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.