Atari Games

Fate	Closed down by Midway Games
Founded	1984
Defunct	2003
Location	Milpitas, California, USA
Industry	Video games
Products	Gauntlet , Marble Madness , Paperboy
Key people	Ed Logg
Peak size	400 employees
Parent	Warner Communications (1984-1985) Namco (1985-1986) Time Warner (1993-1996) Midway Games (1996 - 2003)
Subsidiary	Tengen

Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari Inc. Image File history File links Atari_games_logo. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American video game publisher. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Milpitas is a city in Santa Clara County, California. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article is about computer and video games. ... Gauntlet is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Marble Madness is an arcade game by Atari Games released in 1984. ... Paperboy is a 1984 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Ed Logg was a co-developer of the video game Asteroids, with Lyle Rains. ... Warner Communications, formerly Kinney National Company, was the parent company for Warner Bros. ... Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ... Time Warner Inc. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American video game publisher. ... Tengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created after the video game crash of 1983-1984 by Atari Games. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

History

When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc. (which included the computer and home game console divisions) to Jack Tramiel (who named his company "Atari Corporation"), Warner initially retained the arcade coin-op division (Atari Coin), renaming it "Atari Games". The agreement between Tramiel and Warner Communications was that Atari Games must always include the "Games" after "Atari" on its logo and that Atari Games could not use the Atari brand at all in the consumer market (computers and home consoles). Unlike Atari Corp., Atari Games had most of the same employees and managers that had worked at the old Atari Inc. It had been somewhat isolated from disarray of the transfer process that occurred with Atari Consumer, since it was still being retained by its original parent and was able to carry on with many of its projects from before the transition as well. Atari Corp., in contrast, was freezing all projects, letting go of much of the original staff, and streamlining operations in general. However in 1985, controlling interest of Atari Games was sold to Namco (a company with strong past ties to Atari Inc.), who soon lost interest in operating an American subsidiary. In 1986 a group of employees bought Namco's share. 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Warner Communications, formerly Kinney National Company, was the parent company for Warner Bros. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a cultural phenomenon. ... The Atari 2600, Sony PSOne, Nintendo Gamecube, and Xbox 360 A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer. ... Jack Tramiel (born 1928) is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga home computers. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Namco is a company based in Japan, best known for developing video games. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Atari Games continued to manufacture arcade games and, starting in 1987, also sold cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System under the Tengen brand name, including a version of Tetris. The companies exchanged a number of lawsuits in the late 1980s related to disputes over the rights to Tetris and Tengen's circumvention of Nintendo's lockout chip, which prevented third parties from creating unauthorized games. (Atari Games' legal battles with Nintendo should not be confused with those of its former parent company--Atari also exchanged lawsuits with Nintendo in the late 1980s and early 1990s.) 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that NES Zapper be merged into this article or section. ... Tengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created after the video game crash of 1983-1984 by Atari Games. ... Tetris (Тетрис) is a very popular falling blocks puzzle game, released on a large spectrum of platforms. ... The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ...

In 1989, Time-Life bought Warner Communications, forming Time Warner. In 1993 Time Warner once again bought a controlling interest in the company and changed the corporate name of Atari Games to Time Warner Interactive (TWI), but the latter company continued to market its new video games under the "Atari Games" label. In 1996, TWI was sold to WMS Industries (owners of the Williams, and Bally/Midway arcade brands) and reverted back to the name Atari Games. When Hasbro Interactive bought the remains of Atari Inc., the console manufacturer, and resurrected the Atari name in the home software arena, Atari Games was renamed Midway Games West by parent company Midway to avoid confusing two Atari brands. Midway left the arcade market to concentrate on home systems in 2001, ending at the same time Atari's pivotal influence in the arcade industry. Midway Games West, still producing games for home systems, was disbanded by Midway in early 2003 after a slump in game sales. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Time-Life is a book, music, and video marketer, that since 2003 has been combined with catalog reseller Lillian Vernon as a subsidiary of Direct Holdings Worldwide, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner. ... Time Warner Inc. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Williams is a long-standing electronic gaming and amusement company based in Chicago, Illinois. ... Bally Technologies logo Bally (with its distinctive Rolling Ball logo) Bally Technologies, Inc. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American video game publisher. ... Hasbro Interactive was a video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the game and toy giant. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American video game publisher. ... This article is about the year 2001. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

With the demise of Midway Games West went the last remnant of the original Atari company that started the whole video game industry. The name "Midway Games West" survives within Midway as a trademark copyright for video games (past and new) that use franchises that were originally created by Atari Games/Midway Games West. The computer and video game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video and computer games. ... A trademark, trade mark, ™ or ®[1] is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by an organization to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the organization and its products or services from those of other organizations. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ...

Selected arcade games

• 720°
• A.P.B.
• Area 51
• Badlands
• Blasteroids
• Championship Sprint
• Cyberball
• Cyberball 2072
• Empire Strikes Back
• Escape from the Planet of Robot Monsters
• Gauntlet
• Gauntlet II
• Gauntlet Legends
• Hard Drivin'
• Hydra
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Klax
• Marble Madness
• Moto Frenzy
• Off the Wall
• Paperboy
• Peter Packrat
• Race Drivin'
• Rampart
• Road Blasters
• Road Runner
• San Francisco Rush
• San Francisco Rush 2049
• S.T.U.N. Runner
• Steel Talons
• Super Sprint
• Tetris
• Toobin'
• Vindicators
• Xybots

720 Degrees, or 720°, is a 1986 arcade game by Atari Games. ... A.P.B. (All Points Bulletin) is a 1987 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Area 51 is a light gun video game issued by Atari Games in 1995. ... Badlands is an arcade racing game. ... Blasteroids is one of the sequels to the original 1979 shoot em up video game Asteroids. ... Cyberball is an Atari Games arcade game of 7-man american football, using robotic avatars of different speeds, sizes, and skill sets. ... The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to the popular vector graphics Star Wars arcade game. ... Gauntlet is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Gauntlet II is the 1986 sequel to the arcade game Gauntlet which was released the previous year. ... Gauntlet Legends is an arcade game released in 1998 by Atari Games. ... Sega Genesis Cover Hard Drivin is a video game that invite players to test drive a high-powered sports car on a stunt course. ... Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an arcade game produced by Atari Games in 1985. ... KLAX can mean: KLAX FM, a radio station KLAX-TV, a television station Klax, a computer game Klax Live-CD, a Linux distribution Los Angeles International Airport, is an airport with the ICAO airport code KLAX This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the... Marble Madness is an arcade game by Atari Games released in 1984. ... Paperboy is a 1984 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Rampart is an arcade game, released in 1990 by Atari Games combining a shoot-em-up, and puzzle section. ... RoadBlasters is an arcade game released by Atari. ... San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (also known as San Francisco Rush and Rush) is an arcade racing game set in San Francisco, California. ... San Francisco Rush 2049 (also known as Rush 2049 and Rush 3) is the third racing game in the San Francisco Rush trilogy. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Steel Talons was originally an arcade video game by Atari Games, and was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, the Atari Lynx handheld, and other platforms. ... Super Sprint is a 1986 arcade game by Atari Games. ... Tetris (Тетрис) is a very popular falling blocks puzzle game, released on a large spectrum of platforms. ... Toobin is a video game originally released as an arcade game in 1988. ... Xybots was developed by Atari in 1987 as a arcade video game, then later released on other platforms. ...

Trivia

• Atari Games' corporate name was actually Atari Games Corporation (not to be confused with Jack Tramiel's company whose corporate name was Atari Corporation without the "Games").

• Atari founder Nolan Bushnell wanted to purchase Atari Games when it was up for sale in 1996. However Time Warner chose to sell the company to WMS.

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nolan K. Bushnell (born February 5, 1943 in Clearfield, Utah) is an American electrical engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

See also

• Atari Inc.

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• Atari Games Museum.
• A Brief Timeline of the Atari Divisions Initially Retained by Warner Communications, July 1984 to Present
• Atari Search Engine