The Atari 8-bit machines were ahead of their time. Their graphics are so good that an architecture first sold in 1979 was still market-competitive among other i

The Atari 8-bit machines were ahead of their time. Their graphics are so good that an architecture first sold in 1979 was still market-competitive among other inexpensive home computers in 1987, when the XEGS appeared as the last new model in the series. About the only thing that one might miss is built-in 80-column graphics. The entire line was (more or less) compatible with each other from start to finish, too; far better than Commodore, which over the same time period sold at least five different 8-bit computer lines, all mutually incompatible with rare exceptions. SIO is far superior to Commodore's jumble of serial, user, and cassette ports, too. (Did I mention that this all appeared in 1979?) Arguably Atari's sophistication was a disadvantage. The need for custom ICs, without an in-house fab like Commodore, and a focus on quality manufacturing as opposed to Commodore's slipshod methods caused the 8-bit line to be far too expensive compared to competitors; in 1979 one might as well have bought an Apple II and gain a larger library, far more expandability, and the amazing Disk II. By 1982 the Commodore 64 brought (slightly) superior graphics and sound at a far lower price. The key year is 1983, when Jack Tramiel waged war on the entire rest of the industry with massive discounts on the VIC-20 and 64 leading up to Christmas; the primary opponent was TI (which indeed surrendered in November), but Atari was collateral damage. That need not have been fatal for Atari, but a) product shortages of the new 600XL and 800XL models in 1983 because of mishandling of Asian production, b) the massive losses that parent Warner Bros. suffered from the collapse of the video game market (which Commodore's aforementioned price war contributed to), and c) consequent sale of Atari to the same Tramiel after he quit Commodore, caused developers to shy away from new software releases from 1984 onward. Once the software disappeared, so did customers.