The Evolution of Video Games

Part1. BEGINNING.

Video games have been around for decades. Since the 1940s and the very first computer, people from all over the spectrum have been attempting to create video games for the leisure of humans. To evolve from physical sports to a more ‘simple’ way of playing games with friends.

But video games didn’t gain traction until the Early 70s. When 3 guys named Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney, and Allan Alcorn, created ‘Pong’ a simple video game that kick-started a revolution entitled: ‘The Golden Age of Video Games.

Likewise, the group created ‘Atari, Inc.’ A company that would spearhead, and crash the ‘Golden Age of Video Games.’ Releasing timeless video game classics, such as: ‘Breakout’, ‘Asteroids’ and. ‘Centipede’. To creating the games that would lead to Atari’s demise: The, now infamous, port of ‘Pac-Man’, and, what gamers call ‘The worst video game of all time’, ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestrial’. Which was so horrible to the company, it led the game to a pit in southern New Mexico.

But, how did one small video game crash a multi-million dollar company, spoil a booming entertainment industry, and lead Atari into a ditch in southern New Mexico?

Part2. THE ORIGINS OF ATARI.

Atari got its first steps from a man named Nolan Bushnell, who, at the time, was working at an amusement park.

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Bushnell attended the University of Utah’s School of Engineering while managing the amusement park. There, he saw the newly-made video game ‘Spacewar! ‘, which was one of the first video games to be ever created.

From there, Bushnell took the idea of ‘Spacewar! ‘ and developed his own game called ‘Computer Space’, which became the first ever coin-operated arcade video game.

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‘Computer Space’ was an alright game for its time. Nutting Associates, the manufacturer of the game, reported that the company had sold 1,300-1,500 units of ‘Computer Space’, but were ultimately dissapointed on how it wasn’t a huge success like their previous games. ‘Computer Space’s lack of success attributes to its high complexity controls, to its steep learning curve to know how to play the game. Bushnell knew about the hard complexity, stating:

(It was a little too complicated for ‘The guy with the beer at the bar.’)

Originally, ‘Computer Space’ was marketed with ‘Syzygy’. A formal partnership was conceived ofbetweenapproached approached Bushnell and his partner/co-worker Ted Dabney.

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‘Syzygy Engineering’, shortly thereafter, became defunct after Bushnell found that ‘Syzygy’ was an already incorporated company in California. Bushnell and Dabney switched the company’s name to ‘Atari’ after the name of a move in the Japanese board game ‘Go’.

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Part3. THE RISE OF ATARI.

Bushnell began seeking other business partners to manufacture their products, outside of their original manufacturer, Nutting Associates. They had approchedapproached pinball game manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, who showed interest in funding the company if Nutting Associates were not involved. The two later quit Nutting, and went with Bally.

Bally offered the company $4,000 a month, for six months to design a new video game. Using the funds, they hired Allan ‘Al’ Alcorn as their first design engineer. But, Alcorn had no prior experience in video games. So, to get Alcorn ‘up-to-par’, Bushnell and Dabney asked him to create a simple table tennis game as a training exercise, before doing the new video game they had in mind.

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Oblivious to the fact that this game was initially for training purposes, Alcorn finished the game in 3 months. Impressed by the game, Bushnell and Dabney put the game into a makeshift arcade cabinet, and gave it to a local pub in Sunnyvale, California, where Atari was headquartered at the time.

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The game, later titled ‘Pong’, was an instantaneous hit in the tavern. With simple controls and fun gameplay, ‘Pong’ was an instant hit for Atari.

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Due to the success of ‘Pong’, Bushnell pushed Atari to create more products. In 1974, one of Atari’s engineers approached Bushnell and presented him with the home console version of ‘Pong’. Alcorn and Atari’s engineers helped create the console and released it through Sears’ Sporting Goods department.

In 1974, Atari the integrateacquiredintegrate acquire Cyan Engineering, an electronics company started by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons, both former co-workers at AMPEX, the company Bushnell and Dabney worked at before Atari, Inc., and founded Atari’s Green Valley Think Tank. Which was a group of people on ideas for video games.

In late 1977, Atari released the Atari Video Computer System, later renamed the Atari 2600.

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By the year’s end, Atari reported that they sold between 350,000 – 400,000 consoles, and during 1978, Atari only sold 550,000 consoles. At the time, Atari couldn’t afford the production of all the consoles. So to save Atari from bankruptcy, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million to keep up the demand for consoles, and shortly departed the company, using the money to purchase Folgers Mansion.

During the holiday season of 1979, the Atari 2600 became the best-selling console of the season, selling over one million units during the holidays.

Part4. THE PEAK OF ATARI.

Atari was, at the time, the largest video game company in America. Producing classic games such as: ‘Breakout’, ‘Asteroids’, ‘Defender’, and many more. Along with 3rd party companies with their fair share of amazing video games. Such examples are Activision with ‘Pitfall!’, Konami with ‘Frogger’, and Epyx with ‘California Games.

In 1981, Atari hired Howard Scott Warshaw, a multi-terminal systems engineer from Hewlett-Packard, as a game designer. Atari had a license to port the 1980 game ‘Star Castle’, a coin-op arcade game by Cinematronics, onto 2600, so Atari commissioned Warshaw to create the port of ‘Star Castle’. However, limitations became clear with the game being on the system.

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The Atari 2600 couldn’t handle ‘Star Castle’, but that didn’t stop Warshaw from creating his very own, and very first, game. Warshaw took some elements from ‘Star Castle’, and tried to make his own game.

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Warshaw created his game, eventually drifting away from ‘Star Castle’ and implementing some elements of ‘Star Castle’ into his own game. When he finished his game, 5 months later, he felt that he needed to title his game by himself.

The working title of Warshaw’s game was ‘Time Freeze’ because Warshaw wanted this to be an action game where the time would pause, or ‘freeze’, to feature the first full-screen explosion in a video game.

But, Warshaw, very dedicated to his work, wrote a story about ‘Time Freeze’, which would later be included in the game.

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The story involves mutated houseflies against an alien attacker who is destroying their world. This game would later be titled ‘Years’ Revenge’ after an easter egg Warshaw included in the game.

He would later go to marketing, and pitch his idea for the title of the game. He met up with a marketing executive during his work shift, to talk with him about his game, but not in the way you’d expect…

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So, Warshaw named his game, along with the main protagonist of the game, after the then-president of Atari, Inc. Ray Kassar. The game later was released as ‘Years’ Revenge’ in May of 1982.

‘Years’ Revenge’ was well conceived with Atari 2600 owners. With Atari reporting that ‘Years’ Revenge’ was the best-selling game for 2600. But, ‘Years” met some critics. ‘Electronic Games’, a gaming magazine from the 1980s, released some mediocre reviews about the game. Stating that the game was

(…a video sleeping pill.)

But that didn’t stop Warshaw. Atari had struck a deal with Steven Spielberg and Universal Pictures to create the official ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark video game.

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He finished the game in less than 6 months, got overwhelming approval from Speilburg, and released the game.

At the time, it was revolutionary for 2600 to integrating a 2-controller scheme, which many Atari 2600 games, at the time, didn’t have. ‘The Space Gamer’, a science fiction magazine, at the time, reviewed the game and said:

(Though the graphics are not great (but they are fairly good) and the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme song has a note or two off-key, this is still the adventure cartridge of the year [1982]…)

But Warshaw didn’t stop there. Even though he had the ‘best-selling game’ title, and worked with the likes of one of the most influential directors of all time, Steven Spielberg. Warshaw created one more game. That some would call ‘putrid’, ‘horrible’, or ‘the worst game of all time’.

Part5. THE FALL OF ATARI.

Before long, ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ came out in June of 1982 and became a huge commercial success. Atari wanted a game that was a derivative of the movie. So, Steve Ross, The CEO of Warner Communications, Atari’s parent company, started negotiations with Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg, the director of the film, to acquire a license to create a video game based on the movie.

In late June, Atari announced that it obtain a worldwide license for a coin-op machine and a console game, both based on the movie. It was later reported that they spent $20-25 million dollars for the license, which was high for licensing a game at the time. Atari’s then-CEO, Ray Kassar, was a critic of the deal, stating that:

(I think it’s a dumb idea. We’ve never really made an action game out of a movie.)

Atari would later step back from the coin-op because it didn’t match deadlines that the license had for the game.

On July 27th, 1982, Ray Kassar called up Warshaw and commissioned him to create the E.T. video game, because Speilburg had told Kassar that he wanted Warshaw specifically to create the game. And that the game needed to be completed by September 1st to meet production deadlines, giving Warshaw under 6 weeks to finish designing E.T.

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Warshaw accepted the position to design the game. And was up for the challenge to create E.T. In under 6 weeks.

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So, Warshaw worked day and night on E.T. Saying that he would, sometimes, lived in his office, and even had Atari put a set up at his

house.

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The game came out during the holiday season of 1982 and was a highly anticipated game. At first, retailers ordered more of the cartridges than what were expected to be sold, but when new competition arose, some of the retailers canceled their orders as the competition came into play.

E.T. would later be met with success, with 1.5 million cartridges being sold. But, would later be met with failure, 2-3 million cartridges would be unsold, with one retailer saying that ‘mostly grandmothers’ bought the game, as children preferred the best-seller ‘Pitfall!’ from Activision.

The game was negatively received by critics. With complaints more primary focused on the plot, gameplay, and visuals. New York Magazine calling the game:

(…really for kids [the littler ones]).

Author Steven Kent described the game as ‘infamous’ in the industry. Citing its:

(‘Primitive graphics, ‘dull’ gameplay, and a ‘disappointing story’.)

Softline magazine readers even went as far as to call it ‘The second-worst Atari game.’

Part6. THE VIDEO GAME CRASH OF 1983.

By the end of 1982, Atari was losing dominance over the video game industry, as more competitors began entering the industry.

On December 27th, 1982, Ray Kassar announced that Atari’s revenue forecasts were down to 15% in the 1982 fiscal year, compared to 50% in 1981. Following the announcement, Warner Communications’ stock value fell a staggering 35%, resulting in the company losing around 1.3 billion dollars.

Kassar, a half-hour before the announcements, sold five thousand of his Warner Communications stocks. This would lead Kassar into an investigation for insider trading, the buying or selling of a security, by someone who has access to materials, or non-public information, by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kassar then later settled, without acknowledging guilt or innocence. Kassar was then later forced to leave Atari.

Atari then attempted to license popular arcade games for the consoles to reclaim their market value. The games, however, did not reverse Atari’s decline in value, and Atari went further into debt. By 1983, Atari laid off its workforce by 30% and had lost about 356 million dollars.

James J. Morgan, a businessman, and later CEO of Philip Morris USA was appointed as Kassar’s replacement on Labor Day of 1983. Morgan had less than a year to fix the company’s problems before he was gone too. But it was too late.

In July 1984, Warner Communications sold the home computer and game console divisions of Atari to, the recently departed founder of Commodore, a computer company, Jack Tramiel for $240 million in stocks, under the name ‘Atari Corporation.’

Warner held onto the arcade division of Atari, calling it ‘Atari Games’, and eventually sold the division to Namco Limited (now called Bandai-Namco Entertainment.)

Part7. THE ALAMOGORDO BURIAL AND EXCAVATION.

During the dissolution of Atari, in 1983, it was reported that Atari was permitted to bury some products in the middle of the desert. Atari sent about 10 to 20 dump trucks from a storehouse in El Paso, Texas, to a landfill in Alamogordo, a city in Southern New Mexico. There, the cartridges and other materials were crushed and buried.

On September 29, 1984, a layer of concrete was poured on top of the burial site, which is a very rare occurrence for a burial. A workman’s reasoning for this was that:

(There are dead animals down there, and we don’t want kids to get hurt digging in the dump.)

The city eventually began a protest against a large part of what Atari was doing, with one city commissioner stating that:

(…The area did not want to become ‘an industrial waste dump for El Paso’.)

Atari would frequently decline that they had buried most of their products in Alamogordo, which led to this event being passed off as an urban legend for some 30 years, until 2013.

In May 28, 2013, the City Commission of Alamogordo granted Fuel Industries, a Canadian entertainment company based in Ottawa-Ontario, 6 months to the landfill to film a documentary entitled: ‘Atari: Game Over.

But, the excavation was stalled due to a complaint by the New Mexico Environmental Protection Division’s Solid Waste Bureau. The complaint was later resolved, and excavation continued in April of 2014.

Excavation started on April 26 and was open for the public to watch. Among the people present at the excavation were: Howard Scott Warshaw, the developer of ‘E.T.’, Ernest Cline, the author of ‘Ready Player One, and Zak Penn, the film’s director.

A couple of hours later into the excavation, excavation officials started to tell of a cartridge in somewhat perfect condition. Zak Penn, and a few archeologists, confirmed that it was an ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial game cartridge, with instructions for 2600.

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So, an urban legend, that once haunted gamers for decades, was finally laid to rest in 2014. Atari had buried game cartridges in the middle of Alamogordo, and spoke no word of the burial, until 2013, when the city of Alamogordo allowed for an excavation of the landfill.

Part8. FINALE.

Atari singlehandedly made a multi-billion dollar industry, to crashing the same industry, to being buried underground to be forgotten by time, until 2014.

Atari spearheaded the ‘Golden Age of Video Games in the mid-70s to early-80s. With video game classics such as: ‘Pong’, ‘Breakout’, and ‘Asteroids’. And creating one of the best-selling consoles of all time, the Atari 2600.

But, Atari, unknowingly, then flopped, crashing its company, along with the billion-dollar industry it helped create. Creating the games that would soon be regarded as the ‘Demise of Atari’, such as the infamous port of ‘Pac-Man’, and the ‘worst video game of all time, ‘E.T. The Extra Terrestrial’.

Atari would soon try and save themselves from the collapse of the video game industry, but ultimately failed. Soon after, to make use of their products, Atari buried their stock, including cartridges, consoles, and many more items, in the middle of a quiet town known as Alamogordo. And tried to be forgotten to time, passing on this rumor as a legend

Decades later, a film company asked the city to excavate the landfill, to disprove that the burial was indeed fact, not fiction. A year later, succeeded in disproving the legend, by excavating over 1,000 cartridges in the landfill.

But Atari is not known for crashing an industry. It is mostly known for creating the beginning of a later trillion-dollar industry. Creating Activision, known for its 2600 game ‘Pitfall!’, now known more commonly for its 2016 smash hit ‘Overwatch’ and its ‘World of Warcraft series.

Atari is also known for putting personal computers into the public’s homes.

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In short, Atari put home computers, or their game consoles, in people’s homes. Competing with the likes of IBM and Apple, which designed computers made specifically for home computers.

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Atari is a huge stepping stone for video games. Creating one of the most popular games and consoles, crashing its own company with bad investments, in a decade. Atari is known for a critical role in video game history, as starting the video game industry from the ground up. Major game companies, with the likes of Activision-Blizzard, Nintendo, and Microsoft, have Atari to thank for creating the video game industry.

Atari created the video game industry, created a billion-dollar company, crashed the same company and industry with bad investments, and buried themselves in a hole in Alamogordo.

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Even though they did all that, Atari is pretty historically significant in ways that people would not even imagine. They put more computers in people’s houses, creating classic games such as: ‘Pong’ and ‘Breakout’, and making the impossible, possible. So, should you think about ‘Atari’, take a moment to think about how video games would be different without Atari, and how Atari created this new industry that was once deemed impossible to do.