#atari japan

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On right: Namco president Masaya Nakamura (w/ glasses) & Atari Japan / Namco exec Hideyuki Nakajima, c. 1974

From Atari 50 - Namco DLC

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1974 - Hideyuki Nakajima becomes president of Atari Japan 1974 - Namco--Masaya Nakamura president--buys Atari Japan 1978 - Nakajima made president of new US arm, Namco America 1985 - Namco America buys 60% of Atari Games from WB 1987 - Nakamura, frustrated w/ WB & Atari Games, sells 33% to a group of Atari Games employees, led by Nakajima 1987 - Nakajima resigns from Namco America, becomes president of Atari Games, which with no majority shareholder (Namco and WB each own 40%, employees have 20%) is effectively an independent company; Nakamura chairs its board 1987 - December: Atari Games, having failed to persuade Nintendo to grant it more favorable licensing terms for NES games, agrees to Nintendo's highly restrictive standard licensing terms 1987 - December 21: Nakajima founds Atari Games division Tengen (Tengen is a term from the Japanese board game Go; the name Atari also comes from Go) 1988 - Tengen tells US Copyright Office they need Nintendo's NES lockout chip copyright application, complete with the chip's source code, for a (nonexistent) ongoing legal case; under this false pretense, Tengen obtains the NES lockout chip source code from the Copyright Office 1988 - midyear: Nakamura's chairmanship of Atari Games ends 1988 - October: Tengen publishes Nintendo-licensed NES Pac-Man 1988 - December: Atari Games sues Nintendo for antitrust practices and announce they will release their own Tengen-branded NES carts, without Nintendo license 1989 - Tengen publishes Nintendo-unlicensed NES Pac-Man 1989 - November: Nintendo sues Atari Games for copyright and patent infringement of their NES lockout chip 1990 - Tengen releases Nintendo-unlicensed NES Ms. Pac-Man 1991 - April: District court preliminary injunction enjoins Atari Games from selling more unlicensed games prior to trial 1993 - November: Namco publishes their own (Namco Hometek) Nintendo-licensed NES Pac-Man 1994 - March: WB re-acquires controlling stake in Atari Games, subsequently consolidates its division Tengen into Time-Warner Interactive 1994 - June: Atari Games and Nintendo settle consolidated antitrust & copyright/patent infringement suit "with Atari Games paying Nintendo for damages and use of several intellectual property licenses" (Wikipedia) 1994 - July: Nakajima dies age 64

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Sources: Wikipedia, NY Times, GameFAQs