For its fourth edition, the Retroplay festival offers its visitors an exhibition dedicated to the Atari brand, a pioneering company in video games, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Atari's pong console


The Atari VCS: first console
internationally successful.
Atari : Success story
Founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972, Atari was the first company to specialize in video games and to lay the foundations of the video game market. It began by designing and manufacturing arcade terminals (Pong, Space Race, Tank, etc.) then invaded homes in 1975 with a dozen first-generation consoles (including the famous Home Pong, massively cloned by other manufacturers). In 1976, Atari was bought out by the entertainment giant Warner Communications, which financed the design and launch the following year of what would go down in history as the first successful cartridge console: the Video Computer System (VCS, 1977), later renamed the Atari 2600. After it, many machines will follow, the most notable of which are the 8-bit computer range (1979), the 5200 console (1982), the 16-bit computers (1985), the console Lynx color-screen laptop (1989) and the first 64-bit home console: the Jaguar (1993).
 
Atari's entry into family microcomputing (8 bits) is done with the Atari 800 (and the 400).


Atari goes 16-bit
with the ST range, here the 1040 STf


The first so-called “64-bit” console:
the Jaguar

Exhibition "Atari 50 years"
It is to celebrate this double-decade in the video game and micro-computing industry, as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of Atari, that three early enthusiasts embarked on an exhibition 100% Atari. Thus, the seven standards that were developed and marketed under the emblematic brand will be presented, without forgetting the first consoles that did not have a cartridge port:

- 1st gen consoles. (Pong, Video Pinball…)
- VCS/2600
- 5200
- 7800
- 8-bit computers (400, 800, XL, XE)
- 16-bit computers (ST)
- Lynx
- Jaguar

Each of these machines will be presented in a showcase dedicated to it, with many goodies, cartridges and controllers to retrace the essentials of its history. And icing on the cake, some prototypes of machines never marketed will be presented to the public for the first time in France, such as the 1450XLD or the Atari 2700! Budding enthusiasts and historians will find plenty to enjoy there... as for gamers, they can go to a neighboring stand, that of the Pac-Man 2022 Competition which reproduces the French Pac-Man Championship organized by Atari in 1982, it 40 years ago already: you can face the ghosts to try to win an authentic vintage Atari console with its Pac-Man cartridge. What more can be said...


Long live Atari!


Whatever their generation,
all Atari fans should find their account.








Exhibitors
The “Atari 50 years” exhibition team is made up of:
Igor Barzilai : author of video game books
Frank Palusci : webmaster of the Atarimania website
Thierry Gaerthner : Atari collector
Fabien Folgoas : Video game collector

About Retroplay
Retroplay is an annual festival, providing visitors with: pinball machines, arcade terminals, video game consoles, antique computers and everything you need for those who like to dream and have fun.

Retroplay 4: October 22 and 23, 2022
14 rue du Stade, 44130 Le Gâvre
Website: Retroplay (4th Edition)
Facebook: Retroplay44