Who designed the Atari logo ?

[Level42]

I've always considered the Atari logo to be one of the best ever.
(I mean the original one, not the ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up mess they made at Hasbro and Infogrames.)

It fully covers all the rules for a good logo: simple yet stylish, strong, basic colors, easily recognized etc. etc.

But I can't seem to find much info about it.

Who designed it and when ? What were the thoughts behind using mount Fuji. etc. etc.

[ChadTower]

Mama said she designed the Atari logo.

[patrickl]

Atari History and Product FAQ

2.2) What Does The Atari Logo Symbolize?
Designed by George Opperman in late 1972, the logo was meant to serve a dual purpose. First an foremost it represents a stylized letter "A" to stand for "Atari". However, the stylized "A" was also meant to represent Atari's initial claim to fame - Pong(r). The two side pieces of the Atari symbol represent two opposing video game players, with the center line of the Pong(r) court in the middle.

Sometime over 1973-1975, the description changed to reflect the Japanese origins of the Atari
name. Looking similar to Japan's famous Mount Fuji as well, the logo soon became referred to
as the Atari "Fuji" symbol.

2600 and Counting: An Interview with Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell

Where did the three-pronged Atari logo come from?
It was just done by our head of creative as one of the potentials for the new Atari logo. It became known as the Fuji logo because everyone thought that it looked like a symbol for Mt. Fuji. But it was totally an arbitrary graphic.

[SavannahLion]

Wasn't there a website that illustrated the differences and bastardizations of all the different logos, including their foreign counterparts and origins? Can't seem to find it anymore.

The guy wrote a pretty slick article. IIRC, he broke down the logo into its components shapes so it could be drawn correctly and had a collection of vector files for consumption.

[Mario]

I found this. Click Here.

Mario

[Flip_Willie]

2600 and Counting: An Interview with Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell

Where did the three-pronged Atari logo come from?
It was just done by our head of creative as one of the potentials for the new Atari logo. It became known as the Fuji logo because everyone thought that it looked like a symbol for Mt. Fuji. But it was totally an arbitrary graphic.

That is a pretty cool interview. Bushnell's response to people who cloned pong was great.

[Level42]

Thanks guys, great info !

Indeed, the logo is used straight from the Pong cabs on.

A 1972 design that still looks tight, stylish, powerful and modern today. Well done ! 

Sad to read Opperman died in 1985 so we probably won't find out much more about it. The plus is that he didn't have to see how they butchered it up much later.....

[Level42]

2600 and Counting: An Interview with Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell

Where did the three-pronged Atari logo come from?
It was just done by our head of creative as one of the potentials for the new Atari logo. It became known as the Fuji logo because everyone thought that it looked like a symbol for Mt. Fuji. But it was totally an arbitrary graphic.

That is a pretty cool interview. Bushnell's response to people who cloned pong was great.

Yeah, but also pretty brutal as he stole the idea himself !!!!

I do always like that he honestly admits he was wrong turning Jobs' and Wozniaks' idea for a home computer down.......imagine what could have happened if he hadn't. The logo on my computer might still have been that proud Mt. Fuji.........

I also can see he blames Warner for everything bad within Atari, but the truth is that not ALL was bad what they did. First, they had the muscle to launch the 2600 worldwide. Without that, I probably never would have even owned one back in the day. Also, they _did_ develop a home computer, a very good one too, actually the best one in the world when it was released in 1979. Also the computer range that I've learned from the most by far.

[wp34]

I also can see he blames Warner for everything bad within Atari, but the truth is that not ALL was bad what they did. First, they had the muscle to launch the 2600 worldwide. Without that, I probably never would have even owned one back in the day. Also, they _did_ develop a home computer, a very good one too, actually the best one in the world when it was released in 1979. Also the computer range that I've learned from the most by far.

I agree.  I learned to program on an Atari 400 and still break out my 800 from time-to-time.  It was a great platform.

[Level42]

Wow, program on a 400, must have caused you tired fingers.
It wasn't until the XL series that Atari's homecomputers were widely available here. There were some 800's imported left and right (some NTSC from the US, some PAL from the UK) but not many.

I recently bought one of those PAL 800s. They're quite rare actually. I always loved the no nonsense design and the way it looks and seems to be built like a tank, but it actually is not running 100% right. (One of the projects on the list....) I originally had a 600XL with a 1010 cassette recorder......floppy drives were WAY to expensive for the first years for me...later had 130XE etc. etc. Stayed faithful quite a long time, until PC's really started to outperform the ST line (VERY late in the 90's for me).

I programmed mainly in Basic. Did you ever program in TurboBasic XL ? Not to be confused by Borland's TurboBasic, this was an amazing improvement on the original written by a German guy who was out of work at the time. Including a compiler. Also did some Kyan Pascal (as that was tought in our school, it was fun to see how my RAMDISK based compiling blew away the PC's (that didn't have a harddrive yet) when compiling, of course the PC's could have done it too, but the teachers simply had very little clue's about computers then....

Ahhh...good old days I still use the XE too now and then but honestly mainly to play some classisc like Pitfall 2, Miner 2049er, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, and Mr. Robot.....

[SavannahLion]

later had 130XE etc. etc. Stayed faithful quite a long time, until PC's really started to outperform the ST line (VERY late in the 90's for me).

Ooh, an XE fan? I blew it in mid 1996 at buying a complete ST computer, floppy, printer, entire software suite, the whole nine yards for under three digits. I had just got hold of a craptastic PacBell and was just getting into the PC stuff right then. I completely regret not jumping on the ST offer.

When the Atari glut hit eBay sometime in the late 90's or early 2000, I bought all sorts of accessories for my XEGS to convert it into a full fledged (read: more like a computer and less like a gaming system) machine, but ultimately never unpacked anything. I even shelled out for extra SIO cables when I found software to interface my Atari to my PC. Didn't have the heart to chop up the SIO cables though. In retrospect, I wonder if I could have gotten away with using the 850 instead of hacking the cables?

Now that I think about it, I haven't seen that box of accessories in years. Damn, I hope the ex didn't chuck them.

[TOK]

Ooh, an XE fan? I blew it in mid 1996 at buying a complete ST computer, floppy, printer, entire software suite, the whole nine yards for under three digits. I had just got hold of a craptastic PacBell and was just getting into the PC stuff right then. I completely regret not jumping on the ST offer.

I was working in the garage a while back and decided to fire mine up. I've had this thing since new, so its traveled with me from living with mom and dad, through my first apartment and winding up at my house. I've been in my house nearly 10 years, and I never opened the box while in my apartment, so this might be the first time in nearly 20 years the XE was fired up.

I also have an Indus GT drive and about 400 floppies full of games and stuff, but I left that stuff packed up and just popped a cartridge in.

[Level42]

later had 130XE etc. etc. Stayed faithful quite a long time, until PC's really started to outperform the ST line (VERY late in the 90's for me).

Ooh, an XE fan?

I love the entire 8-bit series

I decided for that instead of a C64 because of the better support of sound and graphics in basic, the better keyboard, and the MUCH faster floppy disk drive, and because it was an Atari (I was a 2600 fan still then...)
But what really tipped it for me was the marvelous conversion of Donkey Kong. From the moment I saw and played that I smiled because I'd seen the Colecovision and although I was stunned by the graphics I hated the controls of it. Plus no way I was going to get another games console......I had to work to get this 600XL and 1010, but I'm sure I got some part from my parents....

I later bought 1050 disk drive, 1064 (the 48k extra ram module to get 64k, EXTERNAL mind you !) and when the Tramiels took over and dumped everything a 850 to have a real printer

Bit later I saw the 520ST (it may even have been a 260) in London, _VERY_ shortly after it's release. It was so new that it was still running RAM-Tos. I drooled and wanted one. Back here there was 1 dealer that offered the 1040's a bit later for the best price ever (around 1000 guilder IIRC. So, I sold all the 8 bit stuff I had (which I much regret now, but it was my only way to finance part of that unbelievably expensive machine for me in these days). First used a hacked up TV-set that had RGB input. Later came all the extra stuff. I kept faithful to the ST until about the time Atari realised they had failed with both the Falcon and the Jaguar. I think it was half 90's and gave in to the Dark Side for about a decade, only to struggle back a couple of years ago

When the Atari glut hit eBay sometime in the late 90's or early 2000, I bought all sorts of accessories for my XEGS to convert it into a full fledged (read: more like a computer and less like a gaming system) machine, but ultimately never unpacked anything.

Wow, I think the XEGS may be the most wanted of the series. The detachable keyboard really gives it a "pro" computer look

I even shelled out for extra SIO cables when I found software to interface my Atari to my PC. Didn't have the heart to chop up the SIO cables though. In retrospect, I wonder if I could have gotten away with using the 850 instead of hacking the cables?

Yeah, the APE interface ! I decided I didn't want to hack up any cables and thought the whole idea of an extra box was stupid, so I simply glued in the chip (was it Max232 or something like that) and soldered some wires from the SIO port to it, and some wires to a sub D-9pin (RS-232) port that I had installed on the back of the case. This way I could hook up through simply a standard RS-232 cable. It was one of the best uses I found for my PC ever .

I sometimes doubted to buy things like what my fellow Dutchman Mr. Atari created: (MyIDE and stuff (http://www.mr-atari.com/) but figured I couldn't justify it because I wouldn't use it _that_ much....

@TOK, yeah I think you mentioned that Indus GT somewhere else. Man, that was the ultimate drive for the 8-bit machines ! Very low and sleek profile, smoked plexi cover, Track nr. indicator (useless, but looked _very_ hi-tech ). I remember the add's from the US magazines I read. No way you could buy those here....

By the way, that's about the most playable Defender I've ever played. Much better controls than the real thing (something I RARELY say). Think Dropzone was an even better Defender clone.

[wp34]

Wow, program on a 400, must have caused you tired fingers.

Yeah that was one worthless keyboard.  I borrowed a friend's 400 and taught myself Atari Basic.  I didn't try any of the other compilers.  I went to a high school where you could learn Assembler and Cobol so I lost interest in Atari Basic after a while.  I begged my parents for an 800 because I wanted a real keyboard. I still occasionally thank my dad for buying it.  Seems like the 800 was $700 which was a lot of money in those days.  Used it through high school and college to write papers.  I still remember the day I replaced the old 1010 cassette drive with a 1050 floppy.  I was in heaven.   I don't think I've been happier with a single computer purchase since in my life.

I liked the games so much it took me a while to jump on the console bandwagon again.  I thought my 800 games looked as good as the early NES stuff and didn't bother switching until a friend turned me on to Zelda.  Pitfall 2 was one of my favorites  That was a pretty amazing game. 

[Katana Man]

I actually had a hard time finding a good logo image for my Mala "Zebra" layouts, so I made one using an in-game screenshot in combination with some Photoshop work. PNG version is here. I'll post it here in case anyone wants to use it.

[Level42]

Without having checked it, isn't that R wrong ? I think the bow should just _not_ touch the long vertical line....I'm pretty sure really......it's SO burnt into my mind 

[Level42]

Yep, I'm right:

[SavannahLion]

I even shelled out for extra SIO cables when I found software to interface my Atari to my PC. Didn't have the heart to chop up the SIO cables though. In retrospect, I wonder if I could have gotten away with using the 850 instead of hacking the cables?

Yeah, the APE interface ! I decided I didn't want to hack up any cables and thought the whole idea of an extra box was stupid, so I simply glued in the chip (was it Max232 or something like that) and soldered some wires from the SIO port to it, and some wires to a sub D-9pin (RS-232) port that I had installed on the back of the case. This way I could hook up through simply a standard RS-232 cable. It was one of the best uses I found for my PC ever

Yeah, APE, that's the one.

HOLY ---Cleveland steamer---!!! $105 minus one cent! Didn't APE used to be free? When did they start charging up the ass for that?

[wp34]

Level 42:  Did you have Atari User's Groups over in London?  We had a nice one here in Iowa. 

What about Bulletin Board's?  There were many Atari-based BBS's over here that were pretty impressive for the time.  You could do rudimentary animation over a modem with all of the Atari special characters.  There were forums and software download sections.  Not a lot you could do at 300 baud but still pretty cool for 25 years ago.

[Level42]

Level 42:  Did you have Atari User's Groups over in London?  We had a nice one here in Iowa. 

What about Bulletin Board's?  There were many Atari-based BBS's over here that were pretty impressive for the time.  You could do rudimentary animation over a modem with all of the Atari special characters.  There were forums and software download sections.  Not a lot you could do at 300 baud but still pretty cool for 25 years ago.

Hi wp34, sorry for the confusion but I'm not actually living in London, I'm from the Netherlands and live near Rotterdam. I was on holiday in the UK (still with my parents )  and visiting London for shopping etc. I regularly bought US, UK and German Atari magazines, so I knew a number of Atari dealer adresses that I wanted to visit. I think I made my drive through a place called Sidcup where there was the Silica Shop IIRC that was the largest Atari dealer in the UK.
Anyway, while in London I visited this computer store that was into Atari as well and there they had 1 ST that was constantly "guarded" by a salesman and I had to wait ages to get a go on it. Very buggy still, with the first version of TOS but what a revolution it was A Mac for people like me

But yes, overhere in Holland we had lot's of BBSes too. I was lucky to live in an area where I could dial into one of the biggest Atari-aimed BBSes for local costs.
My first modem was one that looked like some home-assembled thing with standard switches and dials. (Although it wasn't acoustically coupled, so that was very "modern" ). That modem offered the standard 300 bps, but also a mode that was used mainly by viditel (a very primitive forerunner of internet I guess) that offered a whopping 1200bps downsteam, but only 75 up. That was not a big deal when downloading stuff

Yeah I remember my dad telling me to get off the phone line for quite some times. I resorted to doing night downloads.

I think the last BBSes I used (with the ST) were actually running graphics in a primitive way.

[wp34]

I forgot all about TOS.  Never got to try that.

I had a 1030 direct connect modem.  I was always a little disappointed I could not get an acoustically connected modem.  Seemed cool in the movie War Games.