Amiga History Tape (+bonus Computer Chronicals Amiga episode)

[cswiger]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:

> The only problem I have with RJ Michaels talk is he completely rewrites
> history on Amiga's dealing with Atari, omits the fact that Amiga was
> desperate for cash in late 1983 and through one of the unspoken chip
> designers - Joe Decuir, who also was on Jays team at Atari who did the
> final production version of the Atari 2600 and the Atari 800  Amiga met
> with Atari and signed into an agreement with Atari for $500,000 to help
> Amiga complete its chipset and on June 30th 84 they were supposed to
> deliver working silicon to Atari's offices under a contract that Atari
> would produce its own line of Lorraine chipset products.    Instead of
> delivering the chips, the gave a check to Atari for $500,000 (from
> Commodore) and went into breach of contract.     If it wasn't for Atari
> coming in late 83' with cash the chipset might not have seen the light
> of day.
>

Hi Curt - I don't know, but in this tape they talk about the cash
crunch, mention people getting 2nd mortgages to stay solvent - but
they didn't say anything about breech of contract with Atari. Jack
Tramiel bought Atari from Warner in 1984 - certainly he would have
taken legal action to get the chips if he thought he had a case.
You know, Mr. "Business is War". RJ talks a lot about Atari knowing
they were in a bind and offering less than $1 / share, and working
out a last minute deal w/ Commodore for $4.25, then paying off Atari.

--Chuck