Atari Crashes On Lollipop

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iplaygames
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2015 6:13 pm

Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by iplaygames »

I am unable to play Atari's Greatest Hits on both my Nexus 7 and Nexus 9 after upgrading to Android Lollipop. Is there a fix for this, please? I bought all 99 games.
Drbob2112
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 02, 2015 6:40 am

Re: Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by Drbob2112 »

No replies. Big surprise.
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CodeMystics
Posts: 539
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:22 pm

Re: Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by CodeMystics »

Drbob2112 wrote:No replies. Big surprise.
We apologise that we failed to reply to this particular post. With a flurry of inquiries around that time, many duplicate, we sometimes missed one.

As explained in the duplicate thread you created on this topic, it is a similar problem to what happened with iOS 8: We were retained by Atari four years ago to develop this app. Atari is the publisher and owner of the game, and the only ones who have the authority to update it. We have had no active involvement in the interim. Atari's bankruptcy in 2013 resulted in the end of maintenance for all their products for quite a time. That said, they've since emerged from that bankruptcy, so there is some hope they will wish to pursue further maintenance.

Recently, Google has modified its operating system in a way that could not have been anticipated four years ago, and that has caused problems for the game. This is much the same as if you had a game for Windows 98 that stopped working when you updated to Windows XP. We did investigate a solution, but compounding this is the fact that Google subsequently shut down the In-App Purchase system that the app uses, rendering the game code even more obsolete. This would also affect the ability to restore prior purchases. You can see more about that issue in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=570

The best way to clarify this situation is with an analogy:

Let's say four years ago a vending machine company asked you to make a coin mechanism for them. They paid you, you delivered it, it worked, and you moved on to another job. They went on to sell a lot of vending machines over the last four years. Still, the vending machine company went bankrupt two years ago. Four months ago, the government changed the design of the quarter, and the new quarters stopped working in these machines. People were losing their quarters a lot now, and getting angry about it. Now you start getting phone calls from people who found your name on the coin mech, saying your coin mech sucks and you need to fix it. What would you do? We can't replace the machines ourselves, and we can't get them pulled from the market.

What we did was (a) figured out why it wasn't working, in case someone involved in the product approached us for a fix and (b) contacted them and informed them of the problem. Beyond that, we're open to suggestions.
Drbob2112
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 02, 2015 6:40 am

Re: Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by Drbob2112 »

I am a developer as well. I had access to lollipop a full 8 weeks before it was officially released, and the phone companies had it released to them at least 8 weeks before then to bundle their bloatware packages in their "update". I am a line developer...you are a company....you must have the same access I do. So in your woefully ridiculous analogy, if you had a new machine a full 8 weeks before it was released, one would think you would be able to solve the problem - or at LEAST be working on a solution.

Nice try. No one is buying it.
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CodeMystics
Posts: 539
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:22 pm

Re: Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by CodeMystics »

Drbob2112 wrote:I am a developer as well. I had access to lollipop a full 8 weeks before it was officially released, and the phone companies had it released to them at least 8 weeks before then to bundle their bloatware packages in their "update". I am a line developer...you are a company....you must have the same access I do. So in your woefully ridiculous analogy, if you had a new machine a full 8 weeks before it was released, one would think you would be able to solve the problem - or at LEAST be working on a solution.

Nice try. No one is buying it.
Please, there's no need to be rude. If you are a developer you should understand the concept of work-for-hire. Our involvement with Atari's Greatest Hits ended years ago. We do not have access to the app store presence of the app to be able to make changes. The analogy is accurate. (In the analogy, the vending machine company represents Atari not Google. You seem to be missing the key point that we do not have rights to nor sell the game.)

As we already wrote above, we have long ago investigated the problem, unbidden by those who sell the app. If we had the authority to publish the fix, we would.
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CodeMystics
Posts: 539
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:22 pm

Re: Atari Crashes On Lollipop

Post by CodeMystics »

For anyone following this thread interested in updates on this issue, please refer to:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=592
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