Gamasutra has posted a detailed and accurate history of Atari from 1971-1977, a period which covers Atari’s early coin-op days where their coin-op division was primary to any home division at the time. It is an intriguing look at one of the fallen giants of the game insdustry that is currently in dire trouble with it’s current owners (that would be both Atari/Infogrames and Midway who bought up Atari Games a few years ago – both companies are in some financial trouble at the moment, more so the former). Arcade games covered include Computer Space, Pong, Space Race, many of the Pong variations, Rebound, Gotcha (the 1st maze game), Gran Trak 10 (1st racing game but financially disastrous), Pin-Pong (a video pinball game), Tank! (like Combat that Atari would release for the VCS) Breakout and many more.
[Atari History 1971-1977 by Gamasutra via Kotaku] [Discuss on the Forum]
