Atari Ardfinnan

cml387 · 24-05-2015 9:28pm #1

Having just watched a documentary about how Atari buried thousands of video games (and essentially the company itself) in the New Mexico desert, I was reminded that Atari was also an Irish story, and more particularly a Tipperary story.

Atari opened a plant in Ardfinnan in 1974, and later a larger plant in Tipp town in 1978. They both manufactured arcade game machines, and I remember they were a reliable location for co-op jobs when I was in NIHE Limerick in the late 1970's.

ATARI built a huge factory in Dooradoyle in Limerick but never really got going there and it eventually became Dell's first Irish manufacturing location.

The Ardfinnan factory closed in 1989, later became the Moy Isover plant and is currently closed.

BTW
One of Atari's employees in California formed his own company with a colleague to make a personal computer, one of the main specifications being that it had a colour screen so that it could also play Breakout, a game they had designed for Atari.Their names were Steve Jobs and Bill Wozniak.

28-05-2015 4:33pm

cml387 wrote: »

Having just watched a documentary about how Atari buried thousands of video games (and essentially the company itself) in the New Mexico desert, I was reminded that Atari was also an Irish story, and more particularly a Tipperary story.

Atari opened a plant in Ardfinnan in 1974, and later a larger plant in Tipp town in 1978. They both manufactured arcade game machines, and I remember they were a reliable location for co-op jobs when I was in NIHE Limerick in the late 1970's.

ATARI built a huge factory in Dooradoyle in Limerick but never really got going there and it eventually became Dell's first Irish manufacturing location.

The Ardfinnan factory closed in 1989, later became the Moy Isover plant and is currently closed.

BTW
One of Atari's employees in California formed his own company with a colleague to make a personal computer, one of the main specifications being that it had a colour screen so that it could also play Breakout, a game they had designed for Atari.Their names were Steve Jobs and Bill Wozniak.

I remember seeing an Atari plant one time back when i was 11 or 12 on a trip somewhere alright but couldnt remember if it was in Bansha en route to Limerick or Ardfinnan en route to Cork. And now you tells me they also had one in Tipp town so i must have seen both of them and mistook the tipp town one for bansha

Thanks for this little trip down memory lane

28-05-2015 4:38pm

Here's another article about namcos takeover in 1996

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/namco-buys-tipperary-atari-plant-1.97177

cml387 · 28-05-2015 7:08pm

Discussing this with some pals at work, game destruction was a feature of the Limerick plant as well. They laid all the unwanted cartridges out in the carpark and got a roadroller to run over them!

cml387 · 28-05-2015 7:09pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I remember seeing an Atari plant one time back when i was 11 or 12 on a trip somewhere alright but couldnt remember if it was in Bansha en route to Limerick or Ardfinnan en route to Cork. And now you tells me they also had one in Tipp town so i must have seen both of them and mistook the tipp town one for bansha

Thanks for this little trip down memory lane

I think the one in Tipp town was off the main routes, so it's likely you saw the one in Ardfinnan.

28-05-2015 7:38pm

cml387 wrote: »

I think the one in Tipp town was off the main routes, so it's likely you saw the one in Ardfinnan.

Another thread about it here

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057379666/1/#post94265128

Magnum · 31-05-2015 8:40pm

cml387 wrote: »

I think the one in Tipp town was off the main routes, so it's likely you saw the one in Ardfinnan.

The one in Tipp Town was just off the N24 coming into Tipp from the Waterford side..

Atari Ardfinnan

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