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Aug 12, 2005 · As for the name Atari, it was originally going to be named Zycygy (sorry, I completely forgot how to spell it), but the name was already taken, so Nolan dubbed the company Atari after a move in his favorite game Go.
Mar 28, 2003 · Yes, the model number was CX2600 ever since 1977, but it was always called the Atari VCS by Atari, other Atari companies, the press, etc. The public, by and large, simply called it 'the Atari'. It wasn't until 1982 when the 5200 was released that Atari rechristened the machine the 2600.
In 1982, to coincide with the release of the Atari 5200, Atari rebranded the console as the "Atari 2600", a name first used on a version of the four-switch model without woodgrain, giving it an all-black appearance.
Apr 17, 2012 · Atari brought Pong into people’s living rooms in 1975 when it released a home version, which Sears agreed to sell under its brand name, Tele-Game. Two years later, in 1977, Atari released the Atari 2600, the same year my uncle bought his Tele-Game console.
- Beginnings
- Computer Space
- Avoid Missing Ball For High Score
- Birth of Atari, and Arcades
- Have You Played Atari Today?
- Computers For People
- Atari Becomes A Household Name
- The (Video Game) Music Stops
- Atari Corporation: Power Without The Price
- Sputtering and Last Gasps
When I grew up, two common tropes were that the first video game was Pong and that Nolan Bushnell invented it. Although Bushnell and Pong both deserve plenty of credit, the real story is more nuanced. It evolved over the course of the 20th century, as amusement parks led to penny arcades, Skee-Ball, pinball, and other electromechanical attractions ...
After Bushnell earned his electrical engineering degree and went to work for videotape company Ampex, he began designing his own Spacewar!-like electronic coin-op game with his coworker Ted Dabney. They mocked up a prototype, and along with fellow Ampex employee Larry Bryan, they started a partnership called Syzygy Engineering. They soon joined for...
The Magnavox Odyssey was the world’s first home video game console. The late Ralph Baer conceived the Odysseyway back in 1966 and built several prototypes of it. In 1971, Magnavox agreed to manufacture and sell Baer's system. Bushnell saw an early version of it at a Magnavox dealer demonstration later in 1971. He played the built-in table tennis ga...
Once the game was finished, Bushnell and Alcorn installed a prototypeof Pong in a local tavern to see how it did, only to get a call a couple of weeks later that it had broken. It turned out so many people played it that the coin box was already overflowing and had jammed. The new Atari, Inc. began manufacturing and distributing Pong cabinets later...
Atari also broke into the home console market like Magnavox, but not until 1975 with Home Pong, a dedicated unit that played selectable variations of its first hit arcade coin-op. Other copycats followed this effort, too, and 1976 marked a brief wave of popularity for these devices. Soon, the microprocessor-based Fairchild Channel F arrived, a cart...
In 1976, Warner Communications had purchased Atari for $28 million, giving it the cash infusion necessary to properly launch the VCS. This move also proved problematic; in 1978, Warner installed Ray Kassar, a textile executive, as CEO of Atari. The ground immediately shifted, as Kassar and Bushnell battled over the company’s direction, most notably...
If you were a kid in the early 1980s, you had to have an Atari console, or at least know a close friend with one—particularly after Atari's conversion of Space Invaders arrived. Excellent conversions of Atari's own Asteroids and Missile Command arrived the year after, plus new hits such as Yars' Revenge. After a highly publicized break with managem...
All three new consoles launched in 1982, but fizzled out within a year. So did everything else related to video games. An oversaturation of arcades, consoles, cartridges, and increasingly poor quality cartridges led to a massive video game crash in 1983. Atari was hit particularly hard, thanks in part to the colossal bungling of its home Pac-Man re...
In January 1984, Tramiel and his sons had a falling out with other Commodore management. They left the company, entered negotiations with Warner, and then struck a deal to split off and buy Atari Computer from Atari Coin. The coin-op division became Atari Games. Tramiel bought everything else and named the new company Atari Corporation. Tramiel imm...
By 1990, it was clear Atari wasn’t doing well—especially in the US, where sales had reached a near standstill. Atari's upgraded 1040STE model launched in late 1989 with support for 4,096 colors, digital sound, and hardware scrolling, which better positioned it against the Commodore Amiga 500, but it was two years late. Otherwise, the operative word...
- Jamie Lendino
- Editor-In-Chief, Extremetech
Nov 11, 2023 · Following Nintendo's revival of the American video game market, Atari relaunched the system as the Atari 2600 Jr. in 1986. [4] The system was discontinued in 1992, [ 4 ] [ 14 ] making the 2600 among the longest lasting consoles on the market.
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On May 7, 2003, Infogrames officially changed its name to Atari and has been doing business under the Atari brand ever since. Atari 2600 Games Library
