The current company that holds the Atari brand and assets is filing for bankruptcy and planning to sell everything to the highest bidder   That fact is not as much news as an update to the “when will Atari go bankrupt again” section of the Atari entry on Wikipedia.  What *is* news is the fact that we now live in the D.I.Y., crowd funded,  Kickstarter era that allows for “crazy ideas that just might work”. In the case of Atari, it’s the loyal fans who have spun up an idea that is simply too good to fail, but probably will anyway:

The fans want to buy Atari.

Over at AtariAge.com, the preeminent spot on the interwebs for Atari enthusiasts, an idea was sprung today to take back Atari for the fans.  The effort is being spearheaded by Curt Vendel (recent co-author of Atari Inc.: Business Is Fun).  The idea is to buy Atari’ assets when they go up for auction, then start a new company then embraces fan efforts and the true history and legacy of the company.

Even though the idea seems outlandish, what if it came to be?  What if every dollar you contributed to a Kickstarter.com campaign turned into a share of stock in a video game company?   I’m not sure the SEC would let it fly just yet, but that’s a matter for others to figure out.

For now, my thoughts (and my $20 or so) are behind owning a piece of video game history.  Will it work? You can check out the idea and the progress here:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/207910-lets-pool-our-resources-and-buy-atari-how-much-will-you-contribute/#entry2681825