List of Atari, Inc. games
In 1975 Atari released Home Pong, its first of several "Pong"-based dedicated video game consoles, and in 1977 released its first home video game console, the Atari Video Computer System (later renamed the Atari 2600). From that point onward Atari developed both arcade games and console games, and in 1979 added games for their first home computers, the Atari 400 and 800. Atari produced a second home video game console in 1982, the Atari 5200, and four more home computer versions. Beginning in Summer 1981, Atari published the Atari Program Exchange, a quarterly mail-order catalog of software written for Atari computers by external developers which Atari then distributed to customers. In May 1983, Atari started the Atarisoft division, which produced ports of games by Atari and others for non-Atari home computers. In July 1984, as a result of falling sales due to the video game crash of 1983, Atari, Inc. was split apart by Warner Communications; the arcade division continued as a subsidiary of Warner under the name Atari Games, while the console and computer games divisions were sold off as Atari Corporation.
Lunar Lander (1979 video game)
"Lunar Lander" proved moderately commercially successful, selling 4,830 cabinets. "Cash Box" noted in September 1979 that the machines were very popular with customers. It was Atari's first vector graphics game and the first multiple-perspective video game with the inclusion of the up-close view of the lander. Atari developed a two-player version of the game, but only two prototypes were ever made as it did not enter production. The two-player version was cancelled as "Lunar Lander"s popularity was soon overtaken by Atari's "Asteroids" (November 1979), which used the same vector graphics engine and which had initially been based on "Lunar Lander"s code. Atari ceased production early on "Lunar Lander" in favor of shipping "Asteroids" games in "Lunar Lander" cabinets; the first 300 "Asteroids" games were released with "Lunar Lander" artwork on the side. The Atari "Lunar Lander" was the most popular version to date of the "Lunar Lander" concept, surpassing the prior "Moonlander" and text-based games, and most later versions of the concept are implicitly or explicitly based on the Atari version.