This got me thinking about how LONG it's been since Atari was a successful company, although it's more recent than most people realize. (The modern "Atari" has been a third party publisher, and traces its roots to GT Interactive)

The original Atari hit its peak in late 1982; on December 7, 1982, Atari's earnings report came in weaker than expected, thus beginning Atari's slow decline. Atari's home computer lines helped it weather the video game crash, although the company was significantly weakened and ended up sold by Warner Communications to Jack Tramiel. One could say the "Golden Age" of Atari was about 1980-1982.

Atari staged a modest recovery in the mid-late 1980s, they were able to milk a few more sales out of the 2600, the 7800 was profitable, and they still raked in significant sales of computers including the ST and 8-bit line. Per Wikipedia, Tramiel-era (post-1984) Atari's profits peaked at $452 million in 1988. One could say the "Silver Age" of Atari was about 1986-1989. If I had to put an end date on Atari's success, it would be about 1990. The Wintel platform buried Atari's computer line. Both the 2600 and 7800 were discontinued after 1991. The Lynx pioneered color in portable consoles but couldn't compete with the Sega Game Gear which came out in 1991, let alone the Game Boy. After 1993 all Atari had was the Jaguar which sold 0 units (rounded to the nearest half-million).

With the Atari Box, the new Atari will become a hardware manufacturer like the old Atari was. Since we haven't had any successful Atari hardware in my lifetime, I really hope this thing becomes successful. Perhaps we could have a four-way console race with Sony, Microsoft, Atari, and Nintendo?

All four have done pioneering work in the video game industry; Atari made the first successful console (PONG) and first successful console with interchangeable cartridges (Atari 2600), Nintendo brought back the video game market with the NES; Sony greatly expanded its target audience with the PlayStation; and Microsoft made online gaming successful with the Xbox. Now all we need is Sega.