Owning the right hardware back then was like holding a hidden queen on the board – you could decide who moved where, who got a shot at the throne, who stayed stuck in the corner. Today the board is digital, the pieces are algorithms and data, and the queen is a cloud provider or a platform that lets you run your games. Whoever controls the infrastructure still moves the pieces. Just like that old Atari, the real power lies in owning the system, not just the game, and in making your opponents think they have choices when you’re the one deciding the rules.