@Pentad
There is lots of cross over between Atari/Commodore. Firstly, from the fact that Jack Tramiel headed up the Atari ST development after being kicked out of C=. Secondly, Jay Miner designed the Atari 400 and 800 before the Lorraine/Amiga. There is no Amiga story without passing reference to these machines. As to the details of Atari development outside of the games/coin up machines I couldn't really care less. The story of the development of Star Raiders for the 400/800 would be more interesting as the Amiga 1000 was Jay Miner's crowning achievement not Atari chips/consoles. Also, the Atari ST (and I speak as an ex-owner) was an Amiga 500 without the amazing custom chips but with MIDI built in. Now again, unless you want the story of White Town - 'Your Woman' and Atari STs being used in music production I'm not sure the rest of the story is worth telling.
I’m sorry but I think that is very short sighted of you. I think there is much more to the Atari story than has been told and I’m sure the passionate fans in the Atari community would love to have the same flood of books, videos, and documentaries that Commodore fans have enjoyed these past few years.
I have found the books, videos, and documentaries to be a wealth of interest and information. It dispelled decades of rumors and conjecture with facts and timelines. Yet, it went more than that for I think many fans. It gave a sense of the day to day operations at Commodore, put faces to projects and transformed simple names to real people. You understood some of the decisions and began to feel the frustration the employees felt at Commodore.
Atari was an important part of the personal computer revolution (just as Commodore was) but both have been largely ignored by the main stream press. These companies put a lot of computers in the hands of people who went on to help define technology today. Telling their story is important for not just the history of the personal computer but for people.
I think it is a shame that most of the Atari history revolves around the 2600. Racing the Beam, Business is fun, and Once upon Atari all gave great insight into early Atari but I think there are many more stories to share. I have even asked Chris Crawford to write about his experiences at Atari and the computer gaming business in general.
Lastly, many of the people who worked at these companies are no longer with us and those who did are getting older. I would hate to see people in the future read a paragraph like yours and assume it is accurate reflection of history.
-P
