It was 40 years ago from today, which is more than 20 years beyond my existence, Atari Inc. was incorporated in California. Shortly after, the company would release a game console that would change the then small gaming industry forever. The Magnavox Odyssey may have been the first console released on April of 1972, but it was the Atari 2600 released 6 months afterwards and its ever-so-popular Pong that helped the public know of the emerging industry we all know and love today.

It’s amazing how far the gaming industry as a whole has become. In the 1980s, the net worth of the game industry was $2 billion (which equates to about $4 billion in 2012), thanks to Space Invaders. Gaming has come a long way since then. In 2008, the net worth of the industry was said to be $10 billion and in just 3 years, the boom of the industry thanks to popular mainstream titles left the global gaming industry's net value set at over $65 billion in 2011. Where the industry is headed now, that number is only going to get bigger.

Do we have Atari to thank for what the industry has become today? Sometimes, it only takes one idea or concept to force a boom in creativity. With that being said, Happy 40^th Birthday, Atari!! Celebrate the moment, by saying what your favorite Atari game is.