US Games

Not to be confused with U.S. Games Systems, Inc..
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

US Games 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 then-conglomerate Quaker Oats in 1982 to develop games for the Atari 2600 in complement to its Fisher-Price toy brand.[1] Sometimes cited—because of the Quaker Oats connection—as an extreme example of companies trying to get into the video game business,[2][3] US Games released 14 games (with varying cartridge designs) and then closed their doors after only a year in operation during the North American video game crash of 1983[4]

A TV commercial for one of their games, Space Jockey, aired in the United States.[5]

"None of our games became a hit," said spokesman Ronald Bottrell. "Instead of pouring in a lot more capital, we decided to drop it."[6]

Published titles

In alphabetical order:

References

  1. ↑ Prince, Suzan (September 1983). "The Decline, Fall and Possible Salvation of Home Video". Video Games (Pumpkin Press). Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  2. ↑ Chance, Greg (March 17, 1996). "The Crash of 1984". videogames.org.
  3. ↑ "Useful Notes: The Great Video Game Crash of 1983". TV Tropes.
  4. ↑ "AtariAge - Companies - US Games". Retrieved 2006-09-19.
  5. ↑ "Space Jockey Atari 2600 Commercial". YouTube.
  6. ↑ Video Games Go Crunch! - TIME magazine, Oct. 17, 1983 issue


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