Typical example of Atarisoft packaging. The predominantly red cover of Centipede corresponds to the Apple II format.

Atarisoft was a brand name used by Atari, Inc in 1983 and 1984 to market video games they published for home systems made by their competitors. Each platform had a specific color attributed by Atarisoft for its game packages. For example, video games sold for the Commodore 64 came up in green packages, games for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A in yellow, games for the IBM PC in blue, and so on. Despite being in existence for less than two years, Atarisoft had a huge video game library with dozens of game versions being released for various home computers and consoles. All of the Atarisoft titles were produced by third-party software companies, as Atari only developed for their own systems.

With the exception of some games sold only in France, the label was not used on software for Atari's own 8-bit computer family. The majority of Atarisoft releases had already been put out for these machines, typically in Atari's standard "400/800" or "XL-era" packaging.

The Atarisoft label did not bear Atari's popular "fuji" logo, and the name was written in a different typeface (popularly called "Futuri Extra Bold [non-italic]") to the normal "Atari" lettering. Atarisoft was a brand mainly used on game boxes and manuals; the name that appeared on the title screen of these games was generally that of Atari, not Atarisoft.

The label died in all countries, except in France, when Warner Communications sold Atari Inc's consumer division to Jack Tramiel. It survived another year in France before being disbanded there as well in 1985. Many ports were in production when the label was cancelled (particularly for the BBC Micro in the UK). Most of these went unreleased although a few were eventually released by other companies.

[edit] Games

• Battlezone   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC)
• Centipede   (Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Intellivision, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Crystal Castles   (Apple II)
• Defender   (Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Intellivision, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Dig Dug   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Donkey Kong   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Galaxian   (Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum)
• Gremlins   (Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM PC)
• Joust   (Apple II, IBM PC)
• Jungle Hunt   (Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Mario Bros.   (Apple II, Commodore 64)
• Moon Patrol   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Ms Pac-Man   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A,ZX Spectrum)
• Pac-Man   (Apple II, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, Intellivision, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, ZX Spectrum)
• Picnic Paranoia   (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Pole Position   (Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20,IBM PC DOS, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, ZX Spectrum)
• Protector II   (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Robotron: 2084   (Acorn Electron, Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC 20, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum)
• Shamus   (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A)
• Stargate   (Apple II, IBM PC DOS)
• Track & Field   (Apple II, Commodore 64)
• Typo Attack   (Apple II)

[edit] Releases in France only

• Cameléon   (Atari 8-bit)
• Énigme du triangle   (Atari 8-bit)
• Nostradamus   (Atari 8-bit)
• Promoteur   (Atari 8-bit)

[edit] Unreleased

• Asteroids Deluxe   (BBC Micro)
• Crystal Castles   (Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64) - Eventually released by US Gold in 1986
• Donkey Kong Jr   (BBC Micro)
• Joust   (BBC Micro)
• Sinistar   (Acorn Electron, BBC Micro) - Released as DeathStar by Superior Software

[edit] External links

• Atarisoft at MobyGames