East Coast Kahuna

Atari is not Japanese

I'm old enough to remember when home computers (hobby computers) were just coming out. Radio Shack had their TRS-80 (often referred to as "trash 80"), Commodore had its PET, Ohio Scientific had its Challenger (the one I got because I thought it was a better value for what it cost). Apple was showing it's quality (and price) above the others even then. By this time, Japanese electronics had a great reputation - in many ways being superior to American products. So why not make people think that they could get a quality home computer - a "Japanese" product from Atari. It sure sounds Japanese, but is actually Californian. Atari is Japanese for "hit" like a hit play on stage. I think the choice of name was effective - there didn't seem to be a drawback having the public think it was getting a Japanese product.

Eventually Atari did find its niche and was highly regarded for its video games (Pong and Asteroids to name two).

I'm not sure what my point is here. Japanese-Americans are really American made but are often perceived as Asians. For electronics, this connection is adventageous. I'm not sure if there are advantages for Japanese-American citizens. Look at what happened during World War II...

posted by tjh14850 @ 9:50 PM