Atari Inc. was a video game and computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Primarily responsible for the formation of the video arcade and modern video game industries, the company was closed and its assets split in 1984 as a direct result of the North American video game crash of 1983. This article is about the corporate brand. ... E.T. for the Atari 2600 is considered by many to be emblematic of the crash along with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. ...

See also: 1971 in video gaming, other events of 1972, 1973 in video gaming, history of video games Events May 24: Magnavox unveils the Odyssey at a Burlingame, California convention. ... 1984 1984 in games 1983 in video gaming 1985 in video gaming Notable events of 1984 in video gaming. ... Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Otto Lee Area  - Total 22. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... For other uses, see Pong (disambiguation). ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ... The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. ... Nolan K. Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American electrical engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari and the Chuck E. Cheeses Pizza-Time Theaters chain. ... Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell created the first arcade game, Computer Space, in 1971 and founded Atari Computers in 1972. ... Warner Communications, formerly Kinney National Company, was the parent company for Warner Bros. ...

Origin

In 1966, Nolan Bushnell saw Spacewar! for the first time at the University of Utah. Deciding there was commercial potential in a coin-op version, several years later he and Ted Dabney worked on a hand-wired custom computer capable of playing it on a black and white television in a single-player mode where the player shot at two orbiting UFOs. The resulting game, Computer Space, was released by an existing coin-op game company, Nutting Associates. Nolan K. Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American electrical engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari and the Chuck E. Cheeses Pizza-Time Theaters chain. ... Spacewar! is one of the earliest video games for a digital computer. ... The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U or the UU), located in Salt Lake City, is the flagship public research university in the state of Utah, and one of 10 institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education. ... Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell created the first arcade game, Computer Space, in 1971 and founded Atari Computers in 1972. ... UFO can mean: Unidentified flying object United Future Organization, a Japanese-Brazilian electronic jazz band UFO, the rock band that previously featured Michael Schenker UFO, the Gerry Anderson TV series United Farmers of Ontario, a political party that formed the government in Ontario from 1919 to 1923 U.F.O... Computer Space is a video arcade game released in November, 1971 by Nutting Associates. ... Nutting Associates was the company that created Computer Space (1971), the first coin operated arcade game. ...

Computer Space did not fare well commercially when it was placed in Nutting's customary market, bars. Feeling that the game was simply too complex for the average customer, Bushnell started looking for new ideas.^[1]

The original Atari upright cabinet

Bushnell and Ted Dabney left Nutting to form their own engineering firm, Syzygy Engineering,^[2] and soon hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer. Initially wanting to start Syzygy off with a driving game, Bushnell had concerns that it might be too complicated for the young Alcorn's first game.^[1]In May 1972, Nolan had seen a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey, which included a tennis game. He decided to have Alcorn produce an arcade version of the Odyssey's Tennis game,^[3] which would go on to be named Pong. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (678x1114, 107 KB) An original Atari Pong video game console on display at an exhibition in Vienna in 1998. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (678x1114, 107 KB) An original Atari Pong video game console on display at an exhibition in Vienna in 1998. ... Look up Syzygy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Al Alcorn grew up in San Francisco, went to Berkeley, and later was at the video pioneering company, Ampex. ... The Magnavox Odyssey was the worlds first commercially sold video game console. ... For other uses, see Pong (disambiguation). ...

When they went to incorporate their firm that June, they soon found that Syzygy (an astronomical term) already existed in California. Bushnell wrote down several words from the game Go, eventually choosing atari, a term that in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. In Japanese, atari is the nominalized form of ataru, which literally means to "target" or "aim at" something. Loosely, it can be translated as "prepare to be attacked". Also, the name "Atari" is arguably more memorable than "Syzygy" in terms of spelling and pronunciation for most markets. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27th, 1972.^[4] Look up Syzygy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Go is a strategic board game for two players. ... Go terms and concepts are important in the game of Go. ... This is an in-depth discussion of the rules of Go. ...

By November 1972, the first Pong was completed. It consisted of a black and white television from Walgreens, the special game hardware, and a coin mechanism from a laundromat on the side which featured a milk carton inside to catch coins. Placed in a Sunnyvale tavern by the name of Andy Capps' to test its viability, it took only one day to realize they had a hit: Walgreen Co. ... Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Otto Lee Area  - Total 22. ...

"Seven quarters later they were having extended volleys, and the constant pong noise was attracting the curiosity of others at the bar. Before closing, everybody in the bar had played the game. The next day people were lined up outside Andy Capp's at 10 A.M. to play Pong. Around ten o'clock that night, the game suddenly died."^[5]

When they arrived the next morning to fix the machine, they were met by a lineup of people waiting for the bar to open so they could play the game. On examination, the problem turned out to be mundane; the coin collector was filled to overflowing with quarters, and when customers tried to jam them in anyway, the mechanism shorted out.

After talks to release Pong through Nutting and several other companies broke down, Bushnell and his partner Ted Dabney decided to release Pong on their own,^[6] and Atari Inc. was established as a coin-op design and production company.

The third version of the Atari Video Computer System sold from 1980 to 1981

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, with each getting an "exclusive" deal. Though Kee's relationship to Atari was discovered in 1974, Joe Keenan did such a good job managing the subsidiary that he was promoted to president of Atari that same year. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 475 pixelsFull resolution (1938 × 1151 pixels, file size: 783 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 475 pixelsFull resolution (1938 × 1151 pixels, file size: 783 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ... Kee Games was an arcade game manufacturer that released games from 1973 to 1978. ... This article is about the arcade game. ...

In 1975, Bushnell started an effort to produce a flexible video game console that was capable of playing all four of Atari's then-current games. Development took place at an offshoot engineering lab, which initially had serious difficulties trying to produce such a machine. However, in early 1976 the now-famous MOS Technology 6502 was released, and for the first time the team had a CPU with both the high-performance and low-cost needed to meet their needs. The result was the Atari 2600, one of the most successful consoles in history. The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle for MOS Technology in 1975. ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation in Macleans College is often known as Ash Lim. ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ...

As a subsidiary of Warner Communications

Bushnell knew he had another potential hit on his hands, but bringing the machine to market would be extremely expensive. Looking for outside investors, in 1976 Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for an estimated $28 - $32 million, using part of the money to buy the Folgers Mansion. He departed from the division in 1979. Time Warner Inc. ...

The Atari 400 was released in 1979

A project to design a successor to the 2600 started as soon as the system shipped. The original development team estimated the 2600 had a lifespan of about three years, and decided to build the most powerful machine they could given that time frame. By the middle of the effort's time-frame the home computer revolution was taking off, so the new machines were adapted with the addition of a keyboard and various inputs to produce the Atari 800, and its smaller cousin, the 400. Although a variety of issues made them less attractive than the Apple II for some users, the new machines had some level of success when they finally became available in quantity in 1980. Atari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. ... This article is primarily about a certain class of Personal computers from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, see Domotics or Home servers for home computers used in home automation. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...

While part of Warner, Atari achieved its greatest success, selling millions of 2600s and computers. At its peak, Atari accounted for a third of Warner's annual income and was the fastest-growing company in the history of the United States at the time.

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. Mattel headquarters in El Segundo Mattel Inc. ... The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. ...

However, Atari ran into problems in the early 1980s. Its home computer, video game console, and arcade divisions operated independently of one another and rarely cooperated. Faced with fierce competition and price wars in the game console and home computer markets, Atari was never able to duplicate the success of the 2600. This article is primarily about a certain class of Personal computers from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, see Domotics or Home servers for home computers used in home automation. ... Game console redirects here. ... arcade, see Arcade. ...

• In 1982, Atari released disappointing versions of two highly publicized games, Pac-Man and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, causing a pileup of unsold inventory and depressing prices. (In 1983, in response to a massive number of returned orders from distributors, Atari buried millions of unsold game cartridges (the bulk of them consisting of those same two titles, Pac-Man and E.T.) in a New Mexico desert landfill.)
• In December of 1982, Atari executives Ray Kassar and Dennis Groth were investigated for allegations of insider trading (later found to be false).
• Larry Emmons, employee No.3, retired in 1982. He was head of research and development of the small group of talented engineers in Grass Valley, California, who had designed the 2600 and home computers.
• The Atari 5200 game console, released as a next-generation follow up to the 2600, was based on the Atari 800 computer (but was incompatible with Atari 800 game cartridges), and its sales never met the company's expectations.

These problems were followed by the infamous video game crash of 1983, which caused losses that totaled more than $500 million. Warner's stock price slid from $60 to $20, and the company began searching for a buyer for its troubled division. This does not cite its references or sources. ... E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a video game that is based on the film of the same name developed by Howard Scott Warshaw and released by Atari Inc. ... Official language(s) None Spoken language(s) English 68. ... This article is about arid terrain. ... Look up Dump in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Raymond E. Kassar (born January 2, 1928) was president, and later CEO, of Atari from 1978 to 1983. ... The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. ... ET for the Atari 2600 is considered by many to be emblematic of the crash along with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. ...

Still, Atari held a formidable position in the world video game market, and was the number one console maker in every market except Japan. A Japanese video game company by the name of Nintendo was going to be releasing their first programmable video game console, the Famicom (later known to the rest of the world as the NES), in 1983. Looking to also sell the console in international markets, a partnership with Atari seemed a good match and Nintendo approached Atari to offer a licensing deal whereby Atari would build and sell the system, paying Nintendo a royalty. The deal was in the works throughout 1983,^[7] and the two companies tentatively decided to sign the agreement at the June, 1983 CES. Unfortunately, Coleco was showcasing their new Adam computer, and the display unit was running Nintendo's Donkey Kong. Atari CEO Ray Kassar was furious, as Atari owned the rights to publish Donkey Kong for computers, and he accused Nintendo of double dealing with the Donkey Kong license. Nintendo, in turn, tore into Coleco, who only owned the console rights to the game. [2] Coleco had legal grounds to challenge the claim though since Atari had only purchased the floppy disk rights to the game, while the Adam version was cartridge-based.^[8] In the coming month, Ray Kassar was forced to leave Atari, and executives involved in the Famicom deal were forced to start over again from scratch and the deal eventually languished. With Atari's further financial problems and the Famicom's runaway Japanese success after its July 16th, 1983 release date, Nintendo decided to go at it alone. For the video game system, see Nintendo Entertainment System. ... “NES” redirects here. ... “NES” redirects here. ... For the Jimi Hendrix song, see 1983. ... The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association. ... Coleco (1932 - 1989) was a company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as Connecticut Leather Company. It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids and, to a lesser extent, for its video game consoles Coleco Telstar and ColecoVision. ... Memory console and keyboard for Coleco Adam computer expansion for the Colecovision The Coleco Adam was a home computer, an attempt in the early 1980s by American toy manufacturer Coleco to follow on the success of its ColecoVision game console. ... Donkey Kong ) is an arcade game that was released by Nintendo in 1981. ... Raymond E. Kassar (born January 2, 1928) was president, and later CEO, of Atari from 1978 to 1983. ...

Splitting of properties

Financial problems continued to grow and Ray's replacement, James J. Morgan, had less than a year to try and tackle his predecessor's problems before he too was gone. In July 1984, Warner sold the home computing and game console divisions of Atari to Jack Tramiel, the recently ousted founder of Atari competitor Commodore International, under the name Atari Corporation for $240 million in stocks under the new company. Warner retained the arcade division, continuing it under the name Atari Games and eventually selling it to Namco in 1985. Warner also sold the fledgling Ataritel to Mitsubishi. James J. Morgan in 1984 James J. Morgan (born 1942) is a former American executive who served as CEO of Atari from 1983 to 1984 and CEO of Philip Morris USA from 1994 to 1997. ... Jack Tramiel (born December 13, 1928[1]) is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga home computers, and later President and CEO of Atari Corp. ... Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari Inc. ... This article is about Namco, a Japanese leisure company and game developer. ... For information on Mitsubishi brand computer monitors, see NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display of America Inc. ...

Major products

• Pong (several versions)
• Atari 2600
• Atari Video Music
• Atari 5200
• Atari 8-bit family

For other uses, see Pong (disambiguation). ... The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. ... The Atari Video Music was introduced in 1976 and designed by the initiator of the home version of PONG, Robert Brown. ... The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ...

See also

• History of video game companies

This is a list of former computer and video game companies, most of whose rights and assets presently belong to a specific company. ...

References

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Jimi Hendrix song, see 1983. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Steven L. Kent is an American writer, best known for his video game journalism. ... Location in Placer County Coordinates: , Country State County Placer Incorporated April 10, 1909 Government  - Mayor Jim Gray[1]  - State Senate Dave Cox (R)  - State Assembly Ted Gaines (R)  - U. S. Congress John Doolittle (R) Area  - Total 30. ...

External links

• The Atari History Museum - Atari historical archive site.
• Atari Times, supporting all Atari consoles.
• AtariAge.com
• Atari entry at MobyGames
• Atari Gaming Headquarters - Atari historical archive site.
• Atari-Users Network - Atari Computer news site.
• Atari On Film - List of Atari products in films.
• The Dot Eaters: classic video game history - Comprehensive history of videogames, extensive info on Atari offerings and history