it's one of the oldest video game
companies out there but not everything
gets better with age hi everyone I'm
Ricky with WatchMojo and today we are
counting down our picks for the top 10
epic Atari fails for this list we'll be
looking at all the mistakes missteps and
outright failures that have taken place
over Ataris extensive lifespan stick
around it's gonna be fun I'm so glad
you're back
Edward they attacked us I managed to
lose Crowley hide here but he'll come
back for the stone if you like what
you're hearing be sure to check out the
full song at the link below
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number ten Atari VCS inspired by the
past but created designed and engineered
for today introducing the Atari VCS in
the mid to late 2010's nintendo found
great success with the mini nests and
snez prompting other companies like Sony
and Sega to follow suit the artists of
the bunch however was Atari which sought
to distinguish itself from the pack with
the Atari VCS
the system is admittedly intriguing it
borrows from the Atari 2600 aesthetic
but unlike the aforementioned retro
consoles actually runs modern games
unfortunately since the reveal the
console has faced a troubled development
in addition to several delays the
consoles lead engineer left the project
over payment issues as of November 2019
at Ari has said they're in the final
stages of pre-production and should
start shipping to IndieGoGo backers in
March 20 20 before sending units to
retail it's a refreshing breath of air
to have the atari brand come back to
gaming number 9 rollercoaster tycoon
series
the concept of rollercoaster tycoon is
one with timeless appeal what kid
wouldn't want to build their own crazy
theme park or create rides to send
visitors plummeting to their death
well Atari has tried bringing back the
series but clearly the company doesn't
understand what initially made the IP so
appealing
so far it shelled out a mobile game that
was monetized to hell
ports of the classic games and a candy
crush lipof it just seems tone-deaf
Atari seems absolutely determined to
bring the franchise back but efforts
thus far have left fans feeling that
Atari is only interested in cleaning out
their wallets
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number eight rebooting haunted house
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apart from rollercoaster tycoon and
another entry on this list Atari doesn't
really have a lot of valuable IPS under
its belt 1982's haunted house however
holds a special place in the hearts of
gamers as one of the earliest survival
horror games
sadly Atari tarnished that legacy with
2014's haunted house cryptic graves a
sequel that tormented players not in
frights but with dreadful voice acting
bugged achievements and graphics that
gave off the impression that it wasn't
even finished how is it possible that
your senses haven't reacted to a place
like this haunted house may have been a
solid title back in 1982 but it feels
like the only reason Atari tried
reviving it was to capitalize on the
return of survival horror
number seven rebooting asteroids haunted
house is not the only artifact from
Ataris heyday to have undergone a
half-assed reboot Atari similarly
attempted to revive asteroids in 2015
with asteroids outpost this new approach
would turn the franchise from top-down
shooter to first-person shooter with
open-world elements that doesn't even
make any sense the announcement of its
early access released less journalist
tired and fans uninterested it also
didn't help that the build was
practically unplayable or that the mash
of genres made the game's objectives
rather confusing to no one's surprise it
wasn't long before the game was delisted
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number 6 rebooting alone in the dark
twice of all the times Atari tried
reviving a revered IP this was the
absolute biggest screw-up
in 2008 Atari attempted to bring back
alone in the dark a horror franchise
from the 90s that had been praised for
its unique art style and for helping
evolve the horror genre
unfortunately the 2008 reboot went and
tarnished his reputation with laughably
bad writing and a plethora of technical
issues you only have to be quite a
negotiator Atari attempted damage
control in the form of suing various
European gaming websites claiming they
based their reviews off of unlisted
illegally obtained bills unsurprisingly
this response to earn them a little love
from the community the company would try
to bring back the franchise in 2015 with
alone in the dark illumination but that
was arguably even worse
number five Atari Lynx and Jaguar Atari
Lynx the portable video arcade
throughout the late 80s to mid 90s the
world watched as Ataris Hardware
credibility burst into flames with the
failures of its last two consoles in
September 1989
Atari tried to compete with Nintendo's
Game Boy by releasing the Atari Lynx a
handheld unit that saw healthy critical
reception but quickly died due to a
lackluster marketing budget Lynx only
lasted until 1995 while Atari poured all
of their resources into what would be
their final console at the time the
Atari Jaguar
here's Benjamin Hall on the Jaguar
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needless to say the system bombed
reviewers pointed out design flaws like
the weird controllers and frequently
compared its graphics to the SNES Jaguar
would last from 1993 to 1996 before
Atari finally called it quits and left
the console market
number four toxic work environments we
took it and so I took it back to them
and they looked at and they said it's
two-player game I don't you know we
don't think that would work
Atari found themselves in some real hot
water back in early 2018 after it was
announced that co-founder Nolan Bushnell
was to receive the Pioneer Award from
the Game Developers Conference
Kotaku writer Cecilia Dennis Tazio
released an article where she
interviewed several women who work for
Atari in the late 70s their stories
revealed a toxic work environment with
one story revealing the female employees
were invited to meetings in a hot tub
this would cause Bushnell to lose the
Pioneer Award and it sparked a
discussion on how much of an impact
Atari may have had on how gaming
companies behaved behind closed doors
Bushnell for his part agreed with his
removal and apologized for his past
behavior that is really crappy number
three eg the extra-terrestrial we were
really close to putting the Atari 2600
port of pac-man on this list but one
cannot ignore the catastrophic game that
was et unfair punishing technically
unstable ET checks boxes for many of the
worst descriptors of video game can earn
what made the whole thing worse was that
this was being advertised as the perfect
Christmas gift for kids instead the game
was returned to stores on mass and all
unsold copies were taken to be buried in
a desert in New Mexico over 700,000
copies of various Atari games including
et were hidden away from the world 1,300
of which were uncovered during a 2014
excavation you'd think that Donna burn
them all throw them away in a kind of
more obvious and public way number two
turning down Nintendo and Sega an ATAR
there was a very strong
Engineering influence my company that
preceded me believe it or not there was
a time where the gaming industry could
have taken a drastically different turn
while the industry struggled to cope
with an economic disaster Nintendo
approached Atari in early 1983 to see if
the gaming giant could distribute the
Famicom console to US markets however
Ray Kassar pulled out after seeing
Donkey Kong running on a rival console
at the Consumer Electronics Show you
have to balance business the product and
engineers the market Kassar believed
Nintendo had breached their exclusivity
deal but that was not the case and not
long later
hasar was forced to resign from his
position the rest is history with
Nintendo but Atari missed another
opportunity in the late 80s to
distribute Sega's Genesis
aka the Mega Drive want more video game
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you never knew existed with more lists
breakdowns in our latest series arcade
roulette Justin and John are in there's
a lot of things being ripped off in this
game number one video game crash of 1983
o doors again it comes with 27 games but
that's just for starters the crash of
1983 is often associated with ET but the
game only popped the bubble
it wasn't the definitive cause Atari was
one of many video game companies that
continuously pumped out titles while
ignoring their quality increasing their
output year after year after Ichi
launched the industry went into a
massive recession and caused several
companies to shut down sorry only our
demonstrators left even Nintendo's
Hiroshi Yamauchi blamed Atari for the
crash in 1986 claiming they had hurt the
industry when their third-party approach
left it quote swamped with rubbish games
this forced companies like Nintendo to
enforce strict quality control and
rebuilding consumer trust in video games
by placing seal of quality stickers on
their games the new video computer
system by Atari more games more fun look
everybody makes mistakes but
single-handedly taking down an entire
industry because you kept pumping out
trash games now that is the mother lode
of
all screw-ups alright guys thank you so
much for checking out the video if you
liked it
make sure to leave a like and drop a
comment and I'll see you guys next video
do you agree with our picks let us know
in the comments and hey if you like the
music playing right now be sure to check
out the full song right here
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