The Atari Jaguar CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Jaguar video game console . Only 13 games were released for the Jaguar CD during its lifetime. However, previously unfinished and homebrew games have since been released.
87-520: Atari announced a CD-ROM drive for the Jaguar before the console's November 1993 launch. Codenamed Jaguar II during development, the Jaguar CD was released on September 21, 1995 for US$ 149.95 (equivalent to about $ 300 in 2023). It was originally scheduled for launch during the 1994 holiday shopping season, with multiple delays. In mid-1994 Atari and Sigma Designs signed an agreement to co-develop
174-512: A PC board that would allow Jaguar CD games to be played on home computers, with a scheduled release by the end of 1994. However, it was never released. The drive fits into the ROM cartridge slot atop the console, with its own pass-through cartridge slot to optionally run software that uses cartridge only or that uses cartridge and CD in tandem. The Memory Track cartridge stores saved game position and high scores. Several publications have criticized
261-485: A crowdfunding campaign in order to minimize any financial risk to the parent company. On September 26, 2017, Atari sent out a press release about the new " Atari VCS ", which confirmed more details about the console. It runs a Linux operating system, with full access to the underlying OS, but it have a custom interface designed for the TV. On January 27, 2020, Atari announced a deal with GSD Group to build Atari Hotels, with
348-504: A 10-week development window, what they produced looked like a miniature version of the Atari 7800 console originally released in 1984. Twenty classic Atari titles were built into the system. The success of Flashback led to the creation of a follow-up Flashback 2, released in August 2005, based on an implementation of the original Atari 2600 on a single chip that Curt Vendel designed, allowing
435-489: A Walmart." In December 1995, GT Interactive debuted on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the stock symbol GTIS. Raising $ 140 million with its initial public offering , it was one of the biggest IPOs of the year. GT Interactive offered 10 million shares to the public at $ 14 each. During GT Interactive's IPO, Joseph Cayre sold more than 1.4 million shares, 9.2% of his shares, for a $ 20 million return. GT Interactive reported
522-473: A console, two joysticks, a pair of paddles, and the Combat game cartridge. Bushnell knew he had another potential hit on his hands but bringing the machine to market would be extremely expensive. Looking for outside investors, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for $ 28 million. Nolan continued to have disagreements with Warner Management over the direction of the company, the discontinuation of
609-514: A corporate restructuring in 2003, IESA rebranded Infogrames, Inc. to Atari, Inc. on May 8, 2003 and all titles from here on were solely under the Atari brand. It became 'ATAR' on the NASDAQ stock market. Atari released a series of games based on The Matrix movie trilogy including Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo . Although not critical successes, these titles represent some of
696-592: A deal with MTV , the deal gave GT Interactive the rights to publish games based on Beavis and Butt-head and Æon Flux . In October, GT Interactive bought game developer SingleTrac for $ 14.7 million — $ 5.4 million in cash and $ 9.3 million in stock. SingleTrac owned and developed such games as Twisted Metal and Jet Moto . In September game developer Cavedog Entertainment , a division of Humongous Entertainment , made its first release, Total Annihilation , which sold more than 1 million copies. On October 5, 1997, GT Interactive announced that it had signed
783-482: A definitive agreement to acquire MicroProse for $ 250 million in stock; the deal had even been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies and was expected to be completed by the end of that year. The merger would have made GT Interactive the second largest U.S. gaming software company, exceeded only by Electronic Arts . But on December 5 the acquisition was cancelled, according to both CEOs "the time
870-608: A historical low of 6.4% down from the record highs of 9% and 10% years earlier. GT Interactive was a leader only on the arcade/action category, with a 20.3% market share. Making matters worse, GT Interactive also had a high debt/equity ratio of 41%; for comparison, Electronic Arts had a debt/equity ratio of just 8%. For 1997 GT Interactive's return on equity was a dismal -16.14%. For the year, GT Interactive's revenue growth continued to decelerate, increased only 45% to $ 530 million. During 1997 GT Interactive posted its first net loss, totaling $ 25 million. In May 1998, Epic Games 's Unreal
957-465: A lifespan of about three years; it then set forth to build the most powerful machine possible within that time frame. Mid-way into their effort the home computer revolution took off, leading to the addition of a keyboard and features to produce the Atari 800 and its smaller sibling, the 400. The new machines had some success when they finally became available in quantity in 1980. From this platform Atari released their next-generation game console in 1982,
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#17327805584101044-420: A net income increase of only 11% over the previous year to $ 25.1 million. Revenue growth also decelerated to 56%, revenue for the year was $ 365 million. Making matters worse, net income in the fourth quarter reduced 16.8% to $ 8.5 million when compared to 1995's fourth quarter. In January 1997, GT Interactive bought One Stop, a European value software publisher, for $ 800,000 in cash. In June GT Interactive signed
1131-708: A non-exclusive license to run a cryptocurrency online casino on Atari's website, based on the Atari Token. The group partnering with Atari opened a new company in Gibraltar called Atari Chain LTD. In March 2021, Atari extended its partnership with ICICB Group for the development of Atari branded hotels, and the first hotels will be constructed at selected locations outside the United States, with Dubai , Gibraltar and Spain . In late 2021, Wade Rosen became
1218-497: A nonoperating subsidiary until 1992. Meanwhile, Namco later lost interest in operating Atari Games. In 1987, Namco sold 33% of its shares to a group of employees led by then-president Hideyuki Nakajima. He had been the president of Atari Games since 1985. Atari Ireland was a subsidiary of Atari Games that manufactured their games for the European market; while under Namco, Atari Ireland also manufactured Sega 's Hang-On (1985) for
1305-576: A planned relocation to Los Angeles added to the losses. In June GT Interactive announced it had hired Bear Stearns to look into the possibility of either a merger or a sale of the company and in October GT Interactive fired 35% of its workforce, or 650 employees, mostly from its distribution section. In June, Reflections -developed Driver was released, selling approximately 1 million copies. In July GT Interactive sold OneZero Media for $ 5.2 million in cash, just six months after it
1392-496: A privately held company. On April 30, 2008, Atari, Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and to merge with Infogrames. On October 8, 2008, IESA completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary. On December 9, 2008, Atari announced that it had acquired Cryptic Studios , an MMORPG developer. Namco Bandai purchased a 34% stake in Atari Europe on May 14, 2009, paving
1479-424: A ribbed top surface, and a rise at the back of the console; two versions were announced: one with a traditional wood veneer front, and the other with a glass front. Connectivity options were revealed, including HDMI , USB (x4), and SD card – the console was said to support both classic and current games. Also, according to an official company statement of June 22, 2017, the product was to be initially launched via
1566-457: A sequel to the original Tempest , on various systems including the Atari VCS . With a renewed focus of its parent company, led by Wade Rosen, on Atari's retro library and IPs, in 2022 Atari released Kombinera , the first original IP title that Atari produced in many years. It is a puzzle-platformer, developed by Graphite Lab, and a game that fits into the "Atari gameplay motif" as part of
1653-554: A settlement in 1994, with Atari Games paying Nintendo cash damages and the use of several patent licenses. In April 1996, after an unsuccessful bid by Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell , the company was sold to WMS Industries , owners of the Williams, Bally , and Midway arcade brands, which restored the use of the Atari Games name. On November 19, 1999, Atari Games Corporation was renamed Midway Games West Inc., resulting in
1740-501: A strong revenue growth of 134% in the year to $ 234.4 million but, in the first sign of trouble ahead, profits increased a meager 23% to $ 22.6 million. In January 1996, GT Interactive obtained the publishing rights for the highly anticipated Quake from id Software . In February GT Interactive and Target signed an agreement in which GT Interactive became the primary consumer software supplier to all Target's 675 stores. In June 1996 GT Interactive acquired WizardWorks , publisher of
1827-612: 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 . Its origins date to GT Interactive Software in 1993, known for publishing games such as Doom II , Quake , Driver ,
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#17327805584101914-510: A subsidiary which it then renamed to Atari Interactive. Meanwhile, Atari Games was acquired by Midway Games in 1996, and effectively retired the Atari name on arcades by 2000 to avoid public confusion with Hasbro's Atari home releases. Infogrames Entertainment (IESA) – precursor of the present-day Atari SA – became the new owner of the Atari brand after buying Hasbro Interactive in 2001, renaming it Infogrames Interactive, which intermittently published Atari-branded home titles. In 2003, it renamed
2001-586: A year in which to tackle the company's problems. He began a massive restructuring of the company and worked with Warner Communications in May 1984 to create "NATCO" (an acronym for New Atari Company). NATCO further streamlined the company's facilities, personnel, and spending. Unknown to James Morgan and the senior management of Atari, Warner had been in talks with Tramel Technology to buy Atari's consumer electronics and home computer divisions. Negotiating until close to midnight on July 1, 1984, Jack Tramiel purchased most of
2088-814: A year, and following this its parent group had a new corporate strategy revolving around new audiences outside the gaming industry, and mobile games , leading to lessened activities by Atari, Inc. The first release of note was Alone in the Dark: Illumination in 2015, which was universally panned by critics. For the rest of the decade, the company mainly released new titles in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series on various platforms, including RollerCoaster Tycoon World (2016), RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic (2017) and RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures (2019), but during this period also released Tempest 4000 , developed by Llamasoft (Jeff Minter) as
2175-464: Is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames). 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
2262-521: Is not authorized to represent Atari or its brands in any manner. In March 2024, Atari announced that it will work with coin-op manufacturer Alan-1 to bring Atari Recharged titles on arcades . This would mark the return of the Atari brand in the arcade space after 25 years, when San Francisco Rush 2049 was released. Atari, Inc. (1993%E2%80%93present) Atari, Inc. is an American video gaming company based in New York City , and
2349-451: Is simply not right" for the deal. MicroProse's stock plummeted after the announcement of the deal's cancellation. GT Interactive's result was negatively affected because, in March, they stopped being the exclusive computer software distributor to Walmart, who decided to buy its software directly from the publishers. In 1997, GT Interactive's share of the entertainment software market reached
2436-716: The Deer Hunter series, for 2.4 million shares and FormGen , which had the publishing rights to Duke Nukem , for 1 million shares, or $ 17 million. Quake was also released in June by GT Interactive for PC. It sold 1.8 million copies, becoming a PC classic. In July, the game developer Humongous Entertainment was bought by GT Interactive for 3.5 million shares, or $ 76 million. In 1995, Humongous Entertainment 's revenue had risen to $ 10 million, an increase of 233% over 1994's revenue of $ 3 million. The deal gave GT Interactive rights to successful children's software titles such as
2523-746: The Dragon Ball games based on the popular anime license from Toei Animation in Japan. These include the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series of games and the Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku series of games for the Game Boy Advance . These games have topped the best-seller charts for numerous console platforms since the release of Atari's first Dragon Ball Z game, The Legacy of Goku in 2002, which
2610-560: The Driver franchise to Ubisoft afterwards. On May 5, 2006, Atari and Hasbro stopped BioWare and DLA from further development of premium modules and publishing near-completed premium modules for Neverwinter Nights . No reason was stated, but it was likely in anticipation of the upcoming sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2 , which would lack features from these modules. They relented after community backlash. Later that year came Test Drive Unlimited , developed by Eden Games of France which
2697-580: The Putt-Putt franchise as well as the Freddi Fish and Spy Fox series. In November GT Interactive acquired Warner Interactive Europe (including Renegade Software ) from Time Warner for $ 6.3 million in cash, with this acquisition GT Interactive gained bigger access to software markets in Western Europe. In a sign of uncertainty for its future, GT Interactive, for the year, reported
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2784-547: The 1040STF and the Mega ST with a bit image manipulator chip, and launched its first parallel computer . The ATW-800 Transputer was based on the Inmos T800 CPU, which had a 32/64-bit architecture, ran at 15 million instructions per second (MIPS) and housed a Charity videochip that supported 16 million colors. The company continued to experiment with parallel computing aiming at B2B customers and graphic designers, but
2871-474: The 2600+ console, a product developed by Atari, Inc. and separate from the VCS and Flashback series. In March 2024, Atari announced that it would bring its Atari Recharged series to arcades , which would be the first Atari arcade game since 1999's San Francisco Rush 2049 . Another recreated hardware, Atari 7800+, was announced in August 2024, alongside Atari reissusing cartridges of old titles. Yars Rising
2958-445: The Atari 5200 . It was unsuccessful due to incompatibility with the 2600 game library, a small quantity of dedicated games, and notoriously unreliable controllers. Porting arcade games to home systems with inferior hardware was difficult. The ported version of Pac-Man for Atari 2600 omitted many of the visual features of the original to compensate for the lack of ROM space and the hardware struggled when multiple ghosts appeared on
3045-585: The Federated Group for $ 67.3 million, securing shelf space in over 60 stores in California, Arizona, Texas and Kansas at a time when major American electronics outlets were reluctant to carry Atari-branded computers, and two-thirds of Atari's PC production was sold in Europe. The Federated Group (not related to Federated Department Stores ) was sold to Silo in 1989. In 1988, the company unveiled
3132-532: The Xbox in 2001. By 1996, a series of successful lawsuits had left Atari with millions of dollars in the bank, but the failure of the Lynx and Jaguar left Atari without a product to sell. Tramiel and his family also wanted out of the business. The result was a rapid succession of changes in ownership. In July 1996, Atari merged with JTS Inc. , a short-lived maker of hard disk drives, to form JTS Corp. Atari's role in
3219-589: The 1970s to the mid-1980s. In 1984, as a result of the video game crash of 1983 , the assets of the home console and computer divisions of the original Atari Inc. were sold off to Jack Tramiel 's Tramel Technology Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation , while the remaining part of Atari, Inc. was renamed Atari Games Inc . In early 1985, Warner established a new corporation jointly with Namco subsequently named Atari Games Corporation, which took control of Atari's coin-operated games division. The rights to Atari, Inc.'s game properties were shared between
3306-495: The Atari 130XE; Atari User Groups received early sneak-preview samples of the new Atari 520ST's, and major retailer shipments hit store shelves in September 1985 of Atari's new 32-bit Atari ST computers. In 1986, Atari launched two consoles designed under Warner — the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800 console (which saw limited release in 1984). Atari rebounded, earning a $ 25 million profit that year. In 1987, Atari acquired
3393-543: The Atari Games name no longer being used, with San Francisco Rush 2049 being the final Atari-branded arcade release. On March 13, 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $ 5 million, less than a fifth of what Warner Communications had paid 22 years earlier. This transaction primarily involved the brand and intellectual property, which now fell under the Atari Interactive division of Hasbro Interactive. Two years after Atari's "death",
3480-549: The Atari brand with the launch of three new games featuring a prominent Atari branding on their boxarts: Splashdown , MX Rider and TransWorld Surf . Infogrames used Atari as a brand name for games aimed at 18–34 year olds. Other Infogrames games under the Atari name included V-Rally 3 , Neverwinter Nights , Stuntman and Enter the Matrix . On May 8, 2003, IESA had its majority-owned but discrete US subsidiary Infogrames, Inc. officially renamed Atari, Inc. , renamed its European operations to Atari Europe but kept
3567-923: The Earth ' s relative commercial failure, Godzilla: Unleashed was released for the PS2 on November 20, 2007, and the Wii on December 5, 2007. Unleashed was accompanied by Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash for the Nintendo DS, which was released on November 20, 2007. Alongside new releases, Atari, Inc. also released compilations honoring the classic Atari library, including Atari Anthology on PC and consoles, Atari Masterpieces in two volumes on Nokia N-Gage , and Retro Atari Classics for Nintendo DS . The company went into hardware in 2004 with Atari Flashback , designed and produced by Atari consultant Curt Vendel through his engineering firm Legacy Engineering. With only
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3654-623: The European market. Atari Games continued to manufacture arcade games and units, and starting in 1988, also sold cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System under the Tengen brand name, including a version of Tetris . The companies exchanged a number of lawsuits in the late 1980s related to disputes over the rights to Tetris and Tengen's circumvention of Nintendo's lockout chip, which prevented third parties from creating unauthorized games. The suit finally reached
3741-502: The Jaguar CD's design for resembling a toilet . The Jaguar CD has a double-speed (2×) drive and built-in VLM ( Virtual Light Machine ) software by Jeff Minter , using a spectrum analyzer for a sophisticated video light show for audio CDs . It is bundled with Blue Lightning , Vid Grid , the Tempest 2000 soundtrack CD, and a Myst demo disc. Every startup screen is unique, using
3828-472: The VLM for a random light show. Jaguar CDs can store up to 790 MB , more than conventional CD-ROMs. Its proprietary CD format is based on the audio CD format, instead of standard CD-ROM data formats. It allows for more storage, and its incompatibility foils casual piracy , at the expense of reduced error correction . Atari Atari ( / ə ˈ t ɑːr i / ) is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It
3915-583: The ancient board game Go . The word atari means "to hit a target" in Japanese; in Go, it indicates a situation where a player will be able to capture one or more stones of the opponent in the next move. The Atari logo was designed by George Opperman , who was Atari's first in-house graphic designer, and drawn by Evelyn Seto. The design is known as "Fuji" for its resemblance to the Japanese mountain , although
4002-545: The assets of the home computing and game console divisions of Atari for $ 240 million in promissory notes and stocks. Warner gained a 20% stake in Tramel Technology, which was renamed Atari Corporation. Warner retained the arcade division, continuing it under the name Atari Games , but sold it to Namco in 1985. Warner also sold the Ataritel division to Mitsubishi . Under Tramiel's ownership, Atari Corp. used
4089-627: The board as a representative for Blubay holdings. As of March 31, 2011, the board of directors consisted of Frank Dangeard, Jim Wilson, Tom Virden, Gene Davis and Alexandra Fichelson. On January 21, 2013, the four related companies Atari, Atari Interactive, Humongous , and California US Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. All three Ataris emerged from bankruptcy one year later and
4176-472: The brand made a comeback with Hasbro immediately stating the development of new remakes of Atari classics, starting with Centipede released on Windows PCs later that year. The brand name changed hands again in December 2000 when French software publisher Infogrames took over Hasbro Interactive. In October 2001, Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA, now Atari SA ) announced that it was "reinventing"
4263-658: The console titles based on Godzilla for Atari, although handheld titles were developed separately. The series started with Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for the GameCube which was released on October 11, 2002, to much success before it was ported to the Microsoft Xbox a year later. It was followed by a sequel, Godzilla: Save the Earth for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, on November 16, 2004. Despite Save
4350-629: The corporate strategy. 2023 saw the release of Mr. Run and Jump on consoles and computers, as well as a remake of Haunted House , developed by Orbit Studio. Atari have also been releasing remakes of classics under the Atari Recharged series since 2021. At CES 2023, Atari partnered with My Arcade who produced three dedicated consoles under license with built-in Atari classics: the Atari Gamestation Plus, Pocket Player, and Micro Player. In August 2023, Atari announced
4437-473: The division Atari Interactive. Another IESA division called Infogrames Inc., which was founded as GT Interactive, changed its name to Atari, Inc. the same year, licensing the Atari name and logo from its fellow subsidiary. In 2008, IESA completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc.'s outstanding stock, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. IESA renamed itself Atari SA in 2009 which remains the status quo . It sought bankruptcy protection under French law in 2013. On
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#17327805584104524-417: The entering of the social casino gaming industry with Atari Casino. Frederic Chesnais, who now heads all three companies, stated that their entire operations consist of a staff of 10 people. On June 22, 2014, Atari announced a new corporate strategy that would include a focus on "new audiences", specifically " LGBT , social casinos, real-money gambling, and YouTube ". On June 8, 2017, a short teaser video
4611-472: The first Unreal . The company was acquired by Infogrames in 1999, and later renamed to Infogrames, Inc. Two years after Infogrames's purchase of the Atari brand and assets from Hasbro Interactive , the company was rebranded to Atari, Inc., initially serving as Infogrames's US operations. In 2008 it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infogrames, now known as Atari SA, and activities were largely consolidated into Atari Inc. GT Interactive Software Corp.
4698-547: The first breaking ground in Phoenix in mid-2020. Additional hotels were also planned in Las Vegas , Denver , Chicago , Austin , Seattle , San Francisco , and San Jose . The company plans to make the hotel experience immersive and accessible to all ages. Hotels are planned to include virtual and augmented reality technologies. On December 16, 2020, Atari shipped the first units of the Atari VCS exclusive to backers of
4785-485: The fiscal year ending on December 31, 1998). In 1999, GT Interactive posted first quarter losses of $ 90 million due to restructuring costs. In February, in light of the bad results, CEO Ron Chaimowitz was replaced. Game sales in 1999 fell in comparison to 1998, which had dire consequences on GT Interactive's finances. In April, GT Interactive predicted for 2000 a first quarter loss of $ 55 million on revenues of around just $ 95 million. A failure to release 5 major games and
4872-456: The game console and home computer markets, Atari was never able to duplicate the success of the 2600. These problems were followed by the video game crash of 1983 , with losses that totaled more than $ 500 million. Warner's stock price slid from $ 60 to $ 20, and the company began searching for a buyer for its troubled division. In 1983, Ray Kassar resigned. Financial problems continued to mount and Kassar's successor, James J. Morgan , had less than
4959-430: The license from Atari. Atari Flashback Portable is a handheld game console sold since 2016. In April 2011, Atari re-released their back catalogue of arcade and Atari 2600 games to be played on mobile devices. On March 6, 2008, IESA made an offer to Atari, Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of $ 1.68 per share, or $ 11 million total. The offer would make IESA sole owner of Atari, Inc., thus making it
5046-492: The logo's origins are unrelated to it. Opperman designed the logo intending for the silhouette to look like the letter A as in Atari and for its three "prongs" to resemble players and the midline of the "court" in the company's first hit game, Pong . In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded a small engineering company, Syzygy Engineering, that designed Computer Space , the world's first commercially available arcade video game, for Nutting Associates. On June 27, 1972,
5133-520: The most expensive video games ever developed. Enter the Matrix , which was developed by Shiny Entertainment , sold 1.38 million units for the PlayStation 2 and 1 million units for the GameCube . However the 2004 release of Driver 3 , as part of the Driver series developed by Reflections Interactive , was met with a widely negative critical reception. Atari's top-selling titles had been
5220-561: The new CEO of Atari. Unlike his predecessor, Rosen's strategy for Atari is a re-focus on retro gaming and Atari's classic franchises. On 18 April 2022, Atari announced the termination of all license agreements with ICICB Group and its subsidiaries ("ICICB"). The license agreements between Atari and ICICB, including the Atari Chain Limited license (the "Joint Venture") and the related licenses including hotel and casino licenses, have been terminated effective 18 April 2022. ICICB
5307-446: The new company largely became that of holder for the Atari properties and minor support, and consequently the name largely disappeared from the market. Video game magazines reported it as Atari exiting the video game business. The end of an era — Atari's story is one that certainly should never be forgotten by anyone who has ever enjoyed a videogame. After the sale of the consumer electronics and computer divisions to Jack Tramiel, Atari
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#17327805584105394-460: The original 2600 games to be run instead of ports as in the first Flashback. A total of forty titles were available for the system, including Pitfall! licensed from Activision . From 2011 onwards, the Flashback series was licensed out to AtGames . Driver: Parallel Lines was released in March 2006, receiving a more positive critique compared to its predecessor; however the company sold
5481-405: The original name of the main company Infogrames Entertainment. The original Atari holdings division purchased from Hasbro, Hasbro Interactive, was also made a separate corporate entity renamed as Atari Interactive . Between 2004 and 2011, Atari produced and marketed Atari Flashback retro consoles , reminiscent of the Atari 2600 design. Since 2011, these consoles have been produced by AtGames under
5568-427: The other hand, Atari's post-1984 arcade titles is the property of Warner Bros. Games since receiving the assets following Midway's bankruptcy in 2009. As of 2023, Atari's focus was on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and blockchain ". In 2024 Atari terminated all connections to cryptocurrency to once again focus solely on video games. The name comes from the Japanese term atari , used while playing
5655-409: The pinball division, and most importantly, the notion of discontinuing the 2600. In 1978, Kee Games was disbanded. In December of that year, Bushnell was fired as chairman and co-CEO following an argument with Manny Gerard. He decided to leave the company rather than take an advisory role. The development of a successor to the 2600 started as soon as it shipped. The original team estimated the 2600 had
5742-515: The remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development on a 16/32-bit computer system, the Atari ST . ("ST" stands for "sixteen/thirty-two", referring to the machines' 16-bit bus and 32-bit processor core.) In April 1985, they released an update to the 8-bit computer line, the Atari 65XE, the first in the Atari XE series. June 1985 saw the release of
5829-455: The screen creating a flickering effect. Under Warner and Atari's chairman and CEO, Raymond Kassar , the company achieved its greatest success, selling millions of 2600s and computers. At its peak, Atari accounted for a third of Warner's annual income and was the fastest-growing company in US history at the time. It ran into problems in the early 1980s. Faced with fierce competition and price wars in
5916-548: The subsidiary led to his appointment as president of Atari when Kee was absorbed into the company in 1974. In 1975, Atari's Grass Valley, California subsidiary Cyan Engineering started the development of a flexible console that was capable of playing the four existing Atari games. The result was the Atari Video Computer System , or VCS (later renamed 2600 when the 5200 was released). The introductory price of $ 199 (equivalent to $ 1,066 in 2023) included
6003-492: The systems crowdfunding campaign. Atari urged the backers to give feedback on the system so that the company could make changes to improve the product on its official launch. The consoles only ship to North America , Australia , and New Zealand . In 2020, Atari launched its decentralized cryptocurrency Atari Token in equal partnership with the ICICB Group. Atari Group announced in March 2020 that it granted ICICB
6090-460: The transputer line failed to achieve commercial success. In 1989, Atari released the Atari Lynx , the first ever handheld console with a color display and a backlit screen, to much fanfare. A shortage of parts kept the system from being released nationwide for the 1989 Christmas season, and the Lynx lost market share to Nintendo's Game Boy , which, despite only having a black and white display,
6177-456: The two companies: Atari Corporation receiving the trademarks and the home rights, while Atari Games receiving the rights to use the logo and brand name with appended text "Games" on arcade products. In 1996, Atari Corporation reverse-merged with disk-drive manufacturer JT Storage (JTS) and effectively perished. In 1998, Hasbro Interactive, part of the toy company Hasbro , acquired all Atari Corporation–related properties from JTS, as part of
6264-520: The two incorporated Atari, Inc. and soon hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer. Bushnell asked Alcorn to produce an arcade version of the Magnavox Odyssey 's Tennis game, which would be named Pong . Before Atari's incorporation, Bushnell considered various terms from the game Go , eventually choosing atari , referencing a position in the game when a group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. Atari
6351-420: The way for its acquisition from IESA. Atari had significant financial issues for several years prior, with losses in the tens of millions since 2005. In May 2009, Infogrames Entertainment SA, the parent company of Atari, and Atari Interactive, announced it would change its name to Atari SA. In April 2010, Atari SA board member and former CEO David Gardner resigned. Original Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell joined
6438-501: The year (results with the fiscal year ending on December 31, 1999). On May 10, 2000, IESA announced the renaming of GT Interactive to Infogrames, Inc. Additionally, California -based Infogrames North America, Inc., which was formerly Accolade , was consolidated into the new Infogrames, Inc. and hence IESA's North American division. The GT Interactive brand and trademark was eventually sold during Atari SA's (IESA's successor) 2013 bankruptcy, to Tommo, Inc. , and later Billionsoft, but
6525-402: Was acquired for 2.3 million shares or $ 13.5 million. Both companies were bought in December of 1998 . In the fourth quarter of 1998, GT Interactive posted a net income of $ 16.7 million on revenues of $ 246.3 million. For the year, GT Interactive reported revenues were almost flat rising 10% to $ 584 million, but GT Interactive swung into black by posting a $ 20.3 million net income (results from
6612-515: Was also under the ownership of Infogrames Entertainment. Eden Games also developed Alone in the Dark , released in 2008, the fifth installment in the Alone in the Dark series. Other big releases by Atari were Ghostbusters: The Video Game in 2009 and Test Drive Unlimited 2 in 2011. Atari, Inc., including its fellow American subsidiaries, filed for bankruptcy in 2013. It exited bankruptcy within
6699-574: Was bought back by Atari SA on April 20, 2023, alongside select titles formerly published by the company. In 2001, Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) acquired the Atari brand, assets and franchises from Hasbro Interactive . A few months later they released the Atari Anniversary Edition compilation. Later that year, Atari-branded titles published by Infogrames Inc. (and its European distributor Infogrames Europe SA) started appearing on brand new games, starting with MX Rider . Amid
6786-451: Was cheaper, had better battery life and had much higher availability. Tramiel emphasized computers over game consoles, but Atari's proprietary computer architecture and operating system fell victim to the success of the Wintel platform while the game market revived. In 1989, Atari Corp. sued Nintendo for $ 250 million, alleging it had an illegal monopoly. Atari eventually lost the case when it
6873-844: Was founded in February 1993 in New York as the video game publishing division of GoodTimes Home Video , a video-tape distributor owned by the Cayre family, with Ron Chaimowitz as co-founder and president. In its first year, revenue reached $ 10.3 million. Their first product was the retail release of Wolfenstein 3D . GT was unique among many publishers as they allowed developers they contracted to retain their intellectual property. GT Interactive revenue soared 880% and reached $ 101 million in its second year of existence, with profits reaching $ 18 million. GT Interactive's partnership with id Software scored another hit with Doom II: Hell on Earth , which
6960-401: Was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972. In 1973, Atari secretly spawned a competitor called Kee Games , headed by Nolan's next-door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market nearly the same game to different distributors, each getting an "exclusive" deal. Joe Keenan's management of
7047-506: Was published by GT Interactive, in the first 10 months over 800,000 copies were sold. Coincidentally Deer Hunter II , which was released in October also sold 800,000 copies. In November, GT Interactive bought OneZero Media for $ 17.2 million in stock and $ 20 million in total, becoming the first game publisher to own an entertainment Internet website. Legend Entertainment was acquired for around $ 2 million, while Reflections Interactive
7134-407: Was purchased. On November 16, France-based Infogrames Entertainment, SA (IESA) announced that it would buy 70% of GT Interactive for $ 135 million and assume $ 10.5 million in debt, a deal completed by December 17. IESA's acquisition came just in time because GT Interactive's 1999 results were dismal. Revenues fell 30% to $ 408 million in 1999 and GT Interactive posted a net loss of $ 254 million for
7221-418: Was rejected by a US district court in 1992. In 1991, Atari released its PCs ABC386SXII and ABC386DXII based on Intel's i386 chip. In 1993, Atari positioned its Jaguar as the only 64-bit interactive media entertainment system available, but it sold poorly. It would be the last home console to be produced by Atari and the last to be produced by an American manufacturer until Microsoft 's introduction of
7308-530: Was released in October 1994 and sold over 2 million copies. In February 1995, GT Interactive obtained the publishing rights to games based on Mercer Mayer property, which included Little Critter and Little Monster . GT Interactive began to set up displays at Kmart and Walmart for low cost software. GT Interactive signed an exclusive software supplier agreement with Walmart that meant, according to UBS Securities analyst Michael Wallace, "All software developers have to deal with GT if they want to sell in
7395-413: Was released, promoting a new product; and the following week Chesnais confirmed the company was developing a new game console – the hardware was stated to be based on PC technology, and still under development. In mid July 2017 an Atari press release confirmed the existence of the aforementioned new hardware, referred to as the "Ataribox". The box design was derived from early Atari designs (e.g. 2600) with
7482-402: Was renamed Atari Games Corporation . Atari Games retained most of the same employees and managers from the coin-operated games division and continued many of the divisions projects from before the transition. In 1985, a controlling interest in the coin-operated games division was sold to Namco , which also took the Atari Games name. Warner renamed Atari Games to Atari Holdings, which continued as
7569-534: Was the first Dragon Ball game to be made by an American company, Webfoot Technologies . Following the success of the Budokai and Legacy of Goku series, Atari has released numerous other Dragon Ball titles including Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors , Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic Warriors 2 , Dragon Ball Z: Sagas , Dragon Ball GT: Transformation , Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure and Super Dragon Ball Z . Pipeworks developed and created all three of
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