Atari VCS VCS - The Video Computer System

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Atari was working on a programmable machine that can play versions of popular arcade hits at the time. They codename it the VCS, the video computer system. Atari realized this is going to be a very different business with different dynamics than the arcade business. It takes a lot of firepower to bring a home console to market in the right way.

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

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