Atari's Highly-Anticipated RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Game on Track to Loop, Twist and Soar into Stores November 2nd

Business Wire, Oct 11, 2004

BEVERLY, Mass. -- #1 Tycoon Franchise Moves to 3D And Features a CoasterCam and Other New Additions

Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) announced today that RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, the highly-anticipated next addition to the best-selling RollerCoaster Tycoon(R) franchise, has gone gold and is on target for a U.S. in-store date of November 2nd and a November 5th launch date in territories outside the U.S.

RollerCoaster Tycoon(R) 3, the #1 Tycoon series with over eight million units sold life-to-date worldwide*, is a complete update for the franchise with stunning 3D graphics and the ability to see the park from the eyes of a guest and ride all the rides with the new CoasterCam(TM) feature. The game features amazing crowd scenes with enhanced park guests and characters, over 170 rides including new-to-the-franchise roller coaster types, realistic day and night cycles with superb lighting effects, extensive still-picture and movie-making capability to allow players to share the fruits of their creativity, a Sandbox Mode and many other new features which build upon the fun and addictive nature of the original games.

In addition, a new Fireworks MixMaster(TM) lets players create pyrotechnic masterpieces and synchronize them to music using pre-set in-game songs or selections from their own music files. And, as with all the other customizable elements like exchanging rides and people, in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, players will be able to trade firework shows with other players. In addition, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 will also include the ability to assign music from the player's own library to rides in the park, import roller coaster designs from previous games in the franchise, and features various weather effects.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was developed by Frontier Developments, Ltd. of Cambridge, England, in conjunction with Chris Sawyer, the creator and sole developer of the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise. A free playable demo of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is available for download at http://www.atari.com/rollercoastertycoon. A pre-order program is currently underway allowing consumers that reserve a copy of the game to receive a Coaster Pack containing three exclusive, professionally designed coasters. Additional information about the features of the new game, videos, screenshots, character art, background information and other assets can also be found on the official site.

About Frontier Developments, Ltd.

Frontier and its founder, David Braben, have a long association with Chris Sawyer going back to 1987, when Chris first worked on PC versions of the famous "Elite" and "Virus" games. Frontier has for many years used its own cutting-edge 3D game engine on both PC and console titles. The company has a strong track record of creating both innovative 'own-IP' games and original high-quality titles that give a faithful treatment of existing brands. The company's most recent two console games gathered three prestigious BAFTA (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nominations between them ("Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo" on PlayStation(R)2, Xbox, GameCube and PC, based on Aardman Animations Ltd.'s multiple Oscar(R)-winning duo; and the novel, award-winning "Dog's Life" published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe on PlayStation(R)2). Frontier employs approximately 60 people, and has offices in Cambridge and Ely in the UK.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as DRIV3R(TM), Enter the Matrix(TM), Neverwinter Nights(TM), Stuntman(TM), Test Drive(R), Unreal(R) Tournament 2004, and Unreal(R) Championship; and mass-market and children's games such as Backyard Sports(TM), Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues(TM) and Dora the Explorer(TM), Civilization(R), Dragon Ball Z(R) and RollerCoaster Tycoon(R). Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.

*Over six million units in the U.S. through August 2004 according to The NPD Group, Inc.

(C) 2004 Atari, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

RollerCoaster Tycoon(R) 3 game (C) 2004 Chris Sawyer. Programming (C) 2004 Frontier Developments Ltd. All rights reserved.

The NPD Group is a service mark of NPD Group, Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.