1972- Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney start their own game company, Atari. Atari makes Pong
1973- Pong is an unprecedented success. Eight to ten thousand units are made, more than three times the number of a typical pinball machine at the time. Atari makes 3 million dollars.
1974- Atari creates video games in rapid succession; a new game is made every six weeks just to cover expenses. Home Pong is made
1975- Home Pong is a major success, selling 150,000 units.
1976- Squeezed in arcades by larger pinball companies, Atari begins development of pinball machines. Nolan Bushnell hires Steve Jobs to create Breakout.
1977- Atari Inc. releases the Atari VCS, with a retail price of $200.
1978- Bushnell gets fired, and Kassar takes over as the CEO of Atari.
1979- Atari realises that consoles don’t have to be sold at Christmas-time. Atari quits the pinball business.
1980- Atari releases Space Invaders for the Atari VCS. Atari also includes the first ever easter-egg in a game called Adventure.
1981- Atari releases Asteroids for the VCS.
1982- Atari licenses Pac-Man from Namco. Atari releases E.T., and it is a colossal failure. Game sales plummet.
1983- Atari loses $283 million. Daily losses are reported to be at $2 million dollars.
1985- For the first time ever, Atari Corp. skips the summer Consumer Electronics Show. Financial difficulties forces Atari Corp. to lay off more employees.
1989- Atari misses the Christmas shopping season. Nintendo's Gameboy dominates the portable video-game market.
1990- Atari releases the Lynx nationwide, with five games. It is soon caught in a war between the Nintendo Gameboy and the NEC TurboExpress.
1992- sues Nintendo
1993- Atari releases the Jaguar in limited distribution for $250. All available units are quickly bought. Atari also sues Sega for infringement lawsuit.
1994- Atari and Sega settle their infringement lawsuit.
1995- Atari releases the Jaguar CD-ROM player for $150.
1997- Atari sells its assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million in cash.
1998- Hasbro announces that they have released all rights to the Jaguar to the public.
1999- Hasbro sells all of their Atari assets to the European video-game developer Infogrames Entertainment for $95 million in stock and $5 million in cash. Infogrames begins using the Atari
name on their video game titles for the Sony Playstation, Nintendo Gamecube, and Microsoft Xbox consoles.
1973- Pong is an unprecedented success. Eight to ten thousand units are made, more than three times the number of a typical pinball machine at the time. Atari makes 3 million dollars.
1974- Atari creates video games in rapid succession; a new game is made every six weeks just to cover expenses. Home Pong is made
1975- Home Pong is a major success, selling 150,000 units.
1976- Squeezed in arcades by larger pinball companies, Atari begins development of pinball machines. Nolan Bushnell hires Steve Jobs to create Breakout.
1977- Atari Inc. releases the Atari VCS, with a retail price of $200.
1978- Bushnell gets fired, and Kassar takes over as the CEO of Atari.
1979- Atari realises that consoles don’t have to be sold at Christmas-time. Atari quits the pinball business.
1980- Atari releases Space Invaders for the Atari VCS. Atari also includes the first ever easter-egg in a game called Adventure.
1981- Atari releases Asteroids for the VCS.
1982- Atari licenses Pac-Man from Namco. Atari releases E.T., and it is a colossal failure. Game sales plummet.
1983- Atari loses $283 million. Daily losses are reported to be at $2 million dollars.
1985- For the first time ever, Atari Corp. skips the summer Consumer Electronics Show. Financial difficulties forces Atari Corp. to lay off more employees.
1989- Atari misses the Christmas shopping season. Nintendo's Gameboy dominates the portable video-game market.
1990- Atari releases the Lynx nationwide, with five games. It is soon caught in a war between the Nintendo Gameboy and the NEC TurboExpress.
1992- sues Nintendo
1993- Atari releases the Jaguar in limited distribution for $250. All available units are quickly bought. Atari also sues Sega for infringement lawsuit.
1994- Atari and Sega settle their infringement lawsuit.
1995- Atari releases the Jaguar CD-ROM player for $150.
1997- Atari sells its assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million in cash.
1998- Hasbro announces that they have released all rights to the Jaguar to the public.
1999- Hasbro sells all of their Atari assets to the European video-game developer Infogrames Entertainment for $95 million in stock and $5 million in cash. Infogrames begins using the Atari
name on their video game titles for the Sony Playstation, Nintendo Gamecube, and Microsoft Xbox consoles.