Wanted: Information on Tengen company

[Atari Scorpio]

Looking for any information on the company Tengen. I see alot of prototype and company photos of atari and atari games but nothing on Tengen. Anyone know where I could find such info and pictures?

[diskoboy]

Looking for any information on the company Tengen. I see alot of prototype and company photos of atari and atari games but nothing on Tengen. Anyone know where I could find such info and pictures?

Tengen was Atari.

They didn't want to confuse and upset people by using the Atari name while the 7800 was still on the market.

That, and Atari still had some credibility left, back in those days. They couldn't use the Atari brand on a competitors console.

[dlopez9069]

what do you really want to know? yes tengen was atari but is that all?
all i can tell you is try wikipedia or google

[InsaneDavid]

Remember there were two Atari's at the time - Atari Corporation and Atari Games. Atari Corp. was the consumer division - computers and home game systems. This is the portion that was sold to Jack Tramiel. Warner retained the coin-op (arcade) division, Atari Coin, and renamed it Atari Games. Atari Corp. went through a lot of changes after the buyout but Atari Games was pretty much left alone. Tengen was the subsidiary Atari Games created to produce home console video games.

So basically Tengen was the home console division of the old Atari coin-op division. Created to separate themselves from the former consumer division which they no longer shared any ties with.

[Cambot]

Remember there were two Atari's at the time - Atari Corporation and Atari Games. Atari Corp. was the consumer division - computers and home game systems. This is the portion that was sold to Jack Tramiel. Warner retained the coin-op (arcade) division, Atari Coin, and renamed it Atari Games. Atari Corp. went through a lot of changes after the buyout but Atari Games was pretty much left alone. Tengen was the subsidiary Atari Games created to produce home console video games.

So basically Tengen was the home console division of the old Atari coin-op division. Created to separate themselves from the former consumer division which they no longer shared any ties with.

http://tomwatson.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/kramden.gif

[kainemaxwell]

Looking for any information on the company Tengen. I see alot of prototype and company photos of Atari and Atari games but nothing on Tengen. Anyone know where I could find such info and pictures?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengen_%28company%29

[kazuo]

Pick up the book "Game Over." Has a lot of in-depth information on "Tengen," their composition, reason for being, and the conflict with Nintendo over "Tetris" and the "Rabbit."

Good read.

[mailman187666]

so how was it, since Tengen was Atari, that they were able to bring Shinobi to the NES?

[InsaneDavid]

so how was it, since Tengen was Atari, that they were able to bring Shinobi to the NES?

And AfterBurner and Fantasy Zone (different from the Japanese release which Sunsoft did if I remember correctly). Remember none of those games were officially licensed on the NES. They could have been brought over legally by a licensed company under approval but as long as they didn't violate the two year exclusivity contract which Nintendo required stateside. Of course this meant Sega couldn't do it legally since they were publishing all the titles on the Master System. What better company to publish these games on the NES than the same group responsible for Atari's arcade past - considering that they were all originally arcade titles.

[kazuo]

so how was it, since Tengen was Atari, that they were able to bring Shinobi to the NES?

They licensed it from SEGA?

Pretty simple.

This is addressed in the book I mentioned previously.

[Buyatari]

They should have stayed Atarisoft.

[boatofcar]

Pick up the book "Game Over." Has a lot of in-depth information on "Tengen," their composition, reason for being, and the conflict with Nintendo over "Tetris" and the "Rabbit."

Good read.

I second this. It's actually an interesting read too--not dry at all.