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From: [email protected] (Phaedrus)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: Atari, please lay down and die!
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 8 Mar 92 01:53:28 GMT
References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> 
<[email protected]>
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 34

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Ralph Barbagallo) writes:
>In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Neil Williams) writes:
>>In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Ralph Barbagallo) writes:
>>>Atari sounds like a Japanese word?  It is a Japanese word.  In the Japanese
>>>board game of GO, it means warning...or something to that effect.
>>Atari is the equivalent of "check" in GO.  I believe one of the
>>founders or designers of the original Atari (company, game,
>>whatever), later founded another company called "Sente" which
>>is something like "checkmate".
>  Ah.  Then the Compuer Bowl '91 was wrong!  Heh.  The guy said it meant
>warning in the game of go and got it right!  Oh well.  What do those Atari
>guys have with GO? I hate that game!!!

     You're both not quite right, based on what I was told by someone who
used to work at Atari.  "Atari" is indeed a go term; when you say "Atari" to
your opponent, you're saying that your position is so good that, no matter what
your opponent does, you're going to win.  So it's not really like saying 
"check" (since you can often get off a few desperation checks even in a
hideous position); more like saying "mate in four" or whatever.  It's also
sometimes used in contexts besides go; it more or less means "I've got you!"
     Whether or not this makes "Atari" an appropriate name for the company is
left firmly unaddressed. :)
     By the way, while I'm on the subject of Atari, I remember reading
somewhere that once a year, all the Atari employees got up on the roof of their
building and screamed "Atari!" across the Silicon Valley.  And shortly 
afterward, all the Apple employees got up on the roof of their building and
screamed "Screw you!" right back.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?


-- 
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