Editing Jack Tramiel (section)

==Atari==
{{Main|Atari Corporation}}

After a short break from the computer industry, he formed a new company named Tramel Technology, Ltd., in order to design and sell a next-generation home computer.<ref name="purchase info">{{cite web
| title =Time Warner Companies Inc, et al. · SC 13D/A
| publisher =secinfo.com
| date= March 29, 1994
| url =http://www.secinfo.com/dMESy.bd.htm
| access-date = December 6, 2007 }}</ref> The company was named "Tramel" to help ensure that it would be pronounced correctly (i.e., "tra – mel" instead of "tra – meal").<ref name="Takahashi">{{cite web|url=http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/12/20/a_few_words_with_jack_tramiel_and_the_commodore_64_gang/|title=A few words with Jack Tramiel and the Commodore 64 gang|last=Takahashi|first=Dean|access-date=September 28, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612061146/http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/12/20/a_few_words_with_jack_tramiel_and_the_commodore_64_gang/|archive-date=June 12, 2009}}</ref>

In July 1984, Tramel Technology bought the Consumer Division of [[Atari|Atari Inc.]] from [[Time Warner|Warner Communications]].<ref name="purchase info" /> The division had fallen on hard times due to the [[video game crash of 1983]].<ref name="NGen11">{{cite journal|title=75 Power Players: The Family|journal=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]|issue=11|date=November 1995|page=57}}</ref> TTL was then renamed Atari Corporation, and went on to produce the 16-bit [[Atari ST]] computer line based on [[Motorola]]'s [[Motorola 68000 family|MC68000]] [[Central processing unit|CPU]], directly competing with [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[Mac (computer)|Macintosh]] and Commodore's [[Amiga]], which also used the same CPU. Under Tramiel's direction, the Atari ST was a considerable success in Europe, and globally in the professional music market.<ref name="NGen11"/>

Despite successfully shipping the ST, Tramiel's poor personal reputation hurt Atari. One retailer said in 1985 about the ST that because of its prior experience with Tramiel "Our interest in Atari is zero, zilch".<ref name="maremaa19850603">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8C4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA23 | title=Atari Ships New 520 ST | work=InfoWorld | date=June 3, 1985 | access-date=July 19, 2014 | author=Maremaa, Tom | pages=23}}</ref> A software company executive said "Dealing with Commodore was like dealing with [[Attila|Attila the Hun]]. I don't know if Tramiel will be following his old habits ... I don't see a lot of people rushing to get software on the machine."<ref name=chinsoft19850128>{{cite news|author=Chin, Kathy|title=Atari Promises Software For ST|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6i4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15
|work=InfoWorld|date=January 28, 1985|access-date=March 19, 2011|page=17}}</ref> (One ex-Commodore employee said that to Tramiel "software wasn't tangible—you couldn't hold it, feel it, or touch it—so it wasn't worth spending money for".<ref name="ieee85">{{cite journal|last2=Wallich |first2=Paul |date=March 1985 |title=Design case history: the Commodore 64 |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf |journal=IEEE Spectrum |pages=48–58 |issn=0018-9235 |last1=Perry |first1=Tekla S. |volume=22 |issue=3 |doi=10.1109/MSPEC.1985.6370590 |s2cid=11900865 |access-date=November 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513181613/http://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/pdfs/commodore64_mar1985.pdf |archive-date=May 13, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>) Steve Arnold of [[LucasArts]] said after meeting with Tramiel that he reminded him of [[Jabba the Hutt]], while within Atari [[Darth Vader]] was often the comparison.<ref name="maher20150710">{{cite web | url=http://www.filfre.net/2015/07/a-new-force-in-games-part-1-fractal-dreamers/ | title=A New Force in Games, Part 1: Fractal Dreamers | publisher=The Digital Antiquarian | date=July 10, 2015 | access-date=July 11, 2015 | author=Maher, Jimmy}}</ref> Another executive was more positive, stating "Jack Tramiel is a winner. I wouldn't bet against him."<ref name="sanger19850513">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/13/business/atari-is-facing-new-doubts.html | title=Atari is Facing New Doubts | work=The New York Times | date=May 13, 1985 | access-date=January 5, 2015 | author=Sanger, David E.}}</ref> In 1988 Stewart Alsop II called Tramiel and [[Alan Sugar]] "the world's two leading business-as-war entrepreneurs".<ref name="alsop19880118">{{Cite journal |last=Alsop |first=Stewart II |date=January 18, 1988 |title=WUI: The War Over User Interface |url=http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/PC-Letter_19880118.pdf |journal=P.C. Letter |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=1–4}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, Tramiel decided to step away from day-to-day operations at Atari, naming his son, Sam, President and CEO. In 1995, Sam suffered a heart attack, and his father returned to oversee operations. In 1996, Tramiel sold Atari to disk-drive manufacturer [[JT Storage|Jugi Tandon Storage]] in a [[reverse merger]] deal. The newly merged company was named JTS Corporation, and Tramiel joined the JTS board.