The new game plan

Did they play those games? Probably not. Did they grow up in that era? Surely not. But that Atari logo has a retro connection to that whole era. I kept trying to stylize the A, then I looked at Pong , their big game at the time.

Pong had a center line and a force the ball that kept hitting its center from either side. I thought that force would bend the center outward. That design aesthetic, having bold, simple, color palettes and iconic diametric shapes, cuts through any surrounding visual noise.

It has a pleasing geometric symmetry that seems to flow. Catherine DeSpiro is a historian and a collector of Atari arcade machines. She says the brand has an emotional pull, especially on those who experienced it the first time around. Divorce rates were soaring, and the American family felt like it was breaking up. Kids found sanctuary in arcades, and later, in the Atari home console. The spectacular failure of a single game, E. After , Atari ceased to be a major player in console gaming, and was rapidly superseded by Nintendo, which had watched and learned all the hard and expensive lessons that Atari had provided.

Nintendo was independent, focused, controlling, slickly professional. None of these things were true of Atari. The brand went through a dismal series of acquisitions, relaunches, partnerships, and consolidations, finally ending up at French games publisher Infogrames, which, in its own frenzied death throes, rebranded to Atari.

When that company declared bankruptcy, longtime Infogrames exec Fred Chesnais took control of the wreckage, and sought to extract as much value from the brand as possible, through a raft of licensing deals and offshoots including a planned hotel chain, cryptocurrency, a home computer, casinos, and movie production.

There were also a few game releases, mainly in the realm of free-to-play and mobile titles like the licensed Roller Coaster Tycoon Stories , and Atari Combat: Tank Fury. In the media, each new announcement met with eye-rolling skepticism.

Under Rosen, the company has made some money by selling NFTs, releasing digital 3D models of classic Atari cartridges. I draw a parallel with Nintendo working with Universal to make amusement parks. For Atari, comparisons with Nintendo are useful. In December, an Atari branded pre-launch casino metaverse was accidently published by a licensing partner. Still, Rosen says his focus is on the nitty-gritty of making games and publishing them.

He points to Black Widow Recharged , released in late October, as an example. In the original arcade game, players took on the role of a spider at the center of its web, moving along the tendrils and either pushing or shooting enemies and obstacles.

The new game is the same, except everything moves much faster, with a greater variety of enemies, colors, and sound effects. We have to compete, while retaining the DNA of the original. Successful game companies like Nintendo take care to nurture their image.

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