The return of Pong

Asteroids. Pong. Frogger.

Remember the days when all you needed was a joystick, a TV set (which didn’t even have to be color) and Pac-man to be entertained for hours?

But the simplicity of Atari was soon replaced with high-tech graphics and two Italian plumbers — and that was just the beginning.

Recently, however, Atari has regained some of its popularity.

“There has always been a community of people keeping the classic video games alive,” said Carl Goodman, curator of the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y. “Corporate America sees the profit potential now. The interest was always there, but not the market.”

Despite the new technologies that allow companies to make games that feature more realistic graphics, it is surprising Atari has become so popular again. But they have had to adjust to the new technology age as well.

According to Jayson Hill, public relations manager for Infogrames Interactive Inc., which owns Atari licenses, the games are being re-released and newer, updated versions of the games, including Pong, Breakout and Missile Command, are also being made.

“We have a new compilation of arcade classics,” Hill said. “Twelve of those games are all on one disk.”

These games are being made for Sony’s PlayStation, Sega’s Dreamcast and PCs.

Atari began in 1972 when two engineers founded Atari Inc. In 1976 competition forced the founders to sell Atari to Warner Brothers. For a while, the company was successful, building models such as the popular Atari

2600 Video Computer System (VCS).

But suddenly the gaming industry declined, and in 1984, Warner Brothers sold Atari Inc. but maintained the right to use the Atari name, forming what they called Atari Games Corporation. In 1996, Midway Games, Inc. acquired the rights to Atari Games Corp., and currently Atari is a subsidiary of Midway Games.

Midway has helped build the Atari games back to what they once were.

“We used to be stuck into doing different parts of the games, but now we farm out the development,” said Jay Boor, manager for Midway.

Boor said an example of this is their Legion game, which is being worked on by seven different

studios.

“It has a huge budget,

is going to be very nice looking and Midway doesn’t have to do it,” he said. “We are investing more money and it shows.”

Still, a question that must be asked is why would someone choose an Atari game over EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2001, for example. The answer is that many that grew up with the Atari games in arcades or even in their homes have not forgotten the fun they had playing them.

“People have a nostalgia for the games and remember the old arcades,” Hill said.

In addition, the games are different from what most are currently used to.

“Midway’s games are more popular because of their extreme style,” Boor said. “We make a 3-on-3 basketball game where there are no rules. People don’t have to read the instructions.”

A newer version of Frogger was released in 1998 and six million copies of the game have been sold, according to Infogrames. Last fall, Frogger 2 was released and close to a million copies of that version have already sold.

Midway plans to spread the word about their Atari games through a number of ways, including advertising, write-ups in consumer magazines, and according to Hill, by attending the Classic Gaming Expo every August.

In the future, the company will continue to re-make its classic games as well as develop new games that are “Atari-friendly.”

“We like the five minute rule,” Hill said. “Five minutes to learn the game and then forever to play it.”

As long as the five-minute rule still holds true, people won’t lose interest in Atari games.