Posted on Monday, October 1st, 2012 by Uri Halevi
Celebrating their 40th anniversary Atari indulges us with their favorite classics, from Asteroids to Centipede, redesigned in HTML5 with brand new graphics, and incredible touch gameplay on IE10.
When you play NBA Live, Diablo 3 or even Angry Birds you have to remember that none of these amazing games would be as advanced as they are today without the gaming pioneers. And Atari, being one of the biggest and most influential among them, is now celebrating its 40th birthday. To honor the occasion Atari has created the Atari Arcade project, resurrecting all our favorite games with an amazing new, younger HTML5 look that you can play in your internet browser, and is a real tribute to truly vanguard games.
Though operating for 40 years now, Atari has always had a hand on the pulse of the gaming world. We caught up this week with Peter Banks, Director of Product Marketing at Atari, who explained to us Atari’s plan to inspire developers and help them make their mark on the gaming world, while indulging us fans at the same time:
“Through our partnership with Microsoft and the developers at GSkinner, we were able to take full advantage of HTML5’s unique capabilities in a way nobody has before. For fans, the Atari Arcade makes it easier than ever to play some of the world’s most popular video games with each other. For developers, we released some awesome new enhancements to the CreateJS framework that helps developers build their own HTML5 games.”
So what we’ve actually found is that the entire Atari Arcade project is almost a smokescreen platform for young, talented HTML5 developers to use the Atari platform for their games: With their Developer Program, Atari Arcade SDK, a special developer forum, production resources and the opportunity to have your game published in the Atari Arcade, this is a clearly a great opportunity for the development minded readers among you.
The revenue share you earn from being published is competitive too, being based on advertising, in-game purchases and whatever else Atari come up with to monetize games in the future.
As a kid I remember spending hours trying not to crush ‘Lunar Lander’ as I tried to bring it home safely. Now I – and you – have the opportunity to relive such Atari glory days through your internet browser through the magic of HTML5. And if you’re an aspiring HTML5 game developer, there’s a great opportunity waiting for you too!
