Atari Wants To Reinvent Pong

mikejuk writes "Atari is offering up to $100,000 in a contest for a new version of Pong, the classic game that launched video games 40 years ago, for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. The judges for the contest include Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who came up with the original idea for Pong. So, what does a 21st century Pong look like? How does it play? And what role does touch have in this, the simplest of games?"

Comments

Re:What's in a name?

[Dogtanian]

Apparently everything, as it turns out. Atari is nothing but a name, bought and sold like something found at Best Buy, and now brandished by a company with no resemblance or heritage to the company that defined the name.

Yep- the current "Atari" is really just the company formerly known as Infogrames, who bought the name from Hasbro Interactive around a decade back.

The original- and most famous- Atari Inc. was split in 1984. The computer and home division became Jack Tramiel's Atari Corp. (legally separate, but an obvious successor in interest) which fizzled out in the mid-90s and merged with a second-rate hard drive manufacturer that went bankrupt soon after. The arcade division (Atari Games) was sold to Midway who dropped the "Atari" name in the late 90s, and closed it altogether a few years later.

IMHO that's where anything resembling a true continuation of the original Atari ended.. Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames were/are connected in name and rights only, but obviously it serves Infogrames', er... *Atari's* retro-credibility better if they get to present themselves as the "classic" Atari and present Bushnell as- or at least imply that he was- their founder.