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Atari (/ ə ˈ t ɑːr i /) is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames).
Oct 13, 2023 · Atari was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. The two-man team had started under the name Syzygy Co in 1971. Strange enough, the name Syzygy Co was taken in California. The duo decided to change the name to Atari, Inc. Bushnell was a fan of the ancient Chinese board game Go.
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Mar 20, 2014 · It brought the idea of a “video game” to working guys in American dive bars and British pubs, families at pizza parlours, students and kids at arcades and in cafes and leisure centers.
- In Today’S Dollars, You Could Found Atari For The Price of A Macbook Pro.
- There Were Early Hints That Pong Might Be A Success.
- “Have Fun, Make money.”
- The Gospel According to St. Pong.
- Wii Fit Was Great ... When It Was Invented in 1982.
- Atari Had A Fierce Competitor ... Secretly Owned by Atari.
- Atari Culture Set The Tone For Silicon Valley.
- There Have Been A Lot of Pongs.
- The Magazine Might Have Been called Atari Power.
- Clean Out Your Desk, Bill.
Nolan Bushnell founded Atariin 1972 with a princely investment of $250. (His co-founder, Ted Dabney, put in an equal amount.) Within five years, the company was worth $28 million. Within ten years, its annual sales reached $2 billion. Many consider Bushnell to be the father of the video game industry.
WIkimedia Commons The Pong prototype was installed at Andy Capp’s, a local bar. Its coin slot came from a Laundromat. The screen was a repurposed television. Quarters dropped into a milk carton. A week after the machine went live, Atari got a call from the bar with bad news: the machine was acting up. When Al Alcorn, the engineer who built Pong, ch...
In 1974, an unkempt, sandal-clad hippie walked into Atari’s lobby and demanded a job. He was answering an ad in the San Jose Mercury that read “Have fun, make money.” The hippie wouldn't leave until he got a job. Al Alcorn was called in to help. “I was told, ‘We’ve got a hippie kid in the lobby. He says he’s not going to leave until we hire him. Sh...
Atari’s in-house newsletter was called The Gospel According to St. Pong. (“Founded in service to the Atari family,” read the masthead.) There had been a company-wide contest to come up with a name, and “a committee of Atarians” chose from a list of candidates. Dennis Flinn of the purchasing department was the winner.
Atari's Corporate Research Department created the first computerized exercise device. It was called Puffer, and was designed by Tim McGuinness. As written in an internal memofrom the company: “There is a whole generation of kids (and adults) out there who aren’t into sports and/or don’t get enough exercise. At the same time there is a huge fitness ...
Pinball distributors in the 1970s demanded exclusive deals for products before they would sign contracts. This would have impeded Nolan Bushnell’s ambitious plans to establish an entire industry. To get around the exclusivity requirements, Bushnell and his neighbor, Joe Keenan, secretly formed a second company that would “compete” against Atari, se...
Atari was well known for its egalitarian work environment. It had a casual dress code, hot tub parties, and beer bashes to celebrate meeting revenue goals. “T-shirts and jeans were something of a status symbol at Atari,” wroteBill Haslacher, a former writer at Atari. “I swear my boss had a whole T-shirt wardrobe. He even had a T-shirt with a tie pa...
Pong’s longevity is notable, and there have been versions of the game on just about every platform out there. In 1975, Atari built a home version that connected to televisions. Other Atari-designed variants include Pong Doubles, Super Pong, and Quadripong. Steve Wozniak programmed the prototype of a single-player version, called Breakout, in a slee...
When Nintendo’s executives decided to expand to the American market, it considered partnering with Atari for its first console, and releasing it with the Atari brand. The deal fell through, and the Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming Systemproject was stripped of its keyboard and tape-storage, redesigned, and released as the Nintendo Entertainment Syste...
In a million dollar deal, Atari contracted a company called Microsoft to port the BASIC programming language to the Atari 800. A young developer named Bill Gates was responsible for the project. One year later, the software had yet to be completed, and Alan Miller, an Atari game designer and programmer, took overthe project. This very likely makes ...
Soon the Atari 8-bit family was born it 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 were technically similar and differ primarily in packaging. In 1983, the great video game crash hit Atari extremely hard.
Mar 23, 2024 · After initially slow retail adoption, millions finally embraced the 2600 by 1980 as iconic arcade ports like Space Invaders proved home consoles could provide authentic coin-op action. The 2600 became a fixture under kids‘ TVs just as table hockey games once occupied family rec rooms.
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Some of the most influential engineers and creatives in the world credit their time with Atari games for sparking their imaginations. Discover a story of heroes and teamwork in this timeline of company history.
