Rebound (video game)
Development of "Rebound" began in late 1973, as one of several variations they produced in 1974 on the gameplay of the successful "Pong" (1972), Atari's first game and the fourth-ever arcade game. Around the same time, Atari launched Kee Games, a subsidiary meant to produce clone games of Atari's products and act as a competitor in order to expand into more distribution channels in the same region than the industry typically supported. Kee's first game, released in March 1974, was "Spike", a clone of "Rebound", which added a "spike" button to the game that made the paddle jump up and attempt to bounce the ball downwards instead of up. In addition to the base game, Atari sold a conversion kit to convert any Atari two-player "Pong" variant into "Rebound", and in 1977 "Rebound" was included in "Video Olympics" for the Atari 2600, a collection of "Pong" variants.
Gran Trak 10
Atari reported a loss of $500,000 for the 1974 fiscal year, roughly as much as the previous year's profits, with "Gran Trak" as one of the major causes. This led Atari into deep financial problems, leaving part of "Gran Trak"s legacy being "the game that nearly put Atari out of business". In September 1974, Atari announced plans to merge with its subsidiary Kee Games; Kee's final game "Tank", released in November 1974, was a commercial success, however, and is credited with buoying the finances of the newly merged Atari at a critical time for the company. The "Gran Trak 10" game itself, after its problems were resolved, was considered a success, and Atari released multiple versions of it: a clone version titled "Formula K" was released through Kee Games for different distributors around July 1974, and Atari produced a small cabinet version in late in the year titled "Trak 10". According to Ralph H. Baer, "Formula K" sold "6,000" units. A two-player version titled "Gran Trak 20" was released in August, along with its own clone version from Kee Games titled "Twin Racer" and its own small cabinet version, "Trak 20". Baer estimates that "Gran Trak 20" sold 4,500 units. Atari produced numerous other racing arcade games in the same style as "Gran Trak", including "Le Mans" (1976), "Sprint 2" (1976), "Super Sprint" (1986), and "Badlands" (1989). "Gran Trak 10" was the first arcade car racing video game and the first game to use a steering wheel, and is known as the "grandfather of car-based racing games", though a simple racing game, "Wipeout", had been released in 1972 for the Magnavox Odyssey home video game console and a spaceship drag racing arcade game, "Space Race", had been released by Atari in 1973.