Skip to content
◈ALB Atlas

Atari, Inc. Superseded

Atari, Inc.
KindCompany
Founded1972
Defunct1984
StatusSuperseded
FoundersNolan Bushnell
FieldVideo games
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

Pong to the 2600 to the 800 — the company that invented the video game industry, then the name on its 1983 crash. The corpse split into Atari Corp and Atari Games; the logo is still rented out.

Created Atari 800 Atari ST Atari TOS

Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari in 1972; Pong, Breakout, the 2600, and the 400/800 computers made it the fastest-growing US company ever by 1980. Warner bought it in 1976; Bushnell was pushed out in 1978.

The 1983 crash — partly Atari's own overproduction (E.T.) — destroyed the business. Warner split it in 1984: computers and consoles to Tramiel's Atari Corp, arcades to Atari Games. The name now licenses merchandise.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/atari/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_Inc.