Next Generation Issue 004 (April 1995)

Highlights From this Issue: This issue is more Atari focus. We have a 6-page interview with Nolan Bushnell, who originally founded Atari but then sold it 4 years later. He has an interesting perspective on the industry. Atari is talked about in the news section, mainly the Jag CD add-on and the Jaguar 2. VideoLogic claims its PowerVR technology has very impressive rendering capabilities. We get to see the chipset of the Saturn and PS1 side by side, and there’s talk about Apple’s Pippen – a PowerPC based CD console. Then we have the main feature, “Atari: From Boom to Bust and Back Again,” an 8-page look at the history of Atari up to this point, and there’s a short interview with Sam Tramiel, president of Atari. This is a great look at how delusional this man was at the time, seeing nothing but success in his future. One year from this issue, they would officially announce leaving the industry, but in Nov of 1995 they had numerous layoffs, signaling the end for most of us. There’s a nice interview with Gumpei Yokoi, the man who created the GameBoy and more. We also see “What’s Wrong With PC, Part Two” an interesting 10-page look at the PC industry at this time. For previews we have a good look at Looking Glass, AM2 and AM3. Along with Command & Conquer, Sim-Isle, Metal Jacket, and Tir na Nog.

We finally get to see some reviews for PlayStation and Saturn (Japan versions), more 3DO and Sega CD reviews, and several PC, Genesis, and SNES reviews. The regular columns return as well, they are still the only segments that have author names throughout the magazine. No reviews, articles, or interviews have bylines (names of the writers) and this will continue for a while. Another good issue with many interviews.

During an SEC Filing in April 1996, Atari disclosed that they sold approximately 125,000 units of Jaguar (from 1993-1995). And as of December 31, 1995, Atari had approximately 100,000 units of Jaguar still unsold in inventory. This was when then announced merging with JTS Corperation by July 1996, and JTS would sell off the Atari name and all of its properties to Hasbro Interactive by March of 1998.