U.S. Games

Industry| Video games
Fate| Dissolved
Founded| 1978 (1978)
Founder| Donald Yu
Defunct| March 1983 (1983-03)
Headquarters|

Santa Clara, California

United States

U.S. Games Corporation was a video game company founded by Donald Yu, which originally produced handheld electronic sports games. It pivoted to focus exclusively on video game software in 1981, and was acquired by cereal company Quaker Oats in 1982 to develop games for the Atari 2600.[1] U.S. Games released their first game, Space Jockey for the Atari 2600, in January 1982,[2] followed by 13 more cartridges in 1982 and 1983. Space Jockey and other early titles used the Vidtec brand name.[3]

Although sometimes cited as an example of non-technology companies attempting to produce video games,[4] Quaker purchased U.S. Games to work with its Fisher-Price toy brand and compete with rival cereal company General Mills's Parker Brothers division.[1]

U.S. Games hoped to, like Parker Brothers, gain a reputation for quality, licensed family-oriented games.[1] Parker Brothers had a very successful 1982 in the video game market, with hits like Frogger and The Empire Strikes Back.[5] U.S. Games's titles sold poorly, and Quaker closed the division during the video game crash of 1983,[6][1] before U.S. Games could use its newly acquired Pink Panther license.[1] "None of our games became a hit," said spokesman Ronald Bottrell. "Instead of pouring in a lot more capital, we decided to drop it".[7]

## Published titles

In order of product number:[6]

* Space Jockey
* Sneak 'n Peek
* Word Zapper
* Commando Raid
* Name This Game
* Towering Inferno
* M.A.D.
* Gopher
* Squeeze Box
* Eggomania
* Picnic
* Piece o' Cake
* Raft Rider
* Entombed

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Prince, Suzan D. (September 1983). "Faded Glory: The Decline, Fall and Possible Salvation of Home Video". Video Games (Pumpkin Press): 18-20, 77. https://archive.org/stream/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_12_1983-09_Pumpkin_Press_US#page/n17/mode/2up. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
2. ↑ Hacker, Randi (October 1982). "Software Update: Eight's Company". Video Games 1 (2): 16. https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_02_1982-10_Pumpkin_Press_US/page/n15.
3. ↑ Goodman, Danny (Spring 1983). "Home Video Games: Video Games Update". Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games: 32. http://www.atarimagazines.com/cva/v1n1/vgupdate.php.
4. ↑ Chance, Greg (March 17, 1996). "The Crash of 1984". http://www.videogames.org/html/crash.html.
5. ↑ Rosenberg, Ron (December 11, 1982). "Competitors Claim Role in Warner Setback". The Boston Globe: p. 1. https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/666912291.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+11,+1982&author=Ron+Rosenberg+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=COMPETITORS+CLAIM+ROLE+IN+WARNER+SETBACK&pqatl=google.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "AtariAge - Companies - U.S. Games". http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?SystemID=2600&CompanyID=41.
7. ↑ Video Games Go Crunch! \- TIME magazine, Oct. 17, 1983 issue

* v
* t
* e

Atari 2600

Games|

| 1977 launch titles|

* Air-Sea Battle
* Basic Math
* Blackjack
* Combat
* Indy 500
* Star Ship
* Street Racer
* Surround
* Video Olympics

|

Best-selling games|

* Pac-Man
* Pitfall!
* Asteroids
* Missile Command
* Space Invaders
* Demon Attack
* E.T.
* Atlantis
* Adventure
* River Raid
* Kaboom!

Game lists|

* List of Atari 2600 games
* List of Atari 2600 prototype games
* Atari 2600 games
* List of cancelled Atari 2600 games

Game developers|

* Atari, Inc.
* Activision
* Imagic
* Coleco
* CommaVid
* Data Age
* Games by Apollo
* M Network
* Mystique
* Parker Brothers
* Sega
* Spectravideo
* Telesys
* Tigervision
* U.S. Games
* Xonox
* Zimag

Game programmers|

* Steve Cartwright
* David Crane
* Tod Frye
* Rob Fulop
* Larry Kaplan
* Garry Kitchen
* Carla Meninsky
* Alan Miller
* Warren Robinett
* Carol Shaw
* Howard Scott Warshaw
* Bob Whitehead

Hardware|

* Atari 2600 hardware
* Television Interface Adaptor
* Starpath Supercharger
* Coleco Gemini
* CompuMate
* GameLine
* Atari Flashback
* Atari 2700
* Atari 5200
* Atari 7800

Emulation and Ports|

* Stella
* Atari Anthology
* Atari Greatest Hits
* Atari Vault

Related articles|

* Atari 2600 homebrew
* Atari Age magazine
* Racing the Beam
* Atari video game burial

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