|
1972 |
|
'Atari Inc.' founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. The arcade game 'Pong'
becomes
a big hit. |
|
1973 |
|
Ted Dabney sells
his half of Atari Inc. to Nolan Bushnell. |
|
1974 |
|
Joe Keenan is
made President of Atari Inc. |
|
1975 |
|
Atari Inc.
releases 'Home Pong'. |
|
1976 |
|
Atari Inc. sold
by Bushnell to Warner Inc. for $28,000,000. |
|
1977 |
|
Atari Inc.
releases the Atari 'VCS', the world's most successful
video-game-system. |
|
1978 |
|
Atari Corp.
launches its home computer division, Bushnell leaves Atari. |
|
1979 |
|
Atari releases
the '400' and '800' line of home computers. |
|
1980 |
|
Atari Inc. posts
record sales. $2 billion profits annually. Atari occupies 80 offices
in Sunnyvale, CA. |
|
1981 |
|
Atari Inc.
announces the '5200 Super System'. |
|
1982 |
|
Atari releases
the Atari '5200 Super System'. The Atari 'VCS' is renamed to Atari '2600'. |
|
1983 |
|
Atari replaces
the '400' / '800' / '1200XL' line of home computers with the '600XL' and the
'800XL'. Atari Inc. faces record losses of $536,000,000, (up to
$2,000,000 daily). |
|
1984 |
|
Warner divides
Atari Inc. The home division ('Atari Corp'.) is sold to Jack Tramiel.
The '5200' is cancelled. |
|
1985 |
|
Atari Corp.
releases the 'Atari ST' home computer series and replaces the '600XL'
and
'800XL' home computers with the '65XE' and the '130XE' computers. |
|
1986 |
|
Atari Corp.
releases the Atari '7800' console. |
|
1987 |
|
Atari Corp.
announces the 'XE Game System' ('XEGS'). |
|
1988 |
|
Atari Corp.
announces the signing of Nolan Bushnell to develop games for the
Atari VCS. |
|
1989 |
|
Atari Corp.
releases the Atari 'Lynx', the world's first color hand-held video
game system;
but only in New York and Los Angeles. Atari releases the Atari
'Portfolio', the smallest IBM-compatible computer. |
|
1990 |
|
Atari releases
the 'Lynx' nationwide. |
|
1991 |
|
Rumours about the
'Panther', a 32bit video-game-console by Atari; project stopped;
64bit-project announced, called 'Jaguar'; 'Lynx II' released. |
|
1992 |
|
Atari announces
the 'Jaguar' to be released in 1993. |
|
1993 |
|
'Atari Games'
becomes 'Time-Warner Interactive'. Atari Corp. releases the Atari
'Jaguar 64',
the world's first 64-bit home video game system. |
|
1994 |
|
Atari Corp. stops
supporting the 'Lynx'. |
|
1995 |
|
Atari Corp.
releases the 'Jaguar CD'. |
|
1996 |
|
Atari Corp.
merges with JTS Corporation, a small manufacturer of hard disk
drives for
personal computers. Time-Warner Interactive (Atari Games) sold to
WMS. |
|
1997 |
|
All
Atari-operations are stopped at JTS. |
|
1998 |
|
Hasbro acquires
the rights to Atari Corp.'s name and properties from JTS Corporation
for $5,000,000 in cash! |
|
1999 |
|
Hasbro declares
the Jaguar as an 'open' system; Atari is reborn as their new home
video
game label. |
|
2000 |
|
'Infogrames'
acquires rights to the 'Atari' label by purchasing Hasbro
Interactive, including
all of Hasbro's rights to the Atari name and all of its properties,
for $95,000,000 in Infogrames stock and $5,000,000 in cash. |
|
2003 |
|
On May 7th,
Infogrames changes its name to 'Atari'. |
