In the early 1980s, Atari could do no wrong. They created the arcade and home video game market, and had over an 80 percent share of the latter. By the year 2000, they were an afterthought. A cool retro logo on a hipster’s t shirt. What happened? And for those too young to remember, what exactly was Atari?

In Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, Digital Eclipse Studio created a full featured interactive timeline of Atari. Photos, promotional materials and video compose five categories of the iconic company’s history. From their arcade origins through their consoles and computers, Atari 50 covers the biggest steps and missteps of the company.

The highlight of this digital documentary are the interviews from past Atari employees. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Defender creator Eugene Jarvis, Yar’s Revenge creator Howard Scott Warshaw, Pong creator Al Alcorn and game designer Tim Schafer are just some of those interviewed. Topics include the broken Pong machine that stopped working because it was full of quarters, drug use at Atari and how some of the most popular Atari games came about.

After hearing Howard Scott Warshaw talk about Yar’s Revenge, your first instinct may be to play the game. Atari 50 allows you to jump in the game right from their interactive timeline. Play a game of Breakout after reading about its famous creators Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and view Atari’s promotional flyer where they first use their tagline β€œInnovative Leisure.”

If playing classic Atari games excites you more than the company’s history, you can bypass the timeline and go right to the games library. Over 80 classic Atari games are available in this collection, from the Atari 2600 to the Jaguar and Lynx. Along with the originals, Digital Eclipse created reimagined versions of eight classic games, including Haunted House, Breakout, Swordquest and Yar’s Revenge. Atari 50 also includes prototypes of games that were never released on any system.

Atari 50 took a mostly rosy view of the company, despite one segment on drug use. It fails to discuss the company's past decade, where Atari tried to use its name to become relevant again. The Atari Speakerhat, a crypto currency called the Atari Token, a Metaverse casino, Atari hotels and their costly new system the Atari VCS - which basically is a way to play classic Atari games and Stream Netflix - all feel like failed experiments. But maybe it is good these are ignored in Atari 50. Maybe it is best to remember and celebrate the Atari of old rather than what the company is now. Better to play classic games and enjoy an interactive history of the first real video game company.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration offers a unique and creative history of a great American technology company. After completing the retrospective, I hope other classic gaming and technology companies receive a similar treatment. I dream of similar collections for Commodore, Amiga or Sega, just to name a few.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC and even Atari VCS.

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