A homage to the greatest electronic entertainment company of the 20th century.

Atari Generation One: The 1970's and 80's

Boop!...... Boop!......Boop!. It's 1972. America is nearing the end of the Vietnam "conflict" The (in)famous "Peace and Love" movement of the 60's is still running strong. Disco is beginning to emerge from the rhythm's of the streets... and at a small company in Northern California, a man named Nolan Bushnell has invented an electronic game. Two "paddles", controlled by small knobs, knock a little square pixilated "ball" back and forth, attempting to make the other one miss. The game is called "Pong" ,the first commercially successful video game. The company is......... Atari. (insert dramatic chord here)

The obtrusive machine in the big, yellow cabinet became excessively popular, and allowed for the development of further titles.. the next few years saw the introduction of numerous Pong-like games, including Quadra Pong, Super Pong Space Race, and Breakout. The first driving games were developed by Atari: Sprint, and Night Driver, among others. eventually it all lead to one of the largest game (and computer) companies in the world.

 Of course, Atari started in the coin-op business, creating and licensing some of the worlds most popular video games. Here are just a few examples:

* licensed from Namco

Any of them sound familiar? Most of them? All of them?... <g> well, If you were an arcade customer during it's heyday, they sure should! Of course, this isn't even close to a complete list of the collection of great arcade games from Atari. For more complete information on Atari (and other) coin-ops, use the Coin-Ops-A-Poppin' search engine at the Video Arcade Preservation Society (VAPS).

Video Games... In The Home!

The most logical step for a company that was creating video arcade entertainment was to bring it closer to the public... to bring it to their home. Good for the public, and monetarily good for companies... After all, who wouldn't pay to have unlimited access to their favorite games for a mere thirty dollars? Sure is better than constantly dumping quarters into the coin-ops, right? Atari saw this, and began releasing home versions of their games, starting with Pong in 1975, then Tank and Video Pinball in 1977. Eventually, it all came to a head with the machine that became the biggest hit ever for Atari....... The Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS).

The 2600 sold excellently, outselling any other video game system of the decade. Unfortunately, through what many now consider bad business practice, they allowed public development of programs for the system, with no restrictions. This allowed seemingly hundreds of companies to develop titles, that were far from bad... They were the worst you could imagine. By 1983, there was so much garbage on the market for the Atari, no one wanted to deal with it anymore. (This whole situation, is one of the primary reasons for the video game crash of 1984.) The 2600 really was the beginning and the end for the Atari of the time. Even their second and third generation systems, the 5200 and 7800 couldn't save it. Though it should be noted, that the Atari 2600 was on the market longer than any other system... 14 years! The last version of the 2600 was manufactured in 1991.

Atari 2600 VCS Links:

• The Classic Video Games Nexus: Atari
• The Atari 2600/5200/7800 FAQ
• The Complete Atari 2600 Game List
• 2600 Connection newsletter

The Home Computer Revolution

Aside from the influx of bad games, the other primary reason for the video game crash, was the introduction of the affordable home computer. Chips, circuits and boards had finally become inexpensive and small enough to allow companies to develop full-featured computers. Machines that could do more than entertain, they could educate! and help with the finances! they could store information in databases, let you write letters, and oh-so-much more! and they still could play games, too! all for not much more than the price of a video game system! wow!

Home computers (also called PC's back then... it stood for "Personal Computer", and did not refer specifically to IBM compatibles) entered the market in a big way. Systems like the Timex Sinclair, the Texas Instruments 99, Tandy's TRS-80, The Apple ][ series, The IBM PC, the Commodore 64, and many others spread like wildfire. Companies who competed against the Atari 2600 with their own systems entered the fray. Mattel offered a computer add-on to their popular Intellivision system. (which was never actually released), and later offered their own computer, the Aquarius... Coleco, running on the popularity of their Colecovision system, offered the Coleco Adam. Atari also got into the race with a line of very good computers. Some systems came and went, some lasted a while, and eventually died. The big ones, though, were the Apple 2, the IBM PC, the Commodore 64... and of course... the Atari 8-bit line.... The Atari 400, 600, 800, 1200, XL and XE systems.

The Atari 400	The Atari 600 XL	The Atari 800

Really Cool, exclusive stuff!
Recently, an associate of mine found a number of great old Atari paraphernalia, including original catalogs, retailer, and advertising material. Including some information on proposed 8-bit systems that were never released! When I get a server with more space, I'll put up scans of the catalogs, but here's a small sample. These are original advertising art & data sheets for Atari 8-bits and peripherals...

Please click on the thumbnail image to see a larger (more readable) one...
Atari 65XE	Atari 130XE	XMM801 Printer	XM301 Modem

Atari 8-Bit Computer Links

• The Atari 8-bit Home Page
• The Atari 8-bit Resort
• The big Atari 8-bit Home Page
• Antic - The Atari Resource

Atari Generation 2: The 1990's

Technology marches on, as does time... and it was no exception in the computer and video game worlds. The video game world, as we all know, never died. After the crash, Nintendo came back on the scene, with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Learning from Atari's mistakes, they kept strict regulations on games for the system, and prospered immensely from it. Other systems came out, including the Sega Master System, and the Atari XE Game system (which doubled as a computer!) but Nintendo stayed the king. Once the 90's rolled around, the scene shifted dramatically. 8-bit became a thing of the past almost overnight, and Computer and Video Game systems, now with double the power entered the market. The video game world suddenly turned around, and seemed to be back to it's old glory, however this time with mostly new faces. Nintendo (SNES), Sega (Genesis), and NEC (Turbographx-16) held on to the video game market, while the choices of computer systems dwindled sharply. By the early 90's, you basically had your choice of the Intel/Microsoft systems (commonly called PC's or IBM Clones today), the Apple Macintosh, the Commodore Amiga, and the Atari ST.... Interesting, eh? with computers, you had the same names, just fewer choices.

Atari's entry into the 16-bit market was the Atari ST computer. It borrowed an idea from computers such as the Commodore Amiga and Apple's Macintosh, and operated with a graphic interface, unlike any of Atari's 8-bit machines. They released a number of ST systems, starting with the 520, released in 1985.

Yep, the first ST was released during the height of the 8-bit craze, and was unprecedented for its time. It was a great surprise to the industry, since not too long before, Atari was very close to going under. It was owned by Time/Warner up until 1984, when it was offered for sale after the video game crash (see above). The former head of Commodore, Jack Tramiel, bought the company along with some Commodore shareholders, and released the first ST only a year later!

Of course, it took a little time to get the kinks out, but check out the specs on the first fully functional 520st:

May not seem like much today, but in 1985 it was unprecedented. Especially at that price.

The Atari ST system was quite popular, especially in Europe and in the music industry (with built-in MIDI and 3 voices, at the highest sampling rate of any other PC of the time at the time, it's no wonder!) and Atari kept up with the changing technology by introducing new and upgraded models of their systems as the years progressed. The 520 was followed by the 1040ST, which was possibly the best selling and most popular model. It was essentially the same as the 520, but had a full megabyte (1024 k) of memory and a built in 800K floppy drive. (this is the one I have! -the author).

When the 1040 was released, it was marketed with the slogan "Power without the Price"... and nothing could be more truthful. Overall, when compared to the other 16 bit systems the Atari was just as powerful (in some cases more so), and was the least expensive of the four major systems at the time. Take a look at this comparison table:

* With optional monochrome board
** Has a 640 X 400 Interlaced mode

After time, they released a number of new ST systems. After the 1040 came the Mega ST systems. The Mega systems had a separate "case" from the keyboard, and boasted more memory (2 or 4 megabytes), but were otherwise the same as the older systems.
Atari's first new ST system with some major changes to the system came with the STe systems (ST enhanced), I suppose Atari figured that they already had a market on sound, so they would try for a market in graphics. The STe sported a 4096 color palette, stereo digital sound, 5 sound channels, support for external video sources (Genlocking) and the "BLiTTER" graphics coprocessor. As with the ST, they also released a Mega STe. It, again boasted a new look and 2 or 4 megabytes of RAM.

They really began to shine when, in 1990, they introduced the TT030 Graphics Workstation. This system was Atari's true powerhouse. Physically, it was nearly identical to the Mega STe... but that's where the similarities all but ended. The TT sported new TT-specific resolutions up to 1280 X 960 in monochrome and 256 color in low res!. It came with 2 megabytes of memory (expandable to 26) and best of all, a brand new CPU: The Motorola 68030 at 32 MHz. The TT was made primarily as a graphics workstation, for hard-core graphics use, and wasn't found in homes much... Unfortunately, this causes it to be a non-too common commodity today.

The last Atari computers to be made were the Atari Falcon computers. The Falcon030 (featuring a Motorola 68030 @ 16 MHz, up to 16 Megabytes of RAM, a 1.4 Megabyte floppy drive, optional Hard drive and a new multi-tasking version of TOS, MultiTOS.). The last Falcon systems are still currently available. C-Lab recently released the C-Lab Falcon MK-X! The future of Atari computers is already set. There is none... but perhaps their system will still keep a little taste of immortality...

Really Cool, exclusive stuff!
Yep, I got some scans of the original advertising art & data sheets for some ST products as well, check 'em out!

Please click on the thumbnail to see the larger, more readable image.
Atari 1040 ST	SF314 & SF354 Floppy Drives	SMM 804 Printer

Atari ST/TT/Mega/STe/Falcon Links

• Atari Central (at Toad Computers)
• Atari ST on the Internet
• The Atari archive at umich.edu
• The Atari ST Demo Scene '86-'96

Home Video Games... The Next Generation

In the early 90's, Nintendo and Sega duked it out with their 16-bit video game consoles, oblivious to anyone else. Other competitors tried to enter the market, but they all ended with little success. NEC's Turbographx-16 didn't last more than a couple years, and the others... what others? Heh, well, that's about the same remark you'll get from anyone.... except for Atari die-hards. Contrary to popular belief, Atari DID have a 16-bit video game system.. However their system was different from the others. How different? It was handheld.

In the "portable" system wars, you had four competitors. Nintendo's Game Boy, Sega's Game Gear, NEC's Turboexpress and Atari's Lynx. Originally designed by Epyx, the Atari Lynx was a full color, 16-bit handheld video game system that had some surprisingly good games. A little larger than Sega's Game Gear, the Lynx uses small cartridges a few millimeters thick, and a few inches long. The screen is a full 3.5" color LCD, It can be played right or left handed, and has hardware scaling. The Lynx also supports multiplayer play via a cable that connects from one unit to another. From personal experience, I have discovered that, compared to other handheld systems of the time, the Lynx sounds better and looks better than anything else... even today! I won't bore you with specifications here (mostly because I don't have any!), but I highly recommend visiting some of the links below.

Atari Lynx Lynx...er... Links

• Kurt Olsen's Lynx Page
• Ed Castle's Lynx Page
• Lynx Links
• Lynx FAQ
• Bobbo's Creations (Lynx Manuals)

Eventually, around 1994, the industry felt that even the 16-bit systems were becoming obsolete, and companies began developing the "Next Generation" systems... the 32-bit systems. The first one, was SNK's Neo-Geo. A console system that was a home version of the Neo-Geo arcade games. (The arcade machines and the home cartridges were exactly the same.) Sony announced that it was going to be releasing a 32-bit system (the Playstation), and Sega jumped on the bandwagon by announcing the Saturn system, and subsequently releasing the failed 32X Genesis add-on. Atari, however completely bypassed the 32-bit system (They had been working on one, but cancelled it due to competition) They went with a multi 32-bit processor architecture, that tdepending on your point of view, could be considered 64-bit. (Hey, Do the Math). When released, they called it The Jaguar. 

The Jaguar is the worlds first 64-bit video game console system. It was designed by Atari, and manufactured by IBM. It is capable of 800 X 576 pixel resolution, 24-bit (16 million) color, and multiple resolutions on the screen at once. Even on cartridges, it features CD-quality sound. The Jaguar is capable of High-speed scrolling, texture mapping, morphing, lighting and shading from one or multiple light sources, and unlimited sprites. The Jaguar has a large controller with three fire buttons and a 12-key keypad that accepts overlays. It has a serial port and a comlink port that allows one to hook more than one system together at a time for multi-player bliss! (it's possible to connect a Jaguar and Lynx together via this method, but plans for games to take advantage of this were abandoned)

In 1995, the Jaguar CD was released. It plugged into the top of the unit, and was capable of running CD-ROMs as well as Audio CDs, CD+G, and Kareoke CDs The best part of it was the Virtual Light Machine! Created by veteran Atari programmer, Jeff Minter (Llamatron, Tempest 2000) the VLM is built into the CD and incorporates an on-screen psychedelic light show with any music CD you put into the machine. There are 99 different light "shows" to choose from, and you can influence the light with the control pad! mind numbing fun! (but really, really cool.)

Unfortunately, with Atari's demise, production of the Jaguar has halted, as has production of any more software for it. The system and the software are still widely available for sale, however. It's also possible that a distribution company could pick up the finished, but undistributed Jaguar games and release them, but the demand may not be there. Here's hoping.

Atari Jaguar Links

• Atari's Jagwire
• The Atari Jaguar Home Page
• The Jaguar FAQ

• Jaguar Server Home Page
• Richard's Jaguar Page
• Yak's Zoo (Jeff Minter's Pages)

In conclusion, Atari Corporation has gone to the big video game console box in the sky. The Coin-Op division, Atari Games was purchased by Williams (now Midway), while the computer/console division, Atari Corp, dissolved as their stock shares were bought by disk drive manufacturer, JTS Corporation. JTS has emphatically said that they will not continue Atari products, or use the Atari name.

Atari will continue to be a recognized name in the video entertainment world, as their equipment continues to be used and remembered. As the old saying goes... "Gone, but not forgotten...." Rest in peace, Atari.

Please report broken or invalid links to atari@wolf.tierranet.com

Some of the information on this page may be slightly inaccurate. The sources include Official Atari documents, information from industry publications and other web sites, and the authors own knowledge. If there is any information that you know is not quite correct, or anything that you think should be added, please E-Mail atari@wolf.tierranet.com

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