Atari wanted people to want Atari games, not Frank Jones games. They considered their programmers replaceable cogs and refused to give them credit.

That's why the Easter egg in Adventure with the programmer's name exists. It was the only way to get his name out there.

What happened was the developers didn't like this and left to start their own company, Activision, which made some of the best remembered games on the 2600.

Apple already 'compromised' by letting their researchers publish at all. Maybe names will be allowed in the future but it's kind of surprising we're even getting this.

Thanks for posting the explanation -- I thought that Atari's early policies were pretty widely known. Anyhow, here's some further references for the interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_(Atari_2600)#Easter_... .

Oh I see! I didn't know about that. Thanks for the explanation!

I totally agree that this was an unprecedented move by Apple, considering their past stance on such things. I'm hopeful for the future, though! They seem to have realized (at least a little bit) that community cooperation is valuable.

The reports from a few months ago word that they basically had to do this because no one was willing to work for them if they weren't able to publish because their career basically stalled.