Atari Coin-Op/Arcade Systems

Space Race.... from the originators of Pong. Space Race, Atari's second coin-op video game was a high tech outer space version of a drag strip. You raced as one player against the clock or two players could go head to head racing through space, avoiding meteors and asteroids to get the best time. Atari's new sales flyers were now in vivid color and with attractive models as well.
(History Note: The owners/operators manuals in the Space Race cabinets were actually Atari Pong manuals and have the name PONG scribbled out and Space Race hand written over the top of the scribbled out Pong name)

The original video maze game, Gotcha was Atari's fourth effort (Space Race was the second, Pong Doubles the third). This photo was reproduced from the original brochure. They just don't make 'em like they used to. The controller is a not what you think, its not a Trakball, nope that wouldn't happen until Atari Football a few years later. The controller on this game was a joystick with a domed top to it, well actuall a pair of them on the control panel... oddly or humorously enough... they look like a pair of breasts. Atari designers certainly knew how to have a lot of fun.

After Super Pong came Quadrapong. What's interesting is that this was essentially the same game as Elimination, which was created by Kee Games, Joe Keenan's company. Bushnell and Keenan decided that the best way to reach the most distributors was to design and manufacture similar games but under different names. The first experiment of this sort was Rebound (Atari) and Spike (Kee). The key distinction between the two was a "spike" button Spike had. According to Steve Bristow, the designer, "If you timed it right you could do a real killer spike. "

Touch Me followed Grand Track 10 Formula K, Atari's first driving games, and World Cup Football into the arcades. Most people probably know Touch Me as Simon. Atari also came out with a hand-held Touch Me. The last batch of Pong games came next: Pin-Pong, which was video pinball, and the inimitable Doctor Pong (aka, Puppy Pong). That's right, folks. Someone at Atari had the bright idea to put Pong in a cabinet shaped like Snoopy's doghouse. Steve Bristow explains.- "The idea was to put it in a doctor's waiting room and set it on freeplay. We put it out, but doctors didn't want to pay for it. I understand Schulz wasn't crazy about it either. "

Tank was the next true milestone in Atari's history. Who invented it, however, is a matter of opinion. Some credit Lyle Rains, who was the engineering v.p. in coin-op until only recently in 1982, but Steve Bristow says it was he who came up with the concept. (For you VCS fans, Tank is Combat CX-2601.) "I was working on it when I hired Lyle," he recalls, "Then I gave it to him and he finished it. A lot of the implementation was his, but the original idea was mine." Both agree that Tank carried Atari through 1975.

Atari was always catching flak from the Pinball industry that video games would never surpass Pinball games in sales or game play. Atari's answer to them: PinPong, a pinball version of Pong. Later on Atari would introduce a newer version of Pin-Pong known as Video Pinball into the arcades, Video Pinball entered the home market as a stand alone console and also as a cartridge for the Atari 2600 VCS.

Gran Trak 10, Atari's 1974 venture into the world of video racing games. Featuring excellent sound effects sound as the racing sound of your engine, squeal of the tires and realistic grash sound. For added realism it included a real steering wheel, shift lever and pedals. Gran Trak 10 gave an over head look down at the course that your car had to race through. A monster of a game in a monster of a cabinet which weighed a whopping 400lbs. !

Qwak! A unique and innovative game from Atari in 1974. Players fire at flying on-screen ducks using a rifle with a light gun attached to the end. Your shots would appear on the screen as you fired, ducks would "veer" away from missed shots. If a duck was shot it would fall into the marsh to be retrieved by your on-screen digital dog. The coin-op incorporated a unique alarm system that if the gun was stolen or tampered with the game would emit a loud buzzing sound.