Possible PODs for the 1st Generation of Vidoe Game Consoles?

Simple question what PODs exist for the first generation of Video Game consoles such as the Magnavox or Nintendo Colour TV Game ect is a earlier or later video game revolution possible???
 

Thande

Donor
Well a lot of people have attributed the Magnavox Odyssey's lack of success to a boneheaded advertising campaign that implied it would only work with Magnavox TVs. Better advertising and we could have a home console revolution in the US almost a decade earlier. Heck, with a stronger position from sales Magnavox might be able to successfully sue the makers of Pong for ripping off their tennis game (which they totally did).
 
Heck, with a stronger position from sales Magnavox might be able to successfully sue the makers of Pong for ripping off their tennis game (which they totally did).

Except that there wasn't any scoring system with the Oddesey1.
 
Well a lot of people have attributed the Magnavox Odyssey's lack of success to a boneheaded advertising campaign that implied it would only work with Magnavox TVs. Better advertising and we could have a home console revolution in the US almost a decade earlier. Heck, with a stronger position from sales Magnavox might be able to successfully sue the makers of Pong for ripping off their tennis game (which they totally did).

Wow, thats the biggest marketing balls up I've ever heard of, assuming someone had the brain wave to go "Guys you do know these work on any TV?" to the ad execs could Magnavox replace Atari as the first big name console producer?
 
The main problem is which in this generation the thing were mostly simbolic, even if were the ground work for the industry.

Maybe a better one would be if Atari have a nintendo-like Quality Control? that would have the life of Atari

But the main POD of gaming History... if Atari accept to become Nintendo Distributor(but some backgroudn deals means than nintendo would have want share of Atari as a way to have voice in the company, mostly ignored) in north america of the family computer?
 

Thande

Donor
But the main POD of gaming History... if Atari accept to become Nintendo Distributor(but some backgroudn deals means than nintendo would have want share of Atari as a way to have voice in the company, mostly ignored) in north america of the family computer?

Yes, that is the biggie; Atari were offered the chance to distribute the NES in America under their name and turned Nintendo down, which has to be biggest no-no since Decca rejected the Beatles.

Besides the obvious effects on the American market, Atari could also have done it in Europe--where they were known for their 8-bit computer range--and might actually have done it properly, unlike OTL where Nintendo let Mattel do it and they completely ballsed it up. (Halfway through, Nintendo dropped Mattel and started selling NESes directly, but the Mattel NESes and Nintendo NESes were slightly different and it was pot luck whether a certain game worked on one but not the other. Hence why Sega dominated Europe in OTL, to the point where I grew up in the 1980s yet never even saw an NES until recently when I started watching retrogaming videos made by Americans). This could potentially give Nintendo a virtual global monopoly, at least in the 8-bit era.
 
I suppose the Coleco Telstar could have had some success if they had focused the product line-up, but I don't know how big the butterflies would be.

Yes, that is the biggie; Atari were offered the chance to distribute the NES in America under their name and turned Nintendo down, which has to be biggest no-no since Decca rejected the Beatles.
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to the point where I grew up in the 1980s yet never even saw an NES until recently when I started watching retrogaming videos made by Americans). This could potentially give Nintendo a virtual global monopoly, at least in the 8-bit era.

Here's the 1983 Atari-Nintendo deal. It's entirely possible that even if Atari did market the NES the turmoil over Jack Tramiel buying the company (before the NES would have made it to market) and his disinterest in videogames could have easily meant the failure of the NES.

At least in my timeline you will see the NES in Europe, but you won't get Sonic the Hedgehog. Not sure how you feel about that Thande :).
 
Yes, that is the biggie; Atari were offered the chance to distribute the NES in America under their name and turned Nintendo down, which has to be biggest no-no since Decca rejected the Beatles. ... This could potentially give Nintendo a virtual global monopoly, at least in the 8-bit era.

From what I've read (as an Atari enthusiast, although I can't cite sources off the top of my head), Atari's negotiations with Nintendo to gain exclusive distribution rights of the Famicom in the US were not so much intended to allow them to actually distribute the NES, but rather, to bury it in favor of the next-generation Atari console, which turned out to be the 7800.

Then, Atari CEO Ray "the Czar" Kassar was indicted for insider trading, the ET debacle led to the video game crash of 1983, and the next year Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel (formerly of Commodore), who gutted management and had no idea about the negotiations with Nintendo of Japan. Two years later, Tramiel discovered the 7800 prototype in an Atari warehouse and rushed it to market -- by which time, of course, it was obsolete technology. Had the 7800 been introduced in 1983 as originally intended, it likely would have been a market leader.

To me, the best POD would either be all the way back in either 1976 (when Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in order to raise funds for the mass-production of the 2600) or in 1978 (when Bushnell, amidst mounting tension with Warner's button-down management style, resigned in favor of Kassar). I think there could be several interesting alternative possibilities:

1) Bushnell could have sold Atari to Motorola instead of Warner; this means that the first-generation Atari computers (and second-generation Atari videogame console like the 5200) likely run off of the MC6809 instead of the MOS6502.

That also gives you a potential second-generation Atari computer (1200XL equivalent) / third-generation Atari videogame console (7800 equivalent) based off of the 16-bit MC68000 as early as 1980/1981. By 1984, Atari might still buy the 8-bit Famicom and market it as a low-end, younger-market alternative to its high-end videogame consoles -- kind of the role that Nintendo has today, now that I think about it.

2) Atari remains a Warner property, but Warner agrees to sell the (then-unnamed) Atari Computer Division to Joe Keenan (of Kee Games, essentially a Bushnell proxy) in 1978, eliminating the tension between Bushnell and Warner and allowing Bushnell to remain as CEO of Atari.

Under this scenario, Atari would focus all of its efforts on developing and marketing the 2600 and future videogame consoles, while Kee Games (maybe doing business as Syzygy?) develops the "Colleen" computer (the would-be Atari 800). Possibly Bushnell and Keenan sell "Colleen" to Apple; after all, Nolan Bushnell once hired Steve Jobs way back in 1976. "Colleen" gets named the Apple III (or perhaps the Apple IIgs) and, along with its successors, is the biggest-selling home computer line of the 1980s.
 
Incidentially thanks for making me go look up Atari history, I hadn't done much reading bout in years and even then it was more cursory.

1) Bushnell could have sold Atari to Motorola instead of Warner; this means that the first-generation Atari computers (and second-generation Atari videogame console like the 5200) likely run off of the MC6809 instead of the MOS6502.

That also gives you a potential second-generation Atari computer (1200XL equivalent) / third-generation Atari videogame console (7800 equivalent) based off of the 16-bit MC68000 as early as 1980/1981. By 1984, Atari might still buy the 8-bit Famicom and market it as a low-end, younger-market alternative to its high-end videogame consoles -- kind of the role that Nintendo has today, now that I think about it.

2) Atari remains a Warner property, but Warner agrees to sell the (then-unnamed) Atari Computer Division to Joe Keenan (of Kee Games, essentially a Bushnell proxy) in 1978, eliminating the tension between Bushnell and Warner and allowing Bushnell to remain as CEO of Atari.

Under this scenario, Atari would focus all of its efforts on developing and marketing the 2600 and future videogame consoles, while Kee Games (maybe doing business as Syzygy?) develops the "Colleen" computer (the would-be Atari 800). Possibly Bushnell and Keenan sell "Colleen" to Apple; after all, Nolan Bushnell once hired Steve Jobs way back in 1976. "Colleen" gets named the Apple III (or perhaps the Apple IIgs) and, along with its successors, is the biggest-selling home computer line of the 1980s.

1) Although there is a list of ten companies that Atari drew up I can't find any source who knows what those companies were. Atari approached MCA, then Disney, then Warner approached them. Certainly Motorola might have been on that list, but the POD would have to be Warner not contacting Atari.

Also the MC68000 was considered expensive in 1982 for home computers, a console using it in 1980 is (alas) rather unlikely. And I'm not sure Atari would go into home computers as early as that without Warner demanding it.

2) there's a lot to work with in this area but Kee Games was entirely owned by Atari and therefore Warner (so not selling any designs to Apple :)). What sealed Bushnell's fate was claiming Ray's advertising blitz would fail and the 2600 wouldn't sell. If someone more compatible with Bushnell's comes on board to handle the nitty gritty and marketing and make the company better run without destroying its culture that would be a solid POD.
 
Umm What if in the same Turmoil who were the transmition form Warner to Commodore, The Same Nintendo Interested in the American market bought f Atari as a wat to do their marketing action(like Citygroup in mexico is Called Banamex), keeping the Brand but now the Managmerial Politics and Actions will be dictated from Kyoto.

How Nintendo Using Atari as their Trojan Horse will fare? maybe that can save the little but now famous nintendo pc division(The Famicom was a trully Computer in Japan, but after the crash and with competidors, in USA Nintendo sell it only as a Videogame system)-
 
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