Atari, Internet Explorer, and HTML5 Bring Back the Classics

Posted by Kerry Godes
Senior Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Operations

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of its first arcade games – classics like Pong, Asteroids, and Missile Command – Atari partnered with Internet Explorer and Grant Skinner to create the new Atari Arcade that features eight classic games with more titles to come.

As a leading pioneer of this entertainment platform, Atari sold 30 million Atari 2600 consoles, quickly became the definitive gaming platform of its era, and inspired multiple video game franchises.

Guaranteed to spark nostalgia for enduring fans, the Atari Arcade is also intended to reach a new and broader audience of gamers and game developers via the web. The games were all built with HTML5 and multi-player capabilities that come to life with a new Windows 8 touch device and Internet Explorer 10. They also work great in IE9 on a Windows 7 PC, or any other modern browser.

Hear from Atari’s Founder Nolan Bushnell and the team on how the project came together in this video:  

For developers, the team has also created a software development kit available in the developer behind the scenes section of the site, along with new and updated versions of JavaScript libraries and new tutorials for building HTML5 games. All code is available on the Internet Explorer GitHub repository here.
 
For more on this collaboration, see the Exploring IE blog or start gaming at Atari Arcade.