Atari was founded in 1972 as a company focused on producing computers and video games. It created some of the earliest home video game consoles, including the very successful Atari 2600 released in 1977. However, the company struggled in the early 1980s and was sold to Warner Communications in 1976. While it had some successes with computers and later consoles, Atari went through ownership changes and financial difficulties in the following decades.

1. Atari
Atari (from a Japanese verb meaning "to hit the
target") is a corporate and brand name owned by
several entities since its inception in 1972.

2. Businessmen such as Tony Freeman will instantly recognise the name
Atari. The brand was founded on 27th June 1972 as Atari Inc; later
rebranded in 1984 as Atari Games and Atari Corporation and in 1998
Atari Interactive (a division of Hasbro Interactive). Atari is synonymous
with the production of computers, consumer electronics and, of course,
video games.
In 1971, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell founded Syzygy Engineering,
the company which came up with the world's first video arcade game,
Computer Space. On 27th June 1973, Syzygy hired Al Alcorn as their
design engineer.
As a test of his abilities, Bushnell asked Alcorn to produce an arcade
version of the tennis game, Magnavox Odyssey, later to become a
forerunning computer game of the time, as Pong.

3. The Syzygy company never gained fully incorporated status, eventually
hunkering down with Bushnell's concept Atari. The Atari company was
incorporated in the US state of California on 27th June 1972.
In 1976, Nolan Bushnell collaborated with Cyan Engineering to come up
with a video game console capable of supporting all four of Atari's then
current games. They came up with the Atari Video Computer System,
later rebranded as the Atari 2600.
Bushnell knew a hit when he saw one, but
bringing the machine to market proved
rather expensive. Realising the proposal
would never come to fruition without
outside investment, Nolan relinquished
Atari to Warner Communications in 1976,
for an estimated $28 to $32 million.
He used part of the monies raised to buy the Folgers Mansion. Bushnell
fell into dispute with Warner Management over the future of the
company. He pushed for the discontinuation of the Pinball brand, and
pivotally that the Atari 2600 should be dropped. December 1978 saw a
heated debate between Manny Gerard and Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell
was fired. Arguing latterly, Bushnell insisted that he quit. Whatever the
fine details, production of the Atari 2600 suddenly ceased.
The Atari 5200 was released in 1982, based on the 400 and 800 models,
though without a keyboard. It was a flop, owing to its miniscule games
library, notoriously unreliable controllers and backwards compatibility.

4. In April 1985, Atari launched the XE series of 8-bit computer. They
followed up in June of the same year with the Atari 130XE and the 32-
bit Atari ST computer in September 1985. In 1986, Atari launched two
consoles with Warner: the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800. The
company bounced back, earning a $25 million profit for the year.
Steve Jobs worked at Atari. Click here to read about Steve Jobs Legacy.