Atari-Nintendo Deal Suceeds

[Nicole]

Alright, so, in the early 1980s, Atari and Nintendo neared a deal where Atari would gain the rights to sell Nintendo's incredibly successful Famicom Video Game system in the US. However, at a gaming expo, Coleco used Donkey Kong as a Demo, causing a dispute over Donkey Kong rights that caused the collapse of the Nintendo-Atari Deal. A few years later, Nintendo would bring the NES (as it was renamed) to the US market, where it would completely dominate, pushing Atari, Coleco, and many others out of the market. (though the video game crash helped too)

What if Coleco had used a different demonstration game, or something else had happened that prevented the Donkey Kong dispute? Would Atari still be a big player today?

(Alright, so it's not as world-changing as the US annexing the world or whatever...)

 

[Codeman]

It would be like nintendo now a 3rd rate gameing company trying to get back to that place they had in the 90s

I dont think we would ever get the gameboy

 

[The Ubbergeek]

It would be like nintendo now a 3rd rate gameing company trying to get back to that place they had in the 90s

I dont think we would ever get the gameboy

Third rate now? It's not the king anymore, but Big N still have it.

Well, Atari made a couple other blunders after this, like the Jaguar fiasco... It might indeed have happened to Nintendo.

 

[Nicole]

Well it doesn't solve the problem that Atari's leadership tended to make stupid decisions...

 

[Fenwick]

Stupidity is one thing but for a good number of years, before the PS, Atari will have almost a death grip on the market. A large number of game designers, as well as user friendly advanced game machinces.

Plus Jagaur was made to compete with SNES, and Genisis, so it was pushed through to make sure artari was still on the map.

 

[Thande]

Stupidity is one thing but for a good number of years, before the PS, Atari will have almost a death grip on the market. A large number of game designers, as well as user friendly advanced game machinces.

Plus Jagaur was made to compete with SNES, and Genisis, so it was pushed through to make sure artari was still on the map.

Wasn't the Jaguar the one with the joypad the size of Belgium?

Ah, this takes me back...

 

[Fenwick]

Wasn't the Jaguar the one with the joypad the size of Belgium?

Ah, this takes me back...

The beast in question...

 

[Nekromans]

I'd say Ireland. You can just imagine a group of leprechauns on that.

 

[Nicole]

What was the purpose in including a whole keypad on a controller?

This could have affects on the alt-NES's (Atari 10400?) game selection... Nintendo tended to force third-parties into strict agreements with it in the NES era, I don't think Atari was as aggressive... while it won't affect the Japanese market, some American companies than in OTL were stuck with the NES may make games for more systems here, which could end up helping Sega (though the Master System may just not work anyway).

 

[Codeman]

Third rate now? It's not the king anymore, but Big N still have it.

Well, Atari made a couple other blunders after this, like the Jaguar fiasco... It might indeed have happened to Nintendo.

The Wii is way behind in temrs of technology the only thing going for it is that controller

 

[Nicole]

The Wii is way behind in temrs of technology the only thing going for it is that controller

Well the N64 was ahead of the PlayStation in technology as well...

 

[Thande]

Well the N64 was ahead of the PlayStation in technology as well...

But arguably behind in terms of media storage (i.e. single company-made cartridges still rather than generic CDs).

Meh, I was always a Sega man anyway in the early 90s.

Go on, laugh

 

[Nicole]

Well, the Sega Genesis was a good system, but after that... "Let's release not one, but two poor 32-bit systems at once! Plus, we'll make one require our older console, and for some games our other expensive attachments!"

 

[Thande]

Well, the Sega Genesis was a good system, but after that... "Let's release not one, but two poor 32-bit systems at once! Plus, we'll make one require our older console, and for some games our other expensive attachments!"

Yes, yes, I know, I know

By the way, the Genesis was known as the Megadrive in Europe (and indeed everywhere apart from the USA, where Sega couldn't buy the 'Megadrive' name for some copyright reason).

 

[Fenwick]

I was the neo geo fan. My friends would be playing SNES, and Sega and I would be rocking out hard core with conk, and metal slug!

 

[Thande]

I recall when the original PlayStation came out - hah! silly Walkman vendors think they can build a games console to compete with the giants! who do they think they're kidding!

O' course rather absurd in retrospect, but I did have the excuse that a friend of mine who is usually an enthusiastic early adopter of technologies that never come to anything, was one of the first ones to buy a PS. The one time he was actually right...

 

[Kidblast]

I've played Genesis ports for computer and some of the Sega games were really neat! I could never play Echo the Dolphin though. Too weird.

 

[Nicole]

I have a Genesis (Sega CDX actually, but it plays Genesis games), the only games I have for it are the Sonic games and some sports games (which, according to GameStop, are worth less than a dollar all together)

 

[Thande]

I never actually owned any consoles, putting my money into PC stuff instead and sponging off a friend who owned both a Megadrive and an old Master System II which he was obscurely proud of for some reason.

I agree with Kidblast: Ecco was well weird.

Ah, Imajin, the CDX or 'Multi-Mega' as it was referred to here, though it was never released...

The UK Sega magazines in the mid-90s were a riot. "WOW!! Look at all this cool stuff at the convention!! Which...will...never be released in the UK. "