What was the first game on the Atari?
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.
Adventure (Atari 2600)
A sequel to "Adventure" was first announced in early 1982. The planned sequel eventually evolved into the "Swordquest" series of games. In 2005, a sequel written by Curt Vendel was released by Atari on the Atari Flashback 2 system. In 2007, AtariAge released a self-published sequel called "Adventure II" for the Atari 5200, which is heavily inspired by the original; its name is used with permission from Atari Interactive. Robinett himself took the idea of using items from "Adventure" into his next game, "Rocky's Boots", but added the ability to combine them to form new items.
Touch Me (arcade game)
"Touch Me" was first released as an arcade game in 1974 by Atari. The arcade version was housed in a short arcade cabinet and had four large circular buttons of the same color. The player was allowed to make three mistakes before the game ended. The arcade game found itself competing for attention in arcades with the latest pinball machines and video games of the day; it was not very successful.
Sports game
In 1975, Universal Research Laboratories (URL) released an early four-player multiple-sports game, "Video Action", which featured several different sporting minigames, including "Pong"-style variants of tennis, hockey, and association football, as well as an early volleyball game and a unique four-court tennis game. "Video Action" was also an early example of cooperative gameplay, as each sport could be played in teams of two. That same year, Nintendo released "EVR-Race", an early horse racing simulation game with support for up to six players. In 1976, Sega released an early combat sport game, "Heavyweight Champ", based on boxing and now considered the first fighting game. In 1978 Atari released "Atari Football", which is considered to be the first video game to accurately emulate American football; it also popularized the use of the trackball, having been inspired by an earlier Taito soccer game that used a trackball. Taito also released an early bowling game in 1978, "Top Bowler", followed by an early baseball game in 1979, "Ball Park".
Gran Trak 10
Allan Alcorn, the designer of "Pong", took a leave of absence from the company beginning in September 1973, and around the same time Steve Bristow, who had previously worked with the founders of Atari on the first arcade video game "Computer Space", left to co-found Kee Games. This in turn left Lloyd Warman, new to the company, as the head of engineering for Atari during "Gran Trak"s development. Alcorn and Emmons have stated that they felt Warman was a good engineer but a poor project manager, which led to the "Gran Trak" project running behind schedule and having several design problems. This was exacerbated by a new short-lived Atari management team and product development structure, which led to several communication problems and cost overruns. When Atari began production in early 1974, it had difficulties getting enough circuits to build the cabinets from National Semiconductor, who cited a "hybrid" integrated circuit design by Emmons as non-standard, first refusing to sell them to Atari and then producing only small production runs. According to Alcorn, the non-standard design was a tactic to prevent competitors from copying the design, as other manufacturers would be unable to produce it at all.
LucasArts
The first products from the Games Group were unique action games like "Ballblazer" in 1984, and "Rescue on Fractalus!". Beta versions of both games were leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari had received unprotected copies for a marketing review, and were in wide circulation months before the original release date. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200 under the Lucasfilm Games label. Versions for home computers were not released until 1985, by publisher Epyx. Lucasfilm's next two games were "Koronis Rift" and "The Eidolon". Their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm, and a publisher would distribute the games. Atari published their games for Atari systems, Activision and Epyx would do their computer publishing. "Maniac Mansion" was the first game to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games.
Atari, Inc. (Atari, SA subsidiary)
In 2002 Jakks Pacific, a toy making company, released a plug-and-play video game console called the Atari 10-in-1 TV Game. It was battery-operated and shaped similarly to an Atari 2600 joystick, and included A/V ports. In 2004, the same company created a device called Atari Paddle Games, in the shape of one of the 2600's "paddle" controllers with appropriate titles included. However, as stated, neither of the games was directly released by Atari.
Slot Racers
Slot Racers is a video game cartridge for the Atari 2600. It was the first game developed by Warren Robinett, who went on to create one of Atari's most successful games for the 2600, "Adventure".
Atari
The Atari logo was designed by George Opperman who was Atari's first in-house graphic designer. The design is known as "Fuji" for its resemblance to the Japanese mountain, although the design's origins are unrelated to it. Opperman designed the logo intending for the silhouette to look like the letter A as in Atari, and for its three "prongs" to resemble players and the midline of the "court" in company's first hit game, Pong.
Adventure (Atari 2600)
"Adventure" received mostly positive reviews at the time of its release and has continued to be viewed positively in the decades since, often named as one of the industry's most influential titles. It is considered the first action-adventure and console fantasy game, and inspired other titles in the genres. More than one million cartridges of "Adventure" were sold, and the game has been included in numerous Atari 2600 game collections for modern computer hardware. The game's prototype code was used as the basis for the 1979 "Superman" game, and a planned sequel eventually formed the basis for the "Swordquest" games. The Easter egg concept pioneered by the game has transcended video games and entered popular culture.
Tank (video game)
The arcade game market is split into manufacturers, distributors, and operators; manufacturers like Atari sell game machines to distributors—who handle several types of electronic machines—who in turn sell them to the operators of locations. In the early 1970s, distributors bought games on an exclusive basis, meaning that only one distributor in each distribution region would carry products from a given arcade game manufacturer, restricting the manufacturer to only the operators that distributor sold to. Atari, in 1973 just over a year old and largely based on their hit first game "Pong", felt that as a smaller manufacturer this setup severely limited their ability to sell arcade games: they could only contract with a limited number of distributors, who would only buy a limited number of games per year. To work around this, Atari set up a secret subsidiary company in September 1973, Kee Games, which was intended to sell clones of Atari's games, in effect doubling their potential reach. Kee did have its own manufacturing equipment and therefore the ability to develop original titles, however, and after several clone games lead engineer Steve Bristow developed the idea for a new title. Bristow, who had previously worked with the Atari founders on "Computer Space", the first arcade video game, came up with the idea while thinking of how he could improve "Computer Space". His idea to correct the perceived shortcomings of the game were to replace its difficult to control rocket ships with more straightforward tanks, and to make it a two-player game instead of a single-player one.
Sprint 2
"Sprint 2" was the first in a long series of games, some of which bore its name into the 1980s."Sprint 2" was also believed to be the first Atari product to feature the well-known 'Atari arcade font'.
Atari Jaguar
The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console that was developed by Atari Corporation. The console is the sixth programmable console to be developed under the Atari brand, originally released in North America in November 1993. It is also the last Atari console to use physical media. Controversially, Atari marketed the Jaguar as being the first 64-bit video game console, while competing with the existing 16-bit consoles (Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and the 32-bit 3DO Interactive Multiplayer platform (which launched the same year).
F-1 (arcade game)
F-1 is a racing arcade game developed by Namco and distributed by Atari Inc., originally released in 1976.
This game is the first and only electromechanical projection game released by Atari. It also was the first game licensed from Namco by Atari, a practice that would increase by the early 1980s.
Atari 2600
Initially, each VCS game fit into a 2K ROM. Later games like "Space Invaders", and even "River Raid" from 1982, increased this capacity to 4K. The VCS port of "Asteroids" (1981) was the first game for the system to use 8K via a bank switching technique. Some later releases, including Atari's ports of "Dig Dug" and "Crystal Castles", were 16K cartridges.
Atari Force
The first "Atari Force" comics, which only counted five issues, were published in 1982 and were created mainly to illustrate story lines for home console games being released by fellow Warner Communications subsidiary Atari, Inc. The minicomics were packed in with the games "Defender", "Berzerk", "Star Raiders", "Phoenix", and "Galaxian". The comics were written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas and the artists included Ross Andru, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano, and Mike DeCarlo.
Atari 2600
In 1977, nine games were released on cartridge to accompany the launch of the machine, including Air-Sea Battle, Star Ship and Street Racer. Atari, Inc. was the only developer for the first few years of the VCS, releasing "Adventure" (often credited the first action-adventure game game), "Breakout", and dozens of other titles.
1980s in video gaming
Following a dispute over recognition and royalties, several of Atari's key programmers split and founded their own company Activision in late 1979. Activision was the first third-party developer for the Atari 2600. Atari sued Activision for copyright infringement and theft of trade secrets in 1980, but the two parties settled on fixed royalty rates and a legitimizing process for third parties to develop games on hardware.
Video game development
True commercial design and development of games began in the 1970s, when arcade video games and first-generation consoles were marketed. In 1971, "Computer Space" was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game. It used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. In 1972, the first home console system was released called Magnavox Odyssey, developed by Ralph H. Baer. That same year, Atari released "Pong", an arcade game that increased video game popularity. The commercial success of "Pong" led other companies to develop "Pong" clones, spawning the video game industry.
Atari
Under Tramiel's ownership, Atari Corp. used the remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development on a 16/32-bit computer system, the Atari ST. ("ST" stands for "sixteen/thirty-two", referring to the machines' 16-bit bus and 32-bit processor core.) In April 1985, they released the first update to the 8-bit computer line — the Atari 65XE, the Atari XE series. June 1985 saw the release of the Atari 130XE; Atari User Groups received early sneak-preview samples of the new Atari 520ST's, and major retailer shipments hit store shelves in September 1985 of Atari's new 32-bit Atari ST computers. In 1986, Atari launched two consoles designed under Warner — the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800 console (which saw limited release in 1984). Atari rebounded, earning a $25 million profit that year.
Gauntlet (1985 video game)
Originally called "Dungeons", the game was conceived by Atari game designer Ed Logg. He claimed inspiration from his son's interest in the paper-based game "Dungeons & Dragons" and from his own interest in 1983's Atari 800 home computer game "Dandy". The game's development spanned from 1983 to 1985, with a team being led by designers Ed Logg and Roger Zeigler. The working title became legally unavailable in April 1985, so it was renamed "Gauntlet" in May. Based upon some of the most elaborate hardware design in Atari's history to date, it is the company's first coin-operated game that features a voice synthesizer chip.
Atari 5200
Atari later decided to re-enter the games market with a design that closely matched their original 1978 specifications. In its prototype stage, the Atari 5200 was originally called the "Atari Video System X – Advanced Video Computer System", and was codenamed "Pam" after a female employee at Atari, Inc. It is also rumored that PAM actually stood for "Personal Arcade Machine", as the majority of games for the system ended up being arcade conversions. Actual working "Atari Video System X" machines, whose hardware is 100% identical to the Atari 5200 do exist, but are extremely rare.
Rebound (video game)
The arcade game market is split into manufacturers, distributors, and operators; manufacturers like Atari sell game machines to distributors—who handle several types of electronic machines—who in turn sell them to the operators of locations. In the early 1970s, distributors bought games on an exclusive basis, meaning that only one distributor in each distribution region would carry products from a given arcade game manufacturer, restricting the manufacturer to only the operators that distributor sold to. Atari, in 1973 just over a year old and largely based on their hit first game "Pong", felt that as a smaller manufacturer this setup severely limited their ability to sell arcade games: they could only contract with a limited number of distributors, who would only buy a limited number of games per year. To work around this, Atari set up a secret subsidiary company in September 1973, Kee Games, which was intended to sell clones of Atari's games, in effect doubling their potential reach. The first such game by Kee, released in March 1974, was "Spike", a clone of "Rebound" with the addition of the "spike" button that made the paddle jump up to attempt to knock the ball downwards; other than that addition it is functionally the same game.
Home video game console
The Odyssey only initially sold about 100,000 units, making it moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games, that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By autumn 1975, Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of Pong, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, "higher end" console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, and a third game—"Smash". Almost simultaneously released with Atari's own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey with no board game pieces or extra cartridges.
Atari, Inc. (Atari, SA subsidiary)
The same year that the Paddle Games were released, Atari released a TV game of their own which they called the Atari Flashback Console. The device was designed and produced by Atari consultant Curt Vendel through his engineering firm Legacy Engineering. With only a 10-week development window, what they produced looked like a minute version of the Atari 7800 console originally released in 1984, 20 years prior. The two controllers were small as well, having a joystick and two red buttons on each side. Twenty titles were built into the system. Unlike most plug-and-plays, the Flashback was not powered by batteries, but an (included) AC adaptor instead. The Flashback did fairly well in sales. Since the games were all recreated on hardware more closely resembling the Nintendo Entertainment System than the 7800, some of the aspects of certain games concerning the sound, graphics, or gameplay were either changed or omitted.
Rebound (video game)
"Rebound" was developed by Atari, Inc. beginning in late 1973; the final schematics are dated November 31, 1973, and use the code name "Volleyball". 1973 was near the beginning of the start of the arcade game industry; after the success of Atari's "Pong" (1972), the first game by the new company and fourth arcade game ever produced, the nascent industry was largely composed of variations on the concept, called "ball-and-paddle games". While Atari created games with other gameplay types in 1973 and 1974, such as "Space Race" (1973) and "Gran Trak 10" (1974), it also created several "Pong"-like games. "Rebound" was a variation on that theme, featuring controls and gameplay similar to "Pong", with the addition of gravity arcing the ball and both paddles moved to the bottom of the screen. "Rebound" was released by Atari in February 1974, with a release announcement on February 16. Other Atari ball-and-paddle games from 1974 include "Superpong" and "Quadrapong", both of which were variations on the original "Pong" gameplay.
FTL Games
Holder and Webster co-designed FTL's first game, "", a space trading game. It was released first for the Apple II in March 1984. Webster did most of the programming for the Apple II version, but resigned from FTL after the release of version 2.0. Doug Bell, Andy Jaros and Michael Newton significantly enhanced the game's graphics when porting the game to the Atari ST, releasing it in late 1985. "SunDog" became the best selling game on the Atari ST during the system's first year, and garnered lavish critical acclaim.
List of Atari Jaguar games
The Atari Jaguar is a 64-bit home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and designed by Flare Technology, released in North America first on November 23, . It was the sixth programmable console developed under the Atari brand. The following list contains all of the games released for the Jaguar.
Atari System
Atari System refers to two arcade system boards introduced in 1984 for use in various arcade games from Atari Games. Two versions of the board were released, Atari System 1 and Atari System 2.
The Atari System 1 was Atari Games' first upgradeable arcade game hardware platform. Introduced in 1984, the System 1 platform was used for the games:
The hardware used a large circuit board with a Motorola 68010 main CPU running at 7.159 MHz, a MOS Technology 6502 sound CPU running at 1.789 MHz, a system ROM, text and graphics display hardware, and control interfaces. Two large edge-card connectors allowed a "cartridge board" to be plugged in; the cartridge board supplied the main program ROMs, sound program ROMs, graphics ROMs, graphics shift registers, a "SLAPSTIC" copy protection chip, a Yamaha YM2151 FM sound generator, a POKEY and (for some games) TI TMS5220 LPC speech synthesis chip. System 1 was capable of generating a max resolution of 336 x 240 with 256 colors from a palette of 1024 colors.
Non-game
Non-games have existed since the early days of video games, although there hasn't been a specific term for them. One of the first examples is Atari's 1977 "Surround", a two-player snake game for the Atari 2600, which contains a free-form drawing mode called "Video Graffiti." Later examples are Jaron Lanier's "Alien Garden" (Epyx, 1982) and "Moondust" (Creative Software, 1983), "Worms?" (one of the 1983 launch titles from Electronic Arts), "I, Robot" (Atari, 1983), which features a special "ungame mode" called "Doodle City," and Jeff Minter's "Psychedelia" (Llamasoft, 1984), which is an interactive light synthesizer.
Gauntlet (1985 video game)
Gauntlet is a fantasy-themed hack and slash arcade game by Atari Games. Released in October 1985, Atari ultimately sold a total of 7,848 "Gauntlet" video game arcade cabinets. It is noted as being one of the first multi-player dungeon crawl arcade games. The core design of "Gauntlet" comes from "Dandy", a 1983 Atari 8-bit family title, which resulted in a lawsuit.
Atari Video Music
The Atari Video Music (Model C240) is the earliest commercial electronic music visualizer released. It was manufactured by Atari, Inc., and released in 1977 for $169.95. The system creates an animated visual display that responds to musical input from a Hi-Fi stereo system for the visual entertainment of consumers.
Atari Program Exchange
In 1981 APX announced an award program, the Atari Star with quarterly and yearly cash awards. All programs submitted for publishing were considered for the awards. The annual grand prize for the best program was a trophy and $25,000. The first winner was "My First Alphabet" by Fernando Herrera. He used the money to start First Star Software, which developed the "Boulder Dash" and "Spy vs. Spy" franchises.
Harry M. Rubin
Atari, Inc. released the rights to develop a live action film version of Alone in the Dark, one of Atari's most acclaimed video game series. The original Alone in the Dark video game received critical acclaim upon its release and is considered a breakthrough and influential title, as it was the first 3D survival horror game. In 2009, Empire included Alone in the Dark on their list of 100 greatest video games of all time. Further the "Alone in the Dark" series gave birth to several critically and financial successful titles including "Alone in the Dark", "Jack in the Dark", "Alone in the Dark 2", "Alone in the Dark 3", "Alone in the Dark 4", "Alone in the Dark: New Nightmare". Atari CEO, Bruno Bonnell, and Rubin, then Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, served as co-executive producers for the movie . The cast included major film actors such as Golden Globe-winner Christian Slater who starred in the lead role as Edward Carnby, and Tara Reid, star of The Big Lebowski. The film was directed by three-time Razzies nominee and "Worst Career Achievement" winner, Uwe Boll, who also served as the film's executive producer. The film received a widely negative critical and box office response. Uwe Boll and Tara Reid were nominated for Worst Director and Worst Actress in a Lead Role at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
List of Atari 2600 games
This is a list of games for the Atari 2600 video game console, totaling more than 565 games, divided into the following sections: games published by Atari and Sears, games published by third parties during the 2600's production run, and later homebrew releases. The Atari 2600 was first released in North America on September 11, 1977 and featured nine launch titles: "Air-Sea Battle", "Basic Math", "Blackjack", "Combat", "Indy 500", "Star Ship", "Street Racer", "Surround" and "Video Olympics". The final licensed Atari 2600 games released in North America were Ikari Warriors, MotoRodeo, Sentinel, and Xenophobe in the spring of 1991 , and the final licensed games released in Europe were "Klax" and "Acid Drop" in 1990 and 1992, respectively.
Starship 1
Starship 1 is a first-person shooter arcade game developed, manufactured, and released by Atari in 1977. It contains the first known Easter egg in any arcade game. "Starship 1" was later ported to the Atari VCS as "Star Ship".
Alan Miller (game designer)
In late 1979, Miller left Atari with three other programmers, David Crane, Larry Kaplan and Bob Whitehead. They were disillusioned and disappointed with Atari's refusal to give them screen credit for any of the games they worked on. With music industry executive, Jim Levy, they formed Activision, the first independent video game developer and publisher. Activision rapidly grew to US$159 million in revenue in 1983, its third year of sales. Miller acted as Vice President of Product Development and designed several of the company's first games. Among his games designed while with Activision are "Checkers", "Tennis", "Ice Hockey", "Starmaster" and "Robot Tank". Miller experimented with implementing a 3D display for the game Checkers but due to technical limitations of both the Atari 2600 and television sets of the era, the idea was dropped.
Atari CX40 joystick
The Atari CX40 joystick was the first widely used cross-platform game controller. The original CX10 appeared on the Atari 2600 in 1977, and was considered such a great advance over other controllers that it became the primary input device for most games on the platform. The CX10 was replaced after a year by the much simpler and less expensive CX40. The addition of the Atari joystick port to other platforms cemented its popularity, and millions of CX40s were produced and used on almost every game console and home computer of the era.
Atari 2600
Despite Bushnell's retirement in 1978, Warren Robinett's invention of the first action-adventure game, "Adventure", was developed the same year and changed the fundamentals of gaming as it unlocked a game with a "virtual space bigger than the screen". However, the VCS still had gained a killer application to sell the console, and it had suffered the loss of programmers David Crane, Bob Whitehead, Larry Kaplan, and Alan Miller, the company's "Fantastic Four", who had programmed most of the successful VCS games to that point. The four left Atari disgruntled over Warner's oversight of the company and treatment of programmers in 1978, and formed the firm Activision, which would give rise to third-party software for the VCS. While the VCS was the best-selling console during the 1979 holiday season with over 1 million units sold, Atari saw newfound competition from the Mattel Intellivision and Magnavox Odyssey², both systems that also used swapable ROM cartridges.
Atari then licensed the arcade hit "Space Invaders" by Taito, which greatly increased the unit's popularity when it was released in January 1980, doubling sales to over 2 million units. The VCS and its cartridges were the main factor behind Atari grossing more than $2 billion in 1980. Sales then doubled again for the next two years; by 1982, the console had sold 10 million units, while its best-selling game "Pac-Man" sold 7 million copies. The console also sold 450,000 units in West Germany by 1984.
Code Mystics
After some digital releases in 2009 including web-based Atari arcade games and a DSiWare version of Dragon's Lair, Code Mystics' first-released boxed title was "Atari's Greatest Hits Volume I" for the Nintendo DS, released in 2010. It subsequently has developed titles for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, TV Games, and HTML5.
Pong
Atari remade the game on numerous platforms. In 1977, "Pong" and several variants of the game were featured in "Video Olympics", one of the original release titles for the Atari 2600. "Pong" has also been included in several Atari compilations on platforms including the Sega Genesis, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and personal computer. Through an agreement with Atari, Bally Gaming and Systems developed a slot machine version of the game. The Atari published "TD Overdrive" includes "Pong" as an extra game which is played during the loading screen. A 3D platform game with puzzle and shooter elements was reportedly in development by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in September 1995 under the title "Pong 2000", as part of their series of arcade game updates for the system and was set to have an original storyline for it, but it was never released. In 1999, the game was for home computers and the PlayStation with 3D graphics and power-ups. In 2012, Atari celebrated the 40th anniversary of "Pong" by releasing "Pong World".
Atari, Inc.
Although the 2600 had garnered the lion's share of the home video game market, it experienced its first stiff competition in 1980 from Mattel's Intellivision, which featured ads touting its superior graphics capabilities relative to the 2600. Still, the 2600 remained the industry standard-bearer, because of its market superiority, and because of Atari featuring (by far) the greatest variety of game titles available.
History of video games
In the early days of the programmable market, all of the games for a given system were developed by the firm that released the console. That changed in 1979 when four Atari programmers, seeking greater recognition and financial reward for their contributions, struck out on their own to form Activision, the first third-party developer. The company went on to develop a string of hits including "Kaboom!" (1981), "River Raid" (1982), and "Pitfall!" (1982), recognized as one of the foundational games of the scrolling platformer genre. In 1981, another group of Atari employees joined with ex-Mattel staff to form Imagic and experienced success with games like "Demon Attack" (1982) and "Atlantis" (1982).
Gotcha (video game)
Development on "Gotcha" began in July 1973, as Atari's fourth game after "Pong", "Space Race", and "Pong Doubles". The company was interested in producing a very different game from their previous success of "Pong", as they felt that innovative design was what would separate them from their competitors, which they saw as flooding the market with "Pong" clones rather than making new video games. After the release of "Space Race", development immediately moved on to "Gotcha". The design of the game was done by Allan Alcorn, the designer of "Pong" and developer for "Space Race". Alcorn had the idea for the game from a defect he sometimes saw when testing "Pong" machines: if part of the circuit that converted scores to images on the screens was broken, then parts of the numbers would be scattered across the screen. Alcorn thought that combining that defect intentionally with a motion circuit could create dynamically changing mazes. A prototype design was developed by Steve Mayer of Cyan Engineering, which had recently become a semi-independent research and development subsidiary of Atari.
The cabinet for the game was designed by Atari's product designer, George Faraco. His designed featured a joystick for each player, which was encased in a pink dome that the player would rest their hands on to control the joysticks, meant to resemble breasts. Faraco later acknowledged that "they didn't have bumps on them or anything, but the way they were the size of grapefruits next to each other, you got the impression of what they were supposed to be." Atari's second engineer, Don Lange, who assisted with the game, has also stated that the design was intentional on the part of Faraco, who fellow Atari designer Regan Chang has claimed "had some really far out ideas". According to rumor, Faraco got the idea from a joke that joysticks resembled phalluses, and that Atari should make a game with female controls. Like Faraco's initial design for "Space Race", which was changed due to its expense after a few dozen units, the joysticks for "Gotcha" were changed to standard ones shortly into the production run prior to the October 11, 1973 release. The design did inspire the advertising flyer for the game, however, which features a man chasing a woman in a nightdress with the initial design of the cabinet behind them. The final cabinet stands over 5 feet tall and weighs nearly 200 pounds. The breast-like controllers reappeared in yellow in prototype versions of the 1974 "Touch Me" arcade game, but were not used in production.
Tetris (Atari)
Tetris (styled TETЯIS) is a puzzle game developed by Atari Games and originally released for arcades in 1988. Based on Alexey Pajitnov's "Tetris", Atari's version features the same gameplay as the computer editions of the game, as players must stack differently shaped falling blocks to form and eliminate horizontal lines from the playing field. The game features several difficulty levels and two-player simultaneous play.
Nolan Bushnell
In 1972, Bushnell and Dabney set off on their own, and learned that the name "Syzygy" was in use; Bushnell has said at different times that it was in use by a candle company owned by a Mendocino hippie commune and by a roofing company. They instead incorporated under the name Atari, a reference to a check-like position in the game Go (which Bushnell has called his "favorite game of all time"). They rented their first office on Scott Boulevard in Sunnyvale, California, contracted with Bally Manufacturing to create a driving game, and hired their second employee, engineer Allan Alcorn. Bushnell later bought out Dabney, who was forced out after Nolan told him he would transfer all the assets to another corporation and leave Ted with nothing.
Atari joystick port
The Atari 2600 developed out of an effort to address problems Atari found when releasing their first home video game console, "Pong". Although successful, "Pong" was an expensive system to design, and was dedicated solely to one game. It would be much more practical to have a machine that could run multiple games. The list of games it would need to support included "Pong" variations, and "Tank". It was the desire to run these two games that led to the need for some sort of flexible input system; "Pong" used analog paddle controllers, while "Tank" used dual digital (on/off) joysticks. Arcade games of the era generally used paddles, joysticks or a unique sort of steering wheel controller that was spun, entirely unlike a real car.
Video game industry
Soon after, "Space Invaders" was licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as Atari 2600), becoming the first "killer app" and quadrupling the console's sales. The success of the Atari 2600 in turn revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983. By the end of the 1970s, the personal computer game industry began forming from a hobby culture.
Atari 2600
Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney of which their first major product was "Pong" in 1972, one of the first successful arcade games. It transitioned "Pong" into a home console version by 1975, helping to pit Atari against Magnavox, the only other major competitor for home consoles at the time. Bushnell recognized that this approach to home consoles has a drawback in that because it used custom logic burned onto the circuit board, it was limited to only one game and any variants, and would require consumers to buy another console to play a different set of games. Further, while they could continue to take games they had created for arcade machines to home consoles, this development step cost at least and time to complete, and once on the market, had only about a three-month shelf life before being outdated, making this a risky move.
Astro Chase
In 1981, Atari, Inc. introduced the Atari Star Award for the best new program distributed though their Atari Program Exchange. Winner of the first $25,000 grand prize was Fernando Herrera for "My First Alphabet", a children's game. Fernando was working at a computer retail store owned by Billy Blake who was also partners with Richard Spitalny at the time. Billy and Richard, then feature film producers, decided to start and fund an interactive software company to showcase Fernado's talents. Richard and Billy funded the company, naming it First Star Software.
Atari, Inc.
In 1966, Nolan Bushnell saw "Spacewar!" for the first time at the University of Utah. By 1968, Bushnell had become an employee of Ampex in San Francisco, and worked alongside Ted Dabney. The two found they had shared interests, including the game "Go", Bushnell shared with Dabney his gaming-pizza parlor idea, and had taken him to the computer lab at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to see the games on those systems. They jointly developed the concept of using a standalone computer system with a monitor and attaching a coin slot to it to play games on.
Lunar Lander (1979 video game)
In 1980, "Asteroids" and "Lunar Lander" became the first two games to be registered in the United States Copyright Office, though Burness has claimed that Atari also attempted to patent the game design, which was rejected due to his prior "Moonlander". In 2012, for the 40th anniversary of Atari's founding, it released a set of its early games as browser-based games as the "Atari Arcade"; "Lunar Lander" was one of the initial set of eight games. That same year, Lumen Prize-winner Seb Lee-Delisle presented his "Lunar Trails" art installation at the Science Gallery in Dublin, in which a machine draws out the cumulative paths taken by players of a "Lunar Lander" arcade game.
Lunar Lander (1979 video game)
In 1977, Atari produced "Star Ship" for the Atari 2600, which contained several space-related games; one of these was titled "Lunar Lander", though despite the name its gameplay involved landing on a surface while avoiding enemy spaceships instead of the gameplay of the arcade game. While Atari did not produce any true sequels or contemporary ports of the game, in 1981 Adventure International produced a version of the concept under the title "Lunar Lander" as part of a series of arcade game clones for the TRS-80 and Atari 8-bit computers, which, though featuring differences from the Atari version, was advertised as "an arcade game simulation". At least one other arcade game based on the "Lunar Lander" concept was developed around the same time, the non-vector graphics game "Lunar Rescue" by Taito. The Atari "Lunar Lander" has been included in several Atari compilation releases for various platforms starting in 2003, such as "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One" (2003, personal computer), the Atari Flashback 2 console (2005), "Millipede / Super Breakout / Lunar Lander" (2005, Game Boy Advance), "Retro Atari Classics" (2005, Nintendo DS), "Atari Masterpieces" (2005, N-Gage), "Atari Classics Evolved" (2007, PlayStation Portable), "Atari Greatest Hits" (2010, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS), and "Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1" (2017, PlayStation 4, Xbox One).
Atari, Inc. (Atari, SA subsidiary)
Another popular series by Atari has been the Godzilla Series, based on the nuclear monster originally created by Toho. Pipeworks developed and created all three of the console titles, although handheld titles were developed separately. The series started with "" for the Nintendo GameCube which was released on October 11, 2002 to much success before it was ported to the Microsoft Xbox a year later. It was followed by a sequel, "" for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, on November 16, 2004. Despite "Save the Earth"s relative commercial failure, "" was released for the PS2 and Wii, on November 20, 2007 and December 5, 2007 respectively. "Unleashed" was accompanied by "" for the Nintendo DS, which was released on November 20, 2007. There is speculation as to the series' future, although current belief is that Atari has lost the rights to Godzilla.
Asteroids (video game)
A prototype of "Asteroids" was well received by several Atari staff and engineers, who would "wander between labs, passing comment and 
stopping to play as they went". Logg was often asked when he would be leaving by employees eager to play the prototype, so he created a second prototype specifically for staff to play. Atari went to Sacramento, California for testing, setting up prototypes of the game in local arcades to measure its potential success. The company also observed veteran players and younger players during focus group sessions at Atari itself. A group of old players familiar with "Spacewar!" struggled to maintain grip on the thrust button and requested a joystick, whereas younger players accustomed to "Space Invaders" noted they get no break in the game. Logg and other Atari engineers observed proceedings and documented comments in four pages.
"Asteroids" was released for the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit family in 1981 and Atari 7800 in 1986. Released in 1981, the 2600 port was the first game to use bank switching, a technique developed by Carl Nielsen's group of engineers that increased available ROM space from 4 KB to 8 KB. Brad Stewart, the programmer tasked to work on the port, used bank switching to complete the game. A port for the Atari 5200, identical to the Atari 8-bit computer version, was in development in 1982, but was not published.
Gotcha (video game)
"Gotcha" was not commercially successful; later sources have described it as receiving a "lukewarm reception" and "arousing little more than controversy". Ralph Baer, however, claims it sold 3,000 units. Additionally, despite "Gotcha"s prominence as Atari's fourth game and their second game not related to "Pong", the 1973 arcade video game market was largely dominated by "Pong" clones; while "Pong" was the fourth arcade video game ever produced, "Gotcha" was approximately the twentieth, with nearly all the other games released before and after "Gotcha" through the end of the year "Pong" clones. "Gotcha" was the first arcade maze video game, though non-commercial maze-based video games had been developed as early as the 1959 "Mouse in the Maze" computer game.
Video game console
The Odyssey initially sold about 100,000 units, making it moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game "Pong" popularized video games that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By autumn 1975, Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of "Pong", canceled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only "Pong" and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, "higher end" console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, and a third game—"Smash". Almost simultaneously released with Atari's own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey did with no board game pieces or extra cartridges. In the years that followed, the market saw many companies rushing similar consoles to market. After General Instrument released their inexpensive microchips, each containing a complete console on a single chip, many small developers began releasing consoles that looked different externally, but internally were playing exactly the same games. Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing only the games that came with the console. These video game consoles were often just called video games because there was little reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari, Magnavox, and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, the market became flooded with simple, similar video games.
Atari Lynx
The Atari Lynx is an 16-bit handheld game console that was released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America, and in Europe and Japan in 1990. It was the world's first handheld electronic game with a color LCD. It was also notable for its advanced graphics and ambidextrous layout. The Lynx competed with the Game Boy (released two months earlier), as well as the Game Gear and TurboExpress, both released the following year. It was discontinued in 1996.
List of Atari arcade games
Below is a list of arcade video games produced by Atari. These games were produced by Atari, Inc. from 1972 to 1984 starting with Pong and Atari Games from 1984 to 2000. Atari no longer manufacturers arcade games and, in fact, the entity that now owns the brand name (French company, Infogrames) never has.
Atari joystick port
The Atari joystick port is a widely used computer port used to connect various gaming controllers to game console and home computer systems. It was originally introduced on the Atari 2600 in 1977 and then used on the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979. It went cross-platform with the Commodore VIC-20 of 1981, and was then used on many following machines from both companies, as well as a growing list of 3rd party machines like the MSX platform and various Sega consoles.
Handheld game console
In 1987, Epyx created the Handy Game; a device that would turn into the Atari Lynx in 1989. It is the first color handheld console ever made, as well as the first with a backlit screen. It also features networking support with up to 17 other players, and advanced hardware that allows the zooming and scaling of sprites. The Lynx can also be turned upside down to accommodate left-handed players. However, all these features came at a very high price point, which drove consumers to seek cheaper alternatives. The Lynx is also very unwieldy, consumes batteries very quickly, and lacked the third-party support enjoyed by its competitors. Due to its high price, short battery life, production shortages, a dearth of compelling games, and Nintendo's aggressive marketing campaign, and despite a redesign in 1991, the Lynx became a commercial failure. Despite this, companies like Telegames helped to keep the system alive long past its commercial relevance, and when new owner Hasbro released the rights to develop for the public domain, independent developers like Songbird have managed to release new commercial games for the system every year until 2004's "Winter Games".
AtariWriter
Atari's first word processor was "Atari Word Processor". This was disk based, required 48KB, was incompatible with the XL computers, and was copy protected but widely copied. A newer product was needed that could run on any of the 8-bit machines, which meant using a cartridge instead of a disk and thereby help solve the piracy issues. Cartridges on the Atari normally held 8KB or less of ROM, requiring a smaller program.
Atari Football
Atari Football is a 2-player 1978 arcade game. It was developed and published by Atari, Inc.. In this game, the sport of American football is emulated, with players represented by Xs and Os. The game was one of the most popular arcade games in its day. In 1979, Atari released a more challenging four-player version programmed by Dave Theurer, the creator of "Missile Command" and "Tempest".
List of Atari arcade games
Atari was an early pioneer in the video game industry, in fact, they virtually created the industry with their introduction of the arcade game "Pong". The brand name "Atari" was used for many years and applied to several other entities that developed products ranging from arcade video games to home video game consoles to home computers to video games for personal computers.
Star Wars video games
The Atari 2600, beginning with "" (1982) in which the player piloted a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth, destroying AT-AT walkers. Several other games appeared, such as "" (1983), where the player controlled the Millennium Falcon in a mission to destroy the second Death Star, and "" (1983), the first game to attempt to simulate a lightsaber battle (in this case, clearly inspired by the "Star Wars" scene, where Luke Skywalker trains with a seeker). In 1983, the "Star Wars" arcade game was released by Atari based on the 1977 film. In this game (featuring color vector graphics and the first ever digitized speech from a film) the player enters the seat of Luke's Red Five X-Wing fighter, battles waves of TIE fighters led by Darth Vader, weaves through towers across the surface of the Death Star, and plummets through the battle station's trench in an attempt to destroy it. The sequel for the game, "", used the same technology to re-create scenes from the second film, including battles with AT-AT walkers and an asteroid field.
Space Duel
Space Duel is an arcade game released in 1982 by Atari Inc. It is a direct descendant of the original "Asteroids", with asteroids replaced by colorful geometric shapes like cubes, diamonds, and spinning pinwheels. "Space Duel" is the first and only multi-player vector game by Atari. When "Asteroids Deluxe" did not sell well, this game was taken off the shelf and released to moderate success. There were no contemporary home ports.
Atari Program Exchange
When Atari first launched the Atari 8-bit family in late 1979, the company kept most of the hardware details secret. It intended to be the primary supplier of software for the platform, as had been the case with the Atari 2600 console. By the end of the first year on the market increasingly sophisticated applications from outside Atari were nonetheless becoming available. There were, however, a limited number of distribution channels at the time.
John F. Dunn
After graduating, Dunn took a job at Atari where he worked as one of the company's first game developers. In 1978, he programmed the Atari 2600 "Superman" video game, a tie-in game to the 1978 film of the same name. Dunn designed the gameplay and graphics and wrote both the story and the game manual. In 2017, "Guinness World Records" identified it as the first superhero video game and the first video game/movie tie-in. Superman was also recognized as the longest-running video game character.
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 and manufactured until 1992. All of the machines in the family are technically similar and differ primarily in packaging. They are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU running at 1.79 MHz, and were the first home computers designed with custom co-processor chips. This architecture enabled graphics and sound capabilities that were more advanced than contemporary machines at the time of release, and gaming on the platform was a major draw. "Star Raiders" is considered the platform's killer app.
Wizard (2005 video game)
Wizard is a video game created in 1980 for the Atari Video Computer System (later renamed the Atari 2600) by Chris Crawford while working for Atari, Inc. The game was not advertised or released by Atari. "Wizard" uses a 2K ROM, the last Atari 2600 game developed by Atari with less than 4K. "Wizard" was eventually released as part of the Atari Flashback 2 package in 2005.
List of Atari 7800 games
This is a list of games for the Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800 video game console, totaling more than 59 games. It was a video game console released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. A test market release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 was designed to replace Atari Inc.'s unsuccessful Atari 5200 and later to re-establish Atari Corp.'s market supremacy against Nintendo and Sega. With this system, Atari Inc. addressed all the shortcomings of the Atari 5200: it had simple digital joysticks; it was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600; and it was affordable (originally priced at US$140).
History of video games
In 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney decided to strike out on their own and incorporated their preexisting partnership as Atari. After seeing a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey ahead of its release, Bushnell charged new hire Allan Alcorn to create a version of that system's table tennis game as a practice project to familiarize himself with video game design. Alcorn's version ended up being so fun that Atari decided to release it as "Pong". Available in limited quantities in late 1972, "Pong" began reaching the market in quantity in March 1973, after which it ignited a new craze for ball-and-paddle video games in the coin-operated amusement industry. The success of "Pong" did not result in the displacement of traditional arcade amusements like pinball, but did lay the foundation for a successful video arcade game industry. Roughly 70,000 video games, mostly ball-and-paddle variants, were sold in 1973 by a combination of recent startups like Atari, Ramtek, and Allied Leisure and established Chicago firms like Williams, Chicago Coin, and the Midway subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing.
Atari System
Very soon after the introduction of the Atari System 1, the Atari System 2 was introduced. The System 2 platform was used for the games:
Probably the most noticeable difference between the System 2 and System 1 games was the fact that the System 2 used higher resolution graphics. The video resolution was 512x384 and as such a medium-resolution monitor was used (System 1 used low resolution).
Arcade game
In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game "Pong", the first successful electronic ping pong video game. "Pong" proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market.
Atari
In 1976, Bushnell, through Grass Valley, CA firm Cyan Engineering, started development of a flexible console that was capable of playing the four existing Atari games. The result was the Atari Video Computer System, or VCS (later renamed 2600 when the 5200 was released). The introductory price of $199 () included a console, two joysticks, a pair of paddles, and the Combat game cartridge. Bushnell knew he had another potential hit on his hands but bringing the machine to market would be extremely expensive. Looking for outside investors, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for an estimated $28–32 million, using part of the money to buy the Folgers Mansion. Nolan continued to have disagreements with Warner Management over the direction of the company, the discontinuation of the pinball division, and most importantly, the notion of discontinuing the 2600. In 1978, Kee Games was disbanded. In December of that year, Nolan Bushnell was fired following an argument with Manny Gerard. "[W]e started fighting like cats and dogs. And then the wheels came off that fall. Warner claimed they fired me," recalled Bushnell. "I say I quit. It was a mutual separation."
Role-playing video game
The earliest RPG on a console was "Dragonstomper" on the Atari 2600 in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was "Bokosuka Wars", originally released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the MSX in 1984, the NES in 1985 and the Sharp X68000 as "New Bokosuka Wars". The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time, action role-playing game. In 1986, Chunsoft created the NES title "Dragon Quest" (called "Dragon Warrior" in North America until the ), which drew inspiration from computer RPG's "Ultima" and "Wizardry" and is regarded as the template for future Japanese role-playing video games released since then.
The Last Starfighter
A real "The Last Starfighter" arcade game by Atari, Inc. is promised in the end credits, but was never released. If released, the game would have been Atari's first 3D polygonal arcade game to use a Motorola 68000 as the CPU. Gameplay would have been taken from game scenes and space battle scenes in the film and would have included the same controller that was used on the first Star Wars arcade game. The game was abandoned once Atari representatives saw the film in post-production and decided it was not going to be a financial success.
Atari, SA
In October 2001, Infogrames announced that it was "reinventing" the Atari brand (Which they acquired from Hasbro Interactive which they used as a brand for arcade game remakes) with the launch of three new games featuring prominent Atari branding on their boxarts: "Splashdown", "MX Rider" and "TransWorld Surf". The brand was a success for Infogrames, and they continued to use Atari as a brand name for console games aimed at 18-34 year olds. PC, educational and casual games retained the Infogrames banner.
Le Mans 24 Hours video games
The first Le Mans video game was in 1976 by Atari, an upright standing arcade game with a steering wheel and white raster graphics on a black background.
Pong
"Pong" was the first game developed by Atari. After producing "Computer Space", Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games by licensing ideas to other companies. The first contract was with Bally Manufacturing Corporation for a driving game. Soon after the founding, Bushnell hired Allan Alcorn because of his experience with electrical engineering and computer science; Bushnell and Dabney also had previously worked with him at Ampex. Prior to working at Atari, Alcorn had no experience with video games. To acclimate Alcorn to creating games, Bushnell gave him a project secretly meant to be a warm-up exercise. Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract with General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping. In 2011, Bushnell stated that the game was inspired by previous versions of electronic tennis he had played before; Bushnell played a version on a PDP-1 computer in 1964 while attending college. However, Alcorn has claimed it was in direct response to Bushnell's viewing of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game. In May 1972, Bushnell had visited the Magnavox Profit Caravan in Burlingame, California where he played the Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis game. Though he thought the game lacked quality, seeing it prompted Bushnell to assign the project to Alcorn.
Combat (Atari 2600)
Combat is a video game by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS (later called the Atari 2600). It was released as one of the nine launch titles for the system in September 1977, and was included in the box with the system from its introduction until 1982. "Combat" was based on two earlier black-and-white coin-operated arcade games produced by Atari: "Tank" (published under the Kee Games name) in 1974 and "Jet Fighter" in 1975.
Atari, Inc. (Atari, SA subsidiary)
Because of popular demand, Atari hired Curt Vendel once again to produce a follow up product. With a longer development window, Vendel released a new version of the Flashback console, titled Atari Flashback 2, in August 2005. The Flashback 2 is based on an implementation of the original Atari 2600 on a single chip that Curt Vendel designed, allowing the original 2600 games to be run instead of ports as in the first Flashback. In addition, the included joysticks are fully compatible with the original 2600 joysticks and vice versa. Furthermore, the circuitboard in the Flashback 2 actually has connectors for modders to solder on a cartridge slot, allowing the Flashback 2 to play the entire library of 2600 games. Since 2011, the consoles have been produced and marketed by AtGames under license from Atari.
Lunar Lander (1979 video game)
Development of the game began with the creation of a vector graphics engine by Atari after the release of the 1978 Cinematronics game "Space Wars". Upon its completion, engine co-designer Howard Delman proposed using it to create a Lunar Lander game, a genre which had seen numerous text-based examples beginning in 1969 and the graphical game "Moonlander" (1973). Delman and Rich Moore then developed the game itself. It was Atari's first vector-based game and the first multiple-perspective video game, changing views as the module approaches the Moon. "Lunar Lander" sold 4,830 units, a moderate success, but it was soon overtaken by the November 1979 "Asteroids", and 300 "Asteroids" units were shipped in "Lunar Landing"-branded cabinets. "Lunar Lander" was one of the first two games to be registered with the United States Copyright Office, though the prior games in the genre kept the gameplay from being patented. It was one of the first games ported by Atari to its Atari Arcade browser game portal and has been featured in an art installation at the Dublin Science Gallery.
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.
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem was the first game system from Atari Inc. designed by an outside company, General Computer Corporation (GCC). The system was designed in 1983-1984 with an intended mass market rollout in June of '84, but was canceled shortly thereafter due to the sale of the company to Tramel Technology Ltd on July 2, 1984. The project was originally called the Atari 3600, though was later renamed the Atari 7800.
Planet of the Apes
In 1983, 20th Century Fox Videogames developed a "Planet of the Apes" game for the Atari 2600, which was to be the first computer game based on the series. The game was still in the prototype phase when Fox shuttered its game division during the video game crash of 1983 and never saw release. It was assumed lost until 2002, when collectors identified a prototype, found earlier in a case labeled "Alligator People", as the missing "Apes" game. Independent designers Retrodesign completed and released the game as "Revenge of the Apes" in 2003. In the game, the player controls Taylor as he fights apes across several levels inspired by the film to reach the Statue of Liberty.
Pong
"Pong" was the first commercially successful video game, which helped to establish the video game industry along with the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that copied its gameplay, and eventually released new types of games. As a result, Atari encouraged its staff to produce more innovative games. The company released several sequels which built upon the original's gameplay by adding new features. During the 1975 Christmas season, Atari released a home version of "Pong" exclusively through Sears retail stores. It also was a commercial success and led to numerous copies. The game has been remade on numerous home and portable platforms following its release. "Pong" is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. due to its cultural impact.
My Horse &amp; Me
My Horse & Me is a show jumping video game published by Atari for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Windows. It is the first game released by Atari under their exclusive partnership with the FEI.
Space Invaders
The 1980 Atari 2600 version was the first official licensing of an arcade game and became the first "killer app" for video game consoles by quadrupling the system's sales. It sold over two million units in its first year on sale as a home console game, making it the first title to sell a million cartridges. Other official ports were released for the Atari 8-bit computer line and Atari 5200 console, while Taito later released it for the Nintendo Famicom in 1985 (Japan only). Numerous unofficial clones were made, such as the popular computer games "Super Invader" (1979) and "TI Invaders" (1981), which was the top-selling game for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A through at least 1982. Adjusted for inflation, all versions of "Space Invaders" are estimated to have exceeded $13 billion in gross revenue, making it the highest-grossing video game of all time.
Adventure (Atari 2600)
Adventure is a video game for the Atari 2600 video game console, released in late –. In the game, the player controls a square avatar whose quest is to explore an open-ended environment to find a magical chalice and return it to the golden castle. The game world is populated by roaming enemies: three dragons that can eat the avatar and a bat that randomly steals and hides items around the game world. "Adventure" introduced a number of innovative game elements to console games, including a playing area that spanned several different screens and enemies that continued to move even when not displayed on the screen.
Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle
Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle is a shoot 'em up video game published by Parker Brothers in 1983 for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 8-bit family. In 1984 it was published for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was one of the earliest "Star Wars"-related video games, following "" in 1982 and alongside Atari's 1983 "Star Wars" arcade game. It was first video game based on "Return of the Jedi".
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.
Atari AMY
Amy was announced in an Atari-internal mailing list in March 1984, with a short description and a June estimated time frame for shipping the first version, the AMY-1, with volume quantities available that December. The first versions would run up to 5 MHz, but a second run improved this to 10 MHz. Spec sheets used 4 and 8 MHz and basic clock speeds, respectively.
Atari
Atari SA () is a French corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972, currently by Atari Interactive, a subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as "Pong" and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Video game console
The VES continued to be sold at a profit after 1977, and both Bally (with their Home Library Computer in 1977) and Magnavox (with the Odyssey² in 1978) brought their own programmable cartridge-based consoles to the market. However, it was not until Atari released a conversion of the golden age arcade hit "Space Invaders" in 1980 for the Atari 2600 that the home console industry took off. Many consumers bought an Atari console so they could play "Space Invaders" at home. The unprecedented success of "Space Invaders" started the trend of console manufacturers trying to get exclusive rights to arcade titles, and the trend of advertisements for game consoles claiming to bring the arcade experience home. Throughout the early 1980s, other companies released video game consoles of their own. Many of the video game systems (e.g. ColecoVision) were technically superior to the Atari 2600, and marketed as improvements over the Atari 2600. However, Atari dominated the console market in the early 1980s.
Atari 7800
In 2004, Atari (now owned by Infogrames) released the first Atari Flashback console. This system resembled a miniature Atari 7800 and joysticks and had 20 built in games (five 7800 and fifteen 2600 titles). While the unit sold well, it was controversial among Atari fans. Atari had given the engineering firm, Legacy Engineering, extremely limited development timelines. The firm was forced to build the Flashback using NES-On-A-Chip hardware instead of recreating the Atari 7800 hardware. As a result, the Flashback has been criticized for failing to properly replicate the actual Atari gaming experience.
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.
Dandy (video game)
Dandy (later Dandy Dungeon) is a dungeon crawl for the Atari 8-bit family published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1983. It was written by John Howard Palevich, originally for his undergraduate thesis while at MIT. "Dandy" is one of the first games to offer simultaneous, four-player, cooperative play. It was the direct inspiration for the popular 1985 Atari Games coin-op, "Gauntlet", and later turned into the Dark Chambers home game published by Atari Corporation.
Carla Meninsky
Her first Atari 2600 game was "Indy 500", co-written with Ed Riddle, and released in 1977 as a launch title for the system. It's a simplified version of the "Indy 800" Atari arcade game, and the only 2600 game to make use of the "driving controllers" that shipped with it. She also wrote the 1980 racing game "Dodge 'Em" (similar to the 1979 "Head On" coin-op from Sega), a 1981 port of Atari's "Warlords", and the 2600 version of "Star Raiders" (originally designed by Doug Neubauer for the Atari 8-bit family). She later worked on a port "Tempest" that was never released, but prototypes exist.
Super Pitfall
It was the first game ever that Activision published for a console made by Nintendo and it was based upon Activision's earlier Pitfall! series for the Atari 2600. This game was also ported to the TRS-80 Color Computer 3. A sequel titled "Super Pitfall II" was planned, but then was cancelled a short time later. It was going to be the localized version of Sunsoft's Famicom title, "Atlantis no Nazo".
Tank (video game)
"Tank" was designed by Steve Bristow, who had previously worked with the founders of Atari on "Computer Space", the first arcade video game, and was developed by Lyle Rains. It was created as part of Bristow's vision to move the company away from only producing copies of Atari's games into also developing original titles. The game's cabinet was designed by Peter Takaichi. In September 1974, Atari announced a merger with Kee, which went into effect a month after the release of the game. The game was commercially successful, selling over 10,000 units and buoying Atari's then-troubled finances. It led to a cocktail cabinet release of the game and to four sequels: "Tank II" (1974), "Tank III" (1975), "Tank 8" (1976), and "Ultra Tank" (1978). A dedicated console version of "Tank II" was announced in 1977 but cancelled later that year; the joysticks for the game, however, became the standard joystick controllers for the Atari 2600 (1977). Variations on the game were included in the Atari 2600 game "Combat", as well as in the Coleco Telstar game "Telstar Combat!", both in 1977.