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Atari Glossary 'g...m'

GCC - GENERAL COMPUTER CORPORATION

Developer of the 'Maria'-chipset for the Atari 7800.


GTIA

The 'GTIA' is a modified and enhanced version of the older 'CTIA'; a television interface chip. It converts the digital commands from 'ANTIC' (or the 6502 directly) into the signal that goes to the television. 'GTIA' also adds color values, player-missle graphics, and collision detection.


GUI

'Graphical User Interface'; the kind of user-interface as we know it until today. Invented with the 'ST'-series of Atari computers (inspired by the Apple 'Macintosh').


HANDY

The Atari 'Lynx' name in its development-stage (by the way, 'Handy' is the nickname used for cell-phones in germany.)


HASBRO

The mighty toy-company. Once (1998-2000) owner of all rights to Atari. 'Hasbro' declared the 'Jaguar' an open system back in 1999. Atari was used as their home video game label. They released several titles under the Atari brand.


HEAVY SIXER

Nickname for the original (first production) Atari (VCS) 2600 model with 6 switches (power, color/bw, select, reset, difficulty a, difficulty b). The casing was very heavy because of the thick plastic and the PCBs metal shielding.


INFOGRAMES

Infogrames is a third-party software publisher. The french company releases software for different gaming platforms such as Microsoft X-Box, Sony Playstation 1 / 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Personal Computers. On December 6th, 2000 Infogrames acquired all rights to the Atari brand and all its intellectual properties from Hasbro Inc. for $100,000,000 including all of 'Hasbro Interactive'. Since then Infogrames uses 'Atari' as one of their software labels for upcoming titles on all platforms.


JAGUAR

The world's first 64bit game-console was the Atari 'Jaguar', often referred to as the 'Jaguar64'. Released in 1993, Atari had a potential hit-seller, but due to lack of enough, and good, software titles, it lost the race against the 'N64' by Nintendo and the Sony 'Playststion'.


JAGUAR CD

A CD-ROM add-on for the Atari 'Jaguar' (released in 1995) with built-in virtual light-machine programmed by Jeff Minter. The CD-unit could not prevent the Jaguar's failure in the market.


JERRY

One of the three chips that used to be the 'Jaguar' chipset. 'Jerry' runs at 26.6 MHz and incorporates the DSP (Digital Signal Processor, processor 4 of 5).


JUNIOR

In 1986, together with the Atari 7800, the Atari 2600jr saw the light of day; a more efficiently designed version of the VCS. This version was sold until 1991.


JTS

'Jugi Tandon Systems', a small manufacturer of hard-disk-drives. On July 30, 1996, Atari enters a 'reverse merger' with JTS and vanishes from the market.


KEE GAMES

Because there is no competition available at that time, Nolan and his friend Joe Keenan are founding 'Kee Games' to artificially provide competition for Atari.
In 1974 Atari and Kee Games 'merge' and Joe Keenan becomes President of Atari.


LOANER (CARTRIDGE)

A game cartridge from the Atari prototype-lab. It was lent mostly for evaluation purpose. It had to be returned to the prototype-lab after usage. A program on LC most likely was in its development stage.


LYNX (I / II)

The first handheld video-game system with a backlit color LC display released in 1989 (New York and Los Angeles). Nationwide release took place in 1990. Later on the Lynx II was released; a smaller version with less power consumption and stereo sound. On the Lynx II, the display backlight can be turned off to save power while in pause mode.


MARIA

The chipset's name for the Atari '7800'. The 'Maria'-chipset was developed for Atari by 'GCC' (General Computer Corporation). 'Maria' also was the nickname for the Atari '7800' in its development-stage (besides Atari '3600').


MIDWAY

As a part of Midway / Williams, owner of Atari Games Corp. and the 'Atari Games' label since 1996. On January 14th, 2000 Midway / Williams stopped all activities on their 'Atari-Games' brand. 'Rush 2049' was the last game to be published under the 'Atari Games' brand.


MODAL VR

Nolan Bushnell's current company, founded in 2016. Model VR is an industrial-grade virtual reality platform. www.modalvr.com


MOTOROLA

Manufacturer of the famous 68k CPU used in many computers such as the Atari 'ST' series and in the Atari 'Jaguar' game console; now one of the world's leading producers of cell-phones.
 

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