Atari-Amiga Deal
Contents
Introduction
At the 1983 AMOA show in New Orleans, Dave Morse meets Atari coin-op division President John Farrand. Discussions go well and that November Dave, his advisor Bill Hart and Jay Miner propose a plan to Atari for using their chips.
Contract With Atari
On November 21st, Amiga and Atari sign a contract to use the Lorraine chipset for video game applications. Recipients are Dave Morse at Amiga and Mike Albaugh of Atari's coin-op division in Milpitas. Preliminary hardware specifications are included with the contract. During a budget meeting on December 20th, engineer Steve Bristow lists '1850 XL - 68000 based clones of Amiga game player system' in his log sheet of proposed computers.
Enter 1984
Atari and Amiga reconvene at the January CES in Las Vegas where Amiga are demonstrating their Lorraine computer prototype. On March 7th Atari deliver a $500,000 check to Amiga. Along with the check is a letter outlining previously discussed terms, which is signed by Dave Morse and John Farrand. A licensing agreement (LA) is expected to be signed at the end of June.
By April, Atari were working on their own version of the Amiga, codenamed Mickey.
A Way Out
While the original agreement allowed Atari to use the Lorraine chipset in coin-op or a home video game console, Atari are now talking about selling it as a computer. This would mean competing with Amiga. Amiga find this unacceptable and look for a way to get out of the contract. They feared that Atari would take everything if no reason was given.
An Unexpected Repayment
On June 29th, Dave Morse and Bill Hart call Atari to tell them they're on their way over to visit their headquarters at 1265 Borregas Avenue. Upon arriving, Dave greets John Farrand in the lobby and hands him a $750,000 check, a repayment of the original $500,000 plus interest. He says their chips don't work properly and that the Lorraine prototypes have been scrapped.
John refuses to accept the check and is unsure if he can legally. He stops to talk with his lawyer, Ken Nussbacher. Dave and Bill then call their lawyer who gives them the following advice, "Leave the check on the table and walk out."
What Atari didn't know was that the money had been sent to Amiga from Commodore, who they had met with a day earlier. And what Amiga didn't know that John had been on the phone with Jack Tramiel, who upon hearing of the check being delivered told him, "When somebody gives you half a million dollars, you take it."
A New Lawsuit
On April 10th, 1985 Jack filed a second lawsuit against Commodore-Amiga, claiming that their computer infringed on their patents for the Atari 400 and 800 computers. Jay Miner was sued personally and as a result advised Joe Decuir to "become invisible." He would not meet the other Amiga engineers like Dave Needle until 30 years later.
References
- Goldberg, Marty and Vendel, Curt - Atari Inc.: Business Is Fun - Syzygy Co. Press/Atari Museum - 2012
- Bagnall, Brian. Commodore: The Amiga Years Variant Press - 2017
- Savetz, Kay. ANTIC Interview 30 - Jerry Jessop - ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast, 8 April 2015. Accessed 5 May 2022
- Caufield, Nicola and Anthony, directors. From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years. Rebellion, 2015
- Kickstartrom. Amiga 30th Banquet Speakers Part 2 - Bill Hart 2016
- Stilphen, Scott. - Michael Albaugh interview Atari Compendium, 2017
