Atari Games

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The company developed and published games for arcades under the Atari brand, and across consumer home systems such as the Commodore 16, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System, and others using the Tengen label for legal reasons. Some of the games Atari Games had developed include Tetris, Road Runner, RoadBlasters, Primal Rage, Hard Drivin', and San Francisco Rush. Atari Games effectively operated independently from 1987, when Namco sold its controlling stake, until 1994, when it was consolidated into Time Warner Interactive. In 1996, Atari Games was sold to WMS Industries, and the company then became part of Midway Games when that company was spun-off by WMS in 1998. After dropping the Atari name, it ceased operations in 2003; its former assets were later sold back to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (now Warner Bros. Games) in 2009 following Midway's bankruptcy.

In Their Own Story

The arcade cabinet stood in a corner of the mall, its blue-and-red color scheme drawing eyes. A player dropped a quarter into the slot, the machine humming to life. The first piece—a straight I-block—fell slowly. He guided it into place, clearing a line. The score ticked upward. Beside him, a second player plugged into the two-player link-up, their screens syncing. They didn't speak, but the competition was immediate: each cleared line sent a garbage row to the opponent's field. The player's fingers moved faster as the speed increased, the logarithmic adjustment making every second count. Outside, the rain began, but here, in the glow of the screen, there was only the next piece and the hope of a perfect clear.

Reader's Guide

Atari Games continued to manufacture arcade games and units, and starting in 1988, also sold cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System under the Tengen brand name. The Tengen name was used for its home consumer division that released games, while its home games were mainly developed by Atari Games staff. The companies exchanged a number of lawsuits in the late 1980s related to disputes over the rights to Tetris, of which Tengen had published a version for the NES, and Tengen's circumvention of Nintendo's lockout chip. The suit finally reached a settlement in 1994, with Atari Games paying Nintendo cash damages and use of several patent licenses.

Did You Know?

• Atari Games developed Tetris for arcades.
• Tengen, Atari Games' home consumer label, published a version of Tetris for the NES.
• The source article does not specify the number of Tetris cartridges recalled or destroyed; it only mentions disputes over the rights to Tetris.