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The life, death, death, death, death, and rebirth of Atari
🕑 Added 2025-07-11 18:20:25 +0000 UTC
This week on Post Games, Atari CEO Wade Rosen joins me to discuss gaming’s ship of Theseus. While everyone remembers Atari at its height, most folks ignored the company's struggles following the games industry crash of 1983. Understandably! For forty years, Atari has been a brand in search of a purpose.
Rosen is determined to change that, making Atari relevant for the first time in forty years. And he wants to do so while having a sense of humor and respect for the brand's long, long journey. Who doesn't love a comeback story?
Patreon bonus prologue: A history of Atari and its lost decades
Act 1: Why Atari can’t die, an extended conversation with Atari CEO Wade Rosen
Act 2: What is a “modern” Atari game
Act 3: The news of the week
Patreon bonus prologue: The history of Atari
Atari vs Magnavox - Who Controls The Rights To Pong!?! (Matt James)
The Jack Tramiel Trilogy: From Commodore to Atari (Kim Justice)
Jack Tramiel vs. IBM - The Atari PC Story (ctrl-alt-rees)
Computer Space may have a weak name, but the cabinet is incredible (Museum of Play)
Act 1: Why the Atari brand will never die
Atari Gaming moving away from free-to-play and mobile games (Game Developer)
Atari 50 (Steam)
Atari 2600+ Review: Atari's NEW 2023 Console (Dan Wood)
Act 2: The future of Atari games – and Bubsy
Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection (Steam)
Missile Command Delta (Steam)
Atari Buys Intellivision Brand, Ending ‘Longest-Running Console War in History' (Variety)
Elderly Woman Ruins 19th Century Fresco in Restoration Attempt (ABC News)
Act 3: News of the week
Video Game Actors Contract Ratified: SAG-AFTRA Leaders Talk Gaming Execs’ Reckoning With Hollywood’s AI Standards, 11-Month Strike’s Turning Point (Variety)
Anime to try:
This week in video game links
Stranded Again, but Unable to Escape an Auteur’s Themes (NYTimes)
The year in clears #10 - BBB'25 game 5: dragon's dogma ii (The Backloggery)
How Much Of Kojima's Games Are Actually Cutscenes? We Did the Maths (IGN)
How Video Games Became the New Battleground for Actors and AI Protections (Wired)
Only 8 people beat this level. 5,000,000 Failed it (LilKirbs)
Inside the Ambitious Japanese Video Game That Almost Bankrupted Its Makers (Bloomberg)
Boss Fight Books: Season 8 - Three documentary-style books on classic video games, including a Japanese RPG that never caught on in the West: Legend of the River King. (Kickstarter)
Woodkid on the Death Stranding 2 Soundtrack and Why Games Could Be the New Music Videos (Endless Mode)
Free game of the week:
Seasonala Cemetery: You'll hear more about this game in an upcoming episode of Post Games. In the meantime, here's the summary: "Seasonala Cemetery is a meditative experience that invites players to explore the serene beauty of a living, breathing cemetery. Using your system’s real date and time, the game changes dynamically – visit in the summer to see the cemetery bustling with life, or explore in the quiet, snowy winter. Observe and interact with NPCs and animals as they visit Seasonala Cemetery, all while listening to ambient sounds recorded from a real-life cemetery."
What else I’m enjoying
Girlhood Is Deadly In Cave’s Classic Shooter Deathsmiles (Endless Mode)
All My Pants Are From Outlier Because They Appear To Live Forever (Aftermath)
Saving a Studio? This Looks Like a Job for Superman! (WSJ)
The new Hot Chip video will make you want to book a trip to Japan (Hot Chip)
Movies Are Like My Parents with Ari Aster & Bill Hader (The A24 Podcast)
The Horrifying Utopia of Prime Intellect (Quinn's Ideas)
How The New York Times is (still) getting gamed by the right (The Verge)
Clipse: Tiny Desk Concert (NPR)
Comments
Dustin Belyea
Listening to this episode reminded me that at some point I bought a game called Pong: Next Level at Babbages on PC. And I LOVED that game. I don't really have anything else to add other than that I think I'm going to try to figure out a way to play that again soon.
Kel Bennett
I tried to pick Bubsy back up recently, and it gave me such incredibly nostalgia it was wild. I didn't think anyone else remembered that game. Me and my brothers were obssessed.
