Atari Corp (UK) Ltd

Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2

Atari was founded in 1972, and it took 10 years for them to cross the Atlantic and set up their UK subsidiary. This was well after Commodore, who arrived in 1969 in their guise as a manufacturer of typewriters, and just before Activision, who set up their UK branch in the autumn of 1983. At least, that's the simple answer. I thought the story of Atari UK was going to be an easy one to write. I was wrong.   

202 New North Road, London, M1 7BL

Atari's games and consoles were on sale in the UK before Atari established its UK branch. A company called Softcell was bringing games in from America and in 1983 they would metamorphose into the better known distributor Centresoft; future owners of the US Gold label. The bulk of hardware distribution was handled by a different company, Ingersoll Electronics. This timeline suggests Ingersoll Electronics began distributing Atari products in the UK around March 1979, taking over from a company called Cherry Leisure. Ingersoll produced a newsletter called ATARI OWNER'S CLUB BULLETIN which dates pretty much from the point Ingersoll took over distribution and remarkably those early 1979 issues survived to be archived online. The first two are single sided and then issues three and four are double sided. Issue five sees the bulletin becoming a four page newsletter and the cover shouts: "HURRAH! AT LAST -AND IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!" which nicely dates it to November or December 1979. The following issue, Ingersoll boasts about their television commercials some of which have been uploaded to YouTube.

April 2024

New North Road was built 1812-22. That's how new it is. There isn't actually a number 202, the street numbers jump from 200 to 208; which covers an area locked off behind gates. This is Canonbury Yard. It's contemporary with the rest of the buildings along New North Road and shows up on old ordnance survey maps as a place called Wilton Works. Ingersoll Electronics was, presumably, at one point based in the off the road section pictured above. Google turns up a lot of results for Ingersoll but very little substantial information. It was a subsidiary of Heron International, by the early 1980s Heron was one of the largest private companies in the UK.

7 High Street, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 

March 2023

Issue 10, which I think dates to July 1980, carries a new Maidenhead address on the back page, credited to the mysterious RHA. This can only be Ray Hodges Associates who later ran the Fun Club newsletter for Activision. Above is how their High Street office looks today; or rather last year when I tracked it down for the Activision update. 

Ray Hodges have clearly been commissioned to expand the scope of the newsletter, issue 11 is six pages and includes an explanation "why American Atari cartridges don't work in the U.K." Presumably this was becoming an increasing problem for Ingersoll as people from the UK took advantage of the lower cost of trans-Atlantic flights following the successful launch of Freddie Laker's low-cost Skytrain service in 1977.

5/7 Forlease Rd. Maidenhead, Berks SL6

Atari set themselves up in the UK on 14th May 1982 as Atari Games International (UK) Inc. A single full-page colour advert appears on the inside front cover of the May 1982 issue of YOUR COMPUTER. Captioned "ATARI BRINGS THE COMPUTER AGE HOME," it showed an excited family sitting round their colour television and beaming with delight at the musical scale displayed on screen. This is a UK version of an American advert which originally ran in 1981; according to a post on Reddit.

Left, UK 1982 and right USA 1981

It's fun to compare the two adverts. I'm fascinated by how carefully the UK version recreates the composition of American original. If you glanced at the two individually you might not even notice the differences. The UK advert invites people to write to RH Associates at 5/7/Forlease Road, Maidenhead. The probable site of which is now occupied by the Maidenhead branch of a popular supermarket. It's time for a commercial break.

March 2023

The strange thing about the Atari advert is, it was only used once in that issue of YOUR COMPUTER. I struggle to think of a reason why a company would commission an advert and only use it once. The point of an advertising campaign is that it's, you know, a campaign. Granted the UK computer magazine market was still small but in addition to YOUR COMPUTER there was also COMPUTER & VIDEOGAMES and PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD. Or why not use it in the ATARI OWNER'S CLUB BULLETIN? Obviously I have questions and no answers.

"You'll have heard that Atari International (UK), inc. has come to an arrangement with Ingersoll Electronics whereby ATARI is now distributing its Atari VCS and Atari Home Computers in the UK and Eire." That was how the new UK company introduced itself in issue 20 (Spring 1982) of the ATARI OWNER'S CLUB BULLETIN. Most traces of the previous regime have been swept away and the contact addresses change from Ingersoll to Ray Hodges. The biggest change comes when issue 21 arrives.

Atari Owners Club Bulletin, left to right issues 19, 20, and 21

Issue 21 is in colour. Not the kind of colour you'd get with computer magazines, a nice full colour cover and then a majority of black and white pages on the inside, but full colour on every page.  This is a big deal. Colour was a luxury item. By giving away a free, eight page, full colour magazine, Atari tells you how they want to be perceived. They want to be seen as the big American company for whom this isn't a big deal because they're a big generous rich company. Although admittedly not that generous because if you wanted the A3 Pac-Man poster, you needed to send a cheque or postal order for £1.50. Order forms for the poster, or the soft cuddly toy Pac-Man (£2.95, "be the envy of your friends), were sent to Ray Hodges at their 7 High Street address. But their days were numbered, tucked away on a box at the bottom of page 6 was a new address for Atari.

Windsor House, 185  Ealing Road, Alperton, Wembley, Middlesex

Actually the address on page six of issue 21 was an anonymous PO box number in Wembley but issue 22 (September 1982) revealed the full address. 185 Ealing Road was the home of another Warner Communications subsidiary; WEA Records. It's gone. You can see the unremarkable 1980s red-brick office building just before it was demolished on 2008 Streetview images. Atari were not based at 185 Ealing Road for long, but the address casts a long shadow because it appears on a trio of threatening adverts.

Left to right 
PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD, November 1982 page 192
and December 1982 pages 70 and 178

The text across all three adverts is broadly similar:

'Defender' is the latest of Atari’s video games to become available.

Since it is an ATARI game we have exclusive rights to exercise all copyrights and other rights connected with 'Defender.'

We lead the field in the development of video games. And it’s due to our considerable investment of time and resources that our games have become so popular. And due also, of course, to the people who have enjoyed the games.

Unfortunately however, some companies and individuals have been copying ATARI games, gaining profits at Atari’s expense.

We must protect our investment so we can carry on investing in the development of new and better games.

So consider this a warning both to intentional pirates and to individuals unaware of the copyright laws.

Any manufacture, sale or other dealings in games which reproduce any of the copyrights in 'Defender’ or any unlawful use of the name 'Defender' (or imitation of it) is an infringement of Atari’s rights.

Atari will protect its rights by vigorous action against all infringers. Regardless of what computer or other apparatus is used in playing infringing games.

We would also appreciate the co-operation of legitimate software developers in the protection of our property

And if you happen to be selling a software product which performs a game similar to 'Defender’ (or any other ATARI game) please contact us immediately

Write to the attention of: Graham Daubney Atari International (UK) Inc, 185 Ealing Road, Alperton, Wembley Middlesex.

What's going on here? Had any publisher previously advertised a new game by basically telling people "hands off". The backstory to this advert is an ongoing trans-Atlantic legal action between Atari and Commodore, that centred on an unlicenced Commodore version of Pac-Man called Jelly Monsters.

I've written several times about the various angles of this legal action because it was a huge deal at the time; see the entries for Commodore, Micro Power, Bug-Byte, and A&F Software. The action was primarily directed against Commodore who brought the rights to HAL Laboratory's licenced (for home computers in Japan) VIC-20 version of Pac-Man. Commodore made some cunning changes to the packaging renamed the game Jelly Monsters, and released it Europe and America where Atari had the exclusive rights to Namco titles. Atari wasn't happy and began legal action against Commodore, and in the process also had to take action against other companies who were also infringing its licence. This is how Micro Power, Bug-Byte, and A&F Software were drawn into the row. I've speculated before that the July 1982 issue of YOUR COMPUTER magazine looks like ground zero for the European arm of the legal action; it contains adverts for Bug-Byte's VicMen; A&F's Polecat; and Micro Powers Munchyman. Atari's solicitor could have spent 30 minutes sticking post-it notes to those adverts (and possibly also flagging Acornsoft's Snapper, given the screen shot and description of the game as "similar to PacMan games") and then leaned back in his chair for a nap.

The legal action caused a sensation. POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY (26 August 1982 page 4) correctly described it as having "far reaching implications." No kidding. Look through that July 1982 issue of YOUR COMPUTER; on page 6 J.K. Greye Software is selling Breakout, that's a copy of an Atari arcade game; on pages 8 and 9, dk'tronics is advertising Centipede (Atari, again), Space Invaders (Taito) and Asteroids (Atari); Bug-Byte's advert on page 22 features Another Vic in the Wall (that's Breakout again), Vic Asteroids, Invaders, Galaxians (Namco), Breakout (for the Acorn Atom computer), and Lunar Lander (Atari); on the opposite page Silversoft is offering Muncher!! ("At last! PacMan for your ZX81), Space-Invaders, and Asteroids. That's just the first 25 pages of a 124 page issue.

The UK games industry in 1982 had a weird attitude towards copyright. It wasn't the done thing to directly rip off an idea from one of your competitors but arcade games were a free for all, advertised on the basis of how closely they resembled the original game. Atari's legal action was significant enough for C&VG to write an editorial in the October 1982 issue (page 5):

While C&VG does not usually involve itself in industry news or comment, this was one story we thought you should be told about.
The issue is software copyright and the adversaries preparing for legal battle are industry giants Atari and Commodore The battleground for this test case is Pacman and the key question will be: Can you copyright an idea?

The editorial is a bit muddle-headed. The writer, presumably editor Terry Pratt, disapproves of Atari's action:

Atari did not invent Pacman. The name Pac comes from the Japanese Pacu — meaning to eat — which shows its true origins. In the U.S. Pacman was the property of Bally Midway who produce the 'official 1 arcade machines.
Atari bought the rights (licence) to put the Pacman name on the games cartridge for its TV games centre console — a name you can copyright over here - so other companies played safe by using names like: Super Glooper, Snapper, Vicmen and Jelly Monsters.
Atari bought its way into that success, others programmed their way into it.  

There's an odd idea here that programmers who copied Pacman have somehow worked harder and deserve their success more than Atari, who simply negotiated and brought the rights and made sure that Namco were paid for their creativity.

My own feelings are that the software copyright tangle does need sorting out over here. And while Atari may be fighting the right battle to sort out that mess, they have chosen the wrong battleground.
The Atari VCS Pacman is a very different game from the one which everyone has been plagiarising.
As comment pieces go this is probably a little sit -on- the-fence-ish but I am reserving my opinions until Atari have had a chance to defend their decision to me.

That's a polite way of saying the Atari VCS version of Pac-Man was terrible. Better was Z-Man by DJL Software for the ZX Spectrum, which was caught up in an expansion of Atari's copyright crackdown (SINCLAIR USER, November 1982 page 11).

The American-based possible copyright battle company has written to DJL Software of Swindon asking for a copy of its Zuckman game to see if it breaches copyright on its Pacman games.
It is the first reported move by Atari in the Sinclair market where there has been a proliferation of Pacman-type games in the last month.
...
Bug Byte said at the time that it did not feel it was infringing copyright but that it did not have the resources to fight a large company like Atari. DJL feels the same.
"I do not consider the game is a breach of copyright, as we are using Z-80 machine code, unlike the Vic game which was using the same machine code as the Atari game," said Dave Looker of DJL.
He added that he did not have the money to fight Atari through the courts but if anyone else wanted to contest any claims made by Atari he would be willing to join them.

Atari brought DJL's version of Pac-Man and used it as their official version of the game for the ZX Spectrum. Liverpool software house Imagine (founded by Mark Butler and David Lawson, both ex-Bug-Byte) poked fun at Atari's actions in their first game Arcadia. This was inspired by Namco's Galaxian which, naturally, Atari had the exclusive  rights to distribute. The scenario for Arcadia described: 

The Atarian nation has been steadily and inexorably extending its empire; quietly engulfing smaller, more vulnerable planets. It is now in a position of immense power, and poised to make a bid to enslave the entire galaxy. 
The only force capable of repelling the Atarian hordes is under your command; the starship ARCADIA. Every fibre of your body quivers with tension as you prepare to repel the initial thrust of the Atarian battle fleet.

Terry Pratt was right that Atari chose the wrong battleground. Atari's three adverts were printed off the back of some early success in the case but the courts are slow and the case ground on into 1983. "The average life of a computer game is at most three or four months," Bob Simpson, managing director of Micro Power, told PCW.  Jelly Monsters was well over a year old by the time the case was settled out of court at the end of 1983. The priorities of Atari and Commodore had both changed, and neither was really invested in continuing action over a VIC-20 game.

Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2

March 2023

You'll notice a couple of things about that photo. One, it's not very good. Two, I've been sitting on it for over a year. I said further up the page that I thought this would be an easy entry to write. The low level research I did before rocking up at Slough train station at 11.20am on Sunday 5th March 2023 suggested that Atari moved into their offices at Intercity House (which they promptly renamed Atari House) and then stayed put for the next 14 years. I certainly hadn't planned for trips to Wembley and Islington when I scheduled this is an as easy follow up to my trip to Newcastle. The fact that this turned out not to be an easy piece to write explains why it appears two weeks after it was supposed to, and also why I'm 2000 words in and still on 1982.

Atari/Intercity House has gone. It was gone by the time of the first Streetview survey in 2008, which captures Slough in the middle of stripping out all the ghastly buildings which made the opening titles of The Office so effective. Fortunately someone got there before me. Twenty-three years before me. A poster at the Atari Age forums called Shiuming Lai took six pictures of the three story red-brick building in 2001; you can see the pictures here -they were reposted in 2021. My picture was an attempt to show an updated version of photo five. It kind of works but Slough is one of those towns that always seems determined to show you it's ugliest view and so I've got loads of temporary fencing in the way. Pro tip, you'll need to be patient if you want to take a photo of a ticket machine at a mainline railway station.  Loads of selfish people kept coming up to use it while I was waiting to get my picture. 

Back to 1982. Atari didn't share offices with WEA for long. They moved to Slough, the long term home of Commodore, and somewhere Activision would later also move (these companies keep orbiting each other in a software company version of the three body problem). The new address was revealed in issue 23 (December 1982) and the company must have felt it was finally and properly established. New offices, Pac-Man mania still in full effect, and the big Christmas game was going to be E.T. The dramatic crash of the American video games market (the first quarter of 1983 saw Atari make a $45.6 million loss, compared to an operating profit of $100 million for the same period of 1982) didn't affect the UK market. But 1983 was the year UK home computer sales boomed for everyone except Atari. You could buy an aging VCS for around £100 with games costing from £14.95 to £29.95, but why would you? People wanted computers not video game machines. Atari reduced the price of their 400/800 home computers to £199 and £399 respectively but it didn't make the machines competitive. 

Atari home computers were three years old. They were well built but old and expensive. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD had printed  a glowing review in 1980 : "This machine is probably the strongest contender for the home computer market in Britain today.!" Ingersoll began distribution around August 1981 when the Atari 400 sold at £345 (closer to £1300 today) while the Atari 800 went for £645 (about £2400 now). Both models still looked poor value for money even after the 1983 price cut. There was a whole new range of computers tot tempt consumers. The basic model Acorn Atom, was around £140, the Commodore VIC-20, £160, the Sinclair ZX81, £69.95, and the new ZX Spectrum 48K £175.

The Atari community in the UK was large enough to support a magazine called PAGE 6 and later a more professional looking title called ATARI USER but it remained a minority brand until until the mainstream success of the Atari ST. In late 1982 Atari started a quarterly magazine called ATARI INPUT/OUTPUT to support the 400/800 computers. Issue one was a four page freesheet, like ATARI OWNER'S CLUB BULLETIN, but by issue two it had become a 24 page magazine sent free to anyone who registered their Atari computer.

Meanwhile in America, faced with a collapsing market for VCS games, Atari's big innovation was a new software label called Atarisoft. Atari's exclusive rights to arcade games like Pole Position and Pac-Man were no longer bringing new consumers to Atari's hardware so it was time for the games to go to the users. The US line launched in the autumn of 1983. It took a little longer for the range to appear in Britain. BIG K reported the launch took place in May 1984.

YOUR COMPUTER
February 1984 page 132

Wait. What's that down the bottom of the page? Zoom in and enhance.

Is that another address?

Atari International (UK) Inc, PO. Box 407, Blackhorse Road, London SE8 5JH

Atari's Blackhorse Road address appears from Winter 1983 until around spring 1984 and it appears to have been used mainly to promote the new Atari 600XL computer and the first round of Atarisoft games;  Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Dig Dug, and Centipede. It's a PO Box number which means I won't be able to track down the original building (phew). Having abandoned exclusivity, Atari wanted their games available on as many formats as possible and games were advertised for the Spectrum, BBC Model B and Acorn Electron, Commodore VIC-20 and 64, and the Texas Instruments 99/4A (whatever that was). 

CRASH had a short article about Atarisoft in issue one. They add Centipede to the list of titles due for release and note: 

The question remains as to how popular these games will be Undoubtedly they will be of extremely high quality, but will their 'official version' status make them big sellers? After all there are already numerous versions for the Spectrum on the market, and at much lower prices than the a £14.99 Atari are charging. Paying a little extra tor 'artistic input', as Eric Salaman UK Marketing Manager for Atari calls it, might be acceptable, but almost three times as much...?

£14.99 was a ludicrously optimistic price for any game in 1984, let alone Pac-Man. BIG K also carried a report in July 1984, which quoted Atari's UK Marketing Director (presumably Eric Salaman again): 

There will be no compromises for the sake of cost.

...
Pole Position appears in cassette-based versions for Spectrum 48K and BBC at £14.99 each and as a ROM [cartridge] for the Commodore 64, £24.99 Robotron: 2084 comes in Spectrum 48K, BBC and Electron editions at £9.99 each, with Ms Pac-Man in Beeb and Electron formats at £12.99. 

Dig Dug is available in the BBC version now and should hit the Electron market next month, both £9.99. That just leaves Donkey Kong Jr. swinging on to the Spectrum 48K at £14.99.

By October 1984 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD was reporting that: "Atarisoft titles now come in under £10." The initial Atarisoft advert is interesting because its a mixture of games which did and didn't see shop shelves. I'll come back to that another time. Whichever marketing company was based in Blackhorse Road, the Atarisoft games still carried the Slough address on their packaging.

 Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2

The Atarisoft range was successful but untimely disrupted by the 1984 sale of Atari to Jack Tramiel. The US parent had accumulated losses of $536 million. Warner Communication had brought Atari in 1976 for $28 million. THE NEW YORK TIMES (3rd July 1984) reported the sale to Tramiel:

Warner will receive no cash for the company, but $240 million in long-term notes and warrants for a 32 percent interest in Mr. Tramiel's new venture. Mr. Tramiel, in return, will receive warrants giving him the right to purchase one million shares of Warner common stock at $22 a share. Warner is retaining two parts of Atari, which make up about 20 percent of the company: the coin-operated games division and Ataritel, the division working on telecommunications.

"Warner essentially gave away the company, in hopes Tramiel could make something happen," said Lee Isgur, an analyst with Paine Webber Inc., echoing comments by others on Wall Street who follow Warner.

The sale to Tramiel also did for ATARI OWNER'S CLUB BULLETIN and INPUT/OUTPUT. Both have a final issue dated Spring 1984. On 29th June 1984 someone in the UK sets up a company called Atari Corp (UK) Ltd, company number 01828957. This is the same day, according to the Atari timeline, that "An agreement to sell most of Atari was formally approved at a Warner Communications board of directors meeting, final details pending." Jack Tramiel renamed his version of the US company to Atari Corporation so he's incredibly on the ball and confident to get the UK wing of his new company set up the day the sale was formally approved but before it was signed; Monday 2nd July according to the NEW YORK TIMES report. Atari Corp (UK) Ltd was dissolved on 15 May 2001, which is a couple of months after the Atari assets, then owned by Hasbro Interactive, were sold to Infogrames.

Jack Tramiel turned the US parent around, focusing it on a new 16-bit computer the Atari ST. Phillip Morris, director of a company called English Software, described the current state of play in the UK market for the first issue of  ATARI USER which launched in the UK in May 1985, just in time for the ST's launch in America:

Now with Jack Tramiel's takeover of Atari, with his "business is war philosophy, the company's expansion plans are based upon a distinct value-for-money policy where popular pricing rules the roost.

InBritain, unfortunately. Atari has always been regarded, purely in terms of computer sales, as less successful than other UK based companies, probably due to the old pricing policy where £300 to £600 was the Atari norm. 
So the best home computer available lost out to the Spectrum, the Vic 20 and the Commodore 64. Sounds unbelievable doesn't it? 

The Atari ST was launched at the 1985 PCW Show which ran from 4th-8th September: POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY reported:

The star of this year's Personal Computer World Show - the most exciting for several years - was unquestionably Atari. Its new low-cost 16-bit 5205T stole the show with strong software support...

Atari had always threatened to take over the whole of the ground floor with its 520 STs -on show in the UK for the first time in public -officially launched at the show.

(12-18 September 1985 page 9)

The ST had a two year head start on Commodore's Amiga and sales were helped by generous offers like the Atari Super Pack, a £399.99 computer with £450 of software.

CRASH
November 1988 page 6

For a lot of people like me the Atari ST became the logical upgrade from 8-bit Spectrums and Amstrads. Not unreasonably Commodore owners seemed to prefer the Amiga. The UK software market also upgraded from the 8-bit trio to the new 16-bit machines and for a while the industry stabilised around the Atari ST and Amiga computers. It couldn't last. Atari mucked around offering incremental improvements to the two basic ST models, the 520 and 1040 ST. Commodore edged into the lead but got into trouble in the early nineties, going bankrupt in 1994. Atari launched the Lynx, a handheld console in 1990 (in Europe). It was technically very impressive but ultimately massively outsold by Nintendo's Game Boy. Atari's last throw of the dice was the Jaguar console which launched in America in November 1993 and Europe in June 1994. 

There's a RETRO HOUR interview with Darryl Still, who joined Atari UK in 1988 to work as product manager for the Atari ST; Atari UK: The Rise and Fall with Darryl Still.  One of the things Daryl talks about is Atari's focus on the US market, when the demand for the Jaguar was higher in Europe. 

"The US always got priority and that did become a big issue with the Jaguar when there were big stock shortages for the first Christmas of the Jag, and we just didn't get any. We had 25,000 units to service two and a half million pre-orders.
...
By the time we started getting units through in March, people had moved on."

July 1995 saw the launch of the Sega Saturn in Europe, followed by the Sony PlayStation in September; just in time for next Christmas. It's not unreasonable for Atari to want to focus on being a success in America, they were after all a US company, but in the long term it probably did for the business. Ironically, the same mistake Commodore made with the Amiga. Daryl talks about joining the company as part of a marketing team of 100 and when he moved on in 1996 he left behind seven people.

February 13, 1996, saw Atari merge with a company called JTS who made hard drives. Wikipedia describes the merger as:

a marriage of convenience; JTS had products but little cashflow, while Atari had money, primarily from a series of successful lawsuits earlier in the decade followed by good investments. However, with the failure of its Jaguar game console, losses mounting, and no other products to sell, Atari expected to run out of money within two years.

And that was it. Atari became a name and a collection of intellectual property. JTS sold these assets on to Hasbro Interactive in 1998, for $5 million, and then Hasbro sold them on again, to Infogrames in 2001. Infogrames rebranded itself to Atari in 2009.

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