History Creator / Atari

* ''Space Riders''

Atari's first game, ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}'', debuted in 1972. It was a simple but hugely popular alternative to pinball machines, and other companies began to flood the market with imitations; Atari produced a home consumer version of ''Pong'' in 1975. In 1976, Atari was sold to Warner Communications; Bushnell used the proceeds and terms of sale to start up a family restaurant concept called Creator/ChuckECheese's Pizza Time Theatre.

* Atari Inc. (formerly Infogrames Inc.; acquired from GT Interactive in 1999; included development studios Eden Studios, Creator/HumongousEntertainment, Oddworld Inhabitants, Paradigm Entertainment, Reflections Interactive and Creator/ShinyEntertainment)

* ''Pinball/TheAtarians'' (1976)
* ''Time 2000'' (1977)
* ''Airborne Avenger'' (1977)
* ''Pinball/MiddleEarth'' (1978)
* ''Space Riders'' (1978)
* ''Pinball/{{Superman}}'' (1979)
* ''Pinball/{{Hercules}}'' (1979)

* ''Middle Earth'' (1978)

* ''The Atarians'' (1976)

[[folder:Atari releases (pre-crash):]]

* ''[[AwesomePossum Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt]]''

In 2009, after a long period of decline in which many previously acquired companies were closed down or sold off, Infogrames Entertainment went bankrupt and restructured itself as Atari SA, the first time since the company sold itself to Warner in the 1970s that a company called Atari wasn't owned by a holding company. In 2010, Bushnell returned to Atari as a member of its board of directors. In 2013, the American division of Atari declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in one of the few instances where such a thing is actually a ''good move'' for the company: They want independence from the failing European side of the business, which has been draining the quite hefty income the American side has been making from sales of its classic catalog on smartphones and other platforms.

In 2009, after a long period of decline in which many previously acquired companies were closed down or sold off, Infogrames Entertainment went bankrupt and restructured itself as Atari SA, the first time since the company sold itself to Warner in the 1970s that a company called Atari wasn't owned by a holding company. In 2010, Bushnell returned to Atari as a member of its board of directors.

Meanwhile, Atari Games had gone through a variety of owners, first becoming a subsidiary of Namco from 1985 to 1987. (The relationship between Atari and Namco dated to 1975, when Atari sold its Japanese subsidiary to Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd.) Atari Games started producing games for the NintendoEntertainmentSystem and other consoles through a new subsidiary named Tengen (a term referring to the central dot on the Go board). Though Tengen was initially a Nintendo licensee, Atari Games acquired the source code to the NES's lock-out system and Tengen, having found a way to circumvent it, started releasing its games for the NES on unlicensed black cartridges. Lawsuits began immediately, Atari Games suing Nintendo for monopolizing the market for NES cartridges, Nintendo claiming patent violation. Another legal battle between Atari Games and Nintendo, concerning the rights to ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'', was more quickly decided in Nintendo's favor.

Atari merged in 1996 with a hard drive company, JT Storage Inc., which became JTS Corp. and sold off the Atari rights to Hasbro in 1998. (JTS Corp. went bankrupt a year later.) In 2000, Hasbro Interactive, which included Atari and Creator/MicroProse, was sold to Infogrames Entertainment, SA. Infogrames used the Atari name to sell {{anime}}-based fighting games, other {{licensed game}}s, and most successfully, anthologies of classic Atari console and home games (Hasbro started doing this, but the former Infogrames heavily stepped up in promoting the Atari back catalog on modern consoles and computers).

In 1971, engineers Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney organized the first company to commercially produce coin-operated video games. The fledgling company was originally called Syzygy, but since that name was already in use by another company it was incorporated in 1972 as Atari, Inc. The name Atari comes from a term in the Japanese board game ''Go'', loosely translated as, "Prepare to be attacked!"

Atari's first game, ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}'', debuted in 1972. It was a simple but hugely popular alternative to pinball machines, and other companies began to flood the market with imitations; Atari produced a home consumer version of ''Pong'' in 1975. In 1976, Atari was sold to Warner Communications; Bushnell used the proceeds and terms of sale to start up a family restaurant concept called Pizza Time Theatre, later known as Chuck E. Cheese's.

In 1977, Atari introduced the Video Computer System or VCS, later known as {{Atari 2600}}. While not the first cartridge-based console (that honor goes to the Fairchild Channel F released in the previous year), it was much more successful and had several hits (most notably ''Pitfall!'' and ''Chopper Command'').

Two years later in 1979, after a nasty boardroom fight shoved Bushnell out of the company, Atari introduced its [[Atari8BitComputers first home computer line]], the 800 and 400 (designed by famous engineer Jay Miner, who went on to design the {{Amiga}}). These computers received minor upgrades throughout the 1980s, and had their fair share of games, too (such as ''Rescue on Fractalus!'' and ''Archon''), but never reached the popularity of the AppleII or the later {{Commodore 64}}.

In 1982, Atari created the [[{{Atari 5200}} 5200]], a game console largely based on its home computer line (in fact, it was little more than an 800 with no tape or disk support and joysticks instead of a keyboard). It was a flop, largely due to its infamously bad analog controllers (they were not self-centering and so cheaply-made that they frequently broke...after a few hours of use). Atari soon stopped producing the machine. An interesting aspect of this console was that a single cable ran from the back of the machine to a small box, to which an RF cable and power adapter connected. The console was also incredibly large (even larger than the Xbox), due to a built-in controller storage compartment.

Due to TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, Warner Communications, Atari's parent company, broke the company up in 1984. The video game and computer divisions were sold to a small company called Tramel ''(sic)'' Technologies. The arcade division was retained as a new company called Atari Games Corp. Many divisions (such as a telecommunications division called Ataritel) were scuttled entirely.

Shortly after that, in 1986, Atari produced the [[{{Atari 7800}} 7800]]. While its 256-color graphics were a huge step up from anything that the company had previously produced (and its potentially infinite number of sprites even gave it an edge over the [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] and SegaMasterSystem), its 2600-sourced sound chip and minuscule library, combined with very little marketing by Atari, made it a flop. Interestingly, the 7800 was originally designed and produced in 1984, but the project was shelved under Tramiel's leadership. A new sound chip, dubbed GUMBY (a nod to the POKEY chip in the 800 and 5200 - which had nothing to do with the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'' shorts), was planned, but Tramiel cancelled development on it, preferring to focus on the computer line. One troper wonders what might have been had the 7800 been released on time and with all of its planned hardware.

Then, in 1989, Atari released the [[AtariLynx Lynx]], its first handheld console and the first color handheld ever. Despite its advanced features (it had color graphics, an advanced sprite processor and smooth 3-D graphics) and reversible button layout (it had two sets of buttons, allowing the user to flip it over and play with the D-pad on the right if he were left-handed--of course, the screen was also re-oriented to match), its large size and short battery life (due to the processing power required to handle the advanced graphics capabilities) meant that the Lynx never got the market share that it deserved. Also of note was that its games took a long time to load, even though they were stored on cartridges. This was because, rather than directly access the game data from the cartridges themselves, the Lynx actually ''copied it into system memory'' (taking unnecessary time and draining the batteries in the process).

This resulted in the infamous [[AtariJaguar Jaguar]] in 1993. Designed by an outside team, it was billed as the first 64-bit console. However, it only had a 16-bit CPU, with a 64-bit ''sprite processor''. Customers hoping for incredible 3-D graphics to surpass the 32-bit 3DO released in the same year were disappointed by the Jaguar's untextured, blocky models. However, it was in the Jaguar era that modernized remakes of classic Atari games started to find success with ''VideoGame/{{Tempest}} 2000''.

Atari merged in 1996 with a hard drive company, JT Storage Inc., which became JTS Corp. and sold out the Atari rights to Hasbro in 1998. (JTS Corp. went bankrupt a year later.) In 2000, Hasbro Interactive, which included Atari and Creator/MicroProse, was sold to Infogrames Entertainment, SA. Infogrames used the Atari name to sell anime-based fighting games, other licensed games, and most successfully, anthologies of classic Atari console and home games (Hasbro started doing this, but the former Infogrames heavily stepped up in promoting the Atari back catalog on modern consoles and computers).

Meanwhile, Atari Games went through a variety of owners, first becoming a subsidiary of Namco from 1985 to 1987. (The relationship between Atari and Namco dated to 1975, when Atari sold its Japanese subsidiary to Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd.) Atari Games started producing games for the NintendoEntertainmentSystem and other consoles through a new subsidiary named Tengen (a term referring to the central dot on the ''Go'' board). Though Tengen was initially a Nintendo licensee, Atari Games acquired the source code to the NES's lock-out system and Tengen, having found a way to circumvent it, started releasing its games for the NES on unlicensed black cartridges. Lawsuits began immediately, Atari Games suing Nintendo for monopolizing the market for NES cartridges, Nintendo claiming patent violation. Another legal battle between Atari Games and Nintendo, concerning the rights to ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'', was more quickly decided in Nintendo's favor.

* Atari Europe S.A.S.U. (formerly Infogrames Europe)

* Atari Australia Pty Ltd. (formerly Infogrames Australia; acquired from [=OziSoft=] in 1998)

* Atari Inc. (formerly Infogrames Inc.; acquired from GT Interactive in 1999; included development studios Eden Studios, Creator/HumongousEntertainment, Oddworld Inhabitants, Paradigm Entertainment, Reflections and Creator/ShinyEntertainment)

* Atari UK Ltd. (formerly Infogrames UK; acquired in 1996 from Ocean Software)

In 2009, Infogrames Entertainment went bankrupt and restructured itself as Atari SA, the first time since the company sold itself to Warner in the 1970s that a company called Atari wasn't owned by a holding company. In 2010, Bushnell returned to Atari as a member of its board of directors.

Infogrames' acquisition of Atari was part of a buying spree which took in more than a dozen video game companies between 1996 and 2001. In May 2003, most of Infogrames' subsidiaries were renamed after Atari:
* Atari Inc. (formerly Infogrames Inc.; acquired from GT Interactive in 1999)

Atari merged in 1996 with a hard drive company, JT Storage Inc., which became JTS Corp. and sold out the Atari rights to Hasbro in 1998. (JTS Corp. went bankrupt a year later.) In 2000, Hasbro Interactive, which included Atari, was sold to Infogrames Entertainment, SA. Infogrames used the Atari name to sell anime-based fighting games, other licensed games, and most successfully, anthologies of classic Atari console and home games (Hasbro started doing this, but the former Infogrames heavily stepped up in promoting the Atari back catalog on modern consoles and computers).

* Atari Europe (formerly Infogrames Europe)

* Atari Melbourne House Pty Ltd. (formerly Infogrames Melbourne House; acquired from Beam Software in 1999; sold to Krome Studios in 2006)

Atari merged in 1996 with a hard drive company, JT Storage Inc., which became JTS Corp. and sold out the Atari rights to Hasbro in 1998. (JTS Corp. went bankrupt a year later.) In 2000, Hasbro Interactive, which included Atari, was sold to Infogrames, who between 1996 and 2001 acquired more than a dozen other video game companies. Infogrames used the Atari name to sell anime-based fighting games, other licensed games, and most successfully, anthologies of classic Atari console and home games (Hasbro started doing this, but the former Infogrames heavily stepped up in promoting the Atari back catalog on modern consoles and computers). In 2009, Infogrames went bankrupt and restructured itself as Atari Inc., the first time since the company sold itself to Warner in the 1970s that a company called Atari wasn't owned by a holding company. In 2010, Bushnell returned to Atari as a member of its board of directors.

* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark''

* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'' (2008)

* ''ActOfWar''

Atari merged in 1996 with a hard drive company, JT Storage Inc., which became JTS Corp. and sold out the Atari name to Hasbro (JTS Corp. went bankrupt a year later). Then Hasbro sold the name to Infogrames, which then used it to sell licensed ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' fighting games, other licensed games, and most successfully, anthologies of classic Atari console and home games (Hasbro started doing this in 2000–05, but the former Infogrames heavily stepped up in promoting the Atari back catalog on modern consoles and computers). In 2009, Infogrames went bankrupt and restructured itself as Atari Inc., the first time since the company sold itself to Warner in the 1970s that a company called Atari wasn't owned by a holding company. In 2010, Bushnell returned to Atari as a member of its board of directors.

In 1990, Namco started releasing its games on its own account in America and sold its stake in Atari Games to Warner again, which had by now become Time Warner. Shortly after settling the Nintendo lawsuit in 1994, Atari Games abandoned the Tengen brand and began putting out most of its releases under the name of Time Warner Interactive. Atari Games finally became part of MidwayGames in 1996. It was renamed to Midway Games West in 2000 and disbanded three years later. The Atari Games catalog is in turn considered a part of the Midway Games catalog, and is currently owned by Warner once more.

* ''AloneInTheDark''

* ''[[Franchise/StarWars]]''

* ''[[StarWarsTheArcadeGame Star Wars]]''