Xref: utzoo rec.games.video:1483 comp.sys.atari.8bit:2055
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ihlpe!kimes
From: kimes@ihlpe.ATT.COM (Kit Kimes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video,comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Re: New Atari Home Video Game (Just a rumor?)
Message-ID: <3863@ihlpe.ATT.COM>
Date: 2 Dec 88 13:45:30 GMT
References: <1027@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 35

> 
>>Has anyone heard anything about Atari producing a 68000 based
>>home video game system?  Rumors flew several weeks back, but
>>I've heard nothing new lately.
> 
> The only new thing that I have seen from Atari lately is the 7800.  I saw 
> this at a Federated, selling for $150 or so.  It had a real joystick as 
> opposed to the touchpads that Nintendo has.  Federated also had a good supply 
> of cartridges for it.  Can't recall any names off hand but there was at 
> least ten different names.  What I liked about it is that the 7800 would 
> also take the cartridges for the 2600.  So now I can use all those old games 
> that have been sitting around.  I haven't bought it yet.  I'm not quite 
> sure if I want to or not.
> 
The 7800 was designed while Warner Brothers still owned Atari and almost 
never saw the light of day.  Tramiel inherited 100,000 or so of them when
he bought the company.  They sat for a year or more and were only released
because Atari wanted to clear them out and make a little money (my opinion).
They caught it just right though, because video games took an upswing about
then.  The 7800 has even better graphics than the 8bit computer (and XE Game
System) because it was designed with graphics in mind and with a better
graphics handling chip.  I think they compare very favorably with the
Nintendo and Sega systems, but have only a limited number of cartridges (if
you don't count the 2600 games).  What irks me is that some games like
EPYX's Winter Games are available for the 7800 and not for the XE GS.

BTW, $150 is way too much.  I don't remember the exact price but Toys R Us
and Child's World are selling them around here for under $100.


					Kit Kimes  
					AT&T--Bell Laboratories
					...att!ihlpe!kimes

FACT: Your cat has more muscles in its tail than you do in your head.