Re: Amplifone HV probs / A bit more Amplifone history...

In a message dated 11/18/99 12:09:40 PM Eastern Standard Time,
matt@rossiters.com writes:

<< So - not to change the subject - but is it really true that those HV
 transformers are not built well because the supervisor set off the fire
 sprinklers with his cigaratte - getting water all over the winding
 material? >>

     According to Carl Newman and Jack Hammond (former Amplifone employee),
this is exactly how it happened. Joe did mention Mr. Odak by name in his
previous post, so I'll confess (to our nice Vectorlist community) that Mr.
P.O. in my Amplifone HV faq is Perry Odak.
      I figured that many reading the faq would know enough Atari history to
figure out who Mr. P.O. was. Interesting how a guy with initials P.O. can
really piss you off that bad. I guess he really lived up to his name.... Not
to repeat my faq, but I really believe that he was a MAJOR factor in the
overall downfall of Atari, in BOTH the coin-op and consumer divisions.

     I've been looking at the numbers in Jess' Amplifone HV registry. Now,
about 6 months after writing the faq, my original numbers in the faq as
listed as "Safe Zone" may have been off. I hope we can use the data in the
registry to try to come up with some kind of logical way to predict
reliability of reds.
     Has anyone ever found the Atari patents for the Amplifone color vector
monitors?? I'm still looking for them. Please help if you can.
     I also found out that they were working on an integrated Vector/Raster
system (around 1983-84) that was fully developed, with several prototypes
being made. Obviously, the system was never used in any production machine. I
was wondering if anybody had any more information on this?? Please help if
you can.

Thanks,
Michael Kelley
       
 
Received on Fri Nov 19 23:32:52 1999