Can you believe Atari is 40 years old today? It was in 1972 that the first Atari cabinets began appearing throughout bars and select restaurants around the United States, a movement that eventually led to the $50 dollar video game console in a box and endless hours spent trying to earn the unattainable victory in ET: Extra Terrestrial.
From Pong and Pitfall to Submarine Commander and Centipede the team at Atari helped define an entire generation of gamers who ultimately led the way towards the more advanced games we have on the market today.
For a number of years Atari became a household name as Sears sold the company’s consoles through its stores and home shopper magazine program.
Many gamers may not realize that after creating the Atari 2600, the company’s most successful gaming platform, they went on to create Lynx, the first handheld gaming system that pre-dated the Nintendo Game Boy.
Atari eventually lost much of its glory in 1984 when a “gaming crash” was witnesses as poor quality games began flooding the market. When Nintendo debuted in 1985 Atari was all but done with the console market, eventually failing to launch best-selling console.
Atari still exists today although the company which has changed hands on many occasions is far different from what it set out to be.
Take a look at the infographic below and you’ll get a good picture in your head of what Atari was, what it began to evolve into and what it has become in the 21st century of gaming: