[vcf-midatlantic] 8-Bit Generation - Jay Miner (and friends) devices
John Heritage
john.heritage at gmail.com
Mon Mar 13 17:21:47 EDT 2017
I just watched the 8-bit generation video finally, narrated by the
excellent Bil Herd :). Whoever here had a hand in putting that together,
thank you so much!
..
One take-away I have from this video I haven't seen/read elsewhere is that
it seems like the only "Jay Miner engineered device" that was ever properly
marketed by parent company was the Atari 2600?
i.e.
- Original Atari/Bushnell wanted to kill the 2600 kinda early
- Warner Atari did a big marketing push in 1980-1981 and that made the 2600
super successful.
- Neither Bushnell nor Warner seemed to know what to do with the Atari
400/800. You can see this in the initial high price, and also in locking
out the system to developers early on (which imo is why it lost to the
Apple II).
- We all know the story of how Commodore didn't know what to do with the
Amiga 1000..
And if you count the 3DO with RJ Mical and others as a descendant device,
that too could have been handled better...
Am I off the rocker here?
There is some irony that the only Jay Miner device that was properly
marketed was handled by "New York Blue Shirts"... I know the Amiga was a
mis-managed device but I often feel like the Atari 400/800 deserves that
award just as much as it was the first home computer to show the real
benefit of custom chips, and at launch in 1979-1980 was way more powerful
and capable than contemporaries..
John
More information about the vcf-midatlantic
mailing list