Developer & publisher · USA
Atari
Nolan Bushnell's company created the arcade and home-console markets before the 1983 crash.
Corporate lineage
Studios founded by former staff
Mechanics first shipped by Atari
Ideas this studio is credited with introducing to the medium, each with a full downstream history.
Progression & Persistence · 1972
Numeric Score
A numeric score is a running total the game keeps on the player's behalf, the earliest form of memory in the medium an…
Origin: Pong
Multiplayer & Social · 1972
Same-Screen Two-Player
Same-screen two-player puts two people at one display with their own controls, so both see identical information and e…
Origin: Pong
Space & Locomotion · 1972
Single-Screen Arena
A single-screen arena keeps the entire playable world inside one unscrolling frame, so every object on display is in p…
Origin: Pong
Progression & Persistence · 1979
Persistent High-Score Table
A persistent high-score table stores the best results and the initials of whoever set them, creating the first player …
Origin: Asteroids
Space & Locomotion · 1979
Wraparound Topology
Wraparound topology joins opposite edges of the playfield so that leaving one side returns you at the other, turning a…
Origin: Asteroids
Space & Locomotion · 1980
First-Person Vector Space
First-person vector space places the camera at eye level inside the world and draws that world as wireframe lines, giv…
Origin: Battlezone
Space & Locomotion · 1980
Flip-Screen Room Graph
Flip-screen room graphs build a world from discrete single-screen rooms joined by exits, so moving between spaces is a…
Origin: Adventure
Games developed (10)
1972
Pong 1972 3 firsts
1976
1977
1979
Asteroids 1979 2 firsts
1980
Adventure 1980 1 first
1980
Battlezone 1980 1 first
1981
1981