Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/16/atari-joins-blockchain-mania.html
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Actually, with their brand recognition and inroads to the slot machine industry I am tempted to sink a hundred bucks into it when it is cheap.
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Given Atari’s reputation, does that mean the cryptocurrency bubble is about to burst?
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“Atari”
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Well, given what a scam Atari is these days, I’m not surprised.
Or, more accurately, the corporate zombie wearing an “Atari” skinsuit.
Fingers crossed!
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Why is Atari traded on the Paris stock exchange?
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Because it is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the company you remember. It is not even a former shell of itself – it has been recycled (or possibly regurgitated) into something else that merely bears the name “Atari”, as if that counted for something.
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So…
Atari existed. They made games people remember fondly.
Jack Tramiel bought it, the guy who made Commodore famous. They made the Atari ST.
In 1996 Atari merged with a hard drive manufacturer, and existed only to manage old Atari properties.
In 1998 Atari was sold to Hasbro
In 2000 Hasbro Interactive (Including Atari) was bought by Infogrames, a French company.
In 2008 Infogrames changed its name to Atari.
In 2013 Atari, now god knows how many steps removed from what Bushnell started, went bankrupt.
In 2014 it emerged from bankruptcy and got into gambling.
That bit in 2000 is why it’s traded in Paris, but this should clear up what @zleroh is talking about.
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(Because PayWallstreet Journal) I don’t know what AtariCoins are called or whether I can mine them on my ST.
Infrogrames also murderer and now wears Interplay (publisher of classics like Fallout) as a skinsuit.
God knows how the brand managed to stay alive through 2049.
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My bet is that the answer is that with our rapidly moving culture we’ll be forced to develop nostalgia nostalgia, where we’re nostalgic about the things our parents and grandparents were nostalgic about.
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If you can earn these things playing River Raid or Yar’s Revenge, I am down.
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I’d rather put that money into buying old cartridges off of eBay. At least then you’d have something to show for it.
Infogrames is Entertainment
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…Maybe as a retro-themed clothing brand.
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It’s fascinating how this stuff works. It’s a given that cryptocurrency speculators don’t understand the technology – which, fine, people didn’t understand “software” when they invested in Microsoft in the eighties – but they surely realise that if a company also doesn’t understand what “blockchain” is, then that company does not become objectively more valuable simply by mentioning the word.
My best guess is that people are consciously treating the whole thing as a Ponzi scheme, and just hoping that they will be the winners.
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The funny/stupid thing is managing video game credits / in game money is potentially a good use of the block chain tech: build the miner into your games, players with the most overhead get bonus points.
But I can’t, for the life of me, understand why investors would care.
Even if it was applied to their casino games as an auditable trail for gambling to prove payouts in an easier way than current gambling ledgers, with crypto to prove it, I still don’t understand why investors would care.
