DefaultGen | 5,405 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-acquires-atariage They also bought Mobygames last year, meaning two of the oldest and most precious vintage game resources are in the hands of... whatever the hell Atari is these days. This must be why they firesaled out all of their bootleg games recently. AFAIK AtariAge is the oldest and biggest vintage game forum on the internet (although I could be wrong). Unless they were in dire financial straits, I can't imagine this is a good thing. 3 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,405 Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 They've removed ROMs from the site too. Not that everyone is entitled to free Atari games, but also this is potentially just an IP crackdown not some benevolent history preservation mission. Not sure how much Choplifter 7800 piracy was impacting Atari's bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,779 Administrator · Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Reading the thread, the owner (Albert) was looking at his options and seriously considering shutting it down and walking away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,405 Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 Just now, Gloves said: Reading the thread, the owner (Albert) was looking at his options and seriously considering shutting it down and walking away. Who are you going to sell us to? John Videogames? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,779 Administrator · Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 4 minutes ago, DefaultGen said: Who are you going to sell us to? John Videogames? I made the exact same joke in the VGS staff discord channel lol. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 215 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Yeah, its a blow for sure. Here's a link to Albert's announcement: AtariAge + Atari - Atari General - AtariAge Forums Here's a link to the Q&A thread: AtariAge + Atari Q&A - Atari General - AtariAge Forums Things change. Gotta roll with it. Maybe there's an opportunity to recruit some of the very excellent homebrew authors and other content creators over to VGS. I'm sure there will be some who want to migrate to an independent platform . . . I am considering stopping my subscription. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,010 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 Good. Maybe they'll put some order into the staff there to treat people a little better. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 215 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 36 minutes ago, DefaultGen said: They've removed ROMs from the site too. Not that everyone is entitled to free Atari games, but also this is potentially just an IP crackdown not some benevolent history preservation mission. Not sure how much Choplifter 7800 piracy was impacting Atari's bottom line. The ROMs have been hit and miss and disappearing for years. I never counted on the rom download being there when I needed it (and hadn't for years). It never bothered me since there were download links for so many other games throughout the forum. The homebrew programming sub forums are a gold mine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,779 Administrator · Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 49 minutes ago, DefaultGen said: They've removed ROMs from the site too. Not that everyone is entitled to free Atari games, but also this is potentially just an IP crackdown not some benevolent history preservation mission. Not sure how much Choplifter 7800 piracy was impacting Atari's bottom line. Interestingly, they're still hosting the ROMs; you can go to the same link as before to download a given game: https://www.atariage.com/2600/roms/Berzerk.zip Replace 2600 w/ 7800 and Berzerk w/ Choplifter et voila, ROM downloaded. So they've just removed the links to the ROMs, not the ROMs themselves. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 215 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 30 minutes ago, Gloves said: Interestingly, they're still hosting the ROMs; you can go to the same link as before to download a given game: https://www.atariage.com/2600/roms/Berzerk.zip Replace 2600 w/ 7800 and Berzerk w/ Choplifter et voila, ROM downloaded. So they've just removed the links to the ROMs, not the ROMs themselves. I actually have used that method a few times for some various things that somehow disappeared. I think I had to get a test cart rom like that. Anyway, that will probably change too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,101 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) Wonder why they acquired them and not just send them a cease and desist like Nintendo does Edited September 7, 2023 by a3quit4s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,779 Administrator · Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 22 minutes ago, wongojack said: I actually have used that method a few times for some various things that somehow disappeared. I think I had to get a test cart rom like that. Anyway, that will probably change too. I'm sure it'll change in the future when they become aware of it if they're not already aware. Just nuking the database field for the ROMs doesn't make much sense as Atari may claim ownership to them and gather up a bunch of ROMs they didn't have to hand previously or something. They want to have it, they just don't want you to have it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,101 Posted September 7, 2023 Share Posted September 7, 2023 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Gloves said: I'm sure it'll change in the future when they become aware of it if they're not already aware. Just nuking the database field for the ROMs doesn't make much sense as Atari may claim ownership to them and gather up a bunch of ROMs they didn't have to hand previously or something. They want to have it, they just don't want you to have it. A little wget magic lol classic line from the social network https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b9f46ce1-3c67-40c1-ab43-8c5265e3bd68 Edited September 7, 2023 by a3quit4s 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,723 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 5 hours ago, Code Monkey said: Good. Maybe they'll put some order into the staff there to treat people a little better. Everyone was always more than kind to me there, and I never saw abusive behavior towards others either. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptOut | 8,884 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 What's an Atari? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splain | 2,570 Editorials Team · Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 30 minutes ago, OptOut said: What's an Atari? You're an Atari 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,723 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 33 minutes ago, OptOut said: What's an Atari? Bingo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 985 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 I thought atariage was packaged with NintendoAge. Obviously different sites but I assumed the owner took both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,405 Posted September 8, 2023 Author Share Posted September 8, 2023 6 minutes ago, DarkTone said: I thought atariage was packaged with NintendoAge. Obviously different sites but I assumed the owner took both. AtariAge is bigger than a few Nintendo weirdos who like track and field games. Atari is forever. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 985 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 4 minutes ago, DefaultGen said: AtariAge is bigger than a few Nintendo weirdos who like track and field games. Atari is forever. Have you played Atari today? "Yeah. AND I bought the site!" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,952 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 (edited) 12 hours ago, DefaultGen said: Not sure how much Choplifter 7800 piracy was impacting Atari's bottom line. Probably more a question of staying on the legal side of things than protecting anyone's bottom line Edited September 8, 2023 by Sumez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot | 5,800 Events Team · Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 7 hours ago, OptOut said: What's an Atari? It's like a Nintendo 64 but better. 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrslam | 476 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 I'm keeping my fingers crossed that AA survives pretty much as-is. Despite the Atari name, they really are about the only active place for the Intellivision, TI-99, Colecovision, and some other classic systems I have an interest in. Way back when, Atari made games for all those systems but I have a hard time thinking the new Atari wants to spend any money propping up a forum for them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056 Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 Overall I don’t think this will end well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splain | 2,570 Editorials Team · Posted September 8, 2023 Share Posted September 8, 2023 4 hours ago, JamesRobot said: It's like a Nintendo 64 but better. BETTER than n64??? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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