Atari
In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded a small engineering company, Syzygy Engineering, that designed and built "Computer Space", the world's first commercially available arcade video game, for Nutting Associates. On June 27, 1972, the two incorporated Atari, Inc. and soon hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer. Bushnell asked Alcorn to produce an arcade version of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game, which would be named Pong. While Bushnell incorporated Atari in June 1972, Syzygy Company was never formally incorporated. Before Atari's incorporation, Bushnell considered various terms from the game Go, eventually choosing "atari", referencing a position in the game when a group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972.
In 1973, Atari secretly spawned a competitor called Kee Games, headed by Nolan's next door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market virtually the same game to different distributors, each getting an "exclusive" deal. Joe Keenan's management of the subsidiary led to him being promoted president of Atari that same year.
List of commercial failures in video gaming
Released in 1989 in North America and Europe; later in Japan in 1990 by Atari Corporation, The Lynx is an 8 bit handheld game console that holds the distinction of being the world's first handheld electronic game system with a color LCD. The Lynx was the second handheld game system to be released with the Atari name. The system was originally developed by Epyx as the Handy Game. The system is also notable for its forward-looking features, advanced graphics, and ambidextrous layout. In late 1991, it was reported that Atari sales estimates were about 800,000, which Atari claimed was within their expected projections. In comparison, the Game Boy sold 16 million units by later that year. Overall lifetime sales were confirmed as being in the region of 3 million, a commercial failure despite positive critical reviews. In 1996, Atari Corporation collapsed due to the failures of the Lynx and Jaguar consoles.