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Who invented gaming anyway?

Welcome to Atari Safari, the part of the Retrogames website dedicated to everything Atari. The first Atari Pong machine, designed and built by Nolan Bushnell, hit the arcades back in 1972, and while it borrowed heavily from technology invented by Ralph Baer, it was the first games machine to have any impact on the general public. Stories of cafe owners taking wheel barrows full of coins to the bank helped grow the hype, and before long Nolan’s factory was churning out arcade machines by the lorry load.

     In 1974 the Atari Pong home system hit the market, and there started a war for the space underneath your TV. That war has raged ever since. You have to be of a certain age to even remember when Atari were the market leading console manufacturer. The Atari golden days are certainly a long way behind us, with 1978-1983 being the key years. That’s not to say they didn’t stay in the fight. The underpowered 7800 (and 5200) stood little chance against the Nintendo NES. Atari briefly climbed back to the top in Europe with the Atari ST, but with arch rival Commodore slashing the price of the Amiga, the technically better machine quickly crushed the opposition. The amazing Atari Lynx got hammered by the Gameboy, despite technically blowing Nintendo’s 8-bit black and white machine away technically. Finally the Atari Jaguar entered the market at a particularly turbulent time, and failed even to steal a march on the ailing 3DO.

     So, why do we owe so much to a company dogged by such commercial failure? Well, Atari was the first company to make gaming a global phenomenon. Without them, you can be sure the games industry would have turned out quite differently today. For example, it was Hiroshi Yamauchi’s interest in the Atari VCS which led to the development of the Famicom/NES. The future of Atari as a collectible format is safe, with a following the gaming equivalent of Ferrari’s Tifosi. Is it any wonder that a French conglomerate should buy the name and attempt to surround themselves in its kudos. One big shot in the foot, as it is a name synonymous with the hardcore, and the hardcore won’t be fooled for a second.

Atari XE/XL Section now re-formatted and updated with pictures

The re-formatting of listings continues, but with such a vast website, and so many areas to be updated, the work is slow. Current updated sections in the Atari Safari mini-site includes Atari VCS, Atari XL/XE, Atari Lynx, and Atari Jaguar. If you are interested in any of the titles listed in the other sections, namely 7800 and Atari ST, please email us to confirm the titles are still in stock before you send payment.

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