Call for (not so technical) questions -- Atari's product manager 1991-96

[mikro]

Hi guys,

one day I was browsing some old Atari documents and noticed a name I had seen before -- Jerry Smith. Quick search has revealed it's one of the Atari's main guys after the Tramiels, i.e. a person who had to approve every hardware modification, PCB change, issue new revisions, talk to the HW/SW guys and the Tramiels, simply to make sure the production of the given Atari goes as planned.

One way or another I managed to get in touch with him and he agreed to participate in an interview (still not sure whether it will be written, via skype or both). So I'd like to brainstorm some questions, as the title suggests, he spent the worst and best times at Atari, during production of the TT/MegaSTE (perhaps only took over), Lynx, Falcon and Jaguar right to the bitter end.

So far I've been thinking about:
- the famous "how many Falcons is out there" :)
- what was the deal with C-Lab, did they really produce new units (I think so) or just bought old stock from Atari
- who was responsible for cancellation of the Falcon? Was it because of poor market performance, lack of developers (moved to Jaguar?)
- can you remember the Falcon hardware engineering team, who had designed it?
- can you think of some way to obtain ASICs, schematics etc for the Falcon ICs?
- were there any plans to stay in Jaguar business after the JTS merge?
- is it true that the Tramiels had ordered to destroy content on all developer machines after their demise?

As you can see, mine are mostly Falcon specific, so anything Lynx/Jaguar/Tramiel related is more than welcome. Remember it's stuff from 20 years ago so have mercy. :)

[Nimrod]

You should squeeze in a question about the licensing of TOS. Who licensed it? What licensing terms? Rights to sub-license etc...

Another questions (observation) comes to mind!

Was the Falcon modeled after the NeXT? Same processor + DSP! Was the idea to produce a cheap NeXT?

[Cyprian]

- Is it true ST line wasn't closed, and ST was still produced after 1989 (when STE was released). If yes, what was the purpose of that?

[Gaiyan]

You're a legend! Thanks for doing this.

My questions:

- Was the TT ever supposed to have a successor, or did the Falcon take over as the "pro" machine?
- Were there any TTX units produced? (Multiple VME slots)
- Are you in possession of any Atari prototypes and would you be willing to share photos?

[frost]

How far went the Falcon 040 design ?

[ST Graveyard]

Why was the original case design of the Falcon cancelled and is it true it was bought by Sony for the PS2 slim?

[joska]

Ask him if he knows where the casemolds are.

[Frank B]

Who would we need to talk to to make a Falcon next kickstarter happen?

[catmando]

Ask him if he knows where the casemolds are.

+1

[stormy]

Wow amazing!
How about a less 'black and white' question, maybe more personal? like: 'Do you still have a passion for Atari machines, or was it just a job and you moved on?' or maybe something free-form like 'could you share an interesting story to do with the machine development? Anything can do, nothing is too geeky for us '

[pinkman]

ask him who had the idea to include midi ports with the ST,and if there were any arguments about it.

[Frank B]

Wow amazing!
How about a less 'black and white' question, maybe more personal? like: 'Do you still have a passion for Atari machines, or was it just a job and you moved on?' or maybe something free-form like 'could you share an interesting story to do with the machine development? Anything can do, nothing is too geeky for us '

+1

[Mindthreat]

I would like to know more about the JagDuo and just how far along that got and if there were any actual working units outside of the foam mockups. Also, if he got to work much with Ira Valenski and if he can confirm who actually created the JagDuo casing/housing.

Thanks! =D

[christos]

Does he still own an atari machine?
Did he think that 32 - 24 years later there would still be a fanbase?
Were they hopeful that the falcon would take off or did they just release it?
How was it like working at Atari back then? Did they use Ataris for their work? If so, what software did they use?

Other stuff I would like to ask have already been mentioned so...

[lp]

I'm curious who made that decisions about what software was included with the machines, especially the awful ST-BASIC.
Were other BASIC interpreters considered, any deals that fell through?

[dhedberg]

Lots of good questions already... here's a few more:

- Was Atari aware of the noise problems on the Falcon030 motherboard when they released it for production? Did they try to fix it on the later revisions but failed?
- Did Atari ever consider a 32bit data bus and/or 32MHz CPU for the Falcon030? If yes, why was it scratched?
- Was the Falcon030 rushed to be released?
- Some questions related to the DMA problems on the STe? Would be very interesting to hear his view of it. Maybe he would be interested to read exxos findings: http://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/DMAfix/index.htm
- Why did they choose the ST case and not the MegaSTe/TT case for the Falcon030?

[Frank B]

Was the Falcon planned with a 68000 initially? Did Commodore's 1200 announcement result in a spec increase to an 030?

[penguin]

I'd like to read something about the other two members of the Falcon family, the Microbox and the Falcon 040. Did Atari design two different computers?
Does he know anything about the fate of TOS 5 and its supposed feature set?
When was the PowerPad (not the Jagpad) released? Why was there no support for the STE's enhanced joystick ports?
Atari also worked on the STE+ with an integrated PC emulator. Did Atari develop the PC part themselves or did they outsource this part to Sack (PC/AT Speed) or Vortex (ATonce)?
How many units of the Lynx 1/2 were produced/shipped?
I'm also curious of the various Falcon games that Atari commissioned but didn't release (Steel Talons, Llamazap) etc. Were they not ready for launch?

[dhedberg]

Llamazap was released. I have it...

[penguin]

Llamazap was released. I have it...

Yes, but by 16/32 Systems. They also released all the other developed games. IIRC, 16/32 released them after Atari had given up the Falcon.

[mikro]

Thanks a lot guys, keep it coming! I guess I'll start compiling the questions in a week or so, so feel free to post anything you have in mind. :) If you're referring to some special hw, please include a link or something so he (or I, for that matter) knows what we're talking about.

[iceman]

What (in your opinion) was the reason for Atari's demise?

[mikro]

Btw, to tease you a bit, this guy's superior was no one else than Richard Miller, the (co-)author of the Falcon. :)

[ijor]

Very nice, looking forward for the interview.

Since when he worked at Atari? Because if he wasn't at Atari before 1991, then most of the questions related to the early days and the original ST are not relevant.

[mikro]

ijor: I kind of hoped that when the titles says "Atari's product manager 1991-96" it's obvious but, well... on the other hand, he might have information why certain things had happened before he came aboard.