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 Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it competed with the 16-bit Sega Genesis, the Super NES and the 32-bit 3DO Interactive Multiplayer that launched the same year. Powered by two custom 32-bit processors – Tom and Jerry – in addition to a Motorola 68000, Atari marketed it as the world's first 64-bit game system, emphasizing its 64-bit bus used by the blitter. The Jaguar launched with Cybermorph as the pack-in game, which received divisive reviews. The system's library ultimately comprised only 50 licensed games.
The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit fourth-generation hand-held game console released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe and Japan. It was the first handheld game console with a color liquid-crystal display. Powered by a 4 MHz 65C02 8-bit CPU and a custom 16-bit blitter, the Lynx was more advanced than Nintendo's monochrome Game Boy, released two months earlier. It also competed with Sega's Game Gear and NEC's TurboExpress, released the following year.
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the Civilization and X-COM series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games.
Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Warner Communications to a joint venture with Namco, being one of several successor companies to use the name Atari.
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.
The fifth generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming consoles dating from approximately October 4, 1993, to March 23, 2006. The best-selling home console was the Sony PlayStation, followed by the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn. The PlayStation also had a redesigned version, the PSone, which was launched on July 7, 2000.
Crystal Castles is an arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls Bentley Bear who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies, some of whom are after the gems as well.
Commander Blood is a science fiction adventure game that was developed by Cryo, a French company that also created Captain Blood. Designed to run on MS-DOS, Commander Blood was released in 1994. The Big Bug Bang, the sequel to Commander Blood, was released in 1996, and was available in French only.
Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of home computers and video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than two months later when Warner Communications sold the home gaming and computing assets of Atari, Inc. to Tramiel.
Atari, Inc. is an American video gaming company based in New York City, and a subsidiary of the Atari SA holding company. It is the main entity serving the commercial Atari brand globally since 2003. The company currently publishes games based on retro Atari franchises as well as some new content, and also produces the new Atari 2600+ console. In the past it produced titles including Neverwinter Nights, Driver 3, Fahrenheit, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and Test Drive Unlimited.
Atari Interactive, Inc. is an American subsidiary of Atari SA which is the current owner of the Atari brand name, which it licenses out to its parent company. The company was originally founded by toy company Hasbro in 1995 as Hasbro Interactive, Inc., based in Beverly, Massachusetts; it was sold to Infogrames at the beginning of 2001 becoming Infogrames Interactive, Inc. before adopting its current name in 2003.
Arena Football '95 is an unreleased arena football video game that was in development by V-Real Interactive and planned to be published by Atari Corporation on a scheduled August 1995 release exclusively for the Atari Jaguar. If it had been released before Midway Games' Kurt Warner's Arena Football Unleashed, it would have been the first officially licensed indoor american football game by the Arena Football League.
Protector is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Bethesda Softworks for the Atari Jaguar. The game was released in 1999, followed by the Special Edition in 2002 and the expansion pack Resurgence in 2014. The game takes place during a futuristic alien invasion of Earth, where the player pilots the Starblade to defend the planet Haven-7.
The Assassin is an unreleased action role-playing video game that was in development by American studio OMC Games and planned to be published under the company's Hellified Games label on a scheduled Q1 2000 release date for the Atari Jaguar CD. It was intended to be a prequel to Orb Of Bengazi, another title that was in development by OMC for the add-on.
Varuna's Forces is an unreleased sci-fi video game that was in development by Accent Media Productions and planned to be published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar CD and JVC for 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Dreamcast, PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Black Out! is a 2012 puzzle homebrew video game developed and published by Stormworks Interactive for the Atari Jaguar and Atari Jaguar CD. It is the first and only title shipped currently by Stormworks Interactive. In the game, the player must turn off all the light bulbs in a 3x3 grid pattern with the lowest amount of moves possible across four stages comprising ten levels each. The player also has a pre-set move limit and a fixed time limit to solve the puzzle efficiently depending on the difficulty setting.