Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of Atari.
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| Newer page: | version 5 | Last edited on Sunday, August 10, 2003 5:54:23 pm | by CraigBox | |
| Older page: | version 1 | Last edited on Monday, August 4, 2003 7:33:00 pm | by AndersGreen | Revert |
@@ -1,20 +1,11 @@
-Atari was founded June 27 1976
by NolanBushnell
and TedDabney
. Their first game Pong, by AlAlcorn
, was so popular that when they tested it at the Andy Capps
bar the coinbox was jammed with quarters. In November they set up an assembly facility in an old roller skating arena
and begun manurfacturing [Pong]
. Eight- to ten thousand units is made
, that
was about three times the typical number of pinball machines at the time
.
+Atari was founded June 27 1972
by Nolan Bushnell
and Ted Dabney
. Their first game Pong, by Al Alcorn
, was so popular that when they tested it at the Andy Caps
bar the coinbox was jammed with quarters.
+The name "Atari" comes from the Japaneese game Go
and means something close to "check"
. "Atari" was not their first choice tho
, but "Syzygy"
was allready taken
.
-In 1974
Atari merges with Bushnells other game
company KeeGames and releases the game [Tank]. AlAlcorn invents the home version of [Pong] wich is released the following year, selling 150,000 units.
-SteveJobs is asked to create [Breakout]
in 1976
, he asks SteveWozniak
to come along. Togeather
they create the game in five days. Jobs gets $5000 for the game and gives $350 of them to Woz, also taking all the credit for the game. In October 1976 Atari Inc. is sold
to [Warner
] Communications for $28M
.
+During the 70's
Atari was the fastes growing
company in US history
, but due
to bad bussiness decisions during the 80's
they lost almost everything
to [Amiga
] and the Nintendo NES
.
-The
Atari VCS (Stella)
is released 1976
and comes with home versions
of nine of Ataris arcade
games.
+During 1996-2001
Atari and its owners are sold back and forth and in the end Atari wich now only
is a trademark
and a holder
of some licenses and patents are sold to Interactive (known for the game Unreal) wich now uses the Atari name for it's home
games.
-In 1978 big changes occured
, first RayKassar is hired as President of Ataris consumer products to make it profiteble, this causes Bushnell leave
and in the following changes much of the staff quits
. RayKassar is made CEO after NolanBushnell
.
+More information can be found at [ Movieprop | http://www.movieprop.com/videogames/atari/ ]
, [ Atari-explorer | http://www.atari-explorer.com/history.html ]
and [ System16 | http://www
.system16
.com/atari/ ]
-The Atari 400 and 800 systems are relesed in 1979, and Ataris new game [Asteroids] beats SpaceInvaders in arcades. [Asteroids] by Howard Delman, Ed Logg and Lyle Rains sells 70,000 units.
-
-A home version of SpaceInvaders is released for the Atari VCS in 1980 and the first game with an [easteregg] is released, [Adventure]. Also the first Atari game featuring first person view is released, [Battlefield]. [Activision] is started by former Atari emploees wich leads Atari to file a suit for breaking of NDAs. Atari is now Americas fastest growing company in history.
-
-During 1982
-83 several bad games and the release of the incompatible Atari 5200 results in a drop in sales. To increase sales of old games prices are dropped but this affects the sales of new games and it only results in more loss. Warners profit drops 56% the last quarter of 1982. And in June 1983 Warner presents the worst quarter results ever for the company. Kassar is fired.
-In 1984 Atari is split into two companies, Atari Corp. wich sells and produces games for the home market and Atari Games wich sells the arcade games. In the split over one thosand emploees are fired, CEO James Morgan and the new owner of Atari Corp, Jack Tramiel, becomes CEO with his son Sam Tramiel as president. Atari Corp. is offered to sell [Nintendo] [Famicon] game console in America but turns the offer down to focus on the home computer market instead. Famicon is relsead to the US market 1985 under the name [NES] (NintendoEntertainmentSystem) and totally dominate the market.
-Atari tries to license the [Amiga] Home Computer System but [Commondore] beats them with a better offer, instead they licenses [DEC]s [GEM] operating system. In November 1984 Atari Corp announces their plans to release inexpensive 8
-bit home computers and also 16
-bit and 32
-bit computers to compete with [IBMPC] and AppleMacintosh. In 1985 the AtariST series is released.
-
-In 1989 the Portable Color Entertainment System, also known as [Lynx], is released. But Atari can't deliver the units fast enough and loses the chrismas shopping season to [Nintendo] [Gameboy]. The story is almost repeared in 1993 when Atari releases the [Jaguar]. The [Jaguar] is released in October 1993 and all availeble units are sold in no time, critics doubt that Atari can support [Jaguar]. 1994 Atari releases the game [Tempest] for [Jaguar] and the game becomes a bestseller and ends at 350,000 sold copies. Atari stops producing the [Lynx].
-
-During 1996-2001 Atari and its owners are sold back and forth and in the end Atari wich now only is a trademark and a holder
of some licenses and patents are sold to [Interactive] (known for the game [Unreal]) wich now uses the Atari name for it's home games.
+----
+Part
of CategoryOldComputers
