Atari

Not to be confused for Atari Games (Tengen). For other uses of Atari, see Atari (disambiguation).

Atari Logo

Atari is a U.S.-based video game company, first founded as Atari Inc. in 1972. While not the first video game developer, they helped popularize the business in the '70s with smash hits like Pong and Asteroids, alongside the immensely successful Atari 2600 game system. They had a close relation with Namco, and released many Pac-Man games in various formats. Through a series of company buyouts and mergers, the Atari company became Atari Corp. in 1984, and currently operates as the France-based Atari SA.

Atari's most well known relation to Pac-Man is the infamous Atari 2600 version, which despite being a massive success, is considered to be one of the worst games of its time in retrospect.

History

Before Pac-Man's North American release, Namco offered Atari publishing rights to the game; however, Atari declined the offer for unknown reasons. The arcade game would instead be published by Bally Midway; though following its unprecedented success on the market, Atari secured the exclusive U.S. home console rights for Pac-Man from Namco. Atari was known to file aggressive legal action against clones of Pac-Man by competing console manufacturers, most notably with K.C. Munchkin!.

In March of 1982, Atari would release Pac-Man for their Atari 2600 system. This version of Pac-Man has been heavily criticized for its poor representation of the arcade original. Atari's 2600 games of poor quality, such as Pac-Man and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, are often the scapegoats blamed for the eventual downfall of the company. Atari would later release Ms. Pac-Man on the 2600, which was much more well-received; as well as the Atari 5200 game system.

In 1983, Atari began using the brand name "Atarisoft" to publish video games on non-Atari consoles, such as the Intellivision and various home computers. Various additional Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man ports were published under the Atarisoft label.

Following the video game crash of 1983, Atari Inc. was split into two companies; Atari Corp., focusing on the home console market, and Atari Games, who focused on the arcade market. The formation of Atari Corp. resulted in a roughly two-year halt on new Atari releases, with the then-upcoming Atari 7800 system being shelved until 1986. Atari Corp. would eventually publish the Atari 2600 version of Jr. Pac-Man in 1987, which was originally scheduled for a 1984 release.

Atari Corp. would later be purchased by a little-known JT Storage Inc. (commonly abbreviated as "JTS") in 1996; this led to Atari being purchased from JTS by Hasbro, forming Hasbro Interactive. Hasbro would relaunch the Atari brand with "arcade revival" games based on various properties, including the PC game Pac-Man: Adventures in Time. Following financial difficulties at Hasbro Interactive, the Atari rights - once again - were sold off to French company Infogrames in late 2000.

Following Infogrames' acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, Infogrames rebranded their headquarters as Atari SA in 2003. Hasbro Interactive would continue operation as Atari Interactive, while Infogrames' previously-acquired GT Interactive Software Corp. (a company who was, ironically, sued by Hasbro over bootleg Pac-Man games) would rebrand as Atari Inc. (an entity otherwise unrelated to the original 1972 company).

Pac-Man releases

This list features all Pac-Man releases by Atari Inc., Atarisoft, Atari Corp., and Infogrames; it does not include releases by Atari Games or Tengen.

• Atari 2600 - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man
• Atari 5200 - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man (cancelled), Super Pac-Man (cancelled); a canceled "Puffer" version of Ms. Pac-Man was planned using a bicycle peripheral.
• Atari 400/800/XL/XE - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man (cancelled), Super Pac-Man (cancelled)
• Atari 7800 - Ms. Pac-Man
• Atari Lynx - Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Land
• Atari Jaguar - Virtual VCS (canceled); a planned compilation release featuring the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man
• ColecoVision (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man (cancelled)
• Intellivision (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man; later republished by INTV Corp.
• Apple II (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man (modified from bootleg Taxman), Ms. Pac-Man
• Commodore 64 (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man; later republished by Thunder Mountain
• Commodore VIC-20 (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man
• IBM PC (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man; later republished by Thunder Mountain
• TI-99/4A (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man
• ZX Spectrum (Atarisoft) - Pac-Man (modified from bootleg Z-Man), Ms. Pac-Man
• Windows (Infogrames) - Pac-Man: Adventures in Time, Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze, Pac-Man All-Stars; Adventures in Time was originally published by Hasbro Interactive, while Golden Maze and All-Stars were commissioned by Infogrames themselves. All three games have variants released under the Atari name. Several compilations and box sets of the games were also released.
• Game Boy Advance (Infogrames) - Namco Museum, Pac-Man Collection; published by Infogrames in Europe, but by Namco and related subsidiaries in other regions. Both games have variants released under the Atari name.

Atarisoft Ms. Pac-Man ports were also planned for the ColecoVision, Intellivision, BBC Micro, and IBM PCjr; Super Pac-Man was also planned for the Atari 2600. It is unknown if these ports ever reached the development stage. An original Pac-Man game was planned to be released by Atari in 1997 (under the "Atari Interactive" PC line), though this was presumably canceled following JTS's purchase of the company.