Once Upon Atari Quotes

“An expectation is a down payment on a resentment.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“There are two kinds of people in business; people who make things and people who make money from people who make things.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“April 26th, 2014 is not only the day of the Alamogordo dig, it’s also my mother’s 78th birthday. How perfect is that? Without her, I wouldn’t be here. Of course, with her I might not be here either. She didn’t want me to go to Atari. When I announced I was leaving Hewlett-Packard to go make games, she told me I was throwing my life away. She told me I wasn’t her son, because no child of hers would do such a stupid thing. She came around though. After I made several million-sellers and put an addition on her home, she told me it was a good thing I had listened to her and gone into computers. This may shed some light on how my background prepared me for becoming a therapist, and before that a client. After all, if it weren’t for families, there would be no therapists.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“I’m turning fifty in five months. I mention to the healer how it feels a little late in my life to begin this kind of journey. As healers sometimes do, she tells me an interesting story about her parents… It seems her father was thinking of starting college at the ripe old age of 24. He was working, so he’d have to go at night. After figuring out the timing, he told his wife (her mom), “If I do this, I’ll be 29 years old before I graduate!” His wife replied, “How old will you be if you don’t do it?” He enrolled. Smart parents. Smart healer.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“The boulevard of broken dreams runs right through the heart of Silicon Valley, and rush hour never ends. It’s exhausting, trying to walk down the street when you’re knee-deep in dashed hopes and crushed expectations.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“This gives Silicon Valley the illusion of tremendous diversity. Just look around, you’ll see people from all over the globe. But the truth is: It’s one of the least diverse places on earth. It’s a frenzy of gifted, aggressively motivated people converging on one small peninsula to seek their fortune, squeezing out everyone with less drive or means or potential. Some succeed profoundly and get lots of press. Many more crash and burn and disappear. But the vast majority simply keep doing well enough to preserve the hope of doing way better, perpetually chasing a dream just beyond their grasp.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Perhaps the most profound difference this time around is that making video games is no longer a work of authorship. At Atari, a game was all yours, the success was all yours and the failure was all yours. I really liked it that way.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Silicon Valley is where the world’s best, brightest and most ambitious people come to be average.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Blaming in a partnership is like saying: “Your side of the boat is sinking.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“When did things start to unravel? It was when the goal shifted from making good games to meeting schedules.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“It is amazing how easy it is to adapt up to better circumstances, and then to believe they must get better still.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“On creative projects it’s very important to have the opportunity to make it, get sick of it, step away from it, clear it from your mind and then come back to it with fresh eyes.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“As a problem solver at heart, I am frequently looking for the trap, the loophole and the exception. I’m also seeking the elegant or alternative solution. The issue is I frequently find them.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“A wise man once told me: If they accept your first offer, you came in too low.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“People can tell you if they like a game or not, but they’re not terribly credible when you ask them why.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“the difference between engineering and marketing is that engineers tend to under-promise and over-deliver while marketeers tend to over-promise and under-deliver. We’re built to step on each other’s toes when we try to walk together.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“In engineering the product is the goal. In marketing the sale is the goal, the product is merely the vehicle.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“People who make things just want to make things. People who make money from people who make things just want to move money from other people’s pockets to their own.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“When you tell me what you like to play, you’re telling me who you are.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“It’s important to understand that computers have no tolerance for ambiguity. Once programmers spend enough time socializing with computers (i.e. programming), they tend to develop the same intolerance.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“There are nerds who delight in locking others out of the conversation with technobabble. They take obscure terms and nomenclature, mix them up in a big bowl of mumbo jumbo gumbo and spill it all over your nice clean clothes. Then they steal your napkin and laugh at your dry-cleaning bills.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“PRETENSE BUILDS WALLS.
GENIUS OPENS DOORS.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“people can reliably tell you if they like something, but they cannot reliably tell you why.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“it’s not my job to create everything, but rather to make the best choices from all the possibilities.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“For some people, ease and comfort are more important than accuracy.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“it occurs to me that if a corporation is a person, then it likely has a Corporate Personality. If we accept this idea, it stands to reason they are susceptible to Corporate Personality Disorders, and CPDs are no laughing matter.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Ray thought of game makers as disposable since they dwelt at the bottom of the org chart, where workers are interchangeable.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“A simple answer that is clear and precise will always have more power in the world than a complex one that is true.”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry

“Innovators are people with boundary issues. Be it technology, standards of propriety, authority in general or even chemical tolerance, we tested the limits!”
― Howard Scott Warshaw, Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry