Id Software - The Story of the Atari 2600

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Game Line was an online game service for the Atari 2600. Game Line would eventually go through some corporate restructuring and emerge six years later as America online. Even at that point in time, AOL still had its tendrils in Silicon Valley. Do you know what Id's first name was before they shortened it to Id Software?

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

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