5 ms·

10 Years of Atari/Atari Games VaxMail

63 points by quadfour 14y ago

kabdib 14y ago
Wow, lots of memories there (1984-ish, anyway). You'll notice a bunch of people leaving after July 84, which is when the Tramiels took over. Coin-op remained with Warner. About a week into the split, there was an email sent out with the subject "Look! Two companies joined by a single computer network!" which caused the Tramiel Atari to be dropped from the net within a couple of hours.
kevinburke 14y ago
Didn't click on any of the links. It's creepy to read other people's emails
- kabdib 14y ago
  This looks a dump of some internal mailing lists. I didn't see any "private" email. You'll see that a bunch of phone numbers and addresses had been scrubbed, too. I'd agree that it's probably more creepy if you never worked there.
  - kevinburke 14y ago
    That's good to know then - people have less of an expectation of privacy I'd guess when writing to a mailing list.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    I would feel a bit misled if most of the internal mailing lists I've been on were ever made public. I suppose it depends on the size, though. I've been on research-group mailing lists of ~10 people, and that would really feel like a breach of confidence, to release to the world at large emails that were intended for a relatively small circle of colleagues. On the other hand, if someone made a 200-person mailing list's archives public, then I would probably not be as annoyed.
jf 14y ago
This archive has been a personal reminder to watch what I say in all digital communication. Even if I think that my post is "internal only" or "private", it can still end up online. I say this because one of these files has an email that my dad wrote nearly 30 years ago. I'm willing to bet that my dad had no idea that the email he was writing would be read by his son, who would be slightly embarrassed at the fact he was writing in ALL CAPS, and wishing that his dad had used a little more tact in what he was saying. (The email I'm referring to is in "vax84.txt" search for "THE FUTURE AT ATARI")
- allenbrunson 14y ago
  Are you just now discovering this stuff? Because I read all these emails on Jed's website, way back in 2001 or so. (side note: this page has his last name as Margolis, when it is really Margolin)
  - jf 14y ago
    I've known about this archive for quite a while.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  I liked the straight-to-the-pointness of your dad's words. You probably think it's more embarrassing than it really is because he's your dad.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  Ditto on the reminder of the permanence of any electronic communication. My dad didn't work at Atari but years ago I worked with Eddie Babcock at Vicinity Corp (one of the early internet map services), so there is some nostalgia in reading his emails there.
- quadhome 14y ago
  To be fair, it seems a few people's terminals may have only supported uppercase.
- dr42 14y ago
drudru11 14y ago
so fricking awesome
keyle 14y ago
It completely amazes me how nothing has changed. The only difference from Today's email is that those vax mails were usually longer, more polite, and full of nostalgia. Take baby announcements emails for example. They're identical word for word as today's. I always thought people recently got better at writing those. But no, the pattern was established back then and, shockingly, we haven't changed the way we're making babies, or changed standards in describing a healthy birth. Back then, and still today, you could guess the person's personality by his/her emails. Also, back then, they were trying to improve productivity as a constant struggle, just as we do today. Interestingly, nothing has improved much in that field. It's still a rat race. Everybody recognizes the loss of productivity in large businesses, and there seems to be no real fix.
- columbo 14y ago
  > more polite I know you are correct in 99.9% of all situations as email used to be taken more professionally. ...but I did find this little gem in there, it made me laugh and reminded me on how so little has changed in software/process/delivery over the last thirty years. From: KIM::LOGG 1-FEB-1984 09:54 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK Subj: More on FXL letter (or the second biweekly Jeff Boscole letter) ... The only reason I was given why the cart was to be released within a week of the meeting was to have ONE week worth of sales for the first quarter. WHAT A SHITTY, GOD DAMNED, FUCKING CSDKFHAS FHLAVFHJ EXCUSE!!!! What ever happened to quality which the name ATARI is supposed to represent? Where was VCS management?? I would hope that someone would stand up and say "THE GAME IS NOT READY. WE WILL RELEASE IT WHEN IT IS DONE!!" Who are they trying to make look good?
activepeanut 14y ago
Was I wrong to expect Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's name to be in there somewhere?
- joezydeco 14y ago
  Jobs and Wozniak were full time at Apple 6 or 7 years before these emails. Seems like a long shot.
- eta_carinae 14y ago
  You were. I didn't find any mention of Jobs, Wozniak, Apple or Microsoft in the few that I clicked.
T-hawk 14y ago
Yes, there are some gems in here, nestled among the chaff of new VAX commands and building operational schedules. I found this bit amazing, from vax84: This brings up one of many problems with games of skill that include monetary payoffs ... As an example, consider a multi-player space war type game where you win money by eliminating other players and receiving what they have won so far. The house percentage could be falling into the sun. What do you suppose would happen out in the parking lot if you overheard the guy in the next console scream "I just got a ship worth $10,000!" and you had just been about to return that much to your home base before some turkey blew you out of the sky... Rusty foresaw EVE Online twenty years ahead of time.
artursapek 14y ago
I love their early version of crontab. Find out what is todays date, ala 830717 (1983, 7'th month, 17'th day) as well as what day of the week it is (Sunday) and the standard three letter abbreviation (coincidently the first three letters of the long name) (Sun in this case). The proper spelling for Wed is WEDNESDAY, by the way. Look for each of the following and do the appropriate thing (execute the command file or type the text file): 'weekday'.com ! as in "SUNDAY" 'weekday'.day ! SUNDAY.DAY will be typed 'dow'.com ! SUN.COM will be executed 'dow'.day ! SUN.DAY will be typed 'date'.com ! 830717.com, remember? 'date'.day ! this gets typed daily.com ! every day (7 days a week, not 5) daily.day ! this one too
columbo 14y ago
Absolutely fascinating, I found the collapse emails really telling, this is a long one: http://www.textfiles.com/games/ATARIMAIL/vax84.txt http://www.textfiles.com/games/ATARIMAIL/vax84.txt From: KIM::FRANUSIC 23-MAR-1984 15:02 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK Subj: THE FUTURE AT ATARI LATELY THERE'S BEEN SOME CONFUSION OVER THE "ORGANIZATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS" THAT WE'VE BEEN EXPERIENCING HERE AT ATARI. LET'S PUT IT ALL INTO PERSPECTIVE ... AT THE END OF 1983, ATARI ANNOUNCED LOSSES OF OVER 500 MILLION DOLLARS. THERE WAS SOME TALK THAT THESE LOSSES WERE ACTUALLY CARRIED ON THE BOOKS OVER SEVERAL PRECEDING QUARTERS, AND THAT MR. MORGAN WAS SIMPLY GIVEN A FRESH START. THE FACT REMAINS THAT ATARI HAS BEEN, AND STILL IS, LOSING AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY, ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY COCAINE IMPORTER'S HEAD SPIN. THE HOME COMPUTER MARKET HAS FALLEN FLAT ON IT'S FACE. PEOPLE FINALLY REALIZED THAT THEY DIDN'T NEED A HOME COMPUTER FOR ANYTHING EXCEPT PLAYING GAMES. MOST OF THE PERCIEVED NEED FOR A HOME COMPUTER COULD ONLY BE ATTRIBUTED TO MARKETING HYPE. I edited out the rest... was taking up too much space on the hacker board
abstractwater 14y ago
Interesting to see that those missives show really good grammar, spelling and formatting for the most part, differently from today's standards where orthography has somehow become optional. Even for educated people in this field.

63 points by quadfour 14y ago

Wow, lots of memories there (1984-ish, anyway). You'll notice a bunch of people leaving after July 84, which is when the Tramiels took over. Coin-op remained with Warner. About a week into the split, there was an email sent out with the subject "Look! Two companies joined by a single computer network!" which caused the Tramiel Atari to be dropped from the net within a couple of hours.

kevinburke 14y ago

Didn't click on any of the links. It's creepy to read other people's emails

kabdib 14y ago
This looks a dump of some internal mailing lists. I didn't see any "private" email. You'll see that a bunch of phone numbers and addresses had been scrubbed, too. I'd agree that it's probably more creepy if you never worked there.
- kevinburke 14y ago
  That's good to know then - people have less of an expectation of privacy I'd guess when writing to a mailing list.
- _delirium 14y ago
  I would feel a bit misled if most of the internal mailing lists I've been on were ever made public. I suppose it depends on the size, though. I've been on research-group mailing lists of ~10 people, and that would really feel like a breach of confidence, to release to the world at large emails that were intended for a relatively small circle of colleagues. On the other hand, if someone made a 200-person mailing list's archives public, then I would probably not be as annoyed.

jf 14y ago

This archive has been a personal reminder to watch what I say in all digital communication. Even if I think that my post is "internal only" or "private", it can still end up online. I say this because one of these files has an email that my dad wrote nearly 30 years ago. I'm willing to bet that my dad had no idea that the email he was writing would be read by his son, who would be slightly embarrassed at the fact he was writing in ALL CAPS, and wishing that his dad had used a little more tact in what he was saying. (The email I'm referring to is in "vax84.txt" search for "THE FUTURE AT ATARI")

allenbrunson 14y ago
Are you just now discovering this stuff? Because I read all these emails on Jed's website, way back in 2001 or so. (side note: this page has his last name as Margolis, when it is really Margolin)
- jf 14y ago
  I've known about this archive for quite a while.
unimpressive 14y ago
I liked the straight-to-the-pointness of your dad's words. You probably think it's more embarrassing than it really is because he's your dad.
georgemcbay 14y ago
Ditto on the reminder of the permanence of any electronic communication. My dad didn't work at Atari but years ago I worked with Eddie Babcock at Vicinity Corp (one of the early internet map services), so there is some nostalgia in reading his emails there.
quadhome 14y ago
To be fair, it seems a few people's terminals may have only supported uppercase.
dr42 14y ago

drudru11 14y ago

so fricking awesome

keyle 14y ago

It completely amazes me how nothing has changed. The only difference from Today's email is that those vax mails were usually longer, more polite, and full of nostalgia. Take baby announcements emails for example. They're identical word for word as today's. I always thought people recently got better at writing those. But no, the pattern was established back then and, shockingly, we haven't changed the way we're making babies, or changed standards in describing a healthy birth. Back then, and still today, you could guess the person's personality by his/her emails. Also, back then, they were trying to improve productivity as a constant struggle, just as we do today. Interestingly, nothing has improved much in that field. It's still a rat race. Everybody recognizes the loss of productivity in large businesses, and there seems to be no real fix.

columbo 14y ago
> more polite I know you are correct in 99.9% of all situations as email used to be taken more professionally. ...but I did find this little gem in there, it made me laugh and reminded me on how so little has changed in software/process/delivery over the last thirty years. From: KIM::LOGG 1-FEB-1984 09:54 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK Subj: More on FXL letter (or the second biweekly Jeff Boscole letter) ... The only reason I was given why the cart was to be released within a week of the meeting was to have ONE week worth of sales for the first quarter. WHAT A SHITTY, GOD DAMNED, FUCKING CSDKFHAS FHLAVFHJ EXCUSE!!!! What ever happened to quality which the name ATARI is supposed to represent? Where was VCS management?? I would hope that someone would stand up and say "THE GAME IS NOT READY. WE WILL RELEASE IT WHEN IT IS DONE!!" Who are they trying to make look good?

activepeanut 14y ago

Was I wrong to expect Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's name to be in there somewhere?

joezydeco 14y ago
Jobs and Wozniak were full time at Apple 6 or 7 years before these emails. Seems like a long shot.
eta_carinae 14y ago
You were. I didn't find any mention of Jobs, Wozniak, Apple or Microsoft in the few that I clicked.

T-hawk 14y ago

Yes, there are some gems in here, nestled among the chaff of new VAX commands and building operational schedules. I found this bit amazing, from vax84: This brings up one of many problems with games of skill that include monetary payoffs ... As an example, consider a multi-player space war type game where you win money by eliminating other players and receiving what they have won so far. The house percentage could be falling into the sun. What do you suppose would happen out in the parking lot if you overheard the guy in the next console scream "I just got a ship worth $10,000!" and you had just been about to return that much to your home base before some turkey blew you out of the sky... Rusty foresaw EVE Online twenty years ahead of time.

artursapek 14y ago

I love their early version of crontab. Find out what is todays date, ala 830717 (1983, 7'th month, 17'th day) as well as what day of the week it is (Sunday) and the standard three letter abbreviation (coincidently the first three letters of the long name) (Sun in this case). The proper spelling for Wed is WEDNESDAY, by the way. Look for each of the following and do the appropriate thing (execute the command file or type the text file): 'weekday'.com ! as in "SUNDAY" 'weekday'.day ! SUNDAY.DAY will be typed 'dow'.com ! SUN.COM will be executed 'dow'.day ! SUN.DAY will be typed 'date'.com ! 830717.com, remember? 'date'.day ! this gets typed daily.com ! every day (7 days a week, not 5) daily.day ! this one too

columbo 14y ago

Absolutely fascinating, I found the collapse emails really telling, this is a long one: http://www.textfiles.com/games/ATARIMAIL/vax84.txt http://www.textfiles.com/games/ATARIMAIL/vax84.txt From: KIM::FRANUSIC 23-MAR-1984 15:02 To: @SYS$MAIL:JUNK Subj: THE FUTURE AT ATARI LATELY THERE'S BEEN SOME CONFUSION OVER THE "ORGANIZATIONAL ADJUSTMENTS" THAT WE'VE BEEN EXPERIENCING HERE AT ATARI. LET'S PUT IT ALL INTO PERSPECTIVE ... AT THE END OF 1983, ATARI ANNOUNCED LOSSES OF OVER 500 MILLION DOLLARS. THERE WAS SOME TALK THAT THESE LOSSES WERE ACTUALLY CARRIED ON THE BOOKS OVER SEVERAL PRECEDING QUARTERS, AND THAT MR. MORGAN WAS SIMPLY GIVEN A FRESH START. THE FACT REMAINS THAT ATARI HAS BEEN, AND STILL IS, LOSING AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY, ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY COCAINE IMPORTER'S HEAD SPIN. THE HOME COMPUTER MARKET HAS FALLEN FLAT ON IT'S FACE. PEOPLE FINALLY REALIZED THAT THEY DIDN'T NEED A HOME COMPUTER FOR ANYTHING EXCEPT PLAYING GAMES. MOST OF THE PERCIEVED NEED FOR A HOME COMPUTER COULD ONLY BE ATTRIBUTED TO MARKETING HYPE. I edited out the rest... was taking up too much space on the hacker board

abstractwater 14y ago

Interesting to see that those missives show really good grammar, spelling and formatting for the most part, differently from today's standards where orthography has somehow become optional. Even for educated people in this field.