Atari Corporation
Background
Atari Corporation was formed in 1984 by Jack Tramiel as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but quickly took on the Atari name less than two months later after Warner Communications sold the home computing and game console assets of Atari, Inc. to Tramiel. In 1989, the company licensed from Epyx to release the Atari Lynx home console, and then a licensing agreement with Tengen, the home unit of the unrelated coin-op company with the same name, Atari Games to license out titles for the Lynx platform and the 7800 and the 2600. In 1993, it introduced the Jaguar platform, before it was reverse merged with JTS Inc. in 1996, and then with Hasbro Interactive in 1998.
1st Logo (May 1986-January 1, 1992)
Visuals: On a black background, there is the Atari logo like the previous one, but with "ATARI" changing colors and with lines in it. There is no copyright stamp.
Variant: On cartridges of most games, "(C) 1987 Atari Corp." is seen. In the actual games however, "© 1984 ATARI" is seen on the title screen.
Technique: A still, sprite-generated graphic.
Audio: None.
Availability: Seen on all Atari 7800 games.
2nd Logo (1988-1998)
Visuals: There is the Atari Fuji logo arranged in various ways.
Variants:
- On most Atari Jaguar games, the logo is seen in front of a marble rectangle and has "Licensed to" above.
- On Bubsy - Fractured Furry Tales for Jaguar, the blue name with a golden outline is set over the tripod.
- On Raiden for Jaguar, there is the 3D blue logo floating over a brown surface.
- On Missile Command 3D for Jaguar, there is the rainbow Atari tripod spinning with the Virtuality logo above.
- On the 7800 game of Impossible Mission, the logo is orange and it was on top of the title screen.
- On the 7800 game of Ikari Warriors, the logo is shown on the bottom right of the title screen.
- On the 2600 game of Dark Chambers, the logo is red.
- On the Atari Lynx game of Rampage, the tripod logo is shown on the wallpaper within the game's title screen.
- On the Atari Lynx game of RoadBlasters, the logo itself is within the game's credits.
- On the Atari Lynx game of S.T.U.N. Runner, the logo is shown within the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.
- On Pinball Jam for the Lynx, the tripod is inside the yellow circles on the splash screen. The tripod is also on the copyright and credits screen.
- On some Lynx games, like Super Asteroids and Missile Command and Toki, the logo is within the copyright screen.
- On several Hand Made Software games like Jimmy Connors' Tennis and Malibu Beach Volleyball for the Lynx, the logo is shown within the Handmade Software logo.
Technique: CGI in some variants.
Audio: None, or the opening theme.
Availability: Mainly seen on games for Atari Jaguar, as well as some Lynx, 7800 and 2600 games. Also appeared on a few licensed games for other platforms.
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Atari Corporation |
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