Draft:Alan-1 Inc.

Alan-1 Inc. is an American game developer, based in Tooele, UT. They began with a free play arcade in Roy, UT called Flynn's Retrocade, then upon needing better parts for many of their classic games, began reproducing difficult-to-source arcade parts. They then moved into game development with their first title, Avian Knights. That later expanded into arcade hardware and software development with the release of Asteroids Recharged.

The name Alan-1 comes from a line from the 1982 Disney film, TRON. When the character Tron is interfacing with his user, Alan Bradley, in the real world, he is asked to confirm his identity. Tron responds with "Confirmed, Alan-1!"

Arcade Parts

Being run by classic arcade collectors, the company first set out to recreate some hard-to-find parts for some particular games such as Atari's 1983 arcade version of Star Wars. This led to the development of the Alan-1 Flight Yoke, designed to operate as a drop-in replacement into any arcade game that used the same design.

Video Game Development

The first endeavor at the company came in the form of a game that was initially known as Jousting Heroes, later changed to Avian Knights. Similar in style to the 1982 Williams arcade classic Joust, players ride upon giant birds and battle it out in an arena. The game includes features that Joust did not have, such as the ability to lay an egg as a chance to revive your knight, and new weapons that could be powered up multiple times.

The game was first released as a timed exclusive for the modern Atari VCS game console, then later came to PCs via Steam. A coin-op arcade version was also created, where a prototype debuted at Amusement Expo 2023.. Production models of the arcade version have not yet been completed.

The game earned Alan-1 an award in the "Pushing Boundaries" category for the Utah Game Dev Choice Awards 2023.

Arcade Game Development

Following the success of Avian Knights on the Atari VCS, Alan-1 caught the attention of Atari SA, and at the beginning of 2024, worked out a licensing deal to bring the "Atari Recharged" series of games from consoles to arcades. The first of these games to receive the treatment was Asteroids Recharged. Only six weeks after inking the deal, Alan-1 brought an early prototype of the game to Amusement Expo International 2024 in Las Vegas, NV. After a longer period of development through the year, the game reached production and began shipping out in November 2024.

The official debut of the game took place at the IAAPA Expo 2024 event in Orlando, FL in November 2024. Alan-1 took several cabinets to this event, where the game won the prestigious IAAPA Brass Ring Award, 1st place in Games & Devices. . Aside from the award, this marked the first time in many years that the Atari name had returned to the industry that it had revolutionized with the release of PONG back in 1972, but had failed to survive after Atari Games had been bought out by Midway in 1999.

Major League eSports

The company developed a mobile app that was integrated into Avian Knights called Major League eSports, or MLeS for short. It turns games like Avian Knights and Asteroids Recharged into eSport games, where players can compete based upon their scores from anywhere around the world.