Senior Generalist Engineer (Video Games) - Implicit Conversions

Atari, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Atari, Inc. in the United States (Remote) seeks a Junior Generalist Engineer to design, build, and refine emulators that run older titles on modern hardware. You will also write tools to support team workflows and reverse engineer games for modern enhancements.

You will collaborate closely with engineers, producers, and QA to fine-tune performance, ensure compatibility, and deliver a great player experience across platforms, contributing to preservation of retro titles for new generations.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of generalist engineering experience.
• Excellent C/C++ skills and understanding of algorithms.
• Clear communicator who works well in a remote team.

Responsibilities

• Assist in developing, maintaining, and expanding emulators and tools.
• Maintain CI/CD pipelines, install tools, update machines, write scripts.
• Optimize games for performance on target platforms.

Skills

C/C++

Algorithms

Remote collaboration

Video game development

Job description

Atari - US (Remote); Implicit Conversions

Job Description: Junior Generalist Engineer

About Us

Implicit Conversions specializes in the high-level emulation of classic and retro games, enabling gamers to experience their favorite classics on modern consoles. With a dedication to preserving gaming history, we combine cutting-edge technology and a passion for gaming to revive cherished games from publisher’s back catalogs.

Our portfolio includes games from the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition, Fear Effect 1 and 2, Fighting Force Collection, Milano’s Oddjob Collection, Geppy-X and over a hundred more!

Summary

We’re looking for a creative and skilled Junior Generalist Engineer to join our team and help bring classic games to life on modern hardware. In this role, you’ll design, build, and refine emulators that make older titles run smoothly and accurately on today’s platforms. You will also write tools to help support the team workflows. You will also reverse engineer classic games (often with bespoke custom engines) to implement modern quality-of-life enhancements.

You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, producers, and QA to fine-tune performance, ensure compatibility, and deliver a great player experience. Your work will play a key role in preserving and reintroducing classic games for a whole new generation of players.

Responsibilities

• Assist in developing, maintaining, and expanding upon our existing emulators and tools.
• Assist in maintaining our CI/CD pipeline, installing new tools, updating machines, and writing and monitoring scripts.
• Optimize games to ensure they are performant on target platforms.
• Debug compatibility issues across a variety of platforms.
• Reverse engineer games to patch out bugs, replace media, add achievements/trophies, and add a variety of modern enhancements.

Requirements

• 1–3 years of generalist engineering experience, with a strong interest or background in video game development.
• Excellent C/C++ skills and understanding of algorithms.
• Clear communicator who works well in a remote team and takes initiative when solving problems.
• Genuine passion for retro games and emulation.

Bonus Points

• Experience building and optimizing software across multiple platforms.
• Experience with game emulation or cross-platform ports (commercial or open source like libretro), including creating modifications/patches for classic games.
• Familiarity with assembly languages (such as x86, ARM, or MIPS), SIMD intrinsics, and binary analysis.
• Hands-on experience with reverse engineering and debugging tools such as Ghidra.
• Experience with static recompilation techniques.