Atari |
: For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go (board game), see Go terms#Atari.
Atari, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA), encompassing its North American operations. Atari develops, publishes and distributes games for all major video game consoles, as well as for the personal computer, and is currently one of the largest third-party publishers of Computer and video games in the United States.
The company that currently bears the Atari name was founded in 1993 under the name GT Interactive. GT Interactive was acquired by IESA in 1999 and renamed Infogrames, Inc. Infogrames acquired the Atari brand name from its purchase of Hasbro Interactive, which in turn had acquired it from JT Storage, which the original Atari had merged with in 1996. Infogrames, Inc. intermittently used the Atari name as a brand name for selected titles before IESA official changed the subsidiary s name to Atari, Inc. in 2003.
The original Atari was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and personal computers, and its dominance in those areas made it the major force in the computer entertainment industry in the early to mid-1980s. The brand has also been used at various times by Atari Games, a separate company split off in 1984.
=History=
Since the early days of coin operated machines, Atari has been responsible for home consoles such as the Atari 2600 (VCS); produced a series of Atari 8-bit family (Atari 400 & 800); taken part in the 16 bit computer revolution with the Atari ST; made the revolutionary (for its time) 64-bit Atari Jaguar; and released a hand held video game console, the Atari Lynx.
==The 1970s: The rise of a video game empire==
s.
Atari Inc. was originally called . Go has no such piece. The name Atari is arguably also rather more memorable in terms of spelling and pronunciation for most markets.
Bushnell sold Atari to Time-Warner in 1976 for an estimated $28–$32 million, using part of the money to buy the Folgers Mansion. He departed from the division in 1979. While part of Warner, Atari achieved its greatest success, selling millions of Atari 2600 consoles. At its peak, Atari accounted for a third of Warner s annual income and became the fastest-growing company in the history of the United States (at the time).
==The 1980s: Hurdles ahead==
Although the Atari 2600 had garnered the lion s share of the home video game market, it experienced its first stiff competition in 1980 from Mattel Intellivision, which featured ads touting its superior graphics capabilities relative to the 2600. Still, the 2600 remained the industry standard-bearer, due to its market superiority, and due to Atari featuring (by far) the greatest variety of game titles available.
However, Atari ran into problems in the early 1980s. Its , [http://www.atariage.com/software_page.htmlSoftwareLabelID=393 Raiders of the Lost Ark], and [http://www.atariage.com/software_page.htmlSoftwareLabelID=2688 Saboteur]) [http://beepbopboop.heavysixer.com/index.phpoption=content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=67 questions the accuracy of this urban legend.]
Still, Atari held a formidable position in the world video game market. They were the number one console maker in every market except had a fit, accusing Nintendo of double dealing with the Donkey Kong license. Nintendo in turn tore into Coleco. 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.
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. As for Nintendo, Atari could no longer afford the Famicom deal, and eventually Nintendo would be forced to go it alone.
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 Corp. 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.
Under Tramiel s ownership, Atari Corp. used the remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development of their 16-bit computer system the Atari ST. In 1985 they released their update to the 8-bit computer line, the Atari XE series, as well as the 16-bit Atari ST line. Then, in 1986, Atari launched to consoles designed under the Warner Atari - Atari 2600jr and Atari 7800 console (which saw limited release in 1984). Atari rebounded, producing a $25 million profit that year. The Atari ST line proved very successful (but mostly in Europe, not the U.S.), ultimately selling more than 4 million units. It was especially popular among musicians, as it had built in MIDI ports. Still, its closest competitor in the marketplace, the Amiga, outsold it 1.5 to 1. Atari eventually released a line of inexpensive IBM PC compatibles as well as an MS-DOS compatible palm computer called the Atari Portfolio.
In 1989, Atari also released the Atari Lynx, a handheld console with color graphics, to critical acclaim. However, a shortage of parts kept the system from being released nationwide for the 1989 Christmas season. As a result, the Lynx lost market share to Nintendo s Game Boy, which had only a black and white display but was widely available. Also in 1989, Atari Corp. sued Nintendo for $250 million, alleging it had an illegal monopoly. Atari lost.
==The 1990s: Decline==
As the fortunes of Atari s ST and PC compatible computers faded, consoles and software again became the company s main focus. In 1993, Atari released its last console, the Jaguar. After a period of initial success, it, too, failed to meet expectations. It was not nearly as powerful as Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation or Sega s Sega Saturn and lacked the extensive third party support its Japanese competitors had easily secured for their consoles.
By 1996, a series of successful lawsuits followed by profitable investments had left Atari with millions of dollars in the bank, but the failure of the Lynx and Jaguar left Atari without any products to sell. In addition, Tramiel and his family wanted out. The result was a rapid succession of changes in ownership. In July 1996, Atari merged with JTS Inc.,a short-lived maker of hard disk drives, to form JTS Corp. Atari s role in the new company largely became a holder for the Atari properties and minor support, consequently the name largely disappeared from the market.
Although the original Atari ceased to exist, a large amount of underground development remains for Atari s game systems and computers of the 1970s and 1980s, and many of the retro-gaming conventions (such as World Of Atari, Classic Gaming Expo, Philly Classic, and the Midwest Gaming Classic), focus largely on Atari. There are also websites dedicated to the release of new products for the original Atari consoles and computers, such as AtariAge.Com.
In March 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million—less than a fifth of what Warner Communications had paid 22 years earlier. This transaction primarily involved the brand and intellectual property, which now fell under the Atari Interactive division of Hasbro Interactive. The brand name changed hands again in December 2000, when French software publisher Infogrames took over Hasbro Interactive.
In the meantime, Atari Games was bought out by its employees in 1986, who also founded Tengen to bring their arcade games in to the home. The new Time-Warner eventually started gaining more and more shares in the company until they eventually owned the company completely again by 1994. At that point Atari Games ceased to exist and became part of Time-Warner Interactive. By 1996, Time-Warner sold TWI to WMS Industries, Inc., owner of Midway Games at the time. WMS brought the properties under Midway (which it now renamed Midway Games Inc.), and re-instated the Atari Games name. In 1998, Midway was sold to its shareholders and spun off as a separate company. Over 1999-2000, Midway held closed door proceedings with Hasbro which ultimately lead to Atari Games being renamed Midway Games West. Midway left the arcade industry in 2001, and shut down Midway Games West in 2003 - closing the chapter on what was left of the original Atari arcade division.
==The 2000s: Revival and re-release of Atari classics==
In October 2001, Infogrames announced that it was reinventing the Atari brand with the launch of three new games. On May 7, 2003, Infogrames officially reorganized its US subsidiary as a seperate entity known as Atari, Inc. It named its European operations to Atari Europe, and kept the main holdings company as Infogrames Entertainment.
In 2002, Jakks Pacific, a toy making company, released a TV game video game console called the Atari 10-in-1 TV Game, believed by many to arouse interest in the concept of self-contained entertainment devices that did not require separate hardware to operate. 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 were directly released by Atari.
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 they produced looked like a minute version of a later video game console they released in the 1980s called the Atari 7800. 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 did not use batteries, but instead, an (included) AC adaptor to power it. The Flashback did fairly well in sales, however, many Atari fans felt disappointed. Many people felt that the device itself was far too small, rather puny in some cases, and the joysticks felt very dissimilar to those of the 7800. 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. Overall, many enthusiasts believed that the Flashback did not capture the true Atari experience.
Due to popular demand, Atari released a new version of the Flashback console, titled Atari Flashback 2 , on August 2005.
=Major products=
==Historical==
==Current==
=External links=
*[http://www.atari.com/ Official worldwide Atari portal] *[http://www.atari.com/us/ Atari North America] *[http://www.ataritimes.com/ Atari Times], Supporting all Atari consoles. *[http://www.atari.org/ Atari.org] *[http://www.atariage.com/ AtariAge.com] *[http://www.atarimuseum.com Atari Museum] *[http://www.atarihistory.de The official site of the Atari Museum for continental Europe] *[http://www.heartbone.com/comphist/Atari.htm heartbone.com] Condensed Atari History *[http://movieprop.com/videogames/atari/index.htm Atari Corporate History], a site about the History of Atari from a corporate perspective *[http://www.retromadness.com/ Computer History Museum] - Museum of home computing and gaming. *[http://www.atari8.info/index.phplang=en Atari XL/XE Scene Information Page] - News and infos from the Atari XL/XE fans world. *[http://www.thedoteaters.com/play1sta2.htm Atari article on The Dot Eaters], covering the birth of Atari *[http://www.thedoteaters.com/play3sta1.htm Atari VCS/2600 article on The Dot Eaters], early console history, including a complete history of the VCS *[http://www.thedoteaters.com/play3sta5.htm Atari 5200/7800 article on The Dot Eaters], later pre-crash consoles, including Atari s 8-bit death throes
See also: Atari Games|
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