Atari

October 1, 1979: Ex-Atari Employees Started Activision

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1001, activision, aggregator, alan miller, apple mac, atari 2600, atari inc, attachment, Bob Whitehead, david crane, game cartridges, game designer, game designers, game system, larry kaplan, levy, Microsoft, microsoft search, Podcast, target, technology history, this day in tech history, whitehead, www 0 Comments October 1, 2024

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1979– Activision was founded by four ex-Atari, Inc. game designers: David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. They teamed up with Jim Levy to produce game cartridges for the Atari 2600 game system. This, in fact, was the first company that developed game cartridges only. The company started with an investment of $700,000.

It’s also a DITH history point – October 1, 2011 I took Day in Tech History off of Geekazine and onto its own website.

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EPCOT opens
The original Apple Mac is retired
Microsoft Search Perks

Atari/ Day in Tech History

July 30, 1996: Atari, JTS Merger Approved

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0730, 5 million, aggregator, Atari, checks, day in tech history, Geek, hasbro, iTunes, jts, lisa project, merger, million, million dollars, Podcast, powerpc alliance, RSS, severance, stitcher, stockholders, technology history, time warner, transitions, twitter, WiMAX 0 Comments July 30, 2024

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In a four minute meeting, the stockholders voted 42 million to 11 thousand in favor to the merge Atari and JTS in 1996. Because of the decision, Sam Tramiel picks up the severance checks, but agrees to stay in office while the company transitions. JTS held the Atari name until March 1998 when Hasbro bought the brand for 5 million dollars.

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The Lisa Project starts
The PowerPC alliance
Time Warner joins the WiMAX revolution

Atari/ Day in Tech History

July 6, 1984: Jack Tramiel Fired Atari Staff

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0706, aggregator, apple, Atari, bold move, corporate president, day in tech history, e mule, fires, historical events, hulu, jack tramiel, Microsoft, move jack, nolan bushnell, Podcast, pong, source code, technology history, twitter 0 Comments July 6, 2024

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In a very bold move, Jack Tramiel laid off the majority of his staff outside of engineering. This comes in 1984, 3 days after Tramiel buys Atari for $240 million in 10 and 12 year notes.

The employees note that it wasn’t a Hard layoff. One employee stated that no one cared if they looted the building, so they did.

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ABC joins Hulu
Microsoft’s first corporate president
Source code of e-mule was released

Atari/ Day in Tech History

December 13, 1982: Atari 1200XL

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1213, aggregator, Atari, atari 1200xl, bit system, byte, carparts, charles dickens, christmas, christmas carol, color enhancement, conversion, cyrix, day, day in tech history, decent success, Facebook, Geek, hacker, hackers, hybrid computer, john koskinen, keyboard layout, lawsuits, legions, Matthew Dent, moratorium, ninja, patents, Personal computer, Podcast, pointer data, ports, puppet, Royal Mint, RSS, s council, steve wozniak, sweet 16, tactile keyboard, technology history, twitter, uv light, year 2000 0 Comments December 12, 2019

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1982 – After a decent success of the Atari 400/800 line the company noticed the console was looking a little “old”. After all, the Atari 400 actually discolors upon UV light. The 400’s non-tactile keyboard was replaced with the 800’s raised key keyboard. Still, Atari felt they needed to bring this personal computer into the 80’s.Therefore, the 1200XL was born. It was a hybrid computer – using what they called “Sweet 16” – a byte language developed by Steve Wozniak. It was to manipulate 16-bit pointer data from an 8-bit system.

The Atari 1200XL also featured 64 KB of RAM and a redesigned cable port and keyboard layout. Unfortunately the community felt the 1200XL was poorly designed for certain ports were in the wrong place. There was also a color enhancement feature that couldn’t be used because it wasn’t connected to the monitor port.

The Atari 1200XL was $599.99

Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol
Cyrix files lawsuits over others who were using their patented technologies
Symantec licenses Java from Sun Microsystems.

Atari/ Day in Tech History

February 13, 1996: Jugi Tandon Storage (JTS) Merged with Atari

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0213, aggregator, apollo computer, Atari, atari corporation, bridge loan, chapter 7 bankruptcy, charles schultz, company sponsor, debts, filing chapter 7, filing chapter 7 bankruptcy, hasbro, historical events, iTunes, jts, merger, peanuts comic strip, RSS, rush limbaugh, steve jobs, steve jobs february, storage, THQ 0 Comments February 12, 2019

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February 13, 1996: JTS merges with Atari[/caption]

1996 – Atari Corporation announces the merger with Jugi Tandon Storage (JTS). Atari extended a bridge loan of $25 Million so JTS can still build drives. The company would still be known as JTS, but Atari would own 60% of the company.While Atari was sold to Hasbro via THQ, JTS could not emerge from the debts. They ended up filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Feb 28, 1999.

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The Last Peanuts Comic Strip is released one day after Creator Charles Schultz passes
Apollo Computer is formed
Rush Limbaugh gets service call from Steve Jobs

Atari/ Day in Tech History

February 9, 1977: Atari – My First Computer Keyboard

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0209, 10 million, aggregator, Atari, atari 2600, cartridge slot, computer, computer keyboard, craig, day, day in tech history, game, historical events, iTunes, knight lightning, Microsoft, mozy, pippen, Podcast, RSS, technology history, twitter, vcs, Yahoo 0 Comments February 8, 2019

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1977 – The “My First Computer” was an add-on to the Atari 2600. This device would turn the game console into a full computer. For $90 you could get 8K of RAM (expandable to 32K), 16K ROM and 8K BASIC.

The My First Computer was to tap into the Video Console System (VCS) in which over 10 million have been sold. The keyboard would attach to the top of the console – using the cartridge slot. The rubber chicklet keypad would allow you to type using the QWERTY style.