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Atari 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. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California, United States in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982, alongside the release of the Atari 5200.
ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision.
The video game crash of 1983 was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which were of poor quality. Waning interest in console games in favor of personal computers also played a role. Home video game revenue peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985. The crash abruptly ended what is retrospectively considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. To a lesser extent, the arcade video game market also weakened as the golden age of arcade video games came to an end.
Nolan Kay Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award, and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America". He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush, that is using video game technology in educational software.
Zaxxon is a scrolling shooter developed and released by Sega as an arcade video game in 1982. The player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki was also involved in the game's development.
Centipede is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. Designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, it was one of the most commercially successful games from the golden age of arcade video games and one of the first with a significant female player base. The primary objective is to shoot all the segments of a centipede that winds down the playing field. An arcade sequel, Millipede, followed in 1982.
Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and published by Sega. In North America, it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct five frogs to their homes by dodging traffic on a busy road, then crossing a river by jumping on floating logs and alligators.
Exidy, Inc. was an American developer and manufacturer of coin-operated electro-mechanical and video games which operated from 1973 to 1999. They manufactured many notable titles including Death Race (1976), Circus (1978), Star Fire (1978), Venture (1981), Mouse Trap (1981), Crossbow (1983), and Chiller (1986). They were also the creators of the Exidy Sorcerer (1978) home computer platform.
1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.
The year 1973 saw a substantial increase in the number of video games created and distributed in multiple sectors. In coin-operated games, a craze for Pong-style games ignited the first fad for video games both in the United States and other countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. Time-sharing networks saw greater proliferation of popular programs through type-in listings. The PLATO network played host to some of the earliest massively multiplayer games.
Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shooter for Atari 8-bit computers. It was written by Greg Christensen, with some features later added by Richard Watts, and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. Caverns of Mars became the best selling APX software of all-time and was moved into Atari, Inc.'s official product line, first on diskette, then on cartridge.
Tank is an arcade game developed by Kee Games, a subsidiary of Atari, and released in November 1974. It was one of the few original titles not based on an existing Atari property developed by Kee Games, which was founded to sell clones of Atari games to distributors as a fake competitor prior to the merger of the two companies. In the game, two players drive tanks through a maze viewed from above while attempting to shoot each other and avoid mines, represented by X marks, in a central minefield. Each player controls their tank with a pair of joysticks, moving them forwards and back to drive, reverse, and steer, and firing shells with a button to attempt to destroy the other tank. The destruction of a tank from a mine or shell earns the opposing player a point, and tanks reappear after being destroyed. The winner is the player with more points when time runs out, with each game typically one or two minutes long.
In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex, all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first "killer app" arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, though earlier Atari-published arcade games were ported to the 2600 previously. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released in August 1982.
In video gaming parlance, a conversion is the production of a game on one computer or console that was originally written for another system. Over the years, video game conversion has taken form in a number of different ways, both in their style and the method in which they were converted.
Synapse Software Corporation was an American software developer and publisher founded in 1981 by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. Synapse published application software and developer tools and was primarily known for video games. It initially focused on the Atari 8-bit computers, then later developed for the Commodore 64 and other systems. Synapse was purchased by Broderbund in late 1984 and the Synapse label retired in 1985.
Atari Program Exchange (APX) was a division of Atari, Inc. that sold software via mail-order for Atari 8-bit computers from 1981 until 1984. Quarterly APX catalogs were sent to all registered Atari 8-bit owners. APX encouraged any programmer, not just professionals, to submit video games, educational software, applications, and utilities. A few internally developed Atari products were sold through APX, such as Atari Pascal, the developer handbook De Re Atari, and a port of the arcade video game Kangaroo.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
The 1980s was the second decade in the industry's history. It was a decade of highs and lows for video games. The decade began amidst a boom in the arcade video game business with the golden age of arcade video games, the Atari 2600's dominance of the home console market during the second generation of video game consoles, and the rising influence of home computers. However, an oversatuation of low quality games led to an implosion of the video game market that nearly destroyed the industry in North America. Most investors believed video games to be a fad that had since passed, up until Nintendo's success with its Nintendo Entertainment System revived interest in game consoles and led to a recovery of the home video game industry. In the remaining years of the decade, Sega ignites a console war with Nintendo, developers that had been affected by the crash experimented with PC games, and Nintendo released the Game Boy, which would become the best-selling handheld gaming device for the next two decades. Other consoles released in the decade included the Intellivision, ColecoVision, TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis.
Big Five Software was an American video game developer and publisher in the first half of the 1980s founded by Bill Hogue and Jeff Konyu. The company developed games for the Tandy TRS-80 and later Atari 8-bit computers. Most of its TRS-80 games were clones of arcade video games, such as Galaxy Invasion (Galaxian), Super Nova (Asteroids), Defense Command, and Meteor Mission II. Big Five also sold an Atari joystick interface called TRISSTICK which was popular with TRS-80 owners.
References
- ↑ Smith, Alexander (2015-09-03). "A Nutty Idea". They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
- ↑ Smith, Keith (2014-05-17). "What Were the First Ten Coin-Op Video Games?". The Golden Age Arcade Historian. Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
- ↑ Atari, Inc., p. 120
- ↑ "What the Hell has Nolan Bushnell Started?". Next Generation (4). Imagine Media: 6–11. April 1995.
- ↑ Sanger, David E. (1984-07-03). "Warner Sells Atari to Tramiel". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2016-11-18. Retrieved 2017-10-03.
- ↑ Atari, Inc., p. 98
- ↑ Fulton, Steve (2007-11-06). "The History of Atari: 1971-1977". Gamasutra . UBM. Archived from the original on 2017-08-18. Retrieved 2017-08-18.
- ↑ "C. A. Robinson Hosts Atarians Reception". Atari Coin Connection. Vol. 1, no. 4. March 1977. p. 1.
- ↑ Bunch, Kevin (2023). Atari Archive: Vol.1 1977-1978. Press Run Books. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-955183-21-5.
- ↑ Smith, Alexander (2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry Volume 1, 1971-1982. CRC Press. p. 463. ISBN 978-1138389908.
- ↑ Fulton, Steve (August 21, 2008). "Atari: The Golden Years -- A History, 1978-1981". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on August 27, 2008. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
- ↑ "Availability Update". The Video Game Update . Vol. 1, no. 6. September 1982.
- ↑ "The Year in Review". The Video Game Update. Vol. 2, no. 10. January 1984.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Summer Edition—1981 (PDF). Atari, Inc. 1981. pp. 6–13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-03-27. Retrieved 2017-09-27.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Fall Edition—1981. Atari, Inc. 1981. pp. 16–28.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Winter Edition—1981. Atari, Inc. 1982. pp. 27–45.
- ↑ Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Spring Edition—1982. Atari, Inc. 1982. pp. 33–50.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Fall Edition—1983. Atari, Inc. 1983. pp. 23–59.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Summer Edition—1982. Atari, Inc. 1982. pp. 36–73.
- 1 2 3 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Fall Edition—1982. Atari, Inc. 1982. pp. 37–73.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Winter Edition—1982–1983. Atari, Inc. 1983. pp. 41–80.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Spring Edition—1983. Atari, Inc. 1983. pp. 26–30.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Summer Edition—1983. Atari, Inc. 1983. pp. 28–33.
- ↑ "Crystal Castles". United States Copyright Office. Archived from the original on February 20, 2024. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ↑ "Atari 2600". Computer Entertainer includes The Video Game Update . Vol. 3, no. 1. April 1984. p. 16.
- ↑ "Dragon's Lair (Atari)". The Arcade Flyer Archive.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog Winter Edition—1983–1984. Atari, Inc. 1984. pp. 2–9.
- ↑ "Space Ace (Atari)". The Arcade Flyer Archive.