"Atari, didn't this guy turn to ashes, how did he suddenly crawl out of the coffin?" Hearing the familiar yet strange name Atari, everyone muttered in their hearts.
Many enterprise representatives who joined the association later found it incredible. Wasn't Atari a well-known game company? When did they venture into the mobile communication field?
This was the result of traditional impressions. Because Atari was too successful in gaming, people perceived Atari as solely a game company.
But just as Nintendo originally produced playing cards, Atari was originally a chip manufacturing company, specializing in communication chips and a leader in the industry at the time. All mobile communication devices back then required Atari's chips.
Because of this, Atari became one of the founding members of the Mobile Communication Association.
However, mobile communication devices were primarily used by the military, and civilians could not afford such equipment. Once the war ended, the demand ceased, and sales plummeted, pushing Atari to the brink of collapse.
It was at this opportune moment that Americans invented the world's first electronic game, "Pong," which attracted many players, and the computer installed with this game became highly sought after.
Witnessing this, the president of Atari had a flash of inspiration. The computing power required for such electronic games was very simple, and other components were far less complex than a computer. It only needed a display screen to be usable, with very low manufacturing costs.
Furthermore, the most crucial technology was chip technology. Why couldn't their own chips be modified into dedicated gaming chips, and then a dedicated arcade machine for playing games be created to charge users for games?
Thus, with Atari's efforts, the world's first electronic game arcade machine, "Centipede," was produced. Although only 12 units were manufactured, it was the progenitor of the entire electronic game arcade industry, leading to the later title of "King of Games," Atari.
[PS: The author specially designed Atari's identity as a founding member of the US Mobile Communication Association for the purpose of a running gag and plot, which does not align with historical facts. This is hereby clarified.]
Later, Atari profited immensely from electronic game consoles, becoming the undisputed King of Games worldwide and dominating the entire game industry. Gradually, they lost interest in the mobile communication industry and eventually abandoned it altogether, even ceasing to attend meetings, though they never formally dissolved their membership.
Given their status as a founding member, the association could not expel Atari. Fortunately, Atari did not cause trouble; they merely maintained their membership without seeking further benefits or infringing on the interests of other members. In the end, everyone chose to tacitly acknowledge this, treating Atari as if they didn't exist.
New members who joined the association later, although their records contained Atari's name, who would genuinely care about someone who never appeared at the association?
This led to over half of the people present not knowing that Atari was and still is a founding member, and one that could not be expelled.
Now that Atari had been resurrected from death, their founding member status could no longer be ignored.
"Everyone, do you want to vote again and simply dissolve the association? That way, I, a disliked person, and a disliked company will have to leave!" Malik O'Mara asked with a chuckle, looking at those who had just voted against him and were now collectively stunned.
Malik O'Mara's words were extremely arrogant, yet no one could do anything about it. As Malik O'Mara himself said, unless everyone voted to dissolve the association, there was no way to expel a founding member.
However, the communication network used by all communication companies in the US was built upon the existence of the association. Once the association dissolved, the network would dissolve, and all members would essentially be committing suicide. This was an impossible action.
This was the basis of Malik O'Mara's confidence, the privilege of founding members. Furthermore, Malik O'Mara had just used the examples of AT&T and SP to question and reconfirm the rights of founding members. What else could they do now?
Would AT&T and SP stand up and perform a self-incriminating act?
However, Malik O'Mara was not truly arrogant and intending to provoke everyone. So, Malik O'Mara quickly and with a hint of apology said, "Gentlemen, I didn't mean to provoke you. It's just that I was too wronged this time. If we hadn't found a way to acquire Atari, I would truly have had to say goodbye to you all forever!" Malik O'Mara sighed. Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but feel a slight sense of apology.
Yes, this matter did seem a bit excessive.
"But I also understand that Atari's actions this time have indeed harmed everyone's interests. However, you must understand that we were truly on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. If we didn't introduce a preferential contract plan, we would have only one path: bankruptcy."
"How about this? I guarantee here that Atari's contracts will only be valid for the Tianxing series of mobile phones. No other phones will be subject to such contracts. If you don't believe me, we can sign an agreement with the association on the spot as a guarantee."
Malik O'Mara's words provided everyone with a way out, and after some consideration, they realized they had no better options than to accept.
Meanwhile, Malik O'Mara enthusiastically invited the chairman, representing the association, to sign the agreement with Atari. At this, smiles finally appeared on everyone's faces as they watched Atari, a company that had been dead for over a decade, reappear in the association.
"Dear gentlemen! We will hold a rebirth celebration for Atari in one week. Today, I will also deliver invitations to all of you. Please be sure to grace us with your presence." With that, Malik O'Mara snapped his fingers, and his secretary, along with over a dozen employees, began distributing gilded invitations to every member present. As these members received the invitations, their expressions were quite... amusing?
——————————
"Sir, all the online troll companies have begun their operations. This time, there will definitely be a news explosion!" In his office, Billy Howard was once again orchestrating the attack on Jiangnan Group regarding the scandal of technology theft.
Compared to the previous time, Billy Howard had truly gone all out this time, spending over $200,000 to have all affiliated online troll companies deploy all available troll accounts.
According to Billy Howard's statistics, the total number of accounts from these troll companies reached approximately 1.5 million, which would undoubtedly propel this news to the top of the trending list instantly, also filling Weibo's homepage with such news.
He mentioned that this time, there was also the cooperation of the association. According to news from Motorola a few minutes ago, the association had officially passed a resolution to expel Stark Mobile Communications Company from the association, and all their base stations would be removed from the main network. This would be a major piece of news, and it could leverage the existing heat generated by Stark Company. He was confident that this time he would be able to crush Jiangnan Group completely.
To put it extremely confidently, Billy Howard didn't know how he could possibly lose.
As expected, with the efforts of the major troll companies, the post that had appeared over ten days ago was once again pushed to the homepage. Titles like "Jiangnan Group persecutes free scientists, steals technology" also landed the first position on the trending list.
Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, and just as the public opinion was about to be swayed, the first position on the trending list suddenly changed to another title: "Atari Reborn."
"What? Atari is reborn? The Atari that I grew up playing is actually back?" Upon seeing this news, Billy Howard was taken aback, then immediately clicked on the trending topic. To his surprise, he saw an official account named "Atari Company" had published a long post with thousands of words.
It was an emotional and vivid long article. The author, using the first-person and anthropomorphic style, recalled their birth, the joyful experiences they brought to all players, and their process of death.
They expressed deep reflection on their past mistakes, such as blindly pursuing game quantity, game publishers releasing games without review, and especially the final poorly made "E.T." game. They offered their most sincere apologies to all players for these issues.
At the end of the article, they emotionally announced that Atari was back. Atari had secured massive funding of hundreds of millions of dollars and was poised for a triumphant return.
They intended to re-enter the game industry and also make a comeback in the mobile communication industry, ultimately aiming to bring a unique and different joyous experience to all players worldwide.
In short, Atari was back!
"They're back! My youth, my childhood, they're all back!" After reading the long post and recalling his childhood memories of sitting in front of the TV with his brother, fighting over the game controller, and sharing the simple joy that video games brought, Billy Howard's eyes welled up with a few hot tears.
"Atari is actually back, this is just too wonderful!" Billy Howard said with immense excitement in his heart.