BMK BMK The Bitmap Kid Presents... ----------------------------- (Atari) R A N T ! --------------------- Today, we'll look through the SQUARE window, boys and girls. Now I'll rant about, errrm, Atari. Again. (Sorry - it's not my fault!) Although Sue in issue 26 letters section abruptly finished the rather cool discussion (ahem) on Atari and the Falcon, the goddess has given me permission to a rant a little more since I still have (many, many, many...) things to say to the SynTax readers and hence this article, in which I hope to get it out and then shut up. Hope to, that is. For now. First I'll begin with a letter from Darryl Still, marketing manager of Atari UK which he addressed to the readers of ST Format, and which I'll now pass on to the SynTax readers... "Looking at the article on the games industry in STF 49, it is a great piece and what it does, in my opinion, is demonstrate how easily Atari are blamed for other people's misunderstandings. Let me give you just one example relating to two points from the article. "Kev Bulmer showed us Legends of Valour in mid-1992 and we immediately decided to target this game for the Falcon. When we release a development machine, the developer signs a form which states that the machine remains our property until the program is released. Kev maintained that the form should be signed by US Gold, THEY maintained it should be signed by Kev. Nobody signed it. "Then Kev was featured in the pages of ST Format in the 'Rant' column proclaiming we would not give him a machine. I phoned him, explained his machine was here, would he sign the form and he said yes. Another form was sent, ten days later we chased, Kev had sent it to US Gold. US Gold would not sign it because they had not seen the machine so I visited their development team with a full show of the Falcon. "After the visit we still do not have a signed form. Kev Bulmer's loan machine is still sitting here awaiting the form yet a year after we made that machine available pending a basic commitment that it would be returned if they did not develop LOV I read that Kev has experienced 'huge problems dealing with Atari' and that US Gold do not know the machine is out. Hmmmm. "As a footnote, Richard Hennerly of Daze states that we have an idea that the ST is a business machine and are not interested in games. Really?! We have just introduced a base model at a console price," <œ150> "we have no end of criticism for including too many games in our packs and have been told categorically by 'people who know' that our main problem is that we undersell the ST by pushing it too much as a games machine. "Heads you win... "I have no axe to grind with any of these people but in the past we have made the mistake of not offering any defence when brought to trial and this seems to have made us an easy target." "Is it not the case of the old Life of Brian scenario - 'other than the computer games market, affordable 16-bit technology, low cost MIDI, the opportunity for Future to publish such a superb mag, 950,000 UK ST owners, Ladbroke Computing etc etc... what has Atari given us?' A scapegoat perhaps?" Yes, Mr Still, nothing but a scapegoat. Huuuum. I'm not a fool. I know that once upon a time Atari was an ignorant group who cared for what THEY thought and not what the public did, but those times are long gone. Today I hear nothing but rubbish spread about Atari - and the biggest thing that annoys me about ALL of it is not that people are dropping Atari, it is because they are dropping Atari for the wrong reasons, as I've said before. I think it's fair enough that people buy different computers and don't think Atari is the ultimate - FINE - what makes me cringe is that playground inter-child insults about each other's computer has spread to the mass market leaving Atari, trying not to stoop so low as to even fight back against this nonsense, has been targeted and as a result people have left Atari for WRONG reasons. Sue says she doesn't support Atari because there is no longer the software support. Fine. That's okay for me because I know what it's like trying to get some games. But whose fault is that? Most say 'Atari, pirates, over-priced software, etc etc' all have probably contributed, but STILL, even into the five years of Atari chewing 'Clorets' complete rubbish like 'Multi-TOS isn't 'proper' multi-tasking' or 'there is no ST-Falcon compatibility' or 'Atari are just soooo slow' is still going around. It seems to be that the situation of 'Oh, the end of the world has come', 'Yeah, must be that mouse's fault over there' is always the cause, except it's blamed on Atari. No, I'm not saying Atari has always been whiter than white, but they are honest nowadays and are doing a lot to help its supporters. Atari aren't trying to get the Falcon out and fully supported over night, they are taking their time and making sure that the foundations for the future are well-set before they try and build a major wall. And they have done this very successfully indeed. Atari have learnt from their past mistakes and other people's recent ones, (who said CDTV?! What are you muttering about the 3DO...?). The Jaguar is the money maker - and money is what is needed to get the Falcon somewhere, let's just wait for the Falcon's real days of action before we judge, ay? BMK BMK