Kee Games

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Kee Games Inc was incorporated on September 25th, 1973 to manufacture and distribute the games of Atari Inc under new names and a new brand. The company's logo would continue to be used by Atari until February of 1978.

The circumstances of Kee Games' creation are concerned with the operation of coin-op devices in exclusive territories. By industry practices, the larger distributors of coin-operated games would divide territorial regions of the United States which they would sell an exclusive type of product into. Historically, this meant that only one distributor would carry only manufacturer's jukebox, but this came to include games as well. In the West Coast region of the United States, only a single large distributor would carry Atari Inc games in any given territory with any overlapping distributors forced to look elsewhere for their product. This situation inspired Nolan Bushnell to create a secret subsidiary of Atari Inc which would be able to sell games to the overlapping distributors without outwardly concerning the traditional boundaries.

Picking his next door neighbor Joe Keenan to head the company, Atari Inc became the secret benefactor and beneficiary of Kee Games through its independent existence. The games created by Atari would be 'cloned' by Kee with all press making it clear that the two companies were not related, including working in two separate buildings. This state of affairs continued until September of 1974 when an 'acquisition' was announced and Kee Games would be gradually integrated into the Atari. The brand would be used on many of their variations on Tank and racing games until last used February of 1978 on the game Ultra Tank.

The incorporation of the company would later be used as a shell by Warner Communications following its purchase of Atari, with its name changed to Warner Entertainment Inc. on May 23rd, 1984. The unit would be wrapped up on December 15th, 1989.

Games

Elimination (1974) (released by Atari as Quadrapong) Spike (1974) (variation of Atari's Rebound) Formula K (1974) (clone of Atari's Gran Trak 10) Twin Racer (1974) (clone of Atari's Gran Trak 20) Tank (November 1974) Pursuit (1975) Indy 800 (1975) Indy 4 (1975) Quiz Show (1976) Sprint 2 (1976) Tank 8 (1976) Super Bug (1977) Sprint 1 (1978) Ultra Tank (1978)

Books

• Video Invaders by Steve Bloom
• Atari Inc: Business is Fun by Curt Vendel and Marty Goldberg.