Atari&#x27;s contempt and disregard for its programmers at the time has become pretty legendary. Ray Kassar[0] (president and CEO) famously rebuked a group of programmers complaining about work conditions as being no more important than the assembly line workers who put the cartridges together - which then led to the formation of Activision. Atari also refused to credit programmers for their work (leading to the first easter egg in Adventure[1].)<p>Given that atmosphere, Atari would have probably just given the job to someone else (on the same deadline, of course.)<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ray_Kassar" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ray_Kassar</a><p>[1]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Adventure_%281979_video_game%29#Easter_egg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Adventure_%281979_video_game%2...</a>