I think Atari, SA (formerly Infogrames) owns the rights to all the arcade games Atari produced before the 1984 split, whereas the ones from after that are currently owned by Warner under the Midway brand. It's a bit ironic that Warner now owns only the arcade titles that *weren't* made during the period when Warner owned Atari Corporation. Also a little weird, as an old fogey who remembers these games, to see so many Williams and Atari titles marketed as "Midway" games.
Atari XE/XL series were very popular in USSR and eastern slavic countries - Poland, Chechoslovakia back in 1980's. I have two of 65 XL 's but they don't work anymore :( It has so many games! Panther, Karateka, River Raid, Zybex, Ninja Commando, Monty, Ninja, International Karate, Dan Strikes Back, Robbo! So many great games!
As an ex-indie game developer, copyright is an issue... Shove something like Asteroid in your title, or even put Operation in your app store search tags, your sure to find yourself with a cease and desist email threatening court action. Its a nightmare now and have seen it happening many times in indie game dev, including myself. And these come from everywhere and anywhere... Companies dont make good new games now, they patent troll on their old tired IP for the most part, and they attack the very people that built the industry in the first place!
It is important to note, however, the downfall of Atari was caused by the 2600 releases of Pac-Man and E.T. Another catalyst was the emergance of home computers, such as the Commodore 64, which were much more powerful than the consoles of that era. Atari ended up with excess inventory that couldn't be sold, and buried them in a landfill in Alamorgardo, New Mexico.
It would be interesting to see your personal take on the Atari consumer division and its console releases, particularly the botched 5200 and 7800 releases which were years behind in terms of their intended release.
Found this channel through Kim Justice. Excellent video & have subscribed! Glad to have more amazing documentaries to watch on here. Keep up the great work
as ever, a great video. any chance you could cover the sinclair pc200 and the cambridge z88? You would do a far better job on the latter than I managed !!
I've just created a video series about the First Video Game war that covers some of the same topics from a different angle--the three-way battle between Atari, Fairchild, and Magnavox, and how Atari's victory was the result of decisions both good and bad. Check out part 1 (of 3) at th-cam.com/video/ohbXUbW0wFc/w-d-xo.html.
wait so Atari games had the rights to port their arcade games to consoles, but Nintendo's rules only allowed for 5 games per year to be distributed so what did they do when you mention they reversed engineered the chip?
They reverse engineered the "10NES" lockout chip, allowing them to publish games without a license from Nintendo. Without this reverse engineered chip, unlicensed games would fail to run.
I believe Nintendo provided the chips that went into the cartridge but Tengen basically made their own. This is similar to what Electronic Arts did with the Genesis.
Nintendo manufactured the game cartridges. publishers would give them the finished game, the game would be quality checked by Nintendo and then produced by Nintendo.
Atari claimed they reverse engineered the chip, and if they had, it would've been 100% legal. What they actually did d was pop down the patent office and copy Nintendo's code for the lock out chip. Nintendo sued for copyright theft and won.
Time Warner owns DC comics so they own all Batman properties no matter what or how they come out. Even if Atari mad them at one time, Tine Warner owns the brand, trademark, copyright and license.
Good heavens that history is more complicated than the plans for an amphibious invasion.
It' s almost majestic in it's bewilderment
I think Atari, SA (formerly Infogrames) owns the rights to all the arcade games Atari produced before the 1984 split, whereas the ones from after that are currently owned by Warner under the Midway brand. It's a bit ironic that Warner now owns only the arcade titles that *weren't* made during the period when Warner owned Atari Corporation. Also a little weird, as an old fogey who remembers these games, to see so many Williams and Atari titles marketed as "Midway" games.
Atari XE/XL series were very popular in USSR and eastern slavic countries - Poland, Chechoslovakia back in 1980's. I have two of 65 XL 's but they don't work anymore :( It has so many games! Panther, Karateka, River Raid, Zybex, Ninja Commando, Monty, Ninja, International Karate, Dan Strikes Back, Robbo! So many great games!
I love really good 3D perspective games from the 80s. Hard Drivin' and Battle Zone were awesome. blew my mind
I've heard this story countless times but never with this much detail, it's truly fascinating!
Thanks! I'm pleased to hear I could add something :D
The Atari VCS did not use the 6502. They used a simplified MOS technology and more cost affective 6502 based chip -- the 6507.
Great video. Though it's worth noting, that's the Namco version of Ms. Pac-Man for NES at 9:53, not the Tengen version.
A quibble: Atari's first move into the home market was their home Pong console, a couple of years before the 2600's release.
From The Gaming Historian to here, got some nice insight past Namco's history. Thanks for making this.
Also Steve Jobs and Steve Steve Wozniak worked at Atari (Woz created breakout) before creating Apple Computers ;)
Jobs did.
I watch your content almost daily. I especially love your retrospectives. Always informative and entertaining.
Amazing job on this vid! Atari bring back so many memories...
Nostalgia Nerd You guys ROCK been with you since you had 6k Subs :3
What interesting ownership changes, Licencing must be a mess.
As an ex-indie game developer, copyright is an issue... Shove something like Asteroid in your title, or even put Operation in your app store search tags, your sure to find yourself with a cease and desist email threatening court action. Its a nightmare now and have seen it happening many times in indie game dev, including myself. And these come from everywhere and anywhere... Companies dont make good new games now, they patent troll on their old tired IP for the most part, and they attack the very people that built the industry in the first place!
Atari only really cares about there arcade games and 2600 games
It is important to note, however, the downfall of Atari was caused by the 2600 releases of Pac-Man and E.T. Another catalyst was the emergance of home computers, such as the Commodore 64, which were much more powerful than the consoles of that era. Atari ended up with excess inventory that couldn't be sold, and buried them in a landfill in Alamorgardo, New Mexico.
At least WB Games added the ability to play some of the Atari Arcade titles to LEGO Dimensions with the Midway Level Pack
Man that's a lot of info to process , what a head fuck for some of the companies involved with all those copyright laws n stuff. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
It would be interesting to see your personal take on the Atari consumer division and its console releases, particularly the botched 5200 and 7800 releases which were years behind in terms of their intended release.
Awesome video, Pete! Thanks for sharing! ;)
I never knew about them being seperate companies. I learned something today :D
Strange isn't it? I never realised throughout my youth, until I started looking deeper during late night, slightly obsessive, research sessions!
And now the current atari wants to make a game console...
It’s nothing innovative
Found this channel through Kim Justice. Excellent video & have subscribed! Glad to have more amazing documentaries to watch on here. Keep up the great work
Now THIS video... is MOST excellent!
I still can never forgive Nolan Bushnell for Chuck E Cheese....
The best Atari was the Jack Tramiel's Atari.
as ever, a great video. any chance you could cover the sinclair pc200 and the cambridge z88? You would do a far better job on the latter than I managed !!
I've got a Z88 on my shelves, just waiting for a video as it happens.... if I ever get hold of a PC200, then most certainly, but they're a rare breed!
Glad i wasn't drunk watching that! very interesting!
Sears Telegames!
How come no info on the Atari Jaguar era?
Go is a Chinese game btw
Hey you are supported by Techmoan. Neat. Don't tell him but your channel is better. Unless he is paying attention ...
So maybe Techmoan donates £10 to NN's channel each month and NN donates £10 a month to Techmoan's channel.
Great video.
What gave their bad reputation of threatening/bullying retailers? Interested
9:22 apb(all points bulletin)? Isnt that a gta clone from the ps3 era?
what is the music at the beginning of the video? Has a 90s DOS PC sound to it
Most of the music from the start is from the Xybots arcade game.
I'm too thick to keep up with all this
I'm going to leave a comment here.
🅱epis
Lol
I've just created a video series about the First Video Game war that covers some of the same topics from a different angle--the three-way battle between Atari, Fairchild, and Magnavox, and how Atari's victory was the result of decisions both good and bad. Check out part 1 (of 3) at th-cam.com/video/ohbXUbW0wFc/w-d-xo.html.
Music from Xybots
Absolutely! Love Xybots. Music, game, everything.
wait so Atari games had the rights to port their arcade games to consoles, but Nintendo's rules only allowed for 5 games per year to be distributed so what did they do when you mention they reversed engineered the chip?
They reverse engineered the "10NES" lockout chip, allowing them to publish games without a license from Nintendo. Without this reverse engineered chip, unlicensed games would fail to run.
qwertzy121212 oh so you need the license from Nintendo to be able to run the games on the system
Never knew that
I believe Nintendo provided the chips that went into the cartridge but Tengen basically made their own. This is similar to what Electronic Arts did with the Genesis.
Nintendo manufactured the game cartridges. publishers would give them the finished game, the game would be quality checked by Nintendo and then produced by Nintendo.
Atari claimed they reverse engineered the chip, and if they had, it would've been 100% legal. What they actually did d was pop down the patent office and copy Nintendo's code for the lock out chip. Nintendo sued for copyright theft and won.
wait... so batman is an atari game?
Time Warner owns DC comics so they own all Batman properties no matter what or how they come out. Even if Atari mad them at one time, Tine Warner owns the brand, trademark, copyright and license.
Mark Innes that is why it's ultimately an Atari game lol
Atari (Games) made the arcade movie adaptation in 1989, not the console/computer/portable games which were all different.
someone's been studying japanese pronunciation ;) ;)
Atari Games went out of buisness in 2003
Lol he says "thumbs down if you didn't like the video"
Only two people thumbs down the video
They know he's watching
This is not the official Atari documentary. It's shit.
666th view, now that's metal
Nice video. You need to start taking support in crypto. At least Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ether.
当たり！ ^_^
Wait I know this! Atari! c:
That's right! *power high-five*
や～ター
楽しいだ!
(is that correct...?)
It's near enough ^_^ Kudos on your effort :)
(や～た～
楽しい！)
Okay thank u ^u^
I've been trying to learn Japanese amongst two other languages as I plan on becoming a graphic designer in my future.