'Pong' Officially Nominated for a Chance to Receive a Star on San Francisco's 'Walk of Game' at Metreon
NEW YORK, Oct. 5: Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), a leader in interactive entertainment, today announced PONG has officially been nominated for a chance to receive a commemorative star on the Walk of Game. Located at Metreon, Walk of Game is the first-of-its-kind landmark dedicated to honoring the icons and pioneers of the interactive entertainment industry. Walk of Game inaugural winners include Nolan Bushnell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Halo, Link (The Legend of Zelda), Mario, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Throughout the month of October, gamers worldwide are encouraged to cast their votes once a day for PONG at http://www.WalkofGame.com . These votes will determine the next set of inductees to receive a permanent 24" x 24", customized steel star on "The Walk" that will forever memorialize their impact on videogame culture. Voting opened at 12:01 a.m. PT on October 1, 2005 and will close at 11:59 p.m. PT on October 31, 2005. The final 2006 inductees will be announced in November 2005.
Originally released in 1972, PONG, the first commercially successful video game, was an adaptation of table tennis to the video screen and is widely regarded as ushering in the video game era.
The 2006 Walk of Game Nominees include:
Games/Characters
Castlevania, Civilization, Donkey Kong, Doom, Double Dragon, EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Fox McCloud (Star Fox), Frogger, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Madden NFL, Myst, Pac-Man, Pitfall Harry, PONG, Quake, Resident Evil, Samus Aran (Metroid), Space Invaders, StarCraft, Street Fighter II, Tetris and The Sims
Lifetime Achievement
John Carmack (Doom), Peter Molyneux (Populous, Fable), Sid Meier (Civilization, Pirates!), Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man), Will Wright (Sim Series)
About Metreon
Metreon is a 350,000 square-foot entertainment center located at Fourth and Mission streets in the heart of San Francisco, which features an eclectic mix of the Bay Area's best restaurants, shopping venues, theatres, and entertainment destinations, including the West Coast's largest IMAX theatre.
About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as DRIVERTM, The MatrixTM, StuntmanTM and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children's franchises such as Nickelodeon's Blue's CluesTM and Dora the ExplorerTM, and Dragon Ball Z®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext - ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit http://www.atari.com .
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