Thanks Jack for the wonderful memories....

[ark_ader]

The most awesome guy in the home computing world, with more accomplishments than Steve Jobs has recently passed away.....Jack Tramiel.

I played on the Commodore and Atari machines for two decades.

I didn't know he was a Holocaust survivor.

Rest in peace Jack and thanks.



http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/04/09/computer-legend-and-gaming-pioneer-jack-tramiel-dies-at-age-83/

Edit: Oops Wrong Tramiel  

[Thenasty]

Sam did not passed away, his Dad did, Jack. 


Time to tinker with my c64 to se if still works after its all bundled up and packed away.

[saint]

Ah man, sadness. Wish I still had my C=64. RIP Jack, and thanks. I wouldn't be where I am today if not for you.

[Vigo]

 

LOAD"RIP, MR. TRAMIEL",8,1

[DaveMMR]

Now that Mr. Tramiel has passed, I wonder if we'll find out if he was indeed in possession of those Swordquest prizes that were never awarded after the crash.  

Besides (allegedly) taking those literal treasures originally meant for the skilled gamers, he way of doing business was described as "ruthless" at best, " grossly unethical" at worst. But the toes he stepped on shaped the home computer scene as we know it today. Without his way of running Commodore and being able to sell a powerful computer an affordable price, we may all be years behind in the technology scene.  

Rest in peace you wonderful bastard.  

[SavannahLion]

He kept the prizes? This is the first I've heard of it.

I have nothing for the man. I've lost money thanks to Jack and I know I'm not the only one. It can be argued he advanced computing by twenty years or held it back by twenty years. But that is neither here or there. He's dead and gone. I have no qualms if I never hear of the Tramiel name again outside of the history books.

[DaveMMR]

He kept the prizes? This is the first I've heard of it.

According to some accounts, visitors have seen the prizes on display in his house. This is rumor but not unlikely since these things were on display during the contests and items worth $25k-$100k don't just suddenly disappear.

[SavannahLion]

No way he took them all though. The first was destroyed and the second was/is with the prize winner. That leaves prizes #3, #4, and #5. If I have my dates right the games pre-date his purchase in '84.

I had no idea they were on display though. I'll have to see if I can find some pictures.

I can see that happening. Atari had a tendency to keep their stuff before Tramiel ass raped the company.

[amendonz]

What were the prizes?

[Vigo]

A crown ,talisman,  chalice,  stone,  and sword as a grand prize.

The whole bit of tramiel swiping the last prizes is just urban legend. It is more likely that the prizes were never part of the purchase agreement of Atari. The asset was probably never transferred to Atari by Warner since at the time they owned and operated the Franklin Mint, the Creator of the prizes. All that warner would need to do is not transfer the prizes from franklin to atari in their GL, and tramiel not noticing it before signing the acquisition paperwork. That crap happens all the time in the acquisition world. Makes sense, if I just purchased a failing company,  then realized I got hosed out of 150k in prizes,  I would make the contest go away quietly as well. Only concern is stopping the hemorrhaging of cash after the video game crash of 83.

Makes more sense than a wealthy computer tycoon stopping a major contest so he can have a free sword through defrauding a company he is trying to save.

[DaveMMR]

Makes more sense than a wealthy computer tycoon stopping a major contest so he can have a free sword through defrauding a company he is trying to save.

Pretty much as Savannah said, the contest was cancelled long before Tramiel stepped in.  Atari could simply not afford to hold the competition (or release the final game, Waterworld), even if the prizes were already set.  And who was he defrauding?  Technically, he paid for those prizes. 

Here's a thread: http://www.cloudstrider.com/cs3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1601

[Vigo]

Hmmm...If that is the case, why do people ---smurfette--- so much about Jack Tramiel? The company was tanked before he bought it, and if the contest was scrapped beforehand as well, then people should be grumbling about Warner instead.

Jack is still badass in my book, and if he actually had the Swordquest deathly hallows, I hope he had some kickass plans for them in his will. Another contest maybe?

C=

[DaveMMR]

Hmmm...If that is the case, why do people ---smurfette--- so much about Jack Tramiel? The company was tanked before he bought it, and if the contest was scrapped beforehand as well, then people should be grumbling about Warner instead.

Jack is still badass in my book, and if he actually had the Swordquest deathly hallows, I hope he had some kickass plans for them in his will. Another contest maybe?

C=

I think some people did not like how he did not like console gaming and turned Atari into a home computer company and left all work on consoles (5200 and 7800) to rot. It was the success of the NES that changed his mind on consoles but by then it was too late.

[Howard_Casto]

Well that may be true, but according to documentries and such I've seen on Atari the whole game development staff devolved into hopeless druggies as soon as the money came rolling in.  People hate hearing this, but in terms of video games there was only a very short window in their history in which the original company made anything good.  We had Pong obviously.... the early atari arcade machines... the first two or three years of the 2600 and then it was downhill from there.

Atari may have started it all, but it's important to remember that they almost ended it all as well.

That being said, all of that mess has nothing to do with Jack and his accomplishments.  It shouldn't have suprised anyone that the founder of Commadore, a company that made computers that just happened to play games, focused on similar home computer units once he bought Atari.  If anything he kept Atari limping along so that the valuable ips didn't fall into obscurity.

[Vigo]

That being said, all of that mess has nothing to do with Jack and his accomplishments.  It shouldn't have suprised anyone that the founder of Commadore, a company that made computers that just happened to play games, focused on similar home computer units once he bought Atari.  If anything he kept Atari limping along so that the valuable ips didn't fall into obscurity.

and if I remember correctly, Warner wanted to change Atari over to home computers long before they sold Atari to Tramiel. It was one of the reasons Nolan Bushnell ended up parting ways with Atari.

[DaveMMR]

The money and drugs at Atari were apparently legendary. When Warner came in and tried to run it like they were used to running everything else, there was much friction and that's when Atari started deteriorating (leading to Nolan's departure).  This is where those well documented poor decisions came into play: letting the VCS stick around way too long, releasing "obvious betas" (read: Pacman) and poor quality, rushed titles (read: E.T.) and treating their programmers like nobodies (paving the way for the third parties - some good like Activision, some horrible like Ralston-Purina... seriously.)

You know how they say in some games going first is a disadvantage - well that's what it was like for Atari. It's hard to be too critical, there was no precedent in the industry.  But still, Howard is correct - they did almost take everyone down with them.  They were originally approached to distribute the Famicom in America (this was before Tramiel).  The deal was soured because some Atari exec lost his temper at CES when he saw Donkey Kong displayed on the Coleco Adam (Atari had exclusive computer rights for that game). Imagine that hadn't happened and Atari handled the NES knowing how well they handled the VCS in later years, not to mention the 5200, 7800, Lynx and especially the Jaguar. 

When Tramiel took over, as far as everyone knew, home computers were the way we'd all be playing video games. Why buy a console when you can do the same on a machine that can also handle the finances, homework, etc.?  No one was expecting Nintendo to revive the industry in America like it did. 

So yeah, Tramiel was a ruthless bastard - but he was definitely no dummy. Save for the arcade division, there was practically no more "Atari" once he stepped in. As Howard said, he saved the valuable IP (still a recognizable name before we all started calling video games in general "Nintendo".) Perhaps he deserved that Swordquest sword...

I'm not familiar with a lot of the animosity towards him (except from those who dealt with him directly, of course), though I do know the internets have been making fun of Sam Tramiel for being completely batshit insane when he was promoting the Jaguar: http://www.defunctgames.com/theysaidwhat/23/ataris-sam-tramiel-goes-freakin-crazy

[SavannahLion]

The money and drugs at Atari were apparently legendary.

Have you ever tried to program anything attached to the TIA without being in a drug induced state? It's not easy. The people at Atari weren't the only ones to develop in such a state, Kevin Herbert of Cisco did much the same.