Atari Files for Chapter 11

[137th Gebirg]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/01/21/atari-us-files-for-bankruptcy-sells-assets-logo/

A sad day.

I was (and still am) the proud owner of several old Atari 8-bit and 16-bit computers (which still work). Working on those machines was one of the high-points of my youth and contributed greatly to what would become my career.

I hope they find someone to buy the brand and keep it alive. I would hate to see this 40 year-old legend die for good.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Atari hasn't been the Atari of the 2600 days for a very long time. And it's not that sad, since the brand and titles will apparently live on (assuming someone buys them.) It's not the end of the world.

 

[Santaman]

I've got two mid/late 80's 2600's one Atari 800XL, a 65XE, both with tape and floppy drive, one immaculate 520ST and a rather beat up but still going strong 1040ST, I love those machines, but yeah.. Atari hasn't been Atari in ages which is a shame.

Atari, Commodore, MSX all great systems and all have been put out of business by the PC...

 

[Lindley]

I didn't know they were even still around...

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I didn't know they were even still around...

They're the Abe Vigoda of electronics...."they're still around???"

Still sad to see them go, after they hung around this long in a very crowded field.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, the old Atari died long ago. When it originally died off, Infogrames bought the brand and rebranded themselves as Atari, so what's really dying now is Infogrames. And for awhile, they were using the Atari brand as publisher while retaining Infogrames as their official business name.

 

[Maurice]

Actually, Atari Inc. died in 1984 and was sold off in chunks, with the "consumer" group being sold to Jack Tramiel as Atari Corp., the coin-op business going a different way (Time Warner Interactive, etc.), and other divisions shut down and assets sold off. As such, this is yet another failed Atari rather than anything new.

 

[STR]

I didn't know they were even still around...

They weren't. Atari is like starship Enterprise, it keeps getting blown up, and then they slap the name on a new one, which then gets blown up. This is roughly the fifth company to call itself Atari that has filed for bankruptcy. The name will get sold to someone else, because it's recognizable and most people have fond memories of the brand. We can only hope the next Atari is more in-tune with the ethos of the original. And that it makes good stuff.