Atari Games

Atari Games Corporation
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
PredecessorAtari, Inc.
FoundedJanuary 11, 1985; 39 years ago (1985-01-11)
FounderWarner Communications
DefunctFebruary 7, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02-07) (disbanded by Midway)
FateMerged into and later closed by Midway Games
Headquarters675 Sycamore Dr., ,
Key people
  • Hideyuki Nakajima
    (president, 1985–1994)
  • Dan Van Elderen
    (president, 1995–2003)
  • Ed Logg (game designer)
Products
Number of employees
700
Parent
DivisionsTengen

Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Warner Communications to a joint venture with Namco, being one of several successor companies to use the name Atari.

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 (NES) 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 Time Warner reassumed full ownership in 1994, and 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.

  1. ^ "Overseas Readers Column: Namco Purchases Atari Games Inc" (PDF). Game Machine. No. 255. Amusement Press, Inc. March 1, 1985. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 2, 2019.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).