Father of Commodore and the Atari ST Dies

Aged 83, Jack Tramiel's life ends

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Father of Commodore and the Atari ST Dies
Jack Tramiel, a Polish Auschwitz survivor and then an immigrant to the United States, bought and sold Atari and founded Commodore Business Machines which brought the C64 and Amiga personal computers to the world, has died aged 83.

Rest in Peace, Mr Tramiel.

According to Forbes, he " passed away surrounded by his family on Sunday, his family confirms. He was 83 years old."

Mr Tramiel took his typewriter business into the world of calculators before enabling Commodore (or CBM) to quite literally make home computing history with the Pet, the VIC-20, the C64 and the Commodore Amiga.

Having fallen out with the CBM board, however, Mr Tramiel himself was not responsible for the Amiga. In a twist of business fate, he brought the arch-rival to the Amiga, the Atari ST to market.

In short, this one man was an impossibly important part of your life, and we need some ambitious and imaginative entrepreneurs like him in the video games industry today.

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Comments

editor 10 Apr 2012 23:25
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I had the pleasure to work for Andromeda, the company retained by Jack on a number of projects, including the infamous 'Tetris' negotiations - as well as other conversion work for Jack's various companies.

He was a character from the old school of the consumer game sector and a champion of how business could shape game development. His direction with Atari changing the industry - marking the move from hobby to business. He will be missed.
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