Kee Games was an arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 manufacturer that released games from 1973 to 1978. Kee was headed by Joe Keenan, a long-time friend of Atari

Atari

Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

 co-founder Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell

Nolan K. Bushnell is an American engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theaters chain...

. Keenan managed to hire several defectors from Atari, and began advertising itself as a competitor. In reality, Kee Games was a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, created in response to the pinball and arcade distributors of the time who demanded exclusivity deals. Kee Games released several "clones

Clone (computer and video games)

A video game clone is a video game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series. Some video game genres are founded by such archetypal games that all subsequent similar games are thought of as derivatives.The term is sometimes derogatory,...

" of Atari games, allowing Atari to "exclusively" sell games to two distributors at once.

In December 1974, the relationship to Atari was discovered by the public. However, Kee's Tank

Tank (arcade game)

Tank is a two-player arcade game by Atari Inc. subsidiary Kee Games, originally released on November 5, 1974 and designed by Steve Bristow and Lyle Rains...

game had been so successful that the distributors wanted to buy the game even without an exclusivity agreement. At the same time, Atari was having financial and management problems, while Joe Keenan had been very successful managing Kee Games. The two companies merged, with Keenan promoted to president of Atari running the business side of things, and Bushnell focusing on engineering. Atari continued to use the "Kee Games" label to release some of their games until 1978, but from the merger on, the games were clearly labelled "a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, Inc.".

Games

• Elimination (October 1973) — cloned by Atari's Quadrapong
• Spike (March 1974) — a clone of Atari's Rebound, with an extra button labeled "spike"
• Formula K (April 1974) — a clone of Atari's Gran Trak 10
  Gran Trak 10
  Gran Trak 10 was a single-player racing arcade game released by Atari in 1974. The player raced against the clock, accumulating as many points as possible....
  
  
• Twin Racer (July 1974) — a clone of Atari's Gran Trak 20
• Tank
  Tank (arcade game)
  Tank is a two-player arcade game by Atari Inc. subsidiary Kee Games, originally released on November 5, 1974 and designed by Steve Bristow and Lyle Rains...
  
  (November 1974) — an original game that became very popular

• Pursuit (January 1975)
• Indy 800 (April 1975)
• Tank II (May 1975) — the first game sold under the "Kee" label with the Atari disclosure
• Quiz Show (April 1976)
• Tank 8 (April 1976)
• Indy 4 (May 1976)
• Sprint 2
  Sprint 2
  Sprint 2 is a 2 player overhead-view arcade racer released in 1976 by Kee Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari.-Technology:Sprint 2 evolved from Gran Trak 10 and Gran Trak 20, but included a microprocessor , a first for racing games. This allowed Sprint 2 to include two computer-controlled...
  
  (November 1976)
• Drag Race (June 1977)
• Super Bug (September 1977)
• Sprint 1 (January 1978)
• Ultra Tank (February 1978)

External links

• Entry at Killer List of Videogames
  Killer List of Videogames
  The Killer List of Videogames is a web site featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for players."....
  
  
• Entry at Arcade Flyers