(Continued from page 9) ―The Guild of Thieves‖ and ―Jinxter‖ along with The Software
Toolworks‘ ―The Hunt for Red October‖ and Taito‘s ―Arkanoid.‖
If XEG owners chose to add a printer to their setup, they got
access to a wide range of word processing and desktop pub-
lishing programs like Atari‘s ―AtariWriter‖, Broderbund Soft-
ware‘s ―The Print Shop‖ and Springboard‘s ―The Newsroom.‖
By adding a modem like the XMM301 or the SX212, XEG own-
ers could logon to a local or national Bulletin Board System
(BBS) or popular information services such as CompuServe or
GEnie and access hundreds of public domain and shareware
software.
Unfortunately the software piracy scene, which was already
huge with other computing platforms, was growing in the Atari
computing world as well. It was relatively easy for an unscrupu-
lous Atari computer owner to pick up hundreds of titles from a
fellow Atari owner/pirate up the block, a local BBS or from a
local school that used Atari computers. While it is hard to judge
whether or not piracy affected the XEG‘s performance in the
market, it‘s fair to say that it didn‘t help the system‘s sales vi-
ability. Even with Nintendo frowning on the rentals of NES
fugal packaging of the cartridges, Atari managed to sell out cartridges, at least there was a sale involved to get that game in
their inventory of XEG consoles that Christmas season due to comparison to a single retail floppy that got copied dozens of
shortages of the NES worldwide. times and doled out.
Throughout the New Year and the rest of the 80s into 1990 While it can be said that the Atari XE Game System was one of
Atari finally released a number of re-releases of Atari and li- the worst supported game consoles from Atari (right behind the
censed 3rd party software with new XE Game System style Atari 7800), it can also be said that the XEG is the best XE
packaging. These titles included ―Aces of Aces‖, ―Archon‖, computer model to own. Of the 3 XE models, the XEG is the
―BallBlazer‖, ―David‘s Midnight Magic‖, ―Eastern Front‖, ―Blue only one with a detachable keyboard and a look that is all her
Max‖, ―Donkey Kong‖, ―Fight Night‖, ―Hardball‖ (which featured own. For an Atari computer game player this system highlights
a commercial with baseball legend Ozzie Smith for Atari), the true purpose many owners had in mind when they bought
―Karateka‖, ―Lode Runner‖, ―One on One Basketball‖, and an Atari computer in the first place: to play games.
―Summer Games.‖ Regardless of the new packaging, it was So what could Atari have done differently in building the next
painfully obvious that Atari was releasing a lot of dated software successor to the Atari 2600? While 8-bit technology was
that many computer users have experienced before. Ironically clearly coming to an end, 16-bit technology was emerging and
most of the 3rd party companies that Atari licensed their older Atari had a 16-bit computer that was perfect for playing games:
games from (Accolade, Broderbund Software, Electronic Arts, the Atari ST. It is possible that if Atari developed its game con-
Epyx, Lucasfilm, and subLOGIC) had actually stopped releas- sole after the ST instead of the XE, Atari would have created a
ing new titles for the Atari 8-bit computers by the time the XEG game console & computer that was ahead of its time. The
was released. computer itself was poised to go up against the Amiga and the
Atari did manage to release some new titles as well. New titles Macintosh. With gorgeous arcade ports along with solid and
included ―Airball‖, ―Dark Chambers‖, ―Desert Falcon‖, ―Food sometimes updated computer game ports, an ST Game Sys-
Fight‖, ―Gato‖, ―Into the Eagle‘s Nest‖, ―Star Raiders II‖, and tem could have been ―Years Ahead of Its Time‖.
―ThunderFox.‖ To Atari‘s credit, they also released a number of In the end, the Atari XE Game System arrived too late in time to
new titles to support their new light gun as well. Light gun titles revive Atari‘s past successes in the console market. Unlike the
included ―Barnyard Blaster‖, ―Crime Buster‖ and Crossbow.‖ past when Atari was able to repackage a computer as a game
Atari also reprogrammed older releases like ―Mario Bros.‖ and console and succeed at it, this time the same treatment couldn‘t
Broderbund Software‘s ―Choplifter‖ to take advantage of the cover up the fact that the technology was past its prime. For
larger ROMs that were available, vastly improving them over Atari computer owners, however, the XEG reaffirmed what
previous versions. ―Mario Bros.‖ in particular is one of the best many knew since back when the Atari 400/800 computers were
arcade conversions on any game console. first introduced: that back in the late 70‘s Atari had already
Even at $149.95, with a large library of repackaged software created their best video game system. It just happened to be in
dating back to the Atari 400, Atari released too few new titles to the shape of a computer.
generate any lasting excitement for the system. Also by the
late 80s the XEG‘s graphics capabilities were just not as im-
pressive when compared to the maturing NES and SMS titles,
making it a disappointment as a game console. Fortunately it
had one feature that had the potential to give it new life: the SIO
port..
The SIO port allowed Atari owners to expand their system by
adding a disk drive. Atari‘s new XF551 or the older 1050 disk
drives allowed XEG owners to access the world of Atari com-
puting. While the XEG‘s library was limited to the re-releases,
few new releases and whatever old stock Atari 8-bit cartridges
could still be found in stores. Adding a disk drive expanded the
library of software available to over 3,000 titles dating back to
the late 70s.
New titles released on disk during the mid to late 80s included
Activision‘s ―Rampage‖ and ―Shanghai‖, Datasoft‘s ―221B Baker
Street‖, Infocom‘s ―Plundered Hearts‖, Imagine Software‘s
―Green Beret‖, Mindscape‘s ―Gauntlet‖, Rainbird‘s ―The Pawn‖,
Syndicate on the Atari ST. What could have been?
10 | Video Game Trader Magazine | July 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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