Atari Arcade Division Closes 139
Bill Kendrick writes "Today Midway dropped the axe on 'Midway Games West' (Formerly Atari Games Corporation). The remaining 30 people working there have been
laid off. The other half of Atari, who went on to make the Atari ST line of computers and Jaguar and Lynx game systems, is still alive and kicking, as part of Infogrames.
Still, it's a sad day for gamers."
gonna miss them as much as me?? (Score:5, Informative)
- Defender
- Joust
- Rampage
- Spy Hunter
- Robotron 2084
- Tapper
- Defender II
- Bubbles
- Satan's Hollow
- Sinistar
http://www.midway.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+F
pm
Re:gonna miss them as much as me?? (Score:1)
Embedded Links are your Friend! (Score:5, Informative)
I spent much of my first meager paychecks at Aladdin's Castle in Saginaw, MI, playing Crystal Castles and Gauntlet. There was some later version of Asteroids which i really liked, and wouldn't mind sharing my apartment with one of the full-sized arcade machines. And probably most favorite was Tempest, which I have for the PC. There's a knob for sale which I believe works with it. Best game ever with the sound cranked way up!
Marble Man? (Score:2)
Re:Marble Man? (Score:1)
Marble madness was just insane. I remember trying to get a feel for the trackball, but never quite getting it well enough. Talk about staying on the bubble.. This is one of those games which was ported to the Amiga and a great job done at that.
I still have a Wico trackball for just such occasions. I'd like to see if I can get it to work on the PC. It uses optics and has the Atari connector, which worked with C64 and Amiga just fine. I suppose someone has a converter and driver and I could find it with minimal difficulty, if only there was some reason to hook it up to the PC presently. I suppose, now that I have a system of decent ability, I should look into MAME.
Re:gonna miss them as much as me?? (Score:2)
again..
http://www.midway.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/A
pm
Re:gonna miss them as much as me?? (Score:1)
like this
[a href="http://link.com/blah.htm"]displayed[/a]
replace the [ and ]
Re:gonna miss them as much as me?? (Score:1)
Condolences (Score:2, Interesting)
Can anyone list off the remaining manufacturers in this market? How are they doing?
They still existed? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They still existed? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They still existed? (Score:2)
Re:They still existed? (Score:2, Informative)
as the rest of Midway - around summer 2000.
AFAIK they were producing ports and independent
titles for home systems.
About the last arcade piece they produced that
did anything was "San Francisco Rush 2049".
Re:They still existed? (Score:2)
Re:They still existed? (Score:2)
did anything was "San Francisco Rush 2049".
Yeah... that would have been the title I was going to work on. At the time, they were also working on the first new Gauntlet installment.
Re:They still existed? (Score:3, Informative)
Has anyone noticed their logo is on the NeverWinter Nights box?
Solomon
Re:They still existed? (Score:2)
That's the other Atari [atari.com], now owned by Infogrames. (Previously owned by Hasbro, and a few purchases before that, were busy making the Atari ST, TT & Falcon line of 16- and 32-bit computers, and the Lynx handheld and Jaguar home consoles.)
This is not all an end (Score:3, Interesting)
Just as the group have ended and it may be the last of the threads of atari, there is still the history. we still have what has been given us
Such as the old arcade games, and all their followon inspirations. 2D was never the same if they had not been.
Re:This is not all an end (Score:2)
Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:1)
Re:Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:1)
By the way, defender just got an update from Midway not too long ago... your prediction, though amusing, was a bit off. It was on a console though!
Re:Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:2, Interesting)
The video arcades are turning back INTO arcades. Where you do physical stuff. Most older arcades were of mechanical sorts, and gimicky things. It takes 30 seconds but the thing snorks your quarter and does something fancy, poof done. Want to see it again? Need another quarter.
Most kids do not even know these older games exist. I just bought the activision anthology for the ps2. Excelent 2600 set by the way. Put my friends kids in front of the thing and they played for HOURS. They could give a rip about the graphics. A couple of the games did suck. He said it. A few he kept playing because they didnt. Its that simple. The game sucks or it doesnt. Make to many sucky games and people will not play your stuff.
Another of my favorites is smashtv. NOT the best graphics but good enough, but the playability is there. Again showed this to my friends kids. I was playing on my laptop. They were playing the ps2. They stoped the game they were playing to watch me play the game. SmashTV is VERY cool compaired to the game they were playing. They saw that right away. Sucky games get tossed out for games that suck less.
The problem with the video arcade is money. To make a HUGE piece of gimicky software that stands out from the rest of gimicky games, costs alot of money. They just simply did not have enough people going to arcades to justify the money they were putting into it. Consoles on the other hand, you sell 40k in copies at 50 a pop, youve probably made your money back.
Now games are such HUGE productions they do not dare to stop making the game. In the 80's the games were simple enough that they could chuck the prototype if it was not good. As they have probably only put a couple of people on it and a few months of work. They could even chuck most of what they had and go back and redesign the thing, keeping what was good and leaving the rest. Now you have artists, testers, managers, project schedules, programmerS, hardware guys, and support staff. The credits in the newer games is very very very long. By the time they realize the game just sucks they are already cutting cds and making boxes!
My next game? Freelancer, finaly went gold. We shall see what they have been doing for FIVE years...
Re:Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved (Score:2)
Go out and rent Midway's Defender for the PlayStation 2 and give it a whirl. I was pleasantly surprised. So far, my favorite "next generation, 3D whiz-bang" remake of an early-1980s game has to be Spy Hunter.
(Of course, this doesn't count Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. It took the original and far surpassed it, in most people's opinion.)
Bring Back the ST (Score:3, Interesting)
Id buy a 'modernized' ST...
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:2, Informative)
however, it's a great machine and people are still making hardware (though not many people admittedly) for it.
some links:
atari scene news [www.dhs.nu]
myatari - online monthly mag [myatari.net]
cheers.
I meant 'ST' generically. (Score:2)
I was mainly meaning the generic series..
guess i should have been more specific..
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:2)
And of course, there was the sheer genius which was GFA Basic
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:1)
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:2, Interesting)
I still sort of miss those days -- I dunno, I like variety, and I was bummed when Commodore and Atari stopped producing Amigas and STs, respectively. I've been a Windows developer since 1990, and it's gotten so homogenous now that the only way it seemed fun again was to decide to focus more on cross-platform development. So, I started (and continue) learning and using Linux, Mac OSX, Solaris, POSIX APIs, etc.
Regards,
John
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:2)
One thing I missed about those machines is how typing in code by hand or just plain using the keyboard to control the machine made you feel like you were really 'computing'. After years on Macs and Windows machines I got the itch to ditch the gui and start using my computer again. Many of you youngsters may not get it, but the old timers out there will. That's part of the reason why I chose Linux a few years back.
Re:Bring Back the ST (Score:1)
Emulators only go so far (Score:2)
The old machines were 'special' not just commodity grey boxes.
ST Sucks, AMIGA RULES! (Score:1)
They ran out of inspiration long ago (Score:5, Interesting)
They have produced nothing of value since, and though it would have been shameful had they been aborted before they put out their classics, they were headed to the dustbin of history due to their lack of inspiration.
Hopefully, Midway will hire 30 young, ambitious, and talented programmers in their place.
Re:They ran out of inspiration long ago (Score:1)
Re:They ran out of inspiration long ago (Score:1)
Atari lives on forever, regardless (Score:3, Interesting)
The "legendary" (Nolan Bushnell) Atari has been gone for a long time already. However, the Atari we all grew up with and loved, and still love, shall go on forever in the form of MAME and Atari 2600 emulators.
--MFInc
LadyboyLovers.com [ladyboylovers.com]
Are most arcade games violent? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been to a couple arcades a few times in the last 10 years. A rare event for me. But I notice something. All of the games seem to be violent. Games involving fighting, shooting, etc.
My question is this: Are all arcade games violent nowdays? Or is it just that the two arcades I've seen are not representative of the arcade games available?
I'm not offended by the fact that violent games exist, nor that people play them. I've played a few myself. I just don't care for them. I liked the games of logic or skill like the old games. Shooting cartoon/imaginary spaceships, enemies, or some kind of graphic token isn't the same thing as shooting people. (And it's not that I wouldn't actually shoot people either, given the need.)
Re:Are most arcade games violent? (Score:2, Insightful)
I wouldn't say the trend is necessarily going towards just violence, but rather arcades are trying to do things that you can't do at home. For example look at the explosion of Bemani games that everybody is seeing all over the place (Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania, etc.) and there's plenty of other games that are similar in that they're not your normal button mashers (That boxing game, for example.)
Re:Are most arcade games violent? (Score:1)
today into 4 (maybe 5) categories:
drivers
shooters
fighting
sports
novelties (things like dance dance revolution)
Re:Are most arcade games violent? (Score:2)
That so many games were violent 20+ years ago was annoying to a number of game designers, and some people tried to branch out just for the sake of doing so. It's disappointing that violence has remained the core of the video game experience for so long, if only because it shows a total lack of original thinking.
Re:Are most arcade games violent? (Score:1)
I feel just like you about violent games. The place for violence is the real world dammit!!! Not the hallowed halls of interactive imagination.
I don't think it's changed forever, however, these kind of games really seem overtipped. That is... the real mass market for video games has not been tapped. This is a barrier. The mass market doesn't want 90% exploding blood games, they want it to be 60% or some other still-to-high-but-less-complete-number. The mainstream megastar video games are not violent. I'm not going by sales numbers... I'm talking about games that became cultural phenomenon, more or less celebrated universally, like Pac-Man and Tetris.
Sort of breakthrough games. A game like GTA3 is number one because there is a huge number of the game market that will respond to violence pretending because that market has become selected for that. A ubiquitous hit like GTA3 will be huge, because video games are currently a big thing, it's true, but that in itself doesn't indicate the true mass market. Media like movies and TV serve this wider market. And though violence is still clearly pre-eminant, it's no where near the whole monopoly.
The other reason is more mundane. It's easier to make this kind of game. It's nothing but an old platform game, rewards, bullets, monsters, boss. All the hard stuff is in the 3D immersive technology. (The cleverest developers are being kept busy and happy occupied with fog and lighting and other neat stuff. When/if they finish their 3D research, then they may branch out again).
Games that capture interest with such simple things are difficult. If you could generate interactive plot with the quality of a movie (not graphically, just plot wise), then you would see more of that. But with the very simple rule base we have available, it's difficult to make an interesting game. Most abstract games with simple rules don't end up as captivating as tetris or even pac-man. BUT: something trying to get you, and you trying to get it... that works with very simple game principles. Add this stunning 3D r&d that's going on and you have a formula for success, and of course, such a formula is the only goal of the corporate game world, and it's compared not to creative success, but just to success against the corporate competition. (i.e. they are in a rut called "the sure thing" (which humorously enough is far from a sure thing **cough**Daikatana**couph**)
What is needed is a break through in game rules. It's related to the recent
Think about box and board games... like say "party games" like taboo, or trivial pursuit that are popular among non-gamer types, rely on simple rules, and notice that many of the rules involved are not yet exploited by computer games, usually because the technological solution hasn't been figured out.
A simple game like Monopoly relies on a huge non-computable advantage: You may make deals with other players. You can change the rules themselves in this process. This flexibility makes Monopoly more than what it's computer versions can be. You could do it, but you would have to produce a game that has a far more flexible idea about how game rules are implimented. And if you just went off and did this now, you would end up with a game that was too complicated for most people to run, a Monopoly Toolkit requiring burdensome customization and a built in scripting language. Some simplifying breakthrough in logic, how we think, is needed. Some insight in using discrete methods to produce organic conceptual content (aka "plot" or "content", or my favorite, "feature").
Computers promised to help do all the tedious math of Tabletop Role Playing Games and bring them to the masses. If they were easier to play, we figure people would love them, they love role playing. They role play in their imagination when they watch movies. But not yet. Such progress has been hampered by the failed attempt to replace the human "Dungeon Master".
Holy hell that was long... when was I going to shut up?
cheers.
PS: btw, have you noticed in arcades now there is one growing ubiquity that isn't violent, those Dance Dance Revolution games and their knockoffs? You and I are not the only ones wandering by hoping for something different.
Re:Are most arcade games violent? (Score:2)
I caveat my comment with the fact that it's been years and years since I've been in an arcade. That having been said, though, I do see these machine at non-arcade locations like pool halls and bowling alleys. I don't know if all games are ultra-violent these days but I think most of the eye-catching ones are. I was playing pool once and couldn't help but notice the arcade game next to me. It featured some incredibly sexy asian woman martial artist with 36DDs wearing next to nothing opening a can of whoop-ass on her opponent. Everytime she landed a kick or punch, she gave her battle cry and blood shot out of her opponent. I had to laugh because it was such a crazy sight but, hey, it did get my attention. You know, there might have actually been some non-violent arcade machines there but the only one that I remember was Little Miss Sexy Asian Kitten beating the holy crap out of some guy. It's possible that us "old timers" are just selectively remembering the really violent stuff since it contrast so starkly with what we used to play.
GMD
Did not go quietly? (Score:5, Interesting)
My good friend's housemate worked at Midway, and I first heard the news last Tuesday. I believe it was actually the day before, on Feb. 3, that the cops arrived... before the announcement was even made. Apparently it wasn't your usual, quiet, lay-off. So the police were there and then everyone was told to leave immediately. "Don't grab your stuff, don't clean out your desks, just leave." Apparently they expected trouble for some reason, and I heard some things were indeed smashed by people on their way out.
They were going to let people back to gather their belongings later in the week... one at a time, escorted and supervised. If there were really just 30 employees there (says so in the article)... why would they have expected trouble? Why would they have thrown people out so rudely? This I don't know. I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time, but it seemed a bit strange to me, and the story made an impression on me most of all because it was Midway.
Makes me wonder what their corporate culture was like, and if most of the employees were wizened, old, maladjusted sociopaths who had lived so completely inside video games for the past years they might not react well to having themselves unplugged rather than just reset. My friend's housemate doesn't fit that description. Well, he's young anyway. *shrug*
No telling how many thousands of quarters went from my pockets into Midway machines back in the '80's
Re:Did not go quietly? (Score:3, Informative)
I worked at Midway and with Atari people, and I liked most of the people I met there. I think this move just reflects more of the agonizingly slow death spiral that Midway is in right now.
There have been a lot of layoffs and frustration over the years, and I wouldn't be surpirsed that there were cops or private security types - WMS (Midway's ex-parent company) has hired these types before during a production strike. Midway can be pretty paranoid about corporate secrets, but that goes along with the territory.
As for corporate culture at Midway, it's pretty ugly (my opinion). See http://fatbabies.com for a sampling of what some (very opinionated) people think about Midway and other fine outfits in the games industry.
Re:Did not go quietly? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not speaking in any official capacity, but let me ask you this... if you were closing off a company filled with valuable equipment, including many $20,000 parts that fit neatly under a winter jacket, would you lay everyone off, then say "now go back to your offices and grab some stuff!!!" -- ?
There's nothing at all strange about how it was handled. When the emotions are high, it's only common sense to work it this way, as there will always be somebody who tries to take advantage of the situation.
Neil, the CEO, flew out to talk to everyone personally. He handled this himself, and he apologized repeatedly, understanding the value that these people place on the old building and the Milpitas area. But that space is huge and costs a ton to keep up, and the projects coming out of there weren't going to help Midway's bottom line much while the economy's in the shape it's in.
Most are being offered jobs in the other Midway studios, and a few are talking about starting their own projects externally.
There wasn't some crazy ape cage full of angry people, ready to explode and tear the place down -- that office had a number of top-notch professionals, and I was frankly floored by some of them when I visited that studio. I'm going to enjoy having some of them in Chicago, and I hope the majority do make their way to the San Diego office as well.
Re:Did not go quietly? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, I guess some people would be inclined to pocket expensive toys and tools on the way out the door in such a situation. I've just never understood that mentality. I've had stuff given to me when a company goes under though, and that's always nice.
And also, I'm used to hearing of people getting laid off privately, one at a time. But when you're shutting down a whole office, obviously that doesn't make sense.
Re:Did not go quietly? (Score:1)
"Hey Milton. Whaaaaaat's happening? We're gonna have to go ahead and....let you go today. So if you could get up and leave right now, that would be greeeaaaaat."
Re:Did not go quietly? (Score:2)
Alas... (Score:2)
Re:Alas... (Score:1)
If only there were new games that had that flair, that pazzaz (and were still unique)
Well, RIP Atari Arcade
Re:Alas... (Score:1)
I'm just glad they never tried to remake it or kill it through lame sequels. I know that with today's hardware it would be easy to recreate it with ultra-smooth polygons and stupidly fast speeds, but I doubt it would be the same. There are just some games that achieve perfection in their first run out, and it can never be repeated; any "update", no matter how much you'd like to see one, would be blasphemy. (My list of these games includes S.T.U.N. Runner, Blackthorne, and Ehrgeiz, all of which I'd love more of, but I know they wouldn't get it right.)
Man, I feel old just thinking about that game. .
S.T.U.N. Runner (Score:2)
(in my opinion) on the Atari Lynx handheld.
3D graphics, digitized voices, and all!
Info on it at AtariAge.com [atariage.com]...
I blame the consumer, of course (Score:4, Insightful)
WTF happened to arcade games?
Driven by focus groups, test marketed before they are mass produced, arcade games are yet another barometer of the bland tastes of the unwashed masses. Apparently the majority of people want more of the same, just slightly different. Look! Its a racing game that allows you to switch camera angles!! Look! Its a gun game where you shoot zombies instead of terrorists!!
Where is the sense of adventure?
I wish about 80% of consumers would simply die quietly in their sleep. No, I'm not bitter, just hopeful.
Re:I blame the consumer, of course (Score:1)
I used to work at an arcade many years ago and I have seen buckets of quarters flow through that place.
On a side note, I was the lucky guy that got to stay late and convert a console to "Shinobi". Stickers and all. I don't think I left until around 3-4am. The mall guard pestered me about every half hour too. The next day I told my boss I had to wait for the paint to dry. Had to paint it blue you know.
Re:I blame the consumer, of course (Score:3, Insightful)
Two things: Redemption games and piracy.
Games that give you back little tickets and encourage you to keep pumping coins in for "skill tests" make far, far more money than games where you buy 90 seconds of play. The coin in time is something like 20 seconds when these things are busy. Arcade operators love this, and today's materialistic youth eat it up. If you're in your late 20s and you hit up a Chuck E Cheese or similar today, you'll be disappointed to see what it is today. The arcade games are just in a small corner. The rest is all skee ball, coin tray knock-off and the likes. The positioning used to be the reverse.
On piracy, it used to be that you had a completely different cabinet, new hardware, different controllers, a completely different arrangement for every arcade game. The advent of the JAMA board (a board you swap out to change a cabinet completely) meant that the same cabinets could be reused more easily. Moving to a few standardized arcade boards with different ROMs also meant that it was easier to swap just a few components on the board to give a new game. The problem was that it also meant there were just a few pieces that needed to be duplicated by Taiwanese pirate vendors. With the advent of modular components, piracy skyrocketed and profits plumetted. Arcade manufacturers backed off and started to make intentionally obtuse and difficult-to-copy designs again, however once they'd had a taste of the arcade market, Taiwanese companies ramped up their engineering to match, duplicating the progressively more complex designs as well.
Re:I blame the consumer, of course (Score:1)
A bigger problem was keeping the distributors honest so they wouldn't sell into each other's territories
Blame yourself (Score:3, Insightful)
WTF happened to arcade games?
The arcade game market collapsed because of two factors: PC gaming and console gaming. Consumers like yourself found and purchased replacements that were in some ways adequate and in some ways superior to arcade games. The money that would have gone into arcade gamaing you spent on home gaming systems, instead.
Back in the late 70's and early 80's, the quantity and quality of arcade games was vastly superior to PC and console games; by the early 90's, the quantity of games was clearly with the home gaming market. And by the late 90's, the quality and features of home gaming had either equalled or exceeded arcade games. The only area where arcade games could really innovate was in elaborate designs like race cars and motorbikes and snowboards. I suspect that such arcade units cost more to build and to maintain, and along with the decreased revenue per unit, forced the arcade manufacturers to raise the cost per game to anywhere from
You want arcade games to survive? Then you (and 50 million of your closest friends) should stop buying PC and console games and start spending your money exclusively on arcade games.
Me? I prefer the cost, convenience and replayablity of home gaming. I was an arcade fanatic back in the early 80's, but these days, if I find myself in an arcade once a year, that's a lot.
Re:Blame yourself (Score:1)
or maybe just play the arcade games on your PC too. http://www.mame.net
you can even takes arcade games with you and play them on just about any PC now. http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/emulators
Speaking of Atari ROMS, I wonder if anyone minds them getting redistributed now that the company is kaput? It would be nice to be able to distribute a bootable emulator CD which actually comes with some roms.
Re:Blame yourself (Score:1)
atari 130xe (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:atari 130xe (Score:1)
One hit wonder.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, Atari had its accomplices (Intellivision, Colleco) but Atari was the "big boy" but didn't have the maturity for a good business model or proper "hot or not" entertainment senses. By flooding the market with crap ass games (and letting companies they've licensed do that... ET anyone?) they spread such ill-will among the public that it took literally years before all the stars aligned and Nintendo showed the path.
So for them to last as long as they have, I don't think we should really mourn them, as they've been dead for the longest time. (though admittedly Stun Running did suck up a lot of my money). They've just been a souless zombie for the last 20 years.
The "other half" is gone too (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The "other half" is gone too (Score:1)
Right, so not so much "alive and kicking" as "dead and scavaged for parts".
Re:The "other half" is gone too (Score:2)
More so today than it was when it was owned by that hard-drive manufacturer back when Atari Corp. closed its doors.
Hasbro did marginally better with it. Infogrames seems to actually be trying to use the name and sticking good titles to it.
Of course, it's changed entirely since back in the day when Atari Corp. was (trying to) compete in the home computer and console markets. But at least the good ol' Fuji is still getting stamped on products.
Re:The "other half" is gone too (Score:2)
They came out with some great arcade games, but the arcade market has been in steady decline for the past 20 years. They failed to adequately capitalize on the growth of the PC and console markets.
It's interesting that Activision is still running strong, though. Activision started out by competing with Atari on Atari's own 2600 (they were the first; Sears was selling their own line of game cartridges, but those were simply Atari games with a Sears label on them). Activision was never tied down to one platform, so they had the flexibility to move to whatever game platform was the most popular. I don't think that Atari really made an effort to capitalize on their brands in that way until after they were swallowed up by Hasbro, and by then their portfolio of brands was 20 years old -- far too old to really compete in today's gaming market.
those plastic signs (Score:1)
What signs? (Score:2)
I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. What signs?
Re:What signs? (Score:2)
Re:What signs? (Score:1)
hth
dgd
Re:What signs? (Score:1)
i have to say this (Score:5, Insightful)
But not, you know, for the thirty people laid off.
Ah, slashdot.
Re:i have to say this (Score:2)
It's not as if I was saying "hooray! those 30 employees got fired! whoopty-doo!"
San Francisco Rush 2049 (Score:1)
Everyone's talking about old school atari, I'm with but.....
....San Francisco Rush 2049 [all-reviews.com] is probably my favorite arcade game out there today. It's sucks that it always costs 3 quarters (it's hard to get used to today's prices), but that sub woofer under the seat is soooo nice.
I think this game is the best of all current racers.
What does it all mean?!??
Re:San Francisco Rush 2049 (Score:1)
Well (Score:1)
Corrected (Score:1)
CORRECTED FORMAT:
Atari Games is about to die...
Thank you.
Infogrames & Hardware? (Score:2)
Re:Infogrames & Hardware? (Score:3, Interesting)
No. The "other half" of Atari ceased to exist long ago, and Infogrames owns only the IP - not the offices Atari used to be headquartered in, not the employees that used to work there. There is no more "Atari" as a functioning entity - not even as a division of Infogrames. It is simply a name they slap on what they consider their "high end" games - most of which to this point have actually been developed outside the company (and in fact were in development before the purchase of Atari's IP from Hasbro).
Infogrames does not even do a very good job of branding the Atari name. I work at a game publisher with a setup similar to what Infogrames has (central company with several different "labels") and we would never, ever put our parent company name anywhere on one of our labeled games - we keep the labels pure, and each has a distinct identity and to anyone on the outside probably feels like a separate company. Yet on "Atari" games these days all you generally see of Atari is the logo on the packaging and at startup - but there are still Infogrames logos and information plastered all over the place in the manuals, on the web sites, in the advertising, etc. It's very transparent that this is simply an Infogrames brand, and that the games are simply Infogrames games. There's no sense that the name "Atari" actually means anything - it doesn't, but they could at least do a better job at making it seem like it does.
As for hardware, it'd be cool to see an Atari-branded console again but a) it'll never happen, and b) if it does, this is not the same Atari. It'd be an Infogrames console in reality and everyone would know it.
It's a shame about Midway West too. This was not some one-hit wonder - anyone remember Marble Madness? Crystal Castles? A.P.B.? Paperboy? Not to mention Pong. Atari Games' list of arcade hits is nearly endless and goes back further than any other arcade manufacturer's. All the way up to the early 1990's, they were one of the dominant developers of arcade hardware and hit games.
Re:Infogrames & Hardware? (Score:1)
Is this really the sad day it's claimed to be? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, what's really sad is that this company didn't die gracefully. Instead it's being chopped up bit by bit, one failure after another. That sad day is long past. Like they said about Spock, "He's dead already..."
Re:Is this really the sad day it's claimed to be? (Score:2)
Wrong company. You're thinking of Atari Corp. (now owned by Infogrames), not Atari Games (who just laid off their last 30 employees).
I thought I made that clear in my post, but not everyone RTFA I suppose.
Re:Is this really the sad day it's claimed to be? (Score:2)
They made the best arcade games, period (Score:5, Insightful)
For starters, Atari was the first successful arcade game company. For a little while, if you talked about videogames you meant Atari.
Second, throughout their entire lifespan, Atari produced original games. They always tried new things. They always looked for something different to do. Of all the other companies in the industry, there are precious few who can claim that. Nintendo certainly does it. Some of Sega's splinter development teams do it. Blizzard does it by copying lesser-known games (like Dune II and Rogue). Maxis does it once in a while when they aren't releasing The Sims add-on packs. Who doesn't do it? Namco, Capcom, Square, EA, Microsoft, and Infogrammes (including their "Atari" devision).
By the way: a previous comment stated that Defender, Stargate/Defender II., Joust, Robotron, Rampage, Tapper and Sinistar were Midway games. They are, but they are not Atari games.
Here are the most noteworthy Atari arcade releases, to my mind:
Pong
Asteroids (and Asteroids Deluxe)
Missile Command
Centipede (and Milipede)
Tempest (tied with William's Robotron: 2084 for the title of Twitchiest Game)
Star Wars (still the best of all the many Star Wars videogames!)
Crystal Castles
Marble Madness
I, Robot (the very first 3D polygonal game)
Hard Drivin' (the first successful 3D polygonal game) (also Race Drivin')
S.T.U.N. Runner
720 Degrees
Gauntlet (the game that invented the idea of joining in any time, and an incredible amount of fun) (and Gauntlet II)
Toobin'
KLAX
Tetris (arcade)
Rampart (the best-designed game ever made)
San Franscisco Rush (which is actually like a high-tech update of Hard Drivin')
Gauntlet Legends (pioneering with characters that persist between games) (and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy)
So, unlike what a previous correspondent said, Atari was not a one-hit wonder.
What most of these games have in common is the creation of an entirely new kind of game. They didn't produce endless strings of one-on-one fighting games like some companies I could name. It's true that a few games were released that didn't measure up to these (California Speed stands out in my mind), but no other game company has this track record of innovation, not even Nintendo (and hey, I love Nintendo).
In the early days of the arcade game industry there were few precedents, so you couldn't mindlessly ape someone else. Atari stood out then. But even in their later years, they still tried new, nutty things. That era gave us Rampart, which, I'm not kidding, is an amazing design and should be studied, in an era when side-scrolling things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the rage. They were just about the only reason for thinking person to enter arcades for a while.
To think that Ed Logg may have been escorted off the premises by police! Man, that just makes my blood boil.
Wow. Didn't even know they were still around.... (Score:3, Funny)
...My dad worked for Atari in the early-80s when the 2600 ruled the market. It was cool. Sometimes he'd take us down there on the weekends to play in the free arcade.
My dad's own take on Atari's demise: Their engineers were a bunch of coke addicts. Now, this could very well be just the circle of folks that my dad worked with.
Here's one for the urban legend file: There used to be a couch in the lobby of the building, and every night at midnight (according to my dad who sometimes worked the graveyard shift), the face of an old Indian chieftian used to appear in the fabric. It used to freak out all the security guards who had to sit there looking at it all night.
-- anthony
Re:Wow. Didn't even know they were still around... (Score:1)
Hmmmm, it sounds like the engineers weren't the only guys smoking crack at Atari...
Chris
Gamers to the core (Score:1)
Nobody has mentioned... (Score:1)
Star Raiders yet! Made me wish I could afford an Atari 800 back then.
I still have new-in-the-box copies of Star Raiders for both the 2600 and the computers, that I bought for a dollar each many years later. I'll put them on ePay when I retire.
Atari also made the first wide-body pinball machine. It was incredibly dull, though, and on top of that they used some unique hardware that didn't work very well, rather than tried-and-true generic parts.
Star Raiders (Score:2)
Still, it was an excellent game, and I believe the first 3D game for home users.
I have a tribute to Star Raiders [sonic.net] online. One of these days, I'm gonna clone it for the Zaurus.
Not just coin-op.... (Score:1)
I have some friends who got cut. It was not just a coin-op site, they also created many PS2/gamecube/xbox titles.
These were all really good, talented guys.
Best of luck and best wishes.
Des
Re:Not just coin-op.... (Score:2)
Err.. you sure you're not thinking of the Atari [atari.com] brand name being used by Infogrames [infogrames.com]?
Quite sure, I just had dinner with them last week. (Score:1)
I've been there twice. Half the building was coin-op, the other half console. They had just finished Dr. Muto....which I'm sure sadly enough didn't help.
bladerunner (Score:2)
does that mean that street scene in bladerunner really isn't representational of the future?
and i was just going to brush up on my conversational pidgin tagalog
The end of an Era (Score:1)
Sega Genesis controller on Ataris (Score:2)
I even wrote a game [newbreedsoftware.com] for the Atari 8-bit computer that took advantage of the multiple buttons available on the Genesis controller.
dang! (Score:2)
Re:Sad Day For All (Score:1)