Tengen AC Adapter?

[mobiusclimber]

As far as I know, Tengen never made a console. Yet I own a Tengen power adapter. Anyone know what this is to or maybe have some info on it. I thought Tengen was only in the software business.

[Necromancer]

I'd guess it's for an Atari, since they were the parent company of Tengen.

[mobiusclimber]

Oh ok, I had no idea. wonder how I ended up w/ the AC adapter... Probably someone was using it w/ an NES or something. (I buy a lot of stuff to resell.)

[DragonmasterDan]

As far as I know, Tengen never made a console. Yet I own a Tengen power adapter. Anyone know what this is to or maybe have some info on it. I thought Tengen was only in the software business.

Probably for some peripheral, Tengen was "Atari Games" which was actually Namco. Atari that made the 2600,5200,7800, Lynx and Jaguar are/were a seperate company.

Atari Games is now owned (in name only) by Midway.

Atari is basically Infogrames now (though is technically their own entity)

[guyjin]

can you tell us what kind of voltage it outputs?

[Necromancer]

Probably for some peripheral, Tengen was "Atari Games" which was actually Namco.

Are you sure about that?  I believe Namco only bought out Atari's Japan branch, not the US branch which was eventually split into Atari Games and Atari Corp.

[DragonmasterDan]

Probably for some peripheral, Tengen was "Atari Games" which was actually Namco.

Are you sure about that?  I believe Namco only bought out Atari's Japan branch, not the US branch which was eventually split into Atari Games and Atari Corp.

Yes, I'm 100% sure.

Namco didn't buy out anything. After Atari was bought out/ given to by Jack Tramiel in 1984 Time Warnerm agreed with Namco on terms to settle some outstanding licensing debts with Namco by basically giving them Atari's arcade division. Atari was losing tons of money for Time Warner and splitting the company into two pieces was an easier way to relieve the giant debt Atari had been accumulating.

The arcade division of Atari which was given to Namco in exchange for settling some outstanding debts (Namco also accepted existing debts that division had) became became Atari Games, since Atari was a bigger name in the US than Namco was, Namco did their US distribution for most arcade titles through Atari Games. When Namco decided to open up a division to produce NES products, they decided not to include the Atari name (considering the other Atari was now a competitor of theirs and that they didn't own the name for consumer products) and as a result settled on Tengen.

Namco ran Atari games until sometime in the early 90s when they sold the branch to Midway (Tengen became a seperate entity from Atari games at one point as well).

But Atari (who made the 7800, Jaguar, Lynx etc) and Tengen were always separate entities.

Added in edit:
I think it's possible that Atari may have included their Japanese division in the Namco deal (I've not heard it mentioned before but it wouldn't be surprising considering at the time Atari wanted out of the video game business and into the computer business), but for the US this created two seperate companies Atari Corp (the console and computer company) and Atari Games (the arcade and Tengen company)

[Necromancer]

Namco didn't buy out anything.

After Atari was bought out/ given to by Jack Tramiel in 1984 Time Warner agreed with Namco on terms to settle some outstanding licensing debts with Namco by basically giving them Atari's arcade division. Atari was losing tons of money for Time Warner and splitting the company into two pieces was an easier way to relieve the giant debt Atari had been accumulating.

The arcade division of Atari which was given to Namco in exchange for settling some outstanding debts (Namco also accepted existing debts that division had) became became Atari Games, since Atari was a bigger name in the US than Namco was, Namco did their US distribution for most arcade titles through Atari Games. When Namco decided to open up a division to produce NES products, they decided not to include the Atari name (considering the other Atari was now a competitor of theirs and that they didn't own the name for consumer products) and as a result settled on Tengen.

Namco ran Atari games until sometime in the early 90s when they sold the branch to Midway (Tengen became a seperate entity from Atari games at one point as well).

This contradicts much of what's on wikipedia, not that it's gospel (though it sounds right to me).  According to them, controlling interest of Atari Games was sold to Namco in '85, which sold out to employees the following year; since Tengen wasn't formed until '87, it couldn't have been a part of Namco (nor was it ever anything but a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari Games).  In '93, Time Warner again purchased controlling interest in Atari Games, at which point Tengen was killed and games were released under Time Warner Interactive (three years before Midway bought Atari Games). 

But Atari (who made the 7800, Jaguar, Lynx etc) and Tengen were always separate entities.

True, but I'd still guess that this power supply is for an Atari, considering their history and their hatred of licensed goodies.

Added in edit:
I think it's possible that Atari may have included their Japanese division in the Namco deal (I've not heard it mentioned before but it wouldn't be surprising considering at the time Atari wanted out of the video game business and into the computer business), but for the US this created two seperate companies Atari Corp (the console and computer company) and Atari Games (the arcade and Tengen company)

Namco bought out Atari's Japanese arm in 1974.  Before then, they weren't in the coin-op business.

[DragonmasterDan]

This contradicts much of what's on wikipedia, not that it's gospel (though it sounds right to me).  According to them, controlling interest of Atari Games was sold to Namco in '85, which sold out to employees the following year; since Tengen wasn't formed until '87, it couldn't have been a part of Namco (nor was it ever anything but a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari Games).  In '93, Time Warner again purchased controlling interest in Atari Games, at which point Tengen was killed and games were released under Time Warner Interactive (three years before Midway bought Atari Games). 

It goes along with what I said about Tengen being formed when Atari games wanted to open a home division. I might be off about what hapened to Tengen after they were sold, and it's quite possible that Time Warner again bought them (I never looked it up), I just know that they ended up in Midways hands.

Tengen and Atari Games were both operated by Namco for all intents and purposes at the time and were for all intents and purposes the same company, separate from actual Atari Corp.

True, but I'd still guess that this power supply is for an Atari, considering their history and their hatred of licensed goodies.

It's just as likely to be for a NES, Tengen didn't even make 7800 or Lynx games that I'm aware of (I could be wrong).

Namco bought out Atari's Japanese arm in 1974.  Before then, they weren't in the coin-op business.

That I did not know, I'm guessing they strictly bought out the coin op division? I know that under Time Warner control Atari launched the 2800 in Japan in 1982, so it's not like Namco had sole rights of Atari products in Japan.

Added in edit:
I re-read what you said about Atair Games and Namco splitting off a year later, I guess that's also correct but the company was basically being indirectly controlled by Namco for quite some time (through the late 80s) from my understanding of the situation.

[mobiusclimber]

Thanks for the all the info, and I'll post the output voltage tonight. (when I get home from work.)

[Joe Redifer]

Well Tengen had Klax for the Genesis and Namco had their own version of Klax for the Japanese Mega Drive, so they MUST have been the exact same company since history began.  That's right, Atari is responsible for Splatterhouse and Dig Dug.  Namco made Gauntlet 4 for the Genesis.

[Tatsujin]