Overview
Venetian Blinds is a demo that allows the player to either raise or lower a set of venetian blinds using the Atari 2600's joystick. When the blinds are raised all the way, a sunset is visible through the window. It wasn't intended for commercial release at the time of its creation, but has since been released on the Xbox 360's Game Room and some game compilations as a historical novelty.
After a group of ex-Atari employees formed Activision, Atari threatened to sue the new company for stealing programming techniques, including the "venetian blinds" technique; a programming technique used in Video Chess to display eight objects in a row instead of the standard six.
For 1982's CES, David Crane prepared and showed off this demo to those with knowledge of the impending lawsuit as a joke, asking "Is this what Atari means by the Venetian Blinds Technique?" The lawsuit never went forward, and despite rumors to the contrary, the demo was never shown to Atari's lawyers as a 'taunt'.
The sunset displayed in Venetian Blinds was later used as a part of the background in Barnstorming.
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