Atarisoft was a brand name used by Atari, Inc. in 1983 and 1984 to publish video games for non-Atari home computers and consoles. Each platform had a specific color for its game packages: video games sold for the Commodore 64 were in green boxes, games for the TI-99/4A in yellow, the IBM PC in blue, and so on.
Atarisoft was so successful during the Christmas 1983 shopping season that the company released games for the discontinued TI-99/4A. By 1984 a rumor stated that Atari planned to discontinue hardware and only sell software.[1] Despite being in existence for less than two years, Atarisoft had a huge video game library with dozens of game versions released. Almost all Atarisoft releases were produced by third-party developers, as Atari only developed for their own systems.
The Atarisoft label did not bear Atari's recognizable "Fuji" logo nor the official logos of the games, rather, the game names were written in a different typeface.
The Atarisoft brand as used by Atari, Inc. was discontinued shortly after Warner Communications sold Atari's consumer division to Jack Tramiel in 1984. Many additional games were in production at the time. Most went unreleased although a few were eventually released by other companies. Some games were complete, such as IBM PC port of Joust, but never published.
The new Atari Corporation initially used the Atarisoft brand. Several Atari 8-bit computer titles (both game and non-game) were published by Atari UK and Atari France using the Atarisoft label in 1985. Atari did not use the Atarisoft label again after 1985.
Cross-platform games
Released
These were published during 1983–84. Most were released by Atari, Inc., but some of these were released by Atari Corporation later in 1984.
- Battlezone (Apple II, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC)
- Centipede (Apple II, ColecoVision, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC, Intellivision, TI-99/4A)
- Crystal Castles (Apple II, C64)
- Defender (Apple II, ColecoVision, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC, TI-99/4A, Intellivision)
- Dig Dug (Apple II, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC, TI-99/4A)
- Donkey Kong (Apple II, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC, TI-99/4A)
- Galaxian (Apple II, ColecoVision, C64, VIC-20, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum)
- Gremlins (Apple II, C64, IBM PC)
Releases by Atari UK
All released in 1985:
- Chess (Atari 8-bit)
- Eastern Front (1941) (Atari 8-bit)
- European Countries and Capitals (Atari 8-bit)
- An Invitation to Programming (Atari 8-bit)
- The Lone Raider (Atari 8-bit)
- Software Pack (The Home Filing Manager and The Pay-Off / Paint) (Atari 8-bit)
Releases by Atari France
All released in 1985:
- Cameléon (Atari 8-bit)
- Énigme du triangle (Atari 8-bit)
- Nostradamus (Atari 8-bit)
- Promoteur (Atari 8-bit)
References
- Anderson, John J. Atari Creative Computing, March 1984, retrieved February 6, 2015^
- Mace, Scott. Atarisoft vs. Commodore InfoWorld, 1984-04-09, retrieved 4 February 2015^
- Interview with Gregg Tavares