Tag Archives: atari

Rare Atari game found in storage sells for over $33,000

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In the end, things worked out pretty good for Harv Bennett, the Pomona, CA man who recently unearthed a copy of the incredibly rare Atari 2600 game Air Raid.

You might recall his story: After reading up about the scarcity of the game, Harv and his daughter Alana went treasure hunting in the family storage shed, excitedly finding Harv’s pristine copy amidst stacks of other Atari 2600 games. After verifying its authenticity, they put it up for bidding at video game auction site Gamegavel.com, hoping collectors would go nuts.

They did.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Happy 35th, Atari 2600!

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While Atari first burst onto the video game scene in 1972 with Pong, for many gamers, the company’s lasting legacy will always be the Atari 2600.

October 14 marks the 35th birthday of the legendary game console, which landed with a bang in 1977. It wasn’t the first home video game system — that honor belongs to the Magnavox Odyssey — but it quickly became the most widely adopted and set the standard for many, many years.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Happy 40th birthday, Atari!

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Before Halo, before Call of Duty — heck, even before Mario — there was Atari.

While the video game itself might have been invented before Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney decided to start the company, it was Atari that effectively launched the video game industry. And it was on this date 40 years ago that Atari began its march toward history.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Atari founder predicts neural-implant gaming

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Nolan Bushnell is a man with big ideas.

In 1972, he founded Atari, laying the foundation for the video game industry we know today. Five years later, he bought a pizza chain from Warner Communications and built it into Chuck E. Cheese.

Now, the serial entrepreneur and tech visionary says mind control could be the next big step for video games.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Opinion: The Revolving Door At Atari Approaches Terminal Velocity

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Can the latest round of executive hires turn Atari around with a focus on the fast-moving social gaming and digital space? Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at execs who’ve come and gone — and he’s skeptical.

With all due respect to the incoming executives at Atari, I really can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would take a high-ranking job with that particular publisher.

Sure, it’s a company that has proven almost Rasputin-like in its will to live, but it has also spent the last four years floundering – desperately searching for a viable business plan and hiring a slew of notable industry executives, only to see them racing for the exit in short order.

Read more at Gamasutra

Atari unveils Neverwinter – an updated Neverwinter Nights

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“Neverwinter Nights,” one of the most storied role-playing game franchises, is getting an update. Atari today announced “Neverwinter,” a new title utilizing the Dungeon and Dragons license, will hit shelves late next year. 

Last June, Variety was first to break the news that Atari was relaunching the series. Sources, at the time, told us Atari’s Cryptic Studios would revived the game as a massively multiplayer online title, with an eyed 2011 release. Today’s announcement stops short of calling it an MMO, but does refer to the game as a “new online role-playing game”.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Atari founder returns to his roots

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Nolan Bushnell, the man who founded Atari in 1972 and was booted from it six years later, is back again. Atari has named Bushnell to its board of directors and said it hopes to lean on him to help with the company’s future planning.

It’s a move that might bring a smile to gaming historians, but could once again raise questions about the company’s future. Bushnell, while unquestionably a visionary in the video game space, has not been a major part of the mainstream gaming world for years. And his appointment comes as two well-respected industry veterans sever their ties with the company.

Read more at Variety’s The Cut Scene blog