonymity, feel that IBM will have a hard time moving Atari towards computing.” – Business Week magazine on the Atari takeover
“Nolan Bushnell, founder and head of Atari, Inc., the gaming company recently purchased by International Business Machines Corp., announced that he would resign from the company effective at the end of the month… Mr. Bushnell has not given a reason, but sources close to Atari say that the cause is disagreements with Atari’s new parent company…” – New York Times, July 1977
“Now you can play most all the video games you’d ever want to play. Introducing the Atari Video Computer System… but you can get more cartridges that have: tank games, space war games…” – A 1977 advertisement from Sears touting Atari’s Video Computer System
“Even though IBM claimed they trusted the people at Atari, there were conflicts. Atari engineers have claimed that IBM wanted to move the system from the 8-bit 6502 chips, similar to the VCS, to a 16-bit chip developed at Intel, which would have dramatically raised the price of the system. While Atari won the day there, they had to compromise on other issues... A major IBM decision was to make all the specifications, including the Serial I/O port, publicly available, ensuring a wide variety of third-party accessories.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“The Atari division of International Business Machines Corp. announced today the release of two new microcomputers based on the MOS 6502 processor: Atari 800 and IBM Atari 1600. The 800 is designed for a home audience, with 8KB of RAM, and an ‘all-in-one’ form factor with a rubberized spill-proof keyboard. The more expensive 1600 features a desktop case with a separated keyboard, and with 16KB of RAM and the backing of IBM, seems primed to bring gaming pioneer Atari into the workplace.” – “Atari announces new computers”, New York Times, 1978
“Activision, Inc., a start-up which hoped to produce games for the Atari VCS… announced today that it would have no choice but to cease operations following the court’s decision.” – “Court declares for Atari”, New York Times, 1980
“Atari v. Activision is sometimes held as a primary culprit of the video game collapse of 1983. Both Mattel and Coleco followed Atari’s lead, hoping to realize huge profits by controlling games and the console. However, personal computers had more power, better graphics, and wide ranges of software. Once they came down in price, it is unlikely anything could have saved the older consoles. Except, perhaps, for the ‘Video System X’…” – Racing the Beam: A Retrospective of Atari’s VCS, 2004
“A picture of the Video System X prototype. This system would have utilized the GTIA, ANTIC, and POKEY chips from the Atari 800/1600, but without the keyboard or operating system of the latter. But IBM killed the project; they believed the dedicated video game console was nothing more than an extremely simple computer, and that releasing a machine inferior to the existing machines would confuse the market.” – Atari Museum.com
“In 1981, seeing the lowered prices of RAM, Atari raised both its 8-bit models to the full 48KB of RAM, which eliminated the need to purchase add-on chips. This would prove to be insufficient, however, for what would be announced in 1982.
The first hit on Atari’s dominance was the announcement of the Commodore 64, which dramatically undercut the Atari 800. At its announcement, the IBM executives were said to dismiss, believing that the Atari machines were a ‘real computers’ while the Commodore was a glorified gaming system. Atari engineers, however, saw what was going to happen, and sales of the Atari 800 soon reflected their worst fears.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“Intel Corporation announced today that it had signed a definitive contract to acquire the Western Design Center, which produces chip designs related to the 6502 processor used in the IBM Atari machines, as well as by Apple and other companies…” – New York Times, June 5, 1982
“The 8086 was, by all accounts, better than the 6502. But IBM had gone with the 6502, so Andy said was going to be the standard, and so we had to own it.” – Anonymous Intel employee, on the WDC acquisition
“The problem IBM faced with the 1600 was that it was, at its core, an 8-bit machine, doomed to be outclassed by the upcoming 16-bit machines based on processors like Intel’s 8086 and Motorola’s 68000. On the other hand, these processors were not compatible with the MOS 6502, so all software would have to be re-written. But the Western Design Center, later a subsidiary of Intel, changed that with the 65c816 processor they had in development. In August of 1982, the 800 and 1600 were replaced by the 800XC and 1600XC machines, which had much cheaper case and motherboard designs, and then Atari was ordered to cease all development of future 6502 machines in favor of the new 65c816-based Charlotte project.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“The Qualic Computer Corporation is proud to announce the Qualic Light, a portable personal computer running CP/M on Intel 16-bit processors, faster than IBM Atari.” – November 1982 press release
“IBM announced dramatic cuts to their profit expectations for 1983, mostly due to losses by the Sunnyvale, California-based Atari division, which is responsible for not only the VCS video game console, but also IBM’s entry into the growing personal computer division. An IBM representative stated that ‘dramatic changes’ would be put in place to ensure future profitability.” – Forbes Magazine
“Atari, Inc. was to be dissolved into the parent company, and the offices would henceforth be known as IBM Sunnyvale. The dying VCS had the plug pulled, and IBM sold the rest of the video game divisions to Warner Communications, where it became Warner Games.
The decisions were not well-received by Atari, who saw IBM’s stifling control as the problem. A group of engineers, led by Jay Miner, left the company in 1983 rather than sign new employment contracts, and formed what became known as the Lorraine Corporation.” – Microcomputers: A History, 1992
“IBM’s Atari division has had a tough year. It’s lost the product that made it a household name, the VCS. However, it feels it can reclaim business market share from companies like Osborne with its newest machine, the IBM Atari/PC, which is the first computer to be powered by the powerful 16-bit Intel 65816, and features the Microsoft XENIX operating system, with compatibility with older IBM Atari diskettes and software via an emulation layer or optional add-in card. For home users, the IBM Atari/jr features the same 16-bit processor, but reduced RAM and an updated version of the Atari DOS operating system.” – New York Times, December 1983
“Introducing Macintosh. See why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’.” – Apple Computer’s famous advertisement, January 22, 1984
“BUSINESS BRIEFS: SANTA CLARA, California - Lorraine Corporation, a privately-held startup consisting primarily of former IBM employees, announced today it had hired a new CEO, former Commodore International head Jack Tramiel.” – New York Times, April 4, 1984
“The Atari PC architecture radically changed things. The GTIA, ANTIC, POKEY combination had successfully stifled cloners. But the new system had a single graphics chip, the SGA (Single Graphics Adaptor), with off-the-shelf chips and a third-party operating system that Microsoft and SCO already sold to other OEMs. This was cheaper than the custom architecture of the older machines, but it also meant that for closers all they needed was a third-party chip that could duplicate the functions of CGA, and AMD was willing to provide with their Am3950. Their first customer was none other than Commodore International.” – Microcomputers: A History
“Within a year, we’re going to release a new computer that will far surpass anything we’re making now; it’ll run everything the new Atari will run, plus CP/M and everything else.” – Rod Canion’s infamous boast in December of 1984, as quoted in the 1987 essay The Qualic Effect. Nowadays considered apocryphal.
“[IBM submits that it has been] irreparably harmed by [AMD]’s willful infringement of IBM patents and copyrighted materials... [IBM requests that] the court issue an immediate restraining order preventing AMD from selling any infringing microprocessors to prevent further harm to IBM.”– IBM Brief, International Business Machines Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., et. al. (1985). The motion was not granted, and IBM would go on to lose the case.
“In 1985, the final major player in the 16-bit market came into view: the Lorraine Amiga. Architecturally, the Amiga was much more of a successor to the IBM-Atari machines than the Atari/PC was, depending on a custom chipset. Like the Macintosh, it had a GUI, though some criticized it as less advanced. Lorraine executives pushed the multimedia capability of the machine. While the Macintosh had the earliest desktop publishing software, it was on the Lorraine machines that it really took off.
Very quickly, Atari DOS’s menu-based interface looked hopelessly outdated, and XENIX’s command-line seemed incomprehensible. Microsoft and SCO delayed the XENIX 2.0 project to early 1986 in order to address these concerns.” – Microcomputers: A History
“Digital Research, Inc., the company behind the CP/M operating system, announced today the availability of GEM/1, a window manager and disk operating system targeted at the Atari/jr, which gives Atari’s cheaper machine graphics capabilities not dissimilar from Apple's Macintosh.” – Boston Globe, July 1985
