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site, "Camp Atari--Sheboygan" at Lakeland College in Sheboygan WI.)
Summer: At Atari (Home Computer): Chris Bowman, previously national manager of educational sales, had become education marketing manager. Jim Paige was national education sales manager (having replaced Bowman in the role). Jeff Schwamberger (formerly of The Authorship Resource, Inc. (ARI)) was Manager of the Software Standards Group. (Atari Connection Summer82 p23)
Summer: The Atari Home Computer Division's Software Development Support Group had been renamed to: Atari I/O. (AtariConnection Sum82p2)
August 11: Approximately 1,370 Atari Home Computers and peripherals, valued at more than $3 million, had been ordered by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) under a competitive Request for Proposal, it was announced by Thomas M. McDonough, SVP of sales and marketing for Atari's Home Computer Division.
August: Industrial designer Tom Palecki, previously of Xerox, joined Atari (Home Computer). (He would report to industrial design manager Kevin McKinsey.)
August 15-October 15: "Taste The Thrill Of Atari At McDonald's" promotion. 50 grand prize deluxe packages would each include a 5200, an 800 with
peripherals, and a Centipede coin-operated game.
August 24: John C. Cavalier was named Atari president Home Computer Division (replacing the departed Roger Badertscher). Cavalier was previously VP and general manager of American Can's Dixie and Dixie/Marathon unit, makers of consumer paper products.
August 29-December 31: "Atari Announces Discount Fares to the Computer Age. Save up to $60" promotion. For the purchase of an Atari 400, Atari offered a rebate of $10 for each purchase of up to six additional Atari computer products.
September 1?: Atari released the Atari Program Exchange (APX) Software Catalog Fall Edition 1982, introducing: Family Cash Flow Rev. 2, Message Display Program, Stock Management, Text Analyst, Calculus Demon, Counter, Easygrader, Flags of Europe, Math*UFO, Spelling Genie, Word Search Generator, Cribbage,
Dog Daze Rev. 1.1, Mankala, Snark Hunt, Dunion's Debugging Tool (DDT), FORTH Turtle Graphics Plus, fun-FORTH, Keypad Controller Rev. 2, Mantis Boot Tape Development System, Mapmaker. Fred Thorlin was APX general manager; product review: Paul Cubbage.
September 3-5: Atari exhibited in the Technology Exposition at the 'US' Festival held at Glen Helen Regional Park, CA. (SoftSide #36p14-16)
September 8: Chemical Bank announced it would provide the first major home banking and information system commercially available in the country, called Pronto. Pronto would initially require an Atari home computer system, but programs would be developed for most major personal computers on the market.
September 10-12: Atari featured the 400/800 at the 5th Personal Computer World (PCW) show at the Barbican, London.
September: At Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, the 80 freshmen in Science and in Systems Planning were required to purchase an Atari 800. (SoftSide #43p26)
September: Atari opened a new Advanced Development Laboratory in New York
City, headed by Atari corporate VP research and product development Steven T. Mayer, at: 300 E. 42nd St. Fl 6/10, New York NY. Dedicated to the exploration of microprocessor-based products in electronic publishing and transactional services for home computers, the lab would be responsible for development of advanced products for Atari, and also function as a focus for joint research projects with other subsidiaries of Warner Communications Inc. Advanced Development Group personnel would eventually include: Sanford A. Driskin, manager of hardware engineering Gregg Squires (previously of Racal Vikonics), Robert (Bob) Card, Steven Ray, Joel Moskowitz, Philippe des Rioux, Glenn
Boles, Risa Rosenberg.
September 17: Date of the internal Atari document, "Atari 600 Home Computer Liz: Low Cost Computer Specification"
https://archive.org/details/AtariA600XLProductStatusMeetingHandout
September 22-October 1: At the SICOB (Salon international d'Informatique, telematique, Communication, Organisation du bureau et Bureautique) show in Paris, P.E.C.F. Atari launched the 400 and 800 in France.
September 29: Date of a late draft of the internal Atari document, "Sweet-16 Product Specification". Specific computer models indicated: "1200" (16KiB; earlier: "1000"; never shipped) and "1200X" (64KiB; earlier:
"1000X"; would ship as: 1200XL), with both models now sharing the same case design. Plans now called for manufacture of only the "1200X".
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/1200xl/1200xl.html
September 29: Atari had announced it had formed Atari Semiconductor Group (ASG), to be responsible for all the company's semiconductor design, development and test operations. (NYT) Gary J. Summers, most recently an independent consultant for several firms including Atari since 1981, and
before that head of Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG, the former MOS Technology) had written the business plan for the new division, and had joined Atari as VP and General Manager ASG. Carl Nielsen would remain director of
LSI design and test, ASG.
October 11: Atari had announced plans to produce home computers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, beginning January 1983. Production would take place at facilities already producing games for Atari. Atari-Wong, the company's joint venture in Hong Kong, would enlarge employment from 700 to 1000. Atari said computers produced in the Far East would be marketed there, while the U.S. market would be served from its home facilities in Silicon Valley. (Electronics News 11-Oct-82)
October: Atari announced that as of October 22, new 800 computer systems would be sold with two "free" 16KiB RAM modules for a total of 48KiB, for the unchanged list price of $899. The new 800 systems would no longer ship with Atari BASIC, the BASIC Reference Manual, nor the Atari BASIC (Wiley Self- Teaching Guide) book. Keith Schaefer remained VP sales for the home computer division.
October: At Atari International (U.K.) Inc., Atari established a Software Development Centre for a new Software Development Group, headed by director John Peeke-Vout who would be supported by development manager Jon Norledge and the group's administrator, Frances Conolly. (I/O #4 p4)
November: Atari began producing new 810 disk drives with the "center flip
door" drive mechanism by Tandon, instead of the "push button, sliding door" mechanism by MPI used in the original design. (Antic May 83) Technical documentation would refer to the new design as the "810T Analog".
November: Engineer Rich Pasco, previously a researcher at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), joined Atari Semiconductor Group (ASG) as Manager of VLSI Development. (Carl Nielsen, previously director of LSI design and test, was promoted to VP design and test.)
November 15: Atari announced they had obtained an exclusive worldwide license for the development, manufacture and distribution of Nintendo's "Donkey Kong" and "Donkey Kong Junior" video games for Atari's Home Computer. John Cavalier remained Atari president Home Computer Division; Keith Schaefer remained Atari Home Computer Division VP sales.
November 16-19: Atari featured the 400/800 at Compec '82, Olympia hall,
London.
November 18-20: At the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show in Chicago, Atari introduced the Atari Coin Executive coin accounting system
(ACE; never shipped), which incorporated an Atari 800.
November/December?: Atari Computer Camps literature for 1983 ((c)1982) mentioned: Atari VP/Chief Scientist Alan Kay, Atari Computer Camps Executive Director and VP Special Projects Linda Gordon, Atari Software Consultant Wayne Harvey, Atari Educational Consultant Patricia Tubbs, Atari Computer Camps Executive Director Dan Schliftman, Atari Computer Camps Camp Administration Coordinator Illeen Berg, Atari Computer Camps Executive Director Mike Sparber, Atari Business Manager Robin Bernheim, Special Projects Director Robert Kahn, Atari Computer Camps Personnel and Camper Records Director Flip Shulman, and Computer Camps Site Selection and Facility Director Tony "Big T" Sparber.
December 1?: Atari released the Atari Program Exchange (APX) Product Catalog Winter Edition 1982-83, introducing: FOG Index, Real Estate Cash Flow
Analysis, Text Analyst Rev. 2, Astrology Rev. 1.1, Earth Science (by MECC), Easygrader Rev. 1.1, Geography (by MECC), I'm Different!, The Magic Melody
Box, The Market Place (by MECC), Monkey Up a Tree, Music II--Rhythm & Pitch
(by MECC), Music III--Scales & Chords (by MECC), Prefixes (by MECC), Typo Attack, Air-Raid!, Game Show, Gridiron Glory, Melt-Down, Phobos, Pushky, Quarxon, Rabbotz Rev. 1.1, Yahtman, BASIC/XA, Deep Blue C Compiler, Deep Blue Secrets, Disk Fixer/Load 'n Go, Diskmenu, Music Player. Product review: Paul Cubbage. Fred Thorlin, previously Atari (Home Computer) director of product review and research, was now APX Director (previously: APX General Manager). APX operations had been moved from 155 Moffett Park Dr., Sunnyvale CA to 3281 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara CA. John Peeke-Vout of Atari International (U.K.)
Inc. and Steve Gerber of Atari (Home Computer) would essentially swap positions. Gerber, previously Atari (Home Computer) director of software acquisition (ASAP), became director of the Software Development Group of the Software Development Centre at Atari International (U.K.) Inc. (replacing Peeke-Vout in the role). Peeke-Vout, previously director of the Software Development Group of the Software Development Centre at Atari International (U.K.) Inc., became Atari (Home Computer) director of external software development (replacing Gerber in the role). The two Atari Software
Acquisition Program (ASAP) Regional Software Acquisition Centers (at the
former APX headquarters and at 57 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge MA) would be shut down.
December 1?: Sherwin Gooch, previously Associate Director, Center for Music Research, Florida State University, joined the Atari (Home Computer) communications products group (reporting to manager John Curran).
December 2: At Atari (Home Computer), Lou Tarnay was director of software development (reporting to VP software engineering Chris Horseman, and having replaced John Powers who departed the company (to Convergent Technologies)). Direct reports to Tarnay included Paul Laughton (systems products), John
Curran (communications products), Ken Balthaser (entertainment and education products), Joseph B. Miller (advanced development). Reports to Laughton included Scott Scheiman (operating systems development) and Jim Cox (advanced consumer product development). Reports to Balthaser included Clyde Grossman (entertainment product development) and Vincent H. Wu (amusement product development).
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
December 13: At the Plaza Hotel in New York City Atari introduced the 1200XL home computer ("well under $1,000"; to eventually replace the 800), 1010 program recorder ($99), 1020 printer/plotter ($299), and 1025 printer ($549), and again promised the Communicator II kit (with 835 modem) and the Home Manager kit. The Programmer kit was updated to include the new Inside Atari BASIC book (instead of Atari BASIC (Wiley Self-Teaching Guide)), and the Entertainer kit was updated to include Pac-Man (instead of Missile Command). The 800 would now ship with 48KiB RAM standard, and the 400 computer, 410 program recorder, 810 disk drive, 830 modem, and 850 interface module were to remain available as well. For 400/800/1200XL Atari introduced VisiCalc (by Software Arts for VisiCorp; previously released by Personal Software, the earlier name for VisiCorp), Juggles' House, Juggles' Rainbow, Galaxian (title by Namco), and Defender (title by Williams), again promised Atari Speed
Reading (to ship imminently) and TeleLink II (again promised apart from Communicator II kit), and announced: E.T. Phone Home!, Qix (title by Taito), Dig Dug (title by Namco), AtariWriter (earlier: Word-Wise, see ANALOG #9p17), Family Finances (enhanced combination of the two APX titles, Family Cash Flow and Family Budget; replacement for the canceled Personal Financial Management System), Timewise (RLM Micro Systems for Atari; based on Weekly Planner from APX), Eastern Front (1941) (updated version on cartridge; previous version released by APX), Star Trux (never shipped), Superman III (never shipped), AtariMusic I (previously: Music Tutor I), Microsoft BASIC II. Atari also announced the Disney Education Series, to consist of 5 programs developed & published by Disney, and distributed by Atari, featuring Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, and the Cheshire Cat. Keith Schaefer was VP of sales and John Cavalier was Atari president Home Computer Division.
December 14: Date of internal memo from Atari consultant Harry Stewart titled "6402 Floppy Disk Controller Protocol" regarding the built-in disk drive for the "6402" computer under development (would be introduced as: 1450XLD).
See:
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
December: Atari shipped Galaxian and Defender in time for holiday shoppers.
December 19: Atari (Home Computer) SVP of sales and marketing Thomas M. McDonough had departed the company. (NYT 12/19/82)
December/January: First issue of Page 6 magazine, the U.K.'s first Atari computer magazine. Published by Les Ellingham.
Winter 82/83: First issue of I/O, later known as Input/Output, the magazine of the Atari Home Computer Club (Atari International (U.K.)).
Atari sold 400,000 of its 400 and 800 computers in 1982, according to The Yankee Group, a Boston-based computer consulting firm, accounting for 17 percent of all home computer sales. (Washington Post 5/24/1983 pD7)
The worldwide installed base of Atari 400/800 was estimated by Future Computing, Inc. to be about 500,000, with about 425,000 in the U.S. (January 1983).
1983
January 6-9: At the Winter CES in Las Vegas Atari featured/again promised the 1200XL, and for the 400 ($299), 800 (now $679, was $899) and 1200XL ($899) Atari introduced Mickey in the Great Outdoors (Walt Disney Productions), Paint (SuperBoots Software from Capital Children's Museum via Reston), and Donkey Kong (title by Nintendo), and featured or again promised: 1010 program recorder, 1020 printer/plotter, 1025 printer, AtariMusic I, AtariWriter,
Family Finances, Timewise, VisiCalc, Dig Dug, Eastern Front (1941), E.T. Phone Home!, Qix, Star Trux (never shipped), Superman III (never shipped), Microsoft BASIC II, Home Manager kit, Communicator II kit. (see 2/1/83 price list) Atari hired two teenagers, Robert Allbritton and John Dickerson (via family connections with Atari CEO Ray Kassar), to help pitch Atari computers at the show.
For the 2600 Atari introduced the Pro-Line Trak-Ball Controller (CX22), the Pro-Line Joystick (CX60; would ship as CX24), and the Kid's Controller (CX23; earlier: Action Control Base).
January 7: Date of the internal Atari document, "Atari 600 Home Computer
Liz: Low Cost Computer Specification, Revision Two". The 600 was projected to be available with either 16KiB RAM or 64KiB RAM. (Would ship as: 600XL and 800XL).
https://archive.org/details/AtariA600XLProductStatusMeetingHandout
January 15: At the 2nd annual Atari Star Award banquet, held at San
Francisco's St. Francis Hotel, Atari awarded the Atari Star Award and $25,000 Grand Prize to David Buehler for his APX title, Typo Attack. Star Special Award of Merit winners: Douglas Crockford, Harry Koons & Art Prag, Lee Actor. Paul Cubbage, head of the APX Software Review team, represented APX, and Atari (Home Computer) SVP sales Keith Schaefer made the announcement and presented the award. (AC Spr83p10)
January: Jeffrey A. Heimbuck, previously SVP marketing for wine operations at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, joined Atari (Home Computer) as SVP marketing (replacing departed SVP sales and marketing Thomas M. McDonough). (LATimes 10/11/83 for date)
January: Atari published the Atari Computer Educational Software Directory (first edition).
January?: In West Germany, David Evans joined Atari Elektronikvertriebs GmbH
as product director. (Software development manager Steve Molyneux would now report to Evans.)
January: VLSI design engineer Peter R. Ateshian joined the Atari Semiconductor Group (ASG).
January: Atari commenced production of the 1200XL at its plant at 1215
Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale CA. Additionally, 400 (and 800?) production
commenced at Atari-Wong Co. in Hong Kong, while 400/800 production would continue at 1173 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale CA. (Brad Saville remained Atari (Home Computer) director of operations.)
January 18: At the Volvo Masters' tennis championship in New York's Madison Square Garden, Atari's Home Computer Division and the Association of Tennis Professionals unveiled the Atari-ATP Computer Ranking System. Also, the Atari 800 was now the official computer of the ATP.
January 18-21: Atari featured the 400/800 at the Which Computer? show at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre, England.
January 19: Atari was working on two new computer models to complement the 1200XL: "LIZ" (would ship as: 600XL) would be less expensive than the 400; "6402" (would be introduced as: 1450XLD) would include built-in disk drive, modem, and voice synthesizer and would be more expensive than the 1200XL.
See:
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
January 28: Atari would commence development work on the "1201" ("6402"
feature set except disk drive; would be introduced as: 1400XL). See:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/98872-atari-vaxs-being-moved/
January 20: Logo Computer Systems, Inc. (LCSI) and Atari jointly announced Atari Logo for the 400/800/1200XL. (It would ship fall 1983.)
January 31: Atari announced the appointment of Dr. Marcian E. Hoff, Jr. (Ted Hoff), with Intel since 1968 and previously Intel manager of applications research, as VP of research and development. Hoff was "to spearhead development of new home video games and coin-operated arcade games, the
company said." (NYT 2/1/83). Hoff would serve as administrative head of Atari Corporate Research, replacing Atari VP/chief scientist Alan Kay in the role; Kay would now report to Hoff, and Hoff would report directly to Atari CEO Ray Kassar. Steve Mayer, previously Atari corporate VP research and product development, would become corporate SVP engineering (still reporting directly to Kassar). (IEEE Spectrum 3/83 p45 for title)
Winter: Atari shipped the AtariWriter cartridge. AtariWriter was programmed
by William V. Robinson (author of DataSoft's Text Wizard) with Mark Rieley for DataSoft, in fulfillment of the 300-page "AtariWriter Internal Design Specification" developed by Gary Furr, a product manager at Atari.
Winter?: At Atari (Home Computer), Leslie Wolf, with the company since June 1981, and Mark McCrackin, would both be educational product managers,
replacing Sueann Ambron who departed the company (to Human Engineered Software (HesWare)).
February 1: Atari assumed exclusive distribution rights to the Cynex Game Mate 2 cordless joystick controller, to be available from Atari as the Atari Remote Control Wireless Joysticks (CX42) package beginning March 1.
February 9: A.J. Sekel (Andy Sekel), previously of Pizza Hut, had joined Atari (Home Computer) as manager of press relations (NYT), having replaced
J. Peter Nelson who had departed the company.
February: Atari launched "Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow," an assembly program for junior and senior high schools in the U.S., offering both entertainment and computer education using films, slides, music, and a live host to explore the role of computers in society. (VGU 1/83 for date)
February: Atari announced that they were now shipping VisiCalc.
February: Atari shipped: Qix (VGU)
February 22: Atari announced that manufacturing for its Home Computer Division and its Consumer Products Group would be consolidated mainly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where Atari already manufactured consumer electronics products, and announced 1,700 layoffs. Atari said that 600 workers in its home video game operation were laid off effective immediately, and that another 1,100 in the home computer division would lose their jobs over the next four months. "Manufacturing for home computers and video games will come to a virtual halt here in the United States by July," Atari said.
March 1?: Atari released the Atari Program Exchange (APX) Product Catalog Spring Edition 1983, introducing: Atspeller, Typit, Fingerspelling, Escape to Equatus, Math Mission, My Spelling Easel, Teasers by Tobbs, Three R Math Classroom Kit, Catterpiggle, Diggerbonk, Getaway!, Impact, Microsailing, Chameleon CRT Terminal Emulator (New Version), Hex-A-Bug. Fred Thorlin was
APX director; product review manager: Paul Cubbage.
March 7: Atari (Home Computer) software development director Lou Tarnay, systems products manager Paul Laughton, and product coordinator Brian Johnston had departed the company to Fox Video Games. Jim Romanos was now internal development director (replacing the departed Tarnay). Direct reports to Romanos: Ken Balthaser (applications), John Curran (system and telecommunications), Douglas A. Chorey (software support). Reports to Balthaser: Clyde Grossman (entertainment applications), Jim Cox (advanced home applications). Reports to Curran: Scott Scheiman (systems), Sherwin Gooch (telecommunications, replacing Curran in the role). Technical staff reporting to Romanos: Joe Miller, G. Riker, Lane Winner.
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
March 8: Kamalu Bruns was Atari (Home Computer) software support group
manager. Direct reports to Bruns: Fred A. Terzian (support section manager), Jack Quinn (test department manager). Reports to Quinn: test supervisors
Carla Furr, Lisa Reinbold
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
March 8: Penril Corp., a Rockville-based electronics firm, had won a $4
million contract to provide low-cost communications modems to Atari. Penril was expected to ship roughly 100,000 modems (Atari 1030) by the middle of
1984, with delivery beginning July 1983. (Washington Post 3/8)
March 8-April 4: Atari featured the 400/800 at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, Earls Court, London.
March 10: Direct reports to Atari (Home Computer) VP software engineering
Chris Horseman included Jim Romanos (director internal development), Paul Liniak (director software conversion), Kamalu Bruns (manager support group). Reports to Liniak included Vincent Wu (development manager).
https://archive.org/details/AtariHarryStewart
March: Atari (Home Computer) director of finance Bill Kaiser departed the company (to Electronic Arts).
March: Atari shipped the 1200XL, suggested retail price $899. (Kassar in
Across The Board, 6/83 p26 for month)
March 18-20: At the 8th Annual West Coast Computer Faire at the Brooks Convention Hall and Civic Center in San Francisco, Atari featured Dig Dug,
E.T. Phone Home!, Qix, and AtariWriter, and introduced Atari Logo (Brian Silverman of LCSI for Atari). Atari announced a $50 rebate, starting April
15, for the purchase of a 400 computer, and hinted that the 400 was soon to be replaced by a new model ("LIZ"; presumptive name: 600XL).
March 25-27: Atari featured the Atari Coin Executive (ACE) at the Amusement Operators Expo '83 (AOE '83) at the O'Hare Exposition Center in Chicago.
March 26: Jack Perron had become Acting Manager, Product Review, APX,
replacing Paul Cubbage who departed the company (to Mindset).
March/April: Atari established an Advanced Games Group (games for coin
arcades, home computers, and home video game systems), to be headed by VP advanced games Chris Horseman (previously: Home Computer Division VP software engineering). Jeffrey Heimbuck, previously Atari (Home Computer) SVP marketing, would become SVP marketing and software engineering (assuming the additional role from Horseman).
March/April: Donald Teiser, previously an Atari (Consumer) software
development manager, would become Atari (Home Computer) director of engineering, replacing Larry Plummer who departed the company.
April 11: Bill Carris was Atari (Home Computer) director of software
marketing. (InfoWorld 4/11/83 p64)
April: Atari commenced 1200XL production by Atari Taiwan Manufacturing Corp. 1200XL production would also continue at the 1215 Borregas Ave. plant in Sunnyvale.
April?: In the Netherlands at Atari International (Benelux) B.V., Han Van
Egdom joined the company as product manager home computers
April 15: Start date for several Atari computer rebate offers: $50 for the purchase of a 400, or $100 for the purchase of an 800 or 1200XL. (newspaper ads)
April 26: Atari was expected to announce shortly that it would lay off between 500 and 800 employees in consolidating its Home Computer Division with the Consumer Electronics Division. (Washington Post 4/26)
April 28: Date of the first draft of the internal Atari document, "Atari 25601 Hardware Technical Specifications," reflecting early work on a new home computer that would be both Atari 1200XL and IBM PC compatible. (Later:
"1600" or "Shakti")
See:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/1600xl/1600xl.html
Spring: There were now eight Atari computer classrooms in Club Med villages: Eleuthera in the Bahamas; La Caravelle in French Guadeloupe; Ixtapa in Mexico; Copper Mountain in the Colorado Rockies near Denver; Dom Miguel in Marbella, Spain; Chateau Royal in Noumea, New Caledonia; Les Almadies, Senegal; and Cherating, Malaysia. (Atari Connection Spr83 p40-41) Linda Gordon was Atari
VP Special Projects; Robert A. Kahn was Director, Special Projects.
May 4: Warner Communications Inc. (WCI) established the subsidiary, WCI Labs Inc. The Atari Advanced Development Laboratory at 300 E. 42nd St. Fl 6/10,
New York NY would become the facility of WCI Labs, which would serve both
Atari and WCI. Steve Mayer, previously Atari corporate SVP engineering, would remain head of the lab as president of WCI Labs, as well as senior executive consultant to the office of the president of WCI. Most Atari Advanced Development Group members would remain at WCI Labs as well.
May 8: Atari had announced that Dr. Alfred L. Moye, formerly the U.S. Dept. of Higher Education's Deputy Assistant Secretary during the Carter
administration, had joined the company as national educational sales manager (ArcadeExpress v1n20), replacing Jim Paige who departed the company.
May: Atari commenced consolidation of its Consumer and Home Computer divisions into three new divisions: Atari Products Co. (domestic and international marketing and engineering, assuming international marketing from the Atari International division), Atari Sales & Distribution Co., and Atari Manufacturing Co. (NYT 6/2pD5, WSJ 6/2p20) John Cavalier, previously Atari president Home Computer Division, would be president of Atari Products Co.; Donald Kingsborough, previously Atari EVP Consumer Division, would be
president of Atari Sales & Distribution Co.; Paul Malloy, previously Atari (Consumer) SVP operations, would be president of Atari Manufacturing Co.
Within the new Atari Products Co.:
Robert D. Cory would become director of business development (computers), replacing Atari (Home Computer) director of business planning and development Peter Rosenthal who departed the company (to DesignWare, Inc.).
Jeffrey Heimbuck, previously Atari (Home Computer) SVP marketing and software engineering, would be SVP domestic and international marketing and
engineering. Ken Wirt, previously of Atari (Home Computer) marketing, would
be VP computer marketing, replacing Mark Lutvak who departed the company. Andrew Soderberg would be promoted to XL computer line product marketing manager. Stephen Race, previously Atari International director of marketing, would remain director of international marketing (now reporting to Heimbuck).
Dave Stubben, previously Atari (Home Computer) VP engineering, would be SVP engineering (reporting to Heimbuck). Donald Teiser, previously Atari (Home Computer) director of engineering, would be director of engineering Computer division (still reporting to Stubben).
Fred Simon, previously of Walt Disney Productions (PR 10/10/83) (VP of the software division of Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company), would be VP software (computer software engineering/development, replacing Heimbuck in the role). Bill Carris, previously Atari (Home
Computer) director of software marketing, would join the Atari (Coin-Op) division in marketing. Steve Arnold, previously of Atari Corporate Research, would be VP software marketing. Colette Weil, previously Director, Corporate Market and Consumer Research (reporting to (corporate) VP market planning Conrad Jutson), would become Director, Marketing, Home Applications and Children's Software.
Within the new Atari Sales & Distribution Co.: Keith Schaefer, previously
Atari (Home Computer) SVP sales, would remain SVP sales (computer markets).
Within the new Atari Manufacturing Co.: Brad Saville, previously Atari (Home Computer) director of operations, would remain director of operations (home computers).
May: Atari discontinued production of the 400 (both at 1173 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale CA and at Atari-Wong Co. in Hong Kong). Atari also discontinued domestic production of the 800, and Atari's plant at 1173 Borregas Ave. would be repurposed. 800 production would commence (continue?) at Atari-Wong Co. (for the short-term).
May: Atari discontinued domestic production of the 1200XL. 1200XL production would continue by Atari Taiwan Manufacturing Corp. (ATMC).
May?: Production of the 1050 disk drive commenced in Singapore by Atari-PCI Enterprises Pte. Ltd.
May: Atari shipped: E.T. Phone Home! (VGU)
May 15-20: At the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Australian College of Education held in Sydney Australia, Atari International marketing manager for computer software Nancy Garrison revealed that the 1200XL would not be
released in Australia. Rather, a new range of more power machines was to be debut at the CES in the US the following month. (SydneyMorningHerald 5/30/83)
May 20: Atari launched Atari International (Italy) Inc. with a press
conference held at the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan. The new subsidiary would replace Italian Atari computer distributor Adveico.
June 1?: Atari released the Atari Program Exchange (APX) Product Catalog
Summer Edition 1983, introducing: Home Inventory, Home Loan Analysis,
Strategic Financial Ratio Analysis, Drawit, Piano Tuner, Video Kaleidoscope, Circuit Lab, Morsecode Master, Punctuation Put-on, Three R Math Home System, Wordgo, The Bean Machine, Bootleg, Can't Quit, Dandy, Ennumereight, Smasher. APX also introduced the 48K RAM Expansion Kit (for the 400 computer, 8KiB or 16KiB versions). Fred Thorlin was APX director; product review manager: Jack Perron.
June 5-8: At the Summer CES in Chicago Atari introduced the 600XL home
computer ($199; to ship in July; to replace the 400), the 800XL home computer (price to be announced; to ship in August), the 1400XL home computer (price to be announced; to ship in September; to replace the 1200XL; never shipped), and the 1450XLD home computer (price to be announced; to ship in October; never shipped) with DOS III (later: DOS 3). Introduced: 1050 disk drive with DOS III, 1027 printer, 1030 modem with ModemLink, Touch Tablet (CX77) with
graphics tablet cassette program (would ship as: AtariArtist on cartridge), Trak-Ball controller (CX80), Remote Control Wireless Joysticks (Cynex; CX42), CP/M Module with CP/M 2.2 (never shipped). Again promised: 1010 program recorder, 1020 printer/plotter, 1025 printer. Previewed: Expansion Box
(later: 1090 XL Expansion System; never shipped), Light Pen (CX75), Super Controller (home computer and international name for CX60 Pro-Line Joystick;
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