Atari

Atari (from a Japanese verb meaning "to hit the

target") is a corporate and brand name owned by

several entities since its inception in 1972.

Businessmen such as Tony Freeman will instantly recognise the name

Atari. The brand was founded on 27th June 1972 as Atari Inc; later

rebranded in 1984 as Atari Games and Atari Corporation and in 1998

Atari Interactive (a division of Hasbro Interactive). Atari is synonymous

with the production of computers, consumer electronics and, of course,

video games.

In 1971, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell founded Syzygy Engineering,

the company which came up with the world's first video arcade game,

Computer Space. On 27th June 1973, Syzygy hired Al Alcorn as their

design engineer.

As a test of his abilities, Bushnell asked Alcorn to produce an arcade

version of the tennis game, Magnavox Odyssey, later to become a

forerunning computer game of the time, as Pong.

The Syzygy company never gained fully incorporated status, eventually

hunkering down with Bushnell's concept Atari. The Atari company was

incorporated in the US state of California on 27th June 1972.

In 1976, Nolan Bushnell collaborated with Cyan Engineering to come up

with a video game console capable of supporting all four of Atari's then

current games. They came up with the Atari Video Computer System,

later rebranded as the Atari 2600.

Bushnell knew a hit when he saw one, but

bringing the machine to market proved

rather expensive. Realising the proposal

would never come to fruition without

outside investment, Nolan relinquished

Atari to Warner Communications in 1976,

for an estimated $28 to $32 million.

He used part of the monies raised to buy the Folgers Mansion. Bushnell

fell into dispute with Warner Management over the future of the

company. He pushed for the discontinuation of the Pinball brand, and

pivotally that the Atari 2600 should be dropped. December 1978 saw a

heated debate between Manny Gerard and Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell

was fired. Arguing latterly, Bushnell insisted that he quit. Whatever the

fine details, production of the Atari 2600 suddenly ceased.

The Atari 5200 was released in 1982, based on the 400 and 800 models,

though without a keyboard. It was a flop, owing to its miniscule games

library, notoriously unreliable controllers and backwards compatibility.

In April 1985, Atari launched the XE series of 8-bit computer. They

followed up in June of the same year with the Atari 130XE and the 32-

bit Atari ST computer in September 1985. In 1986, Atari launched two

consoles with Warner: the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800. The

company bounced back, earning a $25 million profit for the year.

Steve Jobs worked at Atari. Click here to read about Steve Jobs Legacy.