Atari, Inc.

Background

Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company that was originally founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney and marked as the world's earliest video game publishers/developers. It was originally called Syzygy Company before becoming private and it was renamed to Atari, Inc.. The first game ever released was Pong on the arcades. In 1976, it was bought out by Warner Communications, and went on to release the Atari Video Computer System (later the Atari 2600), a hit console. In 1979, several Atari programmers left out to start Activision, the world's first third-party console developer. Also that year, Atari introduced the first home computer, which was the Atari 8-bit. In 1982, it released E.T. the Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600, which started a crisis for the company that led to its downfall. In 1983, it formed Atarisoft to release Atari-licensed properties on non-Atari consoles and computers. In 1984, Atari, Inc. broke out, with the home division becoming Atari Corporation and the arcade division becoming Atari Games.

1st Logo (November 1982-May 21, 1984)

Visuals: On a black background, there is the corporate Atari logo with rainbow colors in it. Underneath this, there is the game's title and "© (year) ATARI INC."

Trivia: The logo is based on the end tag seen on Atari commercials of that time.

Variant: On the 2600 demo, the copyright stamp is not seen.

Technique: Sprite-based animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on all Atari 5200 games. Centipede is the only 2600 game to use the logo, as it boots straight to the title screen. It was also seen on the unfinished 2600 game Androman on the Moon.

2nd Logo (November 30, 1982-1984)

Visuals: In the game's introduction, there is the same Atari logo from before, except it was in white.

Variants:

On the Atari arcade version of Pole Position, the logo was on the bottom left.
On the arcade game of Firefox, the logo is in a purple gradient.
On the ColecoVision games of Defender and Galaxian, the logo was shown within the game's title screen.
On the ColecoVision game of Centipede and the Atari arcade version of Xevious, the logo is red.
On the ColecoVision game of Jungle Hunt, the logo is red and the text is blue.
On the PC Booter and Apple II games of Joust, the logo is in the corner of the title screen.
On the unfinished ColecoVision prototype of Pac-Man, the logo is blue and the text is red.

Technique: None. ^{[possible misuse]}

Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Most Atari games didn't use a logo, but it was seen on the Atari arcade games of Pole Position, Xevious and Firefox and several ColecoVision games.

3rd Logo (1983)

Visuals: On a black background, there is the Atari tripod logo from the last two logos moving in a rainbow color. Below it was the text "ATARI" in segmented lines, and below it was the title screen.

Technique: Sprite-based animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on the Intellivision games of Pac-Man, Defender and Centipede.

Atari, Inc.

Atari Corporation
Atari Games

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