Now a division of Pizza Time Theatres, they further developed the Gridlee prototype hardware to create the Sente Arcade Computer I and II systems. The suit was quickly put aside when Bushnell arranged a licensing deal with Atari, granting them exclusive rights to home releases of Sente's arcade games. Īlthough Sente did not officially exist until October, Atari sued Bushnell anyway, claiming his April purchase of the company broke their non-compete agreement. The intent to acquire Videa for $2.2 million was published in January 1983 and Sente Technologies was officially founded on October 1, 1983. He hoped to use Videa as a way to re-enter the arcade game market quickly without having to start a company from the ground up since his agreement was set to expire in late 1983. Bushnell had left Atari (a company he co-founded) in 1978 and was required to sign a non-competitive agreement to keep him out of the video game business for several years.
Shortly thereafter Videa was acquired by Nolan Bushnell's Chuck E. The console market crashed in Christmas of 1983 and the prototype Gridlee machine did poorly out on its field test so Gottlieb and Fox both passed on their respective deals. An attempt was made to get Gottlieb to distribute Gridlee and Fox to release Lasercade and Atom Smasher (also known as Meltdown) but all three failed to come to market. Meltdown, also for the Atari 2600) in 1982 with the intent of entering both the arcade and home console market in 1983. Pogoz, an arcade game), Lasercade (for the Atari 2600) and Atom Smasher (a.k.a. Videa developed their first games, Gridlee (a.k.a.