ATARI HISTORY

A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF ATARI



25 Years Atari: a short introduction.

Atari is one of the pioneer in the Computer and Videogame Business. It is not very simple to describe this very special company, but I will try to illuminate the most important steps.
Sadly most of the people today do not remember Atari. But Atari is a company that must be remembered. It`s a problem of ignorance in the media and in the mind of many people. If in 100 Years someone would write a history book about the beginning of homecomputing, Atari will be part as one of the most important factors in this golden days. But let`s see why this is true.

Atari is the genesis of all kinds of Videogames. With Atari a new business began. The Pong arcade game is the first arcade game in the world! Today`s games are all in the basics copies of the old Atari Games. Only one example: Wing Comander & Co. have Star Raiders (1979, 3D!) as grandfather. Atari introduced the Joystick, the Trakball, Paddles and so on. Basics as the Parallax scrolling, Player and Missile (Sprites),... are all patents of Atari (a little selection can be found at Atari Games Machines).
The Atari VCS2600 (1977) is the first succesfull Home Videogame System. In these Days Nintendo produced board games. In these years Atari is one of the biggest Companies at Silicon Valley. As a company of the Time Warner Imperium many ealry movies in the `80 have some Atari Logos (Bladerunner, D.A.R.Y.L, ..., Terminator 2). Many commercial brakes use sounds from Atari games (mainly VCS2600 Games). Without Atari, Nintendo & Co. would never enter this business. Donkey Kong or Mario Bros were first available for the Atari 8 Bit systems. Many famous companies like Activision are founded in this days and begin to produce games for the VCS (Pitfall)
Atari continued to produce new games systems. The first color Handheld(1989, Lynx), the first 64 Bit Console (1993, Jaguar). Atari Ideas were taken years later from other companies.

Atari in the computer business is also very important. When we talk about Atari we think about games, but this is not correct. Without Atari, Apple would not exist. Jobs & Wozniak worked at Atari and with components from there they builded the Apple I. Sadly Atari was not interested in this so they moved and founded Apple. In 1978 Atari enters the computer business with the Atari 400 & 800 (J. Miner is one of the constructors). They are the best 8 Bit Computer at this time. They have slots for memory upgrade, 4! Joystik interfaces, 3 CPU`s (Graphic & Sound, Hardware scrolling), an universal serial bus!!! and more.
Many famous programmers begin their success on Atari Computers. Some of them: Sid Meier (Civilisation), L. Holland (TFH, Tie vs Xwing). Many companies are founded as a result like Microprose. In 1981, IBM enters the Business. At the beginning they want to buy a strong company. They are very interested in Atari. But history is an other. But think about that in 1981: IBM buys ATARI, the ATARI Computers are the IBM PC, IBM gets the OS from Digital Research (GEM, Graphic Environment Manager), no Microsoft involved, IBM the first computer with a GUI, no Mac. History would be very different today.
After the first Videogames Crash in 1984, Jack Tramiel buys the Home division of Atari. Atari is also giving money to a little company called AMIGA (owned by J. Miner), who is producing a 16Bit game console. Later, Commodore buys this company. S.Shivy, the father of the C64, now at Atari, produce a new simple 16Bit computer: the ST is born. In 1985 at the Comdex, the Atari 520ST is the star (see computer museum for more). Called also Jackintosh, he offers a GUI (DR,GEM), a high resolution Monitor (640x400), Midi Ports, DMA ... and a better performance as the Mac for much less money! The 16 Bit revolution begins.
In 1986 Atari offers the first Computer w. 1MB Ram for less than $1000. The Introduction of the Atari Laser (direct DMA!!, principles used today with Windows printer) for a sensational price opens the ST as a professional DTP maschine. Atari produces also a set of CDROM Drives and the ST would be the first Computer with a regular CD add on many years before the Wintel computer. But sadly never introduced. The last Atari Computer, the Falcon (1992) is the first true multimedia computer and offers a DSP, CD Sound, DSP Port and more. The Atari Multimedia Logo is used today at Sony.

Atari was a company that introduced many tecnologies years before the mainstream computing. Hundreds Atari Ideas, Designs, Hardware Layouts, Programming tecnologies and and and changed the world of computing. Today, many of this tecnologies are as normal as a videorecorders and we do not know who maked them possible. Many companies presents "new" products that existed 10 years before.
Atari has lost the war against the Wintel World, but will ever live as one the lights in the computer history. Without Atari, many things would not have been possible. Thank you, Atari. As a last hope, Atari Games still exist as one of the last icon of a golden period. Many Atari people works in important companies like Sun, Intel, Sega, ... and continue to give the Atari spirit to the new generations. The golden days are over, also for other companies like Apple, who will sadly go the same way Atari has gone. Future will tell, but there is still hope as long as we do not forget companies like Atari, Commodore, Sinclair, Cinemaware, Digital Research and many other who were pioneers and years ahead at their time.

Never forget History, never forget ATARI
Sacha Hofer, 29.10.1997

Have you played Atari today?



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