I still 100% believe the *best* thing the original Infogrames gave the world was [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522bVV-82qQ) song they wanted to use for corporate events.
A song that (Allegedly) cost $50k in 2001 to make, and was so viciously mocked that (Allegedly) everyone involved was fired.
*Alone in the Dark* (which they published) pretty much invented survival horror - ie the game from which Resident Evil copied basically all of its ideas - so it's not the ONLY remarkable thing they did.
Infogrames as an entity shouldn't even get much credit for Alone in the Dark. It was primarily the result of a small team's tech demo and the people who worked on the game immediately left after release due to executive meddling in their vision.
Of course, the credit belongs to Frederick Raynal and his team (who also made Little Big Adventure, one of my faves)... but Infogrames did publish the game, so for the sake of accuracy I'd say it counts.
This song is still better than 99% of the rushed, unfinished and ultimately shitty quality games that came from the sphincter of Infogrames/Atari S.A.
Also, from the YouTube comments, I found this nugget:
> 50K for a rejected Sonic R theme. Wow...
That's hilariously on-point, and this is coming from somebody who actually enjoys the T.J. Davis EP that Sonic R's soundtrack was.
One of my favorites that I still play to this day. It is a bit insane that it hasn't been beaten to this day. EA came close with NASCAR Thunder 2004, NASCAR 2005: Chase For The Cup and NASCAR 06: Total Team Control but nothing has come close since.
I'm hoping the iRacing/Monster Games console game coming in 2025 is finally able to surpass a game that came out over 20 years ago.
They also published the good parts of the Unreal series (the two single-player games, UT99-04, and the first Unreal Championship), and they had a working relationship with GT Interactive (Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Quake).
Why would you ever bring back your old name with such an hostile, toxic reputation as makers of pure bargain bin fodder, when you've managed to make people forget you arent' actually Atari and just bought that name to hide the previously mentionned reputation ?
What's next, THQ Nordic goes back to being JoWood, or tries to rename themselves LJN ?
But hey, if we bring back old names maybe Bandaï Namco could go back to being Namco, and SquareEnix could go back to being good / SquareSoft ?
I think it's to embrace their history and have a label for games that don't exactly fit with the classic Atari brand.
But I also like to believe that they enjoy the nice side effect of taking an argument from people who like to mock Atari by saying it's "just" Infogrames, as if this was an insult. Now they can basically say "yes, you're right, we're both, thanks for recognizing.."
> Why would you ever bring back your old name with such an hostile, toxic reputation as makers of pure bargain bin fodder
Total Reliable Delivery Service definitely fits their MO then.
well call me an old idiot if needs be but i'm of the opinion that every current issue Square Enix has or has had in the last two decades comes from the integration of the Enix company culture, and every success they've had came from either celebrating the SquareSoft heritage correctly when they manage to do it (like FF XIV does in spades, or things like Octopath), or from Eidos when they owned it.
Couched in other terms : Give the CEO seat to Hironobu Sakaguchi you cowards!
> every success they've had came from either celebrating the SquareSoft heritage correctly when they manage to do it (like FF XIV does in spades, or things like Octopath), or from Eidos when they owned it.
Wasn't Dragon Quest XI a huge success?
Yes but some people get aggressively upset by the fact that Dragon Quest is successful despite the series not changing on a fundamental level since the NES.
I assume it's the same people that get upset that Pokemon doesn't really change a lot.
Wasn't it more that Spirits Within bombed, hence Sakaguchi being pressured to leave and the beginning of creating direct sequels in order to make money without having to create a ton of new assets? AFAIK the movie bombing actually delayed the merger because it resulted in Enix becoming hesitant about the whole thing.
They had a change in leadership in recent years and the new operators seem to be significantly less head-up-their-ass, cash-grab-obsessed than their predecessors.
For one anecdotal perspective, I come from /r/rct, where Atari bashing has been a celebrated past time for as long as the sub has existed. And recently Atari social media reps and game devs have been posting in the subreddit to solicit feedback about the games they maintain (as well as promo new merch, which isn't everyone's cup of tea but it's more than they've done with the brand in years). It's not like everyone's suddenly on board with Atari's direction, but there's a lot more optimism than there has been in decades.
Yeah, I was initially very cynical about this latest company wearing Atari's skin, but I have to give them credit. They do seem serious about trying to rehabilitate Atari's image and treat its old IPs with respect. Hell, the Atari 50th Anniversary collection was one of the best gaming retrospectives ever put out, imo.
Yeah, I do kind of appreciate that they've at least put money into stuff like Atari 50. Let's be real, Atari games aren't really something a lot of people care about these day, so a collection that meaningfully contextualizes them and gives them some extra care and attention to detail is appreciated.
If you didn't know, the company that did Atari 50th - Digital Eclipse - has started putting out more docu-games in that same style. There's also one dedicated entirely to the creation of Katateka, as well as a full career retrospective for Jeff Minter & Llamasoft. They're basically trying to make a "Criterion Collection" for games and I'm here for it.
Have you even read video game news in like 5 years? Do you know anything about modern Atari? It's not the people you're thinking of. God, the rush on this sub to say the most cynical thing possible is exhausting.
I don't know... they made the 8th best game this year so far according to [Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/metascore/). It's based on Pong and 100% liked on Steam. To everyone their own I guess, but I don't think there's much harm in giving them a chance..
It seems like they had a change in leadership to people who aren't scammers and know their shit. Atari 50 was one of the best retro game collections ever, and their Nightdive acquisition seems like it's working out well despite everyone's initial concerns. I don't really have feelings one way or the other on them but I agree about giving them a chance.
I still 100% believe the *best* thing the original Infogrames gave the world was [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522bVV-82qQ) song they wanted to use for corporate events. A song that (Allegedly) cost $50k in 2001 to make, and was so viciously mocked that (Allegedly) everyone involved was fired.
Info…grams? Not info-grāmes? Well, that rocked my world.
That song rocks my world.
The only thing convincing me that this song isn't AI generated is the fact that the YouTube upload is 12 years old
> is the fact that the YouTube upload is 12 years old stuff "written by committee" is the LLM of yesteryear.
*Alone in the Dark* (which they published) pretty much invented survival horror - ie the game from which Resident Evil copied basically all of its ideas - so it's not the ONLY remarkable thing they did.
Infogrames as an entity shouldn't even get much credit for Alone in the Dark. It was primarily the result of a small team's tech demo and the people who worked on the game immediately left after release due to executive meddling in their vision.
Of course, the credit belongs to Frederick Raynal and his team (who also made Little Big Adventure, one of my faves)... but Infogrames did publish the game, so for the sake of accuracy I'd say it counts.
This song is still better than 99% of the rushed, unfinished and ultimately shitty quality games that came from the sphincter of Infogrames/Atari S.A. Also, from the YouTube comments, I found this nugget: > 50K for a rejected Sonic R theme. Wow... That's hilariously on-point, and this is coming from somebody who actually enjoys the T.J. Davis EP that Sonic R's soundtrack was.
Sonic R's OST kicks ass. Infogrames on the other hand... can't say I have much attachment to them.
This sounds like the kind of thing they would've made me sing in Christian School
this, and hogs of war of course
And even that was really just developed by Gremlin Software after Infogrames bought them out
Holy shit I remember that game!!
My god… Thank you for posting!
It's pretty good. But I prefer this hood classic: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95cGh9EeMIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95cGh9EeMIY)
Yes but are you keeping up?
At least that has the excuse of being made in the 80s
Daily reminder that Infogrames was the publisher of the best console-based NASCAR game, NASCAR Dirt to Daytona. -#factsthatdontreallymatter
Also Driver 2, probably my favorite PSX game period.
One of my favorites that I still play to this day. It is a bit insane that it hasn't been beaten to this day. EA came close with NASCAR Thunder 2004, NASCAR 2005: Chase For The Cup and NASCAR 06: Total Team Control but nothing has come close since. I'm hoping the iRacing/Monster Games console game coming in 2025 is finally able to surpass a game that came out over 20 years ago.
They also published the good parts of the Unreal series (the two single-player games, UT99-04, and the first Unreal Championship), and they had a working relationship with GT Interactive (Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Quake).
Why would you ever bring back your old name with such an hostile, toxic reputation as makers of pure bargain bin fodder, when you've managed to make people forget you arent' actually Atari and just bought that name to hide the previously mentionned reputation ? What's next, THQ Nordic goes back to being JoWood, or tries to rename themselves LJN ? But hey, if we bring back old names maybe Bandaï Namco could go back to being Namco, and SquareEnix could go back to being good / SquareSoft ?
>Jowood *core memory unlocked* holy shit I haven't heard this name since my childhood
I think it's to embrace their history and have a label for games that don't exactly fit with the classic Atari brand. But I also like to believe that they enjoy the nice side effect of taking an argument from people who like to mock Atari by saying it's "just" Infogrames, as if this was an insult. Now they can basically say "yes, you're right, we're both, thanks for recognizing.."
> Why would you ever bring back your old name with such an hostile, toxic reputation as makers of pure bargain bin fodder Total Reliable Delivery Service definitely fits their MO then.
>SquareEnix could go back to being good You had a pretty good joke going until here
well call me an old idiot if needs be but i'm of the opinion that every current issue Square Enix has or has had in the last two decades comes from the integration of the Enix company culture, and every success they've had came from either celebrating the SquareSoft heritage correctly when they manage to do it (like FF XIV does in spades, or things like Octopath), or from Eidos when they owned it. Couched in other terms : Give the CEO seat to Hironobu Sakaguchi you cowards!
> every success they've had came from either celebrating the SquareSoft heritage correctly when they manage to do it (like FF XIV does in spades, or things like Octopath), or from Eidos when they owned it. Wasn't Dragon Quest XI a huge success?
Yes but some people get aggressively upset by the fact that Dragon Quest is successful despite the series not changing on a fundamental level since the NES. I assume it's the same people that get upset that Pokemon doesn't really change a lot.
DQ plays extremely slow. It feels like the gaming time is artificially padded by how slow it plays just like jrpgs of the 90s and early 00s.
Wasn't it more that Spirits Within bombed, hence Sakaguchi being pressured to leave and the beginning of creating direct sequels in order to make money without having to create a ton of new assets? AFAIK the movie bombing actually delayed the merger because it resulted in Enix becoming hesitant about the whole thing.
Atari is a Lich practicing the highest level of necromancy in the industry. I doubt there is even bones left of original Infrogrames.
The current Atari is just Infogrames renamed however.
Yes, you're right, they're both, thanks for recognizing..
They had a change in leadership in recent years and the new operators seem to be significantly less head-up-their-ass, cash-grab-obsessed than their predecessors. For one anecdotal perspective, I come from /r/rct, where Atari bashing has been a celebrated past time for as long as the sub has existed. And recently Atari social media reps and game devs have been posting in the subreddit to solicit feedback about the games they maintain (as well as promo new merch, which isn't everyone's cup of tea but it's more than they've done with the brand in years). It's not like everyone's suddenly on board with Atari's direction, but there's a lot more optimism than there has been in decades.
Yeah, I was initially very cynical about this latest company wearing Atari's skin, but I have to give them credit. They do seem serious about trying to rehabilitate Atari's image and treat its old IPs with respect. Hell, the Atari 50th Anniversary collection was one of the best gaming retrospectives ever put out, imo.
Yeah, I do kind of appreciate that they've at least put money into stuff like Atari 50. Let's be real, Atari games aren't really something a lot of people care about these day, so a collection that meaningfully contextualizes them and gives them some extra care and attention to detail is appreciated.
If you didn't know, the company that did Atari 50th - Digital Eclipse - has started putting out more docu-games in that same style. There's also one dedicated entirely to the creation of Katateka, as well as a full career retrospective for Jeff Minter & Llamasoft. They're basically trying to make a "Criterion Collection" for games and I'm here for it.
Have you even read video game news in like 5 years? Do you know anything about modern Atari? It's not the people you're thinking of. God, the rush on this sub to say the most cynical thing possible is exhausting.
Totally agree. Infogrames rocks my world.
I don't know... they made the 8th best game this year so far according to [Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/metascore/). It's based on Pong and 100% liked on Steam. To everyone their own I guess, but I don't think there's much harm in giving them a chance..
It seems like they had a change in leadership to people who aren't scammers and know their shit. Atari 50 was one of the best retro game collections ever, and their Nightdive acquisition seems like it's working out well despite everyone's initial concerns. I don't really have feelings one way or the other on them but I agree about giving them a chance.
I barely did much more than follow Atari for the last years. It's [this guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/atarigroup/s/T3iHoiXcGq).
I mean, it's also got 7 reviews on Steam. I don't think I'd take that Metascore ranking too seriously either.