Atari Arcade Division Closes

Bill Kendrick writes "Today Midway dropped the axe on 'Midway Games West' (Formerly Atari Games Corporation). The remaining 30 people working there have been laid off. The other half of Atari, who went on to make the Atari ST line of computers and Jaguar and Lynx game systems, is still alive and kicking, as part of Infogrames. Still, it's a sad day for gamers."

Comments

Very sad, but Atari arcade never evolved

[totallygeek]

I love old video games. Maybe it is just because the new games are too difficult, require too much memory of secret moves or play areas, or are too jazzed about graphics than about game play. I think many at Atari felt the same way I do. The simplicity of game play for Atari arcade games was attractive for me. The fact that I had the Atari 2600 and most of the games in the game room were Atari made my arcade experience get named "playing Atari". However, most kids today wouldn't want to play Joust or Defender. If they did, Joust would be a first-person adventure in 3D where you would run around looking for a good bird to climb onto, while running from bad birds and flying dinosaurs. Defender would need to be a console game with 42 CDs where you are role-playing in your fight against mutant alien invasions. Atari's death is sad, but they never attempted to sell arcade games that satisfied the audience of today.

They ran out of inspiration long ago

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

All they have put out since their Atari classics are nothing more than lame rehashes of their old games -- which are available for FREE with MAME -- sold for the latest consoles and PCs for $50.

They have produced nothing of value since, and though it would have been shameful had they been aborted before they put out their classics, they were headed to the dustbin of history due to their lack of inspiration.

Hopefully, Midway will hire 30 young, ambitious, and talented programmers in their place.

Atari lives on forever, regardless

[MFInc2001]

The "legendary" (Nolan Bushnell) Atari has been gone for a long time already. However, the Atari we all grew up with and loved, and still love, shall go on forever in the form of MAME and Atari 2600 emulators.

--MFInc

LadyboyLovers.com

Are most arcade games violent?

[Anonym0us Cow Herd]

20+ years ago, I used to love arcade games. That's why I love MAME. Lots of my old favorite games.

I've been to a couple arcades a few times in the last 10 years. A rare event for me. But I notice something. All of the games seem to be violent. Games involving fighting, shooting, etc.

My question is this: Are all arcade games violent nowdays? Or is it just that the two arcades I've seen are not representative of the arcade games available?

I'm not offended by the fact that violent games exist, nor that people play them. I've played a few myself. I just don't care for them. I liked the games of logic or skill like the old games. Shooting cartoon/imaginary spaceships, enemies, or some kind of graphic token isn't the same thing as shooting people. (And it's not that I wouldn't actually shoot people either, given the need.)

Did not go quietly?

[StuffYourReligion]

OK, so this is a rumor... not because I don't trust the source, but because I don't remember the exact story (yeah, so don't you trust me either). There are facts here, but I am not clear on them all.

My good friend's housemate worked at Midway, and I first heard the news last Tuesday. I believe it was actually the day before, on Feb. 3, that the cops arrived... before the announcement was even made. Apparently it wasn't your usual, quiet, lay-off. So the police were there and then everyone was told to leave immediately. "Don't grab your stuff, don't clean out your desks, just leave." Apparently they expected trouble for some reason, and I heard some things were indeed smashed by people on their way out.

They were going to let people back to gather their belongings later in the week... one at a time, escorted and supervised. If there were really just 30 employees there (says so in the article)... why would they have expected trouble? Why would they have thrown people out so rudely? This I don't know. I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time, but it seemed a bit strange to me, and the story made an impression on me most of all because it was Midway.

Makes me wonder what their corporate culture was like, and if most of the employees were wizened, old, maladjusted sociopaths who had lived so completely inside video games for the past years they might not react well to having themselves unplugged rather than just reset. My friend's housemate doesn't fit that description. Well, he's young anyway. *shrug*

No telling how many thousands of quarters went from my pockets into Midway machines back in the '80's ... but one of the most surprising things for me, hearing this story, was that Midway still even existed. I didn't know. I guess I haven't been in an arcade in a while.

The "other half" is gone too

[erturs]

I used to work at the "other half" of Atari (just plain Atari Corporation) and it was shut down nearly 7 years ago. A lot of the assets (including the Atari logo and rights to a bunch of games) were sold, and eventually made their way to Infogrames, but all of the employees were laid off and have long since been dispersed. A pity, really -- there were some good people and good technology at Atari.