A look back at the history of Atari

In 1971, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell released the first-ever coin-operated arcade machine. The game was called Computer Space. The project had been commissioned by Nutting Associates and was considered to be a failure. The game still sold 1500 units and allowed Bushnell and Dabney to set out on their new adventure.

They founded the company later that year under the name of Syzygy Co. They changed the name to Atari, Inc after discovering Syzygy Co was already taken, luckily. They hired Allan Alcorn, an engineer who had worked with Bushnell and Dabney at Apex. After Alcorn finished his first project, Atari launched production and management of Pong arcade cabinets across the country and overseas. The atari 600xl and  800XL (1983) was the third version of the Atari 8-bit line of computers introduced in 1983. The system contained a full 64K of memory, had all the standard VLSI chips (Antic, GTIA, Pokey, PIA) and was in a smaller and more compact design. The keyboard was good, not as good as the 1200XL keyboard, but it had a solid feel to it. The cartridge port had been move to the top centre of the system and used special metal spring loaded doors to allow the insertion and removal of ROM cartridges. This system of spring loaded doors also kept dirt and objects from falling into the cartridge slot when it was not occupied.   

Overall the system is basically a cost reduced Atari 800 with a fuzzier picture. The system came with built-in diagnostics and a HELP key. The OS was still slightly incompatible with many original atari 400 /800 computer software titles, but Atari began to distribute a "Translator" disk which would load up a 400/800 compatible OS into memory so that the 800XL could support those programs.
 

The system also included built-in Atari BASIC programming language which could be disabled by holding down the OPTION key on boot-up. The other new feature of the 800XL was the new high speed Parallel Bus Interface (PBI) which would allow the 800XL to connect to the Atari 1090: XL Expansion System which was an expansion box with 5 slots in it for an assortment of expansion cards....

The Atari 400
The 400 was one of the first to have a membrane keyboard with static it wasn't easy to type quickly on, with little  key movement.

The main  technical advance was the use of the first custom-built "ANTIC" co-processor, which stood for "Alpha-numeric Television Interface Circuit" which was used to control the TV display. It had its own dedicated instruction set which could write data to RAM using Direct Memory Access.

Other key new bespoke chips included the "CTA" (Colour Television Interface Adaptor) which was responsible for colour graphics and collision detection and featured "PMG" (Player/Missile Graphics) technology, opening up endless gaming possibilities.

On the I/O side of things, the joystick ports were intelligent and could send data to to control other devices, such as robotics and phone diallers. There was a cartridge port and connections for cassette use using its own player/recorder.
There was no BASIC in ROM and a cartridge had to be purchased.

Early models (rare and collectable now) had 8K of RAM - the later models had 16K.

The Atari 800
The 800 came with 48K of RAM and a second cartridge port, which got over the limitations of the 400 where you had to choose between using BASIC, using a games cartridge, or plugging in extra memory. There were also user accessible expansion slots for RAM/ROM.

There was a proper typewriter-style switch keyboard and RGB (as well as RF) suggesting that the 800 was aimed more at the business market, leaving the 400 for games.

Atari had the benefit of its massively successful coin-operated video game market as direct copies of the games were sold on cartridges so you had the real thing at home and not a poor clone with other home micros had to put up with.

These machines were expensive though, and if Atari had made these more accessible price wise, it could have cleaned up the entire home computer market.

The XL Series
Atari released the next generation of computers in 1982.

The first offering was the 1200XL which was released only on the US market. It had a modified 6502C CPU and other bespoke IC's which meant a new Operating System which was not compatible with most software released.
In effect the machine launched like any other computer brand new to the market with very little software available.

 The Atari 1200XL was the refresh of the earlier ATAR 400 and ATARI 800 computers from 1979, but now with a sleek, low-profile, aluminum and smoked plastic case with matching accessories. It is very classy looking, similar to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4 of the same era.
 

 The only other enhancement was the addition of another Parallel Bus Interface (PBI).

After the false start with the 1200, the XL series became Atari's best selling machines.

The XE Series
Atari's Consumer Electronics Division & Home Computer Division was sold to Tramiel Technologies Ltd in July 1984 and the holding company was renamed to the Atari Corporation.

 The XL series was dropped and in January 1985, the Atari 65XE and 130XE were launched in new attractive cases which would be carried forward into the 16-Bit Atari ST range.

The 65XE was really just a remake of the 800XL without the additional PBI, but the 130XE was the pinnacle of Atari's 8-Bit production.
It has 128K of RAM, a new RAM address multiplexor used for direct RAM access (the "Freddie" chip), at the time the best of all the Atari 8-Bit technology.

The XEGS
The XEGS (XE Games System) was the final 8-Bit from Atari brought to market as a console, it was a true 8-Bit computer with 64K of RAM and a detachable keyboard. It still had BASIC in ROM and the "Missile Command" game.

Atari now turned all of its technical attention to the 16-Bit range, although it still continued to manufacture the 8-Bit machines until January 1992 when it finally closed the 8-Bit production lines...

 In 1975, Atari sold a Home Pong game through Sears, which could be connected to a TV set and let people play Pong at home. Home Pong had the Sears Tele-Games brand; in 1976, Atari sold the same system under its own brand name. Design of the 8-bit series of machines started at Atari as soon as the Atari Video Computer System was released in late 1977 (it was renamed to the Atari 2600 in 1982). While designing the VCS in 1976, the engineering team from Atari Grass Valley Research Center (originally Cyan Engineering ) [9] felt that the VCS would have about a three-year lifespan before becoming obsolete.  Soon the Atari 8-bit family was born it is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 and manufactured until 1992. All of the machines in the family were technically similar and differ primarily in packaging.  

In 1983, the great video game crash hit Atari extremely hard. They lost around $310.5 million in the second quarter alone. Stocks dipped to a third of their prior value. 

Unfortunately, Atari was unwilling to develop their home consoles or technology that passed what they had acquired in the purchase of Atari, Inc. The company attempted to continue selling the Atari 2600 as other companies let their developers come up with something new. In 1985, Nintendo released the NES and put the last nail in Atari’s coffin.

Warner sold the home computing division of Atari to Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore. He renamed this acquisition the Atari Corporation. Atari Corporation began to release home computers and video game consoles. This came in the form of the Atari ST series, Atari 400 and 800, Atari 2600, and the Atari 5200. The arcade division was sold to Namco in 1985 after the release of the NES. The arcade division later purchased their independence from Namco and renamed themselves Atari Games.

Unfortunately, Atari was unwilling to develop their home consoles or technology that passed what they had acquired in the purchase of Atari, Inc. The company attempted to continue selling the Atari 2600 as other companies let their developers come up with something new. In 1985, Nintendo released the NES and put the last nail in Atari’s coffin.

Warner sold the home computing division of Atari to Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore. He renamed this acquisition the Atari Corporation. Atari Corporation began to release home computers and video game consoles. This came in the form of the Atari ST series, Atari 400 and 800, Atari 2600, and the Atari 5200. The arcade division was sold to Namco in 1985 after the release of the NES. The arcade division later purchased their independence from Namco and renamed themselves Atari Games.

In 1993, Atari Corporation shut down its home computing division to focus on making consoles. The 90s had already started with the release of the Atari Lynx late in 1989. Atari, however, was not the developer of the Atari Lync. They had purchased the design from a company called Epyx. The Atari Lynx didn’t stand a chance against Sega’s Gamer Gear and Nintendo’s Game Boy.

In 1993, Atari Corporation released their last console, the Atari Jaguar. It was also the last video game console to be made in America until the Xbox in 2001. The Jaguar was also a failure. It did not have the accessibility that developers needed to create software for it and the controller was not friendly at all. In, Tamriel folded. He sold the remaining assets of Atari Corporation to JTS. 

Atari has made money in two fashions. They create and sell a product. They also manage software and licensing rights. Historically, they made money through coin-operated arcade machines. The modern Atari exists almost exclusively as a software license. Fact:

In 1974, Ralph Baer, inventor of the Odyssey, convinced his employer to initiate a lawsuit with Atari over plagiarism. He claimed that Atari copied the idea for Pong from Table Tennis which he claimed was original. He cited Bushnell’s attendance at a demonstration of the game in 1972. Games like Table Tennis and Pong had existed and been demonstrated since 1958. Atari had a strong argument to claim that Pong was original and not a copy of Table Tennis.

Bushnell decided not to fight the claim in court. Instead, he settled the issue for an amount between $400,000 and $1 million and became a licensee of Magnavox. Bushnell believed this was the best way forward. It meant that he would not have to continue to worry about copyright licensing and pursuing intellectual property theft. For Atari, this meant the company could focus on making new games and products. 

Today, Atari exists in name only. Hasbro Interactive purchased JTS for $5 million to obtain the rights to the Atari name. They have used it for branding opportunities with hotels and casinos. 

BUT THERES GOOD NEWS 

Theres a new Atari console released in 2021 The concept of the Atari VCS came from Feargal Mac Conuladh, who joined Atari and became general manager to oversee the Ataribox release. Conuladh said that he was inspired to create the unit after seeing players connect laptops to televisions to use a larger screen to play games that were not available for consoles, and then use social media platforms outside of the games via the same laptop to communicate with friends. He also saw that Atari's game catalog had a good amount of brand recognition. His design goal was to feed nostalgia for the old Atari consoles and allow players to enjoy indie games without a personal computer.  Processor maker AMD provided custom componentry for it. While Atari made most of the decisions on the unit's hardware, they have also kept open to suggestions from Atari fans on the unit's aesthetics and other visual features. 

In 2022, Atari will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In so doing, the company’s new boss, Wade Rosen, tells Polygon he is determined to turn a badly tarnished gaming icon into something relevant to the present, and to the future.

Rosen took the top position at the company in March, and soon announced a new focus for the business: modern versions of the classics that made Atari famous. In recent months, the company has released “Recharged” versions of Centipede  Black widow  and Asteroids all of which are lively and fast, with jaunty electronic soundtracks. Rosen says more revamped classics are planned for 2022.

His ambitions mark a shift away from Atari’s previous model of brand licensing, including a bizarre motley of partnerships and offshoots for hotel chains, casinos, movie productions, and cryptocurrency — though the company remains involved with many of those, leaving it with ill-fitting legacy deals and fans skeptical of the new direction.

Rosen’s immediate plan centers around upgraded retro games, and in the longer term, he says he wants to turn Atari back into a game publishing powerhouse. He’s frank about the limitations of a company that currently employs around 25 people, though: “It’s much easier for us to make [retro updates] than to make a massive open-world 100-hour gameplay experience.”