Ever Wonder? How Atari Got It's Name

[crustyasp46]

This article was published in "I/O - The Magazine of the Atari Home
Computer Club" in issue 3 - Summer 1983. The magazine was the official
mouthpiece of Atari UK. The article was not attributed to any one person.
The words are thiers, not mine.

How Atari Got It's Name
-----------------------

The name Atari actually comes from Japan. And yet the company is most definitely American. Every wondered why? It's an interesting story and one well worth telling.

In 1972 three friends decided to invent and market the first commercially feasible video game. They were Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney and Larry Bryan.

To become a partner each man had to submit $100 to the project - a remarkably small sum when you consider the company's success! The next step was to find a name.

Drinking beer and thumbing through the dictionary one day, the three friends came across an interesting entry under "S". The word was Syzygy, or "the straight-line configuration between three celestial bodies". What
a perfect name they thought, for three such astronomically talented people!

Now they could get on with the business of inventing games. Their first, Computer Space, was produced and all seemed to be going well.

But then things started to get a little shaky. Larry Bryan decided not to ante up his $100 and pulled out, leaving Bushnell and Dabney to go it alone.

The set up a shop in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated the business. A little later they invented Pong(r).

Busnell and Dabney applied for the name Syzygy to the Office of the California Secretary of State, which regulates Californian corporations, but were told that they were too late. The name was already taken.

Following unsuccessful attempts to buy the rights to the name from the first Syzygy corporation, which appeared to be inactive, the friends' solicitor pressed them to think up an alternative.

This proved difficult. BD Inc and DB Inc were tested and then rejected in turn: the first bore too close a resemblance to Black & Decker, the second to Dunn and Bradstreet.

Inspiration occurred at last, once again in an informal atmosphere. Bushnell and Dabney were both keen players of Go, a Japanese strategy game, and their best brainstorming always occurred over a good game and a bottle of beer.

This time, they decided to make a list of several Go words to see if one of them would fly as the new corporate name.

First choice was "Sente", which means "the upper hand" - something that greatly appealed. Second and third choices were "Atari", which has a similar meaning to the English word "check", and "Hanne", an acknowledgement of an over-taking move.

Busnell and Dabney submitted the list once again to the Office of the Californian Secretary of State, which approved "Atari". The rest is history.

When the company name changed, Bushnell and Dabney decided to update the logo too. They incorporated the "S" from Syzygy and the "A" from Atari into the new design.

It was not until later, as the company became increasingly successful, that an advertising agency designed the slicker and now famous Atari logo - the "fuji" or stylised "A" design.

[Hot Trout]

Great story Crusty, i never knew that.