The company developed and published games for arcades under the Atari brand, and across consumer home systems such as the Commodore 16, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and others using the Tengen label for legal reasons.

[7] The companies exchanged a number of lawsuits in the late 1980s related to disputes over the rights to Tetris, of which Tengen had published a version for the NES, and Tengen's circumvention of Nintendo's lockout chip, which prevented third parties from creating unauthorized games.

The suit finally reached a settlement in 1994, with Atari Games paying Nintendo cash damages and use of several patent licenses.

[8] In 1992, Richard Seaborne, who had previously programmed the NES version of Cyberball on a freelance basis for Atari, was hired by Atari to develop sports titles for a variety of consoles, most notably Sega Genesis.

[15] Time Warner Interactive, via Atari Games became a member of the Nintendo Ultra 64's Dream Team in the mid-1990s.

[16] In April 1996, after an unsuccessful bid by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, the company was sold to WMS Industries, owners of the Williams, Bally and Midway arcade brands, which restored the use of the Atari Games name, while the home consumer division was folded into Williams Entertainment, with its existing home consumer division was kept.

Meanwhile, Hasbro Interactive acquired the Atari brand for the home market from JTS Corporation that same year.

Two previously announced titles, Nitrocity and Gladiator: The Crimson Reign, were also cancelled in the process.

In February 2009, Midway Games filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and in July 2009, most of Midway's assets were sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, ultimately bringing all of the Atari Games properties back to Time Warner again.