Oryginalne Atari założyli w 1972 roku Nolan Bushnell i Ted Dabney (który odszedł już w 1973 roku, czując się oszukanym), a w 1976 roku stało się ono własnością Warner Communications. W grudniu 1978 roku Bushnell został zwolniony. A Atari pod wodzą Warner Communications popełniało dziwaczne błędy, choć robiło też rzeczy ciekawe.
The first licensed game for the Atari VCS was Superman, programmed by John Dunn early in the history of the system, in 1978. Warner, the new owner of Atari, already owned the license rights to the Superman character. Although it’s not exactly clear that the game is based on the movie, Warner wanted to follow its Superman movie—rapidly—with a video game that was somehow tied to it. Superman was an innovative game, but not a big hit for Atari. This may have been part of the reason for the unusual dearth of licensed titles (other than coin-op conversions) until 1981. (…) There was also Atari’s acquisition by media giant Warner Communications, which in the short term, surprisingly, led only to the development of Superman. The later licensing of E.T. for use in a video game was an initiative from Warner, not from within Atari: Warner’s CEO Scott Ross secured the E.T. license after extensive negotiations, while Atari’s head, Ray Kassar, called the E.T. game “a dumb idea.”
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System, Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost
