Say the word Atari to just about any person who’s played video games in their life and they’ll instantly know what you’re talking about. Atari had the first home game systems of their kind and are synonymous around the World when it comes to gaming.

With the likes of Nintendo, Sony, and eventually Microsoft, they just couldn’t keep up in the market and primarily stuck to developing games. That was until five years ago when they stopped developing their own games and focused on publishing and distribution. The change didn’t stick for long however.

Via CNN:

“Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari, wanted to take Atari back to its casual-gaming roots and recognized the best way to do so was to embrace the social and mobile change in the gaming landscape. He said there are new business models in gaming and the company finally is ready to take advantage of them.”

“What we’re doing is we’re going out to the best and the brightest of the developers in the mobile business,” he said. “We’re looking at different ways to reinterpret or reinvent our classic franchises in ways that people are playing games today in the business model that people are playing today.”

A great decision that was. The company really took advantage of mobile platforms and to date, their greatest hits game for iOS has been downloaded over 3.5 Million times and was recently added to the Android Market.

They’ve also launched other games such as Asteroids: Gunner and Breakout: Boost which have done good as well. People can expect 10 to 15 new titles this year.

“If we stay true to the original brand ideas and we work with some of the best talent in the industry and we listen to our consumers, I think we have a very good opportunity to make a big statement and bring Atari to a new stage,” he (Jim Wilson) said. “We have an opportunity to bring back a powerful brand that consumers know and love.”

What was your favorite Atari game back in the day?

Atari Slowly Making A Comeback To The World Of Gaming is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt RED recently came under fire for the aggressive, strong-arming, borderline blackmailing tactics employed by a firm it hired to go after pirates of their game. The developer received so much flak, in fact, that the developer ultimately backed down and “ceased” pursuing pirates.

The practice of tracing IPs in an attempt to catch pirates in the act, and then subsequently demanding the alleged pirates pay the developer cash for fear of having to pay even more, is unfortunately not an uncommon one–and it appears that CD Projekt RED isn’t the only company in the gaming industry doing it.

A report from TorrentFreak points the finger at publishing giants Atari, Ubisoft, Codemasters, Square Enix and many others, claiming that each publisher/developer has either directly or indirectly gone after alleged pirates in Germany demanding money, lest the company takes them to court.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun rounded up the games publishers/developers that TorrentFreak alleges have  gone after pirates for, and they include:

Atari’s Alone In The Dark, Test Drive Unlimited, and Test Drive Unlimited 2; Techland’s Dead Island and Nail’d; Daedalic’s (and in turn LucasArts’) Euro distribution of Tales Of Monkey Island; Square’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2; Koch’s distribution of Techland games and Ubisoft’s Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Agrar Simulator 2011, as well as both Painkillers; Codies’ Operation Flashpoint: Red River and DiRT 3; Kalypso’s Airline Tycoon 2, Tropico 3 and 4; dtp’s Cities XL 2012; Aerosoft’s City Bus Simulator, Airbus X; and many others.

You can read more on the matter over at TorrentFreak (here), or at Rock, Paper Shotgun (here).

Atari, Ubisoft and more going after German pirates is a post from: The Inquisitr

As you may be aware, The Witcher 2 will be getting a very substantial update this Thursday, bringing the game up to version 2.0.

CD Projekt RED has previously touched on a bit of what we can expect out of the update, such as the inclusion of a “Dark” mode for all of the sadists out there, and improved, relatively easier combat mechanics for those of us wimps who had a hard time with The Witcher 2‘s combat.

Now, thanks to a massive list provided by CD Projekt RED from over on the official The Witcher 2 website, we know exactly what will be changed – and they weren’t kidding when they said the combat has been improved.

When you boot up The Witcher 2 this Thursday, expect quite a few changes to the combat system, both in terms of bug fixes and general enhancements. Most notably among the changes is that parrying is now unlimited, whereas before you were limited by how much “Vigor” you had left.

That’s not all, though. Improvements have been made to target locking, Geralt’s attacks can no longer be interrupted when he’s hit, you can no longer be knocked down repeatedly, and even more beyond that.

If you’re interested to dig right into the full list of patch notes, you can find them directly below.

Corrections and improvements to combat:

• Numerous improvements have been made in the targeting system.
• Parrying is now unlimited (even when Vigor is completely depleted), though parries no longer cancel all damage (maximum 50% reduction once the relevant ability has been acquired).
• Responsiveness of game controls has been improved. This includes but is not limited to casting Signs, parrying, and attacking immediately after evading an opponent’s assault.
• Geralt’s attacks are no longer interrupted by attacking opponents. Attacks are now contiguous and foes cannot interrupt Geralt’s attacks by landing a blow.
• Assorted fixes now prevent opponents from incessantly attacking Geralt after he has been knocked down. Geralt can no longer be knocked down repeatedly in quick succession. Also, he rises quickly while evading subsequent attacks.
• Geralt no longer attacks opponents located behind other opponents positioned nearer to him.
• The target locking system has been improved. Preference is now given to previously highlighted targets.
• Target selection has been improved. Priority is now given to foes affected by a critical effect facilitating the completion of a finishing move.
• The additional two steps Geralt took after mounting an attack with the W, S, A or D key depressed have been eliminated.
• Attacks can now be continued even when a key controlling Geralt’s movement (e.g. W, S, A, D) is depressed.
• Attacks can now be continued if the attack key is depressed immediately after the final strike of an attack animation sequence.
• Geralt can now pivot 180 degrees immediately after completing an attack.
• Assorted problems with key responsiveness have been resolved. Keys no longer need to be depressed twice or more to trigger a given action.
• A distance attack problem has been resolved. Geralt now mounts distance attacks (lunge with sword in hand in the Fast style) when opponents were located at a suitable distance from him.

Other corrections and amendments:

• Casting several bombs no longer blocks further inputs.
• An option has been added to the configuration tool enabling aspect ratio to be set independently of resolution.
• The amount of disk space required for game patching has been reduced.
• The loading of selected Witcher 1 game saves no longer causes the game to crash.
• A greater number of monsters now appear in the cave leading to Loc Muinne.
• Improvements have been made in the manner in which monsters are spawned in the mist in Chapter 2.
• The visual effect accompanying Adrenaline use no longer disappears prematurely.
• Archers now draw their swords more quickly when Geralt approaches.
• Mages no longer automatically cast shield spells when Geralt casts daggers at them.
• The game is now paused when Geralt executes a finishing move in combat.
• The troll in Chapter 2 has been corrected. Previously, in some circumstances he could not be attacked.
• Physics on cast daggers have been improved.
• The site for aiming daggers is now more visible.
• Geralt’s animation when he dies while casting the Axii Sign has been corrected.
• An exploit in the fight against Letho has been eliminated. Previously, this foe could be killed by casting bombs in quick succession.
• An exploit related to the ‘Insane’ difficulty setting has been eliminated. Previously, game saves could be loaded with difficulty set to this level, which was contrary to design intentions.
• Camera positioning/operation has been corrected during the boss fight against the kayran.
• Camera control via gamepads has been improved.
• Assorted adjustments have been made in mutagen statistics.
• The ‘Junk’ filter in the Inventory has been adjusted to provide for correct item filtering.
• In the Inventory, the dialogue window warning of prohibited actions has been corrected.
• Assorted corrections have been introduced to the mini-map in Chapter 1.
• Audio balance throughout the game has been adjusted.
• Erratic character teleportation in mini–games has been eliminated.
• Assorted adjustments have been made in animations applying to nekkers.
• A minor bug in the “Scent of Incense” quest has been resolved.
• Numerous minor fixes have been introduced in character lip-sync throughout the game.

via Joystiq

The Witcher 2 version 2.0 patch notes released is a post from: The Inquisitr

See also: Our juicy retro games coverage for old wise folks

[Via Boing Boing]

[VIDEO] 70 classic videogame deaths is a post from: The Inquisitr

While I’d FRIGGIN’ LOVE to have my walls decorated like a giantass Mario level, I don’t think I could get away with Blik’s range of Mario wall decals. Explaining this sort of thing to a prospective partner, or even to a father who wonders what has become of his son … it’s tricky.

These giant Asteroids wall stickers might be a safer choice, not to mention how rad they look. Thanks to the original game’s wireframe visuals, they manage to look stylish and maybe even hip, though let’s not go too far here. Either way, I love the arcade-faithful ‘© 1979 ATARI INC’!

They’re removable and reusable, and are available at Amazon now, with $45 getting you the following:

* 2 Large 26″ x 4″ arcade console graphics
* 21 various sized asteroids (4″ to 20″) printed on clear
* 21 various sized gameplay graphics printed on clear
* 21 various sized numbers printed on clear

[Amazon, via GeekAlerts]

Geek up your home with these Asteroids wall stickers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Most modders are happy modding one console at a time. Mechanical engineering grad student Brain De Vitis has bigger ideas. The lifesize R2-D2 unit above is his work, and contains no less than ten game consoles from yesteryear: a SNES, a NES, an N64, a GameCube, a PS2, a PSP, a Sega Genesis, an Xbox, a gaming PC, and an Atari 7800.

Oh, and what’s that on the head?

A Dreamcast!

This totally sweet mod was spotted by Fort90′s Matt Hopkins at the PAX Prime expo. Many of the aforementioned consoles are disguised in cunning ways, such as the PSP that slots into the shoulder:

Aside from that, there’s a shit-ton of cartridge slots and controller ports to meet your gaming needs, and of course a projector to play it all on:

Check out more pics of this epic radness at Fort90.

See also: 7 Amazing Modded Game Consoles

[Via Fort90]

This R2-D2 mod rocks TEN game consoles and a projector is a post from: The Inquisitr

Atari has released the source code of over 15 games developed and sold for the Atari 7800.

Games released include Dig Dug or Centipede or Robotron, although notably you’ll need a 7800 emulator to run any of them.

According to Programmerfish, Atari said the purpose of the release is to give potential developers insight into the Atari’s gaming platform so they may possibly build upon the 7800 series. Why people would want to build upon the 7800 in 2009 I don’t know, but I still like the sound of it.

Downloads available at Programmerfish here.

Atari releases source code for 7800 games is a post from: The Inquisitr