The Paris Review always needed more money

A proud (?) Gen-Xer, I vaguely remember the flap described in the New York Times article below. It's silly.

Lexis-Nexis is addictive.

We were a Mattel household, FWIW. Though later we had a Coleco Adam with Atari adapter.

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Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

December 14, 1981, Monday, Late City Final Edition
Correction Appended

SECTION: Section D; Page 4, Column 1; Financial Desk

LENGTH: 691 words

HEADLINE: ATARI-INTELLIVISION TV BATTLE

BODY:
It has all the makings of a great video game. Atari, ruler of the games universe, is attacked from another galaxy. Atari zaps back, stunning the challenger, who asks the Lords of the Airwaves to intervene.

But the Lords of the Airwaves, sitting in council as the CBS, NBC and ABC television networks, are themselves unable to agree on the merits of the complaint. The combatants agree to an uneasy, informal truce and return to their own marketing galaxies.

Thus did the battle for sales in the lucrative video game market spill over into the arena of public television. To the contestants, however, it was anything but a game.

Atari, a division of Warner Communications Inc., owns the television video game rights to many familiar arcade games that focus on outer space and intergalactic battle. The interloper, Intellivision, a unit of Mattel Inc., is trying to break into a market where Atari has been the leader.

Charge and Countercharge

Atari has complained to NBC, ABC, and CBS that a recent Intellivision commercial comparing the Intellivision product with Atari's is misrepresentative and misleading. Intellivision has countercharged that an Atari commercial is similarly unfair.

The upshot is that NBC and ABC are no longer screening the Atari or the Intellivision commercials in question while CBS continues to broadcast the Intellivision commercial that was challenged. Atari says its commercial is no longer scheduled to appear.

''We went to the networks because the Intellivision commercial is misleading,'' said Raymond Kassar, Atari's president. ''NBC and ABC reviewed all the facts and decided that Intellivision was indeed misleading the facts.''

Spencer Boise, vice president of corporate affairs for Mattel Inc., saw the situation differently. ''We have a pool of commercials,'' he said. ''That particular one was scheduled to run through Dec. 6, which it did on ABC. It had its full cycle on ABC. It is still running on CBS.''

$6 Million Ad Campaign

The dispute started with Intellivision's more than $6 million pre-Christmas advertising campaign for Intellivision. The Intellivision commercials feature George Plimpton, the professional dilettante and sports enthusiast. They show a television screen with an Atari video sports game on it and then a similar shot of an Intellivision sports game. Mr. Plimpton's narration, comparing the two games, concludes that Intellivision is more like the real thing.

Atari countered this commercial with something of a spoof of Mr. Plimpton: a bookish child wearing glasses who speaks in adolescent high-brow tones. He stands behind two television sets, one with an Atari space game in progress and the other with a blank screen.

''As an intelligent consumer,'' the child says, he wanted to compare Atari Asteroids, Missile Command and Warlords with other companies' offerings, but, unfortunately, other companies do not make them. He glances at the blank screen and then intones, nobody compares to Atari.

Your move, Intellivision. Intellivision countered the Atari commercial with its own spoof, a commercial featuring a child actor who looks just like the Atari child. Intellivision's child stands behind two sets and says ''When it comes to space games, nobody compares to Atari.'' An Atari game is in progress next to a blank television screen.

Atari's Complaint

All of a sudden, up pops George Plimpton, who tells the child about Intellivision's Space Battle, Space Armada and the soon-tocome Astrosmash games. ''Gee, I didn't know that,'' the child gushes, as the two screens show Atari and Intellivision space games in progress.

It was after this commercial appeared that Atari complained to the broadcast standards departments of all three networks. NBC said that after Atari's challenge, it discontinued the Mattel commercial with the look-alike child. NBC also said that Mattel protested that Atari's commercial with the child was unfair, so it is no longer carried on NBC.

ABC has declined to comment, although it did confirm that Intellivision's commercial with the child is no longer appearing. The commercial continues to appear on CBS.