Atari

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This article is about the company originally known as Syzygy Engineering and Atari, Inc. as well as the company originally known as Infogrames. For the company formerly known as Atari Games, see NetherRealm Studios. For the company that was originally known as GT Interactive, see Atari, Inc. For the company formerly known as Atari Japan, see the company that purchased it, Namco. For the Japanese pachinko maker that was formerly known as Atari, Inc., see Natsume Atari. For the company formerly known as Legacy Engineering, see Syzygy Co.

Atari logo.png
Atari
Type Publicly traded company
Founded 1971 (Syzygy Engineering)
June 27, 1972 (Atari, Inc.)
June 1983 (Infogrames Entertainment)
July 1, 1984 (Atari Corporation)
1996 (JTS Corporation)
2009 (Atari, S.A)
Headquarters Paris, France
Key people
Industry Video games, consumer electronics
Products
Number of people
Website http://www.atari.com/

Atari, S.A. is a video game holding company located in Paris, France. Its subsidiaries include Atari, Inc. and Atari Interactive.

Atari

Syzygy Engineering was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1971 and was incorporated as Atari on June 27, 1972. In 1976, Warner Communications purchased Atari as they wanted to get into the interactive entertainment business.

Infogrames Entertainment

Infogrames Entertainment, SA was formed in Lyons, France in June 1983.

Atari Corporation

On July 1, 1984, because of the video game crash of 1983, Warner sold the home division of the company to Tramel Technology, while Warner kept the arcade division. The arcade division became Atari Games and the home division became Atari Corporation.

JTS Corporation

In July 1996, Atari Corporation merged with JTS Inc. to form JTS Corp.

Infogrames Interactive

In March 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive. On December 6, 2000, Infogrames purchased Hasbro Interactive and acquired the Atari rights.

Atari, S.A.

In May 2009, Namco Bandai Holdings bought Atari Europe and Infogrames announced it was getting out of the distribution business in Europe. That same month, they changed their name to Atari, S.A., bringing an end to the Infogrames brand name.

Atari filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2013, remaining in business but selling some assets at auction, such as Humongous Entertainment.

Home computers and video game consoles by Atari

Name Released Notes
Pong 1975 Home version of the arcade Pong.
Also released by Sears Tele-Games.
Hockey Pong 1976 Also released by Sears Tele-Games. It had four games:
  • Pong
  • Hockey
  • Squash
  • Training (squash, but with only one player).
    • Pong Doubles 1976 Home version of the arcade Pong Doubles.
    Also released by Sears Tele-Games as Pong IV.
    Stunt Cycle 1976 Also released by sears Tele-Games as Motocross Sports Center IV.
    Played four variants of the arcade Stunt Cycle
  • Stunt Cycle
  • Motocross
  • Enduro
  • DragRace
    • Super Pong 1976 Home version of the arcade Super Pong.
    Also released by Sears Tele-Games.
    Super Pong Ten 1977 Super Pong, but with four controllers.
    Also released by Sears Tele-Games as Super Pong IV.
    Ultra Pong
    Ultra Pong Doubles     		1977 Super Pong with four player support.
    Ultra Pong had four controller ports but only included two controllers.
    Ultra Pong Doubles included four controllers.
    Ultra Pong was released by Sears Tele-Games as Pong Sports II.
    Ultra Pong Doubles was released by Sears Tele-Games as Pong Sports IV.
    Video Computer System 1977 Later renamed to Atari 2600.
    Also released by Sears Tele-Games as Video Arcade.
    Video Pinball 1977 Also released by Sears Tele-Games as Pinball Breakaway.
    The first Video Pinball model and the Tele-Games Pinball Breakaway had:
  • 4 variants of Video Pinball
  • 1 variant of Basketball
  • 2 variants of Breakout
    The second, beige, Atari Video Pinball model and the Epoch TV-Block had:
  • 4 variants of Video Pinball
  • 2 variants of Basketball
  • 1 variant of Breakout.
    • Atari 8-bit computers 1979-1984
    Atari 5200 SuperSystem 1982

    Home computers and video game consoles by Atari Corporation

    Name Released Notes
    Atari 8-bit computers 1984-1992
    Atari 7800 ProSystem 1986
    Atari ST 1986-1993 Included the Atari 520ST, 520STFM, 1040STF, Mega ST, Mega ST 1, Mega ST 2, 520STE, 1040STE, TT030, Mega STE, and Falcon030. It also included portable computers including the STacy and ST BOOK.
    Atari Transputer Workstation 1989 The Atari Transputer Workstation (ATW-800) was designed for technical or scientific applications.
    Atari Portfolio 1989 The Atari Portfolio (Atari PC Folio) was an IBM-PC compatible palmtop computer.
    Atari XE Video Game System 1987 It was a redesign of the Atari XE 8-bit computer as a video game console.
    Lynx 1989 A handheld video game system originally designed by Epyx as the Handy Game.
    Jaguar 1993
    Jaguar CD 1995 CD-ROM add-on for the Atari Jaguar.

    Home computers and video game consoles by Atari, S.A.

    Name Released Notes
    Atari Flashback 2004-present The Atari Flashback 1, 2, and 2+ were designed by Legacy Engineering.
    All other Atari Flashback consoles were designed by AtGames.
    Atari VCS 2020 The Atari VCS was designed by Atari Interactive.
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