Atari: Game Over Page #2

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And find the needle.

So it's two levels.

This picture here

is actually out of an old

El Paso Times article.

This is actually that

day, and that event,

when it actually occurred.

So what we did, is

just to figure out,

OK, if this reporter

took this picture here,

then the reporter

had to be standing

somewhere in this area.

So here's the two cells that

we've pinned it down to, now.

So when you come

back here, and put

the reporter taking the

picture, and you make that line.

And what you're looking for,

is to make sure the line

intersects with the buildings.

Joe Lewandowski

wasn't just a guy

who knew his way around a dump.

He was also an

amateur archaeologist,

kind of like Indiana

Jones, but without the gun.

Or the whip.

See, the newspaper photo

was like the medallion,

and Joe had used it to

construct his own version

of the Staff of Ra.

And that pinpointed the

location of the Atari

dump, which is exactly how

Indy would have done it.

Joe was clearly obsessed.

He believed in the legend.

He'd spent over three

years constructing

a plan to dig up the landfill,

and prove it to the world.

But he wasn't a gamer.

He wasn't trying

to find out why.

And that's what

I wanted to know.

Why would the company I loved so

much decide to bury its future?

The whole E.T. story is a very

small part of the Atari story.

Let me go back and let me

explain how Atari started out.

The video game

came because of the convergence

of me working in an

amusement park summers,

while pursuing an

engineering degree

at the University of Utah.

I knew the economics of the

coin operated game business.

They made a lot of money.

Nolan designed

these incredibly elegant

circuits.

Put together in a way that's

so clever that modern engineers

have a hard time, you

know, understanding

and repairing these things.

My partner and I,

Ted Dabney, started

working on a ping-pong game.

By the end of '72,

we did $3.5 million dollars.

And then we did $19 million.

Then we did $35 million.

It was a hockey stick.

This electronic medium,

which was just beginning,

had some traction with people.

And once you played some of the

more sophisticated arcade games

of the day, and understood

that maybe there

was a chance you could

duplicate that in a home game,

your eyes got big.

Home video games

have been a success

from the moment a

company called Atari

launched this basic game, Pong.

Which has been imitated by at

least 40 other manufacturers.

They're selling like crazy.

300,000 last year.

This year, three million.

Next year, six,

maybe 10 million.

We felt, well, maybe

this is a time to sell

to a company with deep pockets.

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