{"id":846,"date":"2012-02-13T10:23:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T15:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=846"},"modified":"2014-12-09T13:43:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T18:43:55","slug":"atari-oddities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/846\/atari-oddities","title":{"rendered":"Atari Oddities (40th Anniversary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2012\/02\/12\/atari-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/technologizer\/atari_oddities_small.jpg\" alt=\"Atari Oddities Title Slide\" class=\"centered\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Forty years ago this June, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari, Inc. &#8212; what a name, what a company.  Even 40 years on, Atari looms like a giant shadow over all corners of video game history, and for good reason: its two founders <a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/12\/11\/computer-space-and-the-dawn-of-the-arcade-video-game\/\" target=\"_blank\">launched the industry<\/a> in 1971.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I&#8217;d celebrate this 40-year milestone a little early with some <a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2012\/02\/12\/atari-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Atari Oddities<\/a> over at Technologizer.  You&#8217;ll see obscure Atari products like a 1976 arcade digital camera, a light synthesizer, a dog-themed Pong cabinet, and more.  Anyone with even a casual interest in Atari should enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m jumping the gun on the anniversary, month-wise, because this will likely be the last piece I write for Technologizer.  Its founder, Harry McCracken, has <a href=\"\nhttp:\/\/technologizer.com\/2012\/02\/09\/its-time-for-a-new-adventure\/\" target=\"_blank\">joined TIME as an editor<\/a>, and Technologizer will cease to be an independent blog at the end of the month (the archives will live on, however).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Working with Harry on Technologizer over these past three years has been a pleasure (we also worked together when he was EIC of PC World).  With his support, you have seen many works of history journalism, both from him and myself, that would not have surfaced otherwise.  It takes a rare mind to recognize the importance and the appeal of tech history in today&#8217;s fast-paced world of online news, and I credit Harry with making much of what I do today possible.<\/p>\n<p>So thanks, Harry, and thanks to all the readers out there for supporting my work, even at a time when slideshows aren&#8217;t exactly the most honorable form of online journalism.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the end of my story, of course.  History marches on, and I plan to be there beside it as long as I can manage.<\/p>\n<h3>All Entries in Benj&#8217;s Oddities Series:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2012\/02\/12\/atari-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Atari Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/10\/23\/ipod-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\">iPod Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/08\/11\/ibm-pc-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\">IBM PC Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/07\/10\/donkey-kong\/\" target=\"_blank\">Donkey Kong Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/06\/22\/sonic-the-hedgehog-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sonic the Hedgehog Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2011\/02\/21\/legend-of-zelda\/\" target=\"_blank\">Legend of Zelda Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2010\/11\/17\/windows-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\">Windows Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2010\/10\/18\/nes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nintendo Entertainment System Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2010\/09\/12\/super-mario\/\" target=\"_blank\">Super Mario Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/technologizer.com\/2009\/04\/13\/game-boy-oddities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Game Boy Oddities<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty years ago this June, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari, Inc. &#8212; what a name, what a company. Even 40 years on, Atari looms like a giant shadow over all corners of video game history, and for good reason: its two founders launched the industry in 1971. I thought I&#8217;d celebrate this 40-year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,21,9],"tags":[88,348,245],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-news-current-events","category-retrogaming","tag-freelance-work","tag-oddities","tag-technologizer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}