Today we mourn Atari. Let's play Pong.

Did you own one of these when you were a kid?

Today we mourn Atari. Let's play Pong.

Did you own one of these when you were a kid?

If you did, you may well recall hours of innocent fun batting a small white ball from one side of the TV screen to the other.

If you didn't - it's an Atari 7800, and the 40-year-old company that made it is in trouble.

So what better way to honour their memory than by wasting some time playing Pong?

(Hit 'Play Game' on bottom right after the ads, and control the left-hand bat with the mouse. It's harder than you might think...).

[comment]

Source: mad4flash[/comment]

You're welcome.

So what's going on with Atari?

The company's US arm yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a bid to separate itself from its French parent company.

It's the latest ignominious chapter in the history of Atari, which was founded in 1972. Having introduced many of us to gaming with arcade titles such as Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command and, of course, Pong, Atari then brought gaming into the homes of thousands with the VCS (Video Computer System).

However it has struggled to compete in the console era, and despite having shifted its focus towards developing online and mobile games, its future appears far from secure.

Here's five things you may not have known about Atari:

1. The guys who started it, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, also made the world's first-ever coin-operated video game. So it's them you have to thank for all those teenage hours spent in the arcades...

2. The name comes from the Japanese verb ataru, meaning 'to hit the target'. The word 'atari' is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery.

3. The first home video game system was the Atari VCS, later named the Atari 2600 after subsequent models were released. When it first went on sale, it only had four games.

4. The 2600 sold in its millions and brought phenomenal success for Atari, which at one point was the fastest-growing company in the history of the US. However it all imploded in the early 80s, with company in-fighting and the great video game crash of 1983 putting a stop to its gallop.

5. And then there's Atari Teenage Riot, the early 90s German digital hardcore trio possibly better known for their t-shirts than their music. Still, we thought them worthy of an honourable mention.

MORE: The history of Atari (VIDEO)

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