 | |
| Former type | Public company |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 4, 1995 |
| Headquarters | Mexico City, Mexico |
| Area served | Mesoamerica |
| Key people | Keith Smith (Creative director) |
| Industry | Video games |
| Divisions | Atari Arcades Atari Pinball Smith's Place |
Atari Games S.A. de C.V. is a Mexican game publisher and developer, arcade chain manager, and restaurant owner located in Mexico City. Founded by American brothers Jon and Keith Smith, Atari Games was named after the famous American games company, with "Games" added to distinguish it from the original, as many of their games were available in Mexican arcades. Atari has expanded into a chain of arcades and family aimed restaurants and has an exclusive license to develop games based on Marvelo Comics characters.
Atari Games is not to be confused with Atari Ltd., based in the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand. Though sharing a namesake, the two Ataris sprung up independently of each other and are completely separate, though they have licensed each other's products for release in their respective markets.
History[]
- The history of the original Atari can be found HERE
Atari Games had its start in the Atari Arcade in Pequeña América in Mexico City. Atari Arcade featured several arcade games made by Atari and others. Atari Arcade employed a team of engineers to repair the games and ensure they ran smoothly. One day, the engineers began reverse engineering the games, and began to pitch to their bosses the idea of founding their own game studio to develop and publish the games. Seeing the potential, they founded Atari Games on May 4, with the arcade remaining as a subsidiary.
Their first release was the racing game Dragster Grand Prix. Inspired by Drag Race and Taito's Super Race series, the game was a pseudo 3D racing game where the goal was to win first place, across 8 tracks for a general playtime of about half an hour. The game received decent reviews and proved to be a modest hit for the startup company, with it being found in several arcades in the State of Mexico. This success was attributed to the novelty of the concept in Mexico, many had never even seen a real race, and sought to emulate it through the game.
This was followed by an advertising campaign, airing on television. This featured footage of the game being played, alongside narration from an actor. For the Spanish language versions of the ads, Mexican voice actor Victor Hugo Aguilar would be recruited to provide voice work for the commercial. Noted for his similar voice to veteran voice actor Blas Garcia, Victor's deep tones deliver a variety of slogans for the company, most famously "Use el Mejor, Use el Original Estadounidense."
In the year 1999, the company would release Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, featuring a variety of luchadores from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). The game would become a major influence of the fighting game genre, and the development team, led by Angel Torres, would soon split off into their own development studio, Evolution Games. Jon Smith would join them, citing burnout from Atari's expanding pace
Subsidiaries and dev teams[]
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Atari Pinball | A pinball manufacturer |
| Atari Arcades | A collection of amusement arcades |
| Smith's Place | A chain of family centers |
| Atari Sports | Label for sports games |
| Team 1 | Fighting games and beat 'em ups |
| Team 2 | Puzzle games |
| Team 3 | Racing games |
| Team 4 | Shoot 'em ups and run and guns |
In addition, Evolution Games' titles were published by Atari Games until 2003.
Games[]
| Title | Developer | Year | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragster Grand Prix | Atari Games | 1995 | Racing | Inspired by Drag Race and Super Race |
| Pyramid Power | Platformer | Inspired by Activision's Pitfall | ||
| Fighters | Shoot 'em up | |||
| Blockforce | Puzzle | Inspired by Breakout | ||
| Get Smart: Agent 86 |
1996 | Beat 'Em up | Based on the American series Get Smart | |
| Herbie's Race | Racing | Based on the Herbie film series | ||
| Jaws | Shooter | Based on the 1975 movie | ||
| Dogfight | Shoot 'em up | |||
| Football Champions | Atari Sports | 1997 | Sports | Based on Association football (soccer) |
| The Man from UNCLE: The WASP Affair |
Team 1 | Beat 'em up | Based on the American television series The Man from UNCLE | |
| Sliding Doors | Team 2 | Puzzle | ||
| Mexico City Race | Team 3 | Racing | ||
| The Punisher | Team 4 | 1998 | Run and gun | Based on the comic book character |
| Kalimán | Team 1 | Beat em up | Based on the comic books | |
| The Cannonball Run | Team 3 | Racing | Based on the outlaw race | |
| StarFall | Team 2 | Puzzle | ||
| Rocky Balboa | Atari Sports | Boxing | Based on the film trilogy | |
| Homenaje a Dos Leyendas | Team 1 Atari Sports |
1999 | Fighting | Based on a Pro Wrestling tournament Development team formed Evolution Games |