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Allan Alcorn was desperate when he hired a young college dropout named Steve Jobs. Atari, the fledgling computer games company he worked for, was scrambling to staff up after the sudden success of its first game, Pong. Now, here was a young hippie in sandals, waiting in reception and asking for a job as a technician. “It was 1973 and there was this kid, maybe 18, who was just so passionate about technology – said his name was Steve Jobs,” Alcorn told The Post “So I hired him.” “He was kind of a pain to work with and he had...

It may be hard to believe, but it's been a nearly 4-year-long saga for the Atari VCS. Atari announced the console way back in 2017, but the company now claims that it w ill soon be available to purchase at the retail level. And if everything goes according to plan, the Atari VCS will launch on June 15th. However, pricing for the Atari VCS might leave many scratching their heads, especially considering that it is retro-centric and uses seriously underpowered hardware compared to modern gaming consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The base Onyx system is priced at $299, while an...

Ted Dabney, the co-founder of Atari alongside Nolan Bushnell, has died at the age of 81. News of Dabney’s death was announced in a Facebook post by the video game historian Leonard Herman, the author of the Phoenix series of video game history books. Dabney was an important figure in the history of both Atari and video games in general, and his engineering work in the early 1970s was crucial in creating Computer Space, the second (but more successful) coin-operated adaptation of Spacewar!, which paved the way for the founding and thriving of Atari.In a portion of an interview quoted...

Known as a pioneer in the formation of the video arcade and modern video game industries, Atari is stepping back into the hardware business with a new game console — its first in more than 20 years. The New York company, swimming with the tide on the popularity and nostalgia of retro games, recently began teasing the Ataribox with an advertisement showing a “brand new Atari product years in the making.”

A cache of Atari game cartridges dug up in a New Mexico landfill last year has generated more than $100,000 in sales over the last several months. The April 2014 dig ended speculation surrounding an urban legend and proved it to be true that Atari discarded hundreds of games, including E.T. The Extraterrestrial, more than 30 years ago. In addition to the E.T. cartridges, Joseph Lewandowski found more than 60 other titles including Asteroids, Missile Command, Warlords, Star Raiders, Swordquest, Centipede and Super Breakout.

... About 200 of residents and game enthusiasts gathered early Saturday in southeastern New Mexico to watch backhoes and bulldozers dig through the concrete-covered landfill in search of up to a million discarded copies of “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” that the game’s maker wanted to hide forever.... The “E.T.” game is among the factors blamed for the decline of Atari and the collapse in the U.S. of a multi-million dollar video game industry that didn’t bounce back for several years. Tina Amini, deputy editor at gaming website Kotaku, said the game tanked because “it was practically broken.” A recurring flaw, she...

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — A documentary film production company has found buried in a New Mexico landfill hundreds of the Atari "E.T." game cartridges that some call the worst video game ever made. Film director Zak Penn showed one "E.T." cartridge retrieved from the site and said that hundreds more were found in the mounds of trash and dirt scooped by a backhoe. ... A New York Times article from Sept. 28, 1983, says 14 truckloads of discarded game cartridges and computer equipment were dumped on the site. An Atari spokesman quoted in the story said the games came from...

April 29, 2010 Note: The following text is a quote: http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/wfo042910.htm Ashburn, Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to $53 Million Bank Fraud ALEXANDRIA, VA—Osama El-Atari, 31, of Ashburn, Va., pleaded guilty today to operating a fraud scheme that stole more than $53 million from banks throughout the United States. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio; Shawn Henry, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; C. Frank Figliuzzi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office; and C. André...

This is for the Freepers that grew up in the early 80's...

Subtlety was never one of Osama El-Atari's strong suits. The son of Jordanian immigrants was a self-described "car nut" who racked up a fierce number of speeding tickets across Northern Virginia. He told a reporter that he owned two Lamborghinis, two Ferraris and a Rolls-Royce Phantom, among other vehicles, and that his insurance bill was $18,000 a month. One car dealer said El-Atari would occasionally bring a chauffeur to dealerships. The Loudoun County restaurateur tried to show off his wealth whenever he could, by donating thousands to local political candidates or purchasing expensive sports memorabilia at charity galas. He told...

The video game industry is on alert. A challenger is gobbling up players -- and her name is "Ms. Pac-Man." Yes, the classic games of the 1980s are making a comeback, from the beribboned pink Ms. to those "Super Mario Bros." and the one-and-only "Donkey Kong." Vintage and reissued video games are the hottest trend in the usually forward-thinking $7 billion-per-year gaming industry. Gamers are expected to spend an estimated $250 million to $300 million on retro games this year. "They're huge," says Lee Eisenberg, owner of game hub Fun City in Parma, Ohio, and a retro gamer himself. "Our...

Atari rises again Infogrames changes its name By Staff at the Newsdesk: Wednesday 07 May 2003, 12:42 THE NAME ATARI has a chequered history to say the least. The original firm was created by Nolan Bushnell and is normally credited as bringing video gaming to the masses in the form of Pong. The company suffered many ups and downs, with the brand name eventually being bought by Infogrames. Now Infogrames has decided to change its name to Atari. It's an interesting move, possibly one worthy of the cry of "atari!" in go that the firm was originally named after. Infogrames...