Atari has announced that it has acquired the studio Implicit Conversions located in the American city of Delaware. According to Gamesbeat, this is a studio known for creating the Syrup Engine, which is used to bring titles from the 8, 16, and 32-bit eras to modern systems. Syrup currently supports seven classic systems, including Sony PlayStation (PlayStation 2 will be available soon).
This is not Implicit Conversion's first encounter with Atari, as they assisted the subsidiary Digital Eclipse in developing three PlayStation 1 games from the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection and also helped with Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition.
https://x.com/ImplicitConv/status/2047477690345939037
This is not Atari's first such studio, as they acquired the aforementioned Digital Eclipse for 20 million dollars in 2023, which also focuses on ports of classic titles, and that same year they purchased Nightdive Studios for 5 million. With the acquisition of Implicit, they hope to bring an even greater number of titles from the 32-bit era (mostly from PlayStation 1) that fall within the skill sets of Nightdive and Digital Eclipse.
"Implicit's work with 32-bit games using Syrup will fit perfectly with our experiences in the 8 and 16-bit game eras. With Bakesale Engine (Digital Eclipse) and Kex Engine (Nightdive), we now have the perfect set of tools and talented teams that can bring titles from our catalog, as well as our partners, to life," said Atari CEO Wade Rosen.
The acquisition was also commented on by the operations manager at Implicit Conversions Bill Litshauer: "In recent years, we have worked with Atari and Digital Eclipse on Mortal Kombat: Legacy Collection, Rayman and many more titles that we will reveal soon. When we explained the idea of partnership to them, it felt like we had found long-lost relatives. We share a passion for classic games by respecting the original versions, adding new contexts, and preserving them for the future."
He also added that: "One of the main reasons why Atari was interested in us is our experience with PlayStation and work on the Waffle emulator. We plan to expand our repertoire and help Atari realize their vision, but we will also remain focused on the development of Pancake (PS1 emulator), Waffle (PS2) and the future when we will tackle Benedict (PS3).
