Xante is one of the more interesting companies that produced games for the Atari 2600 back in the early 80's. The company was founded by Roger Collins in 1983. They planned on being one of the largest distributor of video game cartridges in America. Their plan was to place game kiosks in local malls and shopping centers. People could select a game and they would produce that game on the spot. Here is how it worked. The game would be downloaded over a phone line and burned onto a cartridge right there (the EPROMs were actually reprogrammable, but that wasn't advertised). Meanwhile a printer would print a box and a label. The customer would then have a new affordable game in their hands in minutes.
The original business plan for Xante included making games for all the consoles that were out at the time. But for there first games they chose the Atari 2600 because it was the most popular system available anywhere. Their first games came from licensing agreements with Imagic and Twentieth Century Fox. They were still in negotiation with Atari when they opened their first booth in 1983, although they never did successfully get a contract to sell Atari's games.
Xante managed to open kiosks in several Tulsa, OK locations, with a small library of available games. They did quite well at first. But the video game crash combined with their failure to get a license for Atari brand games kept them from going nationwide. Even though they had been a well funded company, they still ended up filing for bankruptcy in 1984.
Games with the Xante label are extremely rare (they all rate a 10 on the Atari Rarity Guide scale). They are very easy to spot due to their Smurf blue casing, and the dot matrix label that will be affixed to the front of the cartridge. If you ever see one of these be sure and snatch it up right away.
Xante Titles
These are confirmed titles. It is probable that more exist.
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