Who Created Atari?

Are you interested in the history of arcade games? Atari is a corporate and brand name that is currently owned by Atari Interactive. Since Atari was first created, a number of different businesses and companies have owned the brand name.

Atari, Inc was created on June 27, 1972. Although the arcade game was unpopular, Bushnell still believed that the video game arcade could become popular. Bushnell decided to pursue the industry, but make the games less complicated.

Bushnell hired Al Acorn to create a simpler arcade video game. He hired Acorn to specifically create an alternate version of the tennis game by Odyssey. Acorn succeeded in developing this game, and it was named “Pong.”

On June 27, 1972, Bushnell officially incorporated Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc was named after the Japanese game of “Go.” In the game of “Go,”  the term “Atari” was used for a stone that was about to be taken by an opponent. Pong was quite successful, and Atari, Inc grew and created other games.

The First Arcade Video Game

The first arcade video game was designed in 1971. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded an engineering firm called Syzygy Engineering. This engineering firm created the first game, called Computer Space. The game was created for Nutting Associates. However, the game was too complicated, and did not sell as expected. 

The Early Years of Atari, Inc

Atari was incorporated in the state of California, and this is where the headquarters for the corporation were located. After the success of Pong, Atari attempted to create an at home version for Pong which was marginally successful.

By 1976, Atari had four different games. Bushnell attempted to create a flexible game console that could play all four of the games. Using the engineering firm, Cyan Engineering, he created the Atari 2600 (also referred to as VCS). Bushnell felt confident in this product, but he was worried that it would be very expensive to release the product to the market.

Since the product was difficult to release to the market, Bushnell wanted to find outside investors. In 1976, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications. He sold it for approximately thirty million dollars, and used a portion of the money to buy the Folgers Mansion. 

After Atari Was Sold to Warner Communications

Although Bushnell sold the company, he still remained a part of the company and helped run it. However, he and Warner Communications disagreed about the direction of the company. Specifically, Bushnell felt that the Atari 2600 should be suspended.  In 1978, Bushnell was terminated.

Warner Communications wanted to design an improved version of the Atari 2600. One of the problems of the 2600 was that the lifespan of the product was only about three years. The Atari 800 was produced, and a smaller version of the Atari 800, the Atari 400 was also released.

It took the products about a year to actually become commercially successful. By 1980, when the products were available in large quantities, they became extremely successful. In 1982, another version of the Atari was released. This was the Atari 5200. It was similar to the Atari 800 and the Atari 400, but the Atari 5200 didn’t have a keyboard. 

The North American Video Game Crash of 1983

In 1983, the video game industry experienced a severe crash. There were a number of reasons for the crash, but the main cause behind the crash was that the market became saturated with low quality games. In 1983, hundreds and hundreds of games were released into the market.

The video game crash of 1983 resulted in millions of dollars lost for the video game industry. Atari lost approximately five hundred million dollars. After this, the company never reached the success it once had.