Due to the response from "Whither ATARI?" this issue's Reader Comment section has been considerably expanded, so our readers can voice their opinions unedited.
Dear Editor:
In response to your request for comment the following is submitted. I happen to be one of the many who bought an ATARI during the July-August 1981 crest. Your comments are right on the button. It has amazed me at the apparent lack of marketing for what I think is the most versatile system available to the home market. Having been in the computer field since 1963, using the ATARI 800 is a real pleasure even after coming home from working on Univacs, DEC's, Harris and Honeywell systems.
When telling someone you have a computer at home the first problem you experience as you say "ATARI" is the game syndrome. ATARI's image as a game machine is fixed in most peoples' minds because this is all they see advertised.
One of the comments I have heard dealer's make who carried ATARI but were dropping the line is lack of support or slow delivery of orders. One dealer here in Charleston said he thought that if you carried several other competitive systems you did not get the support from ATARI. Again the image problem appears. ATARI is not an Apple nor a TRS-80. The personal computer market is now flooding with choices. I believe ATARI is missing the chance to grab the bull by the horns and become identified as the "Home Computer". Most of the current systems are really personal computers designed to be sold first as a aid to business with home applications being secondary. The new Commodore and the Zenith (among) others) are truly small business systems being sold as personal computers. Witness IBM PC, the "Cadillac," is not advertised as an entertainment system. The answer lies with ATARI. We as owner's can brag, show off our system and have the best of each world, but if the image problem is not reversed the rest of the industry will leave ATARI behind.
Thank goodness for the third party software. I have watched ATARI drop what I thought would have been a good product line not to mention the software which is really where profit comes from.
I believe ATARI needs to correct an image problem and then market the "Home Computer" as an answer to those out there who don't want a business system. Comparison of the cost alone for the true home user should sell ATARI if it were marketed properly.
Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Martin T. Foley
Moncks Corner,
South Carolina
Editor:
Your "Whither ATARI?" editorial in issue #9 was an act of courage. You risked advertising revenues and support from ATARI's parent, Warner Communications, by asking the important question: "Why is ATARI trying to sell and support their wonderful 400/800 home computers like throwaway toys?" That's a question troubling most all of us faithful ATARI computer users.
Early in December, Wall Street investors revolted against Warner's stock when news leaked that ATARI had lost its sales lead in the home computer market and was in danger of losing its near-total domination of the home video game market as well. While Warner pointed its finger to its errant ATARI Division as the culprit for a disappointing earnings statement, the true focus of both Warner's overall and ATARI's specific problems should have been aimed at the boardroom of Warner itself.
When Warner Communications purchased ATARI a few years ago, Warner had no real experience in marketing high technology products. Warner's holdings in the movie, TV an recording industries naturally make them entertainment specialists, and with ATARI producing the hottest new wave in entertainment, video games, it seemed natural fit as another cog in their corporate wheel. But since the merger, ATARI has grown so fast and so large that it has become too complex for Warner's show-biz moguls to handle. Warner's control of ATARI is analogous to an old Douglas DC-3 pilot being given command of a Concorde.
Warner's installation of the Harvard Business School type corporate political structure ATARI marked the beginning of their problems with the division. Creative design and software engineers who were weaned Nolan Bushnell's entrepre- neurial spirit at the old ATARI chafed under the new Warner installed regimen of MBA executives, committee decisions and anything-for-the-bottom-line philosophy at the new ATARI. Many of them departed to form new companies or joined com-petitors. Some of the better engineer-businessmen from ATARI went on to form formid-ible competitors to their former employer such as Activision and Imagic.
Warner's answer to the burning question, "How do you market a home computer or video game to Mr. & Mrs. Average?", was in the form of mass marketing. And to implement this mass marketing program, ATARI replaced their key marketing executives with men from the toy and cosmetic industries rather than those who were experienced in selling consumer electronics. These "new brooms" quickly landed deals with major retailers like Sears, Toys-R-Us and K-Mart during the Summer. But to make these deals, ATARI had to give contract pricing to the big retailers that was well below the costs offered to ATARI's computer specialty dealers. Naturally, when Toys-R-Us can sell an ATARI 400 for less than XYZ Computer Center can buy it, XYZ would have to drop the ATARI line or go out of business. Thanks to ATARI's mass,market programs, dealers from toast to coast dropped the ATARI line and began to bad-mouth it due to the bitterness of being cut out by ATARI. What ATARI's market managers didn't figure, however, was that while they were signing up the big retailers, so were their competitors, Commodore and Texas Instruments. Since Com-modore and TI are both vertically integrated, they had no problem bombing the ATARI prices. ATARI, meanwhile had to sit back and attempt to sell the 400 home computer with a $50 handicap against . their key competitors due to the video game groups' insistence that the too-late and over-priced 5200 Super Video Game System needed to occupy the $200 price slot. The fruits of this mass market effort have been bitter for ATARI. Before the Fall of 1982, ATARI led the home computer market, but today, (December 21, 1982), ELECTRONIC NEWS reported that ATARI had fallen into third place and even that position was in danger with Radio Shack coming up strong recently. For their efforts, the marketing executives and president of ATARI were recently terminated. The damage those executives did to ATARI's sales and support network still will require much effort to correct, however.
"Warner's control of ATARI is anal-ogous to an old Douglas DC-3 pilot being given command of a Concorde."
For all of its faults, however, ATARI has the best supported home computer on the market. ATARI's APEX program is unique in that it allows the 400/800 users an opportunity to provide software support for their systems without having to go in business for themselves to do so. TI, Radio Shack and Commodore have no current program such as APEX. ATARI has done a good job of setting up service centers at most major cities, important support that the other companies are lagging in. ATARI has also cooperated with the third party suppliers of software, accessories and books for their computers in a manner similar to market-leader, Apple. Third party support is just in its infancy for ATARI's competitors, however.
On the marketing scene, ATARI will be dropping prices on all of their current home computer models and offering new models, such as the 1200XL, to boot. ATARI is also going to try to re-woo the specialty computer dealers with fairer margins and better support in 1983.
From appearances, ATARI and parent Warner have learned a hard lesson in the
high-tech consumer electronics business: computers are not toys. Let us hope
that they will return to being a technologically-driven, rather than a
market-driven company in the future and that ATARI will graduate their excellent
home computers from a stormy adoles-cence to a stable maturity. With over
750,000 users of the ATARI 400/800 among us and excellent magazines like A. N.
A. L. 0. G. to act as sounding boards, I'm cer-tain that Warner and ATARI will
get the message and give us the support and products we want and need in the
future.
Sincerely,
J.T Irby
Orlando, Florida
Dear Editor:
Your editorial in issue #9 was straight to the point and ironic in view of current events. The New York Times of 12/19 reported that ATARI is plagued by manage-ment turnover, disappointing game cartridge sales and an un-profitable computer division. It seems that ATARI really doesn't understand the home computers it is trying to create and is unprepared to compete now that they aren't the only GAME in town. The December issue of Datama-tion magazine related an inter-esting picture of R & D at ATARI with a budget between sixty and one-hundred million dollars, an innovative chief scientist, an educational research institute, a lab to work on LOGO research and even a consultant in Al. I don't know about you but I think that this kind of effort should pay off with something more than just game software. Something is wrong.
Your points were well taken especially about education, user support and marketing. I do some part-time work for a local computer sales company and we no longer carry ATARI. Why? Because of the discounting of local video stores and mail order, it is not profitable to sell ATARI and provide support. ATARI seems to think user groups are the total answer but they aren't. Unfortunately people go for the low price and then realize too late that they need support in the form of advice and information. Everyone I have talked to wants a computer for their children. They are interested in education for their children as a very high priority and not only in games.
A particularly annoying indication, at least to me, that ATARI does not take computer software seriously is the Macroassembler. It costs almost $100 and yet there is no way to buy a backup diskette and it doesn't even come with a center hole reinforcement. Games costing $30 always have the reinforcements and sometimes the backup availability. It may sound like a small point until you accidentally spill milk or something on your disk and have to pay full price for a "backup" of expensive software.
ATARI's forte (for the VCS) has thus far been games but Activision, Mattel et al have produced game cartridges with much better graphics for the 2600 than ATARI has and as I have said ATARI is hurting because of it. It seems that cartridge sales account for the bulk of game machine profits. ATARI is heading for the same situation in serious computer software. Perhaps if A.N.A.LO.G. surveyed its subscribers and made the results known to ATARI the problems would be brought to their attention and improvements would follow.
Sincerely,
Jordan Powell
Carmel, New York
Dear Sirs,
This article was long overdue. I agree with it 100%, but I'm not sure who's to blame. We, the user, guide ATARI by our buying habits. If we show that we will buy more games than Educational or Utility programs then that will be the direction ATARI will take.
When the first Home Computer hit the market the best way to show it off and get the public's attention was with a game, such as Star Raiders, and it did the trick. After Star Raiders came Space Invaders and so on, but soon after playing these games the hobbyist found the real purpose of the computer, and started to write his own programs.
"With ATARI putting out more games and limited types of utility programs, ATARI went from Home Computer to Game Computer."
The problem is ATARI saw the money in games and started to redirect their thinking and leave the utility programs to third parties. With ATARI putting out more games, and limited types of Utility programs, ATARI went from Home Computer to game Computer.
We now have to correct this error and your article "Whither Atari" is the first step, but it can't stop there. We have to let ATARI know by writing to their Marketing Dept., telling them what we want to see from them. We, the buyer, have to guide them.
Now is the time to get our act together. Maybe you could get the correct name and address of ATARI for your readers to write to with their ideas. If we don't let them know then we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Sincerely yours,
Philip Diedeman
Phoenix, Maryland
Dear Sir:
Your editorial in issue #9 expressed my long-felt opinions very well. After purchasing an ATARI 800 over a year ago for use in my home, I've agonized awaiting ATARI. to release nongame software but was relieved when they finally released hardware information to third party developers. Now all ATARI users must wait for these firms to develop software that fills the gaps in Educational, Word Processing, Personal Finance, DB Management and Telecommunications. The efforts made by ATARI in these fields is less than first class and thus many users feel this reflects on ATARI hardware as well.
You question the marketing strategy and I'd like to share some questions and possible actions with you. ATARI has many resources, not the least of which is name recognition. We're seeing the retail price of hardware falling to under $600 for the ATARI 800. As ATARI struggles for market share, I wish they'd consider package enhancement instead of reduced prices.
As "Computers for People" enter more homes, I believe many will refrain from purchasing today as prices will be lower later. Many remember the calculator price shake out. Now that these households see little quality software outside of games, they have little motivation to buy today. Developers of non-game software also feel less urgency in positioning their products. The ATARI name recognition will keep the public very aware of these price changes.
What could be done? Prices are lowered due to decreased costs. Less resistance would occur had ATARI included more "optional" hardware with the ATARI 800 package. Suggested items would be: Pilot Home Package, Entertainer Kit, Educator Kit or 850 Interface. By adding any of these items to product would be enhanced and the selling price would not need to drop. The customer would not see successive price reductions and thus would purchase more readily based on desire to satisfy need.
What could be done to allow home users to upgrade? Why not give $75 credit toward the purchase of a 1200XL or 800 from a dealer with the trade-in of a 400? Then ATARI, via Warner, could place them in cable households in the vein of the Qube experiment in Columbus, Ohio. Or the trade-in units could be donated to schools at a breakeven expense to ATARI considering tax benefits and the "cost" of the trade-ins. This would place more units in front of more users and help enhance the "education" image for ATARI - not at the expense of the "game" image.
Regardless of the marketing strategy eventually chosen, I hope ATARI soon develops superior non-game software to compliment their machines and game software. Many households already have ATARI VCS game systems and more purchase them every day. Does ATARI really feel a household will pay $600 for a second game machine? Isn't there enough competition in the home arcade industry without ATARI competing with itself?
Robin Lynch
Mundelein, Illinois
Dear Sirs:
I couldn't help but grin when reading your editorial in A.N.A.L.O.G. #9.
Slightly over two years ago, I purchased a TRS-80 Color Computer from Radio Shack. I quickly learned BASIC, Extended BASIC, and updated the memory to 32K. I waited and waited for the software to come out, only to be rewarded with Dinowars and a whole list of second-rate games. Tandy's marketing policy targeted the computer as a game machine, but the users knew differently - they knew it was a machine far more capable than its makers gave it credit for.
Eventually, frustrations were eased by the products from third-party software vendors who developed everything from word processors, data bases and utility packages, to much-improved high-resolution action games. It was finally becoming a worthwhile investment, but no thanks to Tandy.
Although the machine improved in its capabilities, I never could resist the lure of the ATARI 800. In December, I plucked down a lot of money for the system with disk drive, and was thrilled that there was so much software to choose from. I gave the TRS-80 to my parents with their new-found interest in home computers.
The irony, of course, is that the A.N.A.L.O.G. editorial speaks of the same problem. Different computer, different corporation, same problem. The solution is simple: don't look to ATARI for the answers. The good software will result from two things, namely third-party software companies and user demand. Furthermore, the scenario is typical of many home computer products. We are not alone.
The fact is, any business application, peripheral device or expansion capability that can be conceived of will most likely be done, especially if there is a demand for it. I imagine there will be numeric keypads, Z-80's, CP/M systems and who-knows-what available for our favorite computer before too long.
As a matter of fact, I'm writing this letter on a system utilizing Bit 3's 80-column board, a green phosphor monitor and Letter Perfect word processor. It's enough to make many Apple users a little bit envious.
So, I have a few things to be grinning about.
And don't worry whether ATARI thinks they've got a "machine in a box." The serious software is out there.
You just have to know where to look.
Sincerely,
Bob Safir
Los Angeles, CA
Dear Editor:
We note the reference in your editorial in Issue 9 to the ATARI "Talk & Teach" system. Dorsett Educational Systems, Inc., developed this system in 1975, patented it, and in 1977 licensed ATARI to use it. We later developed 1024 half-hour tutorial program titles, contained in 64 courses of 16 audiovisual programs each, far in excess of the number for any other computer. It is perhaps more tutorial programs, (exclusive of drills, tests, games and simulations) than exist for all other computers, combined.
ATARI released only 256 our titles, contained in 16 courses (Algebra, Spelling, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Accounting, Electricity, U.S. History, World History, U.S. Government, Supervision, Writing, Physics, Counseling and Classics). We now sell these courses, plus Electronics (48 programs), First Aid and Safety, Spanish, Health Services, Offic Careers, Philosophy, Auto Mechanics, Construction, Carpentry, Shop, Statistics, an hundreds of Reading Comprehension, Reading Development, Vocabulary Building, ESL, Phonics, and Math programs, each of which runs up to a half hour, and has full-time professional, high-quality recorded narration. We are unable to agree that for the ATARI computers, as you claim, "quality educational software is in short supply."
ATARI apparently agreed with you that the "Talk and Teach" programs "didn't sell", since they sold the rights for them back to us nearly two years ago. But their royalty statement to me discloses that they had already sold more than 600,000 program copies packaged in 38,000 series. Not bad for something that "didn't sell" and which was returned at a time when 80% of the ATARI's now being used did not exist. We hope to supply courseware in increasing quantity.
But there are problems with "Talk and Teach." programs. They are first-generation, so graphics are simple, although often clever and colorful. Special visual efforts are infrequent, although all text is in upper and lower case. Particularly important is the fact that computer hobbyists will miss complex branching and string responses. Responses are all multiple-choice, and branching, when used, is simple. It is not easy to make illegal copies.
Most important, the tutorial mode actually attempts to teach, which means that after going through programs two or three times, you are through with them, as compared to games or simulations, which can provide more extended interest to those who already know the subject. Many educators prefer to introduce information by noncomputer means and use the computer as reinforcement. Tutorial programs may have more appeal for home self-study.
Sincerely,
Loyd G. Dorsett
President
Dorsett Educational Systems Inc.
Norman, OK
Gentlemen:
Here I sit at the console of my ATARI 400, having just finished a productive and (through no choice of mine) lengthy programming session. I have decided to announce the big error.
This letter is being sent to four major magazines for personal computers in the hope that we can avoid any more BASIC cartridgesized holes in the wall.
A "lock-up" is a painful experience, as it prevents any communication with the computer whatsoever. There are many ways to produce a lock-up, such as Print A = Not B. Try it. Then enter from tape or disk (after rebooting) a long BASIC program. Now the tricky part: type a line number near the beginning of your file. With your finger on BREAK, push RETURN immediately followed by depression of the BREAK Key. 4 out of 5 times, odds enhanced by long sessions of unsaved programming, the machine will allow entry of input but not respond.
Great fun, eh?
It this ever happens to you, don't get mad, just take it in stride (while sweeping cartridge pieces away). It's happened before, it will happen again and until 300,000 rude letters to Warner Communications cause them to correct the defect, will continue to happen throughout eternity.
Sean Puckett
Homestead, Florida
Dear A.N.A.L.O.G.,
Game programming can be rewarding, but moving the players. up and down in BASIC is too slow. Since I do not know how to program in Assembly language, would you produce a machine language subroutine that I can call up from BASIC to move players up and down fast?
Thank you very much for your attention.
Yours truly, Long Mai
Salt Lake City, UT
No problem. Check out "Moving Players in BASIC, " page 73.
-Ed.
Sirs,
Is it possible to CLOAD or CSAVE a program, but not have that shrill beep?
The cassette (or disk) Input-output beeping can be turned on or off at any
time. To turn the sounds off, use the command POKE 65,o. To turn them on again,
POKE 65,3.
-TH