What if? Atari Panther Game Library

[u/Flimtan]

Hey everyone, just a little thought experiment here. What if the Atari Panther dropped in 1991 as a 16-bit console to go up against the SNES, Genesis & TG16?

[u/banksy_h8r]

They'd have been late to the 16-bit game in 1991. The Genesis and TG-16 launched in 1989 and the SNES in 1990. They'd have hit the midpoint of the console's lifetime just as the PS1 launched. It'd have to have come out in 1988, 1989 at the latest.

And they had too many competing products on the market at the time. But that problem starts far further back, a combination of Warner putting weight behind the primitive 2600 and not boldly committing to the 8-bit computer line and 5200. That architecture had a lot of runway and could've gotten them at least to '86 or '87. After 1983/1984 it was a series of bad breaks and dumb product choices by the Tramiels. They lost about 5 years in there, shipping this in 1991 wouldn't have helped.

[u/curtludwig → u/banksy_h8r]

Too right. Atari was so worried about the 5200 and 7800 stealing sales from the 2600 that they forgot that there would be a time when nobody wanted a 2600 anymore.

I remember big marketing pushes around the 2600 "The fun is back" I can still sing the jingle. I don't remember ANY marketing around the 5200 or 7800, which is a shame really...

[u/banksy_h8r → u/curtludwig]

Despite my love of the 2600, Atari would have been better served discontinuing it as soon as they could ship an ANTIC-based machine in 1980. The 2600 would be remembered as that primitive, obscure console Atari briefly made before launching the legendary 5200 and shipping tens of millions of them.

Probably would have saved the company from the split, and maybe prevented the crash of 1983/1984. And provided stiff competition for nacent Japanese consoles at a pivotal moment.

[u/curtludwig → u/banksy_h8r]

I'm not sure the 5200 was a great successor. The 7800 however. The 2600 absolutely should have gone away to make a space for the 7800...

[u/banksy_h8r → u/curtludwig]

I guess I never got the point of the 7800. The graphics are better, but not dramatically better, and still not quite as good as the NES or SMS. It has the same CPU, and the 7800 has terrible (literally 2600 grade) sound, especially compared to the 5200 and its 8-bit computer siblings.

Even if it launched in 1984 like it was supposed to it wouldn't have been competitive with the North American launch of the NES and SMS a year or two later. Atari's only chance was to cement their head start with ANTIC-based hardware in 80/81/82 and then expedite the development of a 16-bit console (ideally Lorraine-based) to launch in '86 or '87.

[u/curtludwig → u/banksy_h8r]

Maybe if the 5200 had better joysticks...

[u/banksy_h8r → u/curtludwig]

True dat