AtariAge acquired by Atari. Wow

[chronicthehedgehog]

Yes, definite signs of a Bushnell vs Tramiel rift as well.

[exxos]

Yes, definite signs of a Bushnell vs Tramiel rift as well.

Yeah I noticed that. Nobody can agree even when Atari stopped being Atari. To me it ended in 1994 ish when Atari coup folded.

[chronicthehedgehog]

As you said before I can see why the Stella devs are annoyed but they chose the licence they did. But it's still early days - there's so much venom about it over there, Atari may need to make some kind of donation to the project.

It's quite hard to keep up with it :-)

[stephen_usher]

Yes, definite signs of a Bushnell vs Tramiel rift as well.

Yeah I noticed that. Nobody can agree even when Atari stopped being Atari. To me it ended in 1994 ish when Atari coup folded.

"It's complicated." :-)

When Jack bought the computer division the arcade division kept going, from what I remember, so at that point there were two completely separate Ataris. I don't know how the IPs got merged back later on though.

So, from one point of view, when the Atari arcade division died then that was when the original Atari disappeared. Atari Computer Corp. was Jack Tramiel's company that bought the computer division assets from Warner Brothers and renamed itself, and could be thought of as a splinter of the original Commodore Business Machines. ;-)

But does it really matter? Not really. For all intents and purposes in the public vision, the "original" Atari disappeared when the company selling the products they could buy in the shops went bust, which was the end of the Computer Corp. in '94.

[ijor]

As you said before I can see why the Stella devs are annoyed but they chose the licence they did. But it's still early days - there's so much venom about it over there, Atari may need to make some kind of donation to the project.

I think it is natural to get annoyed. You might say that that they choose the license, but not sure it is completely true. You join a team, or an old project that is based on other projects, you might have no choice but to follow with the same license. It is already difficult enough to start a new open source project win a non GNU license. At least for projects with this caliber. And then, after some time, there is almost no way out other that starting something new from scratch. Even if the original developer would like to change the license, at one point there might be too many contributors that would need to agree to a new license.

I was going to ask Hatari developers, or for that matter, Steem, or EmuTOS, how they would feel if some corporation was going to profit from their work ...

[exxos]

I was going to ask Hatari developers, or for that matter, Steem, or EmuTOS, how they would feel if some corporation was going to profit from their work ...

I did ask EMUTOS team similar a couple years ago. As people at the time kept asking me for EMUTOS ROMs. While I don't remember the specifics off hand, I think the agreement was in the terms there they have to be a download link to their page if I was selling it in my store. I asked because I did not feel comfortable with selling something which I basically obtained for free. I think they said basically go for it because the more people running EMUTOS the better kind of thing.

But if EMUTOS was used by Atari for a mass production unit, then I think it will just be courteous to mention that it powers there equipment despite it not being any sort of legal requirement.

It does seem unclear what a Atari actually did. Whyall I believe they did not violate any licensing, I think it would have just been courteous if Atari asked the Stella team if it was okay to use it in their console with it being a commercial product. But indeed I think the blame here would be on the original licence terms anyway.

There is also something which has not been discussed, if Atari did contact the Stella team, it could have caused chaos, like it already has done. In which case the console would likely get delayed for months or even years or to the point of not even getting produced.

But really, nobody I think has even seen the final product yet. It may well say powered by Stella power on powerup, I really have no idea.

[exxos]

But does it really matter? Not really. For all intents and purposes in the public vision, the "original" Atari disappeared when the company selling the products they could buy in the shops went bust, which was the end of the Computer Corp. in '94.

Yeah arguing over the past gets a bit pointless after a while. I bet the Atari PR guy wishes Atari never got involved with them all the way they are acting now.

I still don't get why Atari needed to get involved with AA. I eean they could have worked with the game creators directly surely :shrug:

[exxos]

As you said before I can see why the Stella devs are annoyed but they chose the licence they did. But it's still early days - there's so much venom about it over there, Atari may need to make some kind of donation to the project.

It's quite hard to keep up with it :-)

Yeah I'm about to give up with it. It's supposed to be a Q&A thread but it's just turned into the usual bashing type thread now. It just reminds me why I don't bother visiting other forums anymore.

[exxos]

I caved in...
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/35458 ... nt-5314745

One reply which I don't get. But the chaos posting carries on. Kinda pointless saying anything really. But kinda knew that already :)

[atari030]

Thats pretty much how I see it too. The deal is done so its just splitting hairs now. Atari have started delivering on the direction they say they are heading and it looks like it can only benefit the community if they do. I got my first Atari in 1983, an 800XL and I've been on most forums and usenet since the 90's. All I can say is that for the most part people are wiling to share and help and if Atari are prepared to do the same things can only get better. If they don't, there are other forums and Atari will die a horrible death. We will go on. We survived JTS, Hasbro etc, this is no different.

And on that, I appreciate every little thing everyone does. Even when people disagree and argue. I think we all love Atari's enough it doesn't matter. Worrying about everything now is moot. If Atari decide to close their IP they are doomed, its a real community now and that is something the other brands don't have. I've been talking to the same people and seeing the same names online for 30 years. I'll be playing Star Raiders and Steel Talons regardless. Viva Atari.