Ep.297 – Too Little, Too Late: Why the Atari 7800 Never Got the Launch It Deserved cover art

Ep.297 – Too Little, Too Late: Why the Atari 7800 Never Got the Launch It Deserved

Ep.297 – Too Little, Too Late: Why the Atari 7800 Never Got the Launch It Deserved

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Summary

In 1986, \Atari\ released the \Atari 7800 ProSystem\, a console that had actually been ready since 1984, built by an outside engineering firm called General Computer Corporation and designed to reclaim Atari's place in the living room. This week, David and Rob explore the full story of the 7800, from GCC's unlikely origins as a pair of MIT students who got sued by Atari and ended up working for them, to the corporate sale and payment dispute that left a finished console sitting in a warehouse for two years, to the stripped-down launch that followed, and the question of what might have happened if the timing had been different. It is a story about a capable machine, a missed window, and the gap between what something was and what it was supposed to be, on today's trip down Memory Card Lane.

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