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In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the number two console of all time by IGN, which cited its remarkable role behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it "the console that our entire industry is built upon".
Sep 2, 2023 · The crowdfunded console was dubbed the VCS, and after a series of production delays, the Linux-based system with retro styling that paid tribute to the original 2600 console was finally released in...
Mar 27, 2024 · By 1977 the games were brought out of local arcades and into people's homes with the release of the Atari 2600 console. The console was incredibly successful, selling over 30 million units worldwide. It popularized video games for home audiences and paved the way for future consoles.
Jan 2, 2017 · Unfortunately Atari faced overwhelmingly fierce competition in the home computer and gaming console markets destined to never repeat the success of the Atari 2600.
- Beginnings
- Computer Space
- Avoid Missing Ball For High Score
- Birth of Atari, and Arcades
- Have You Played Atari Today?
- Computers For People
- Atari Becomes A Household Name
- The (Video Game) Music Stops
- Atari Corporation: Power Without The Price
- Sputtering and Last Gasps
When I grew up, two common tropes were that the first video game was Pong and that Nolan Bushnell invented it. Although Bushnell and Pong both deserve plenty of credit, the real story is more nuanced. It evolved over the course of the 20th century, as amusement parks led to penny arcades, Skee-Ball, pinball, and other electromechanical attractions ...
After Bushnell earned his electrical engineering degree and went to work for videotape company Ampex, he began designing his own Spacewar!-like electronic coin-op game with his coworker Ted Dabney. They mocked up a prototype, and along with fellow Ampex employee Larry Bryan, they started a partnership called Syzygy Engineering. They soon joined for...
The Magnavox Odyssey was the world’s first home video game console. The late Ralph Baer conceived the Odysseyway back in 1966 and built several prototypes of it. In 1971, Magnavox agreed to manufacture and sell Baer's system. Bushnell saw an early version of it at a Magnavox dealer demonstration later in 1971. He played the built-in table tennis ga...
Once the game was finished, Bushnell and Alcorn installed a prototypeof Pong in a local tavern to see how it did, only to get a call a couple of weeks later that it had broken. It turned out so many people played it that the coin box was already overflowing and had jammed. The new Atari, Inc. began manufacturing and distributing Pong cabinets later...
Atari also broke into the home console market like Magnavox, but not until 1975 with Home Pong, a dedicated unit that played selectable variations of its first hit arcade coin-op. Other copycats followed this effort, too, and 1976 marked a brief wave of popularity for these devices. Soon, the microprocessor-based Fairchild Channel F arrived, a cart...
In 1976, Warner Communications had purchased Atari for $28 million, giving it the cash infusion necessary to properly launch the VCS. This move also proved problematic; in 1978, Warner installed Ray Kassar, a textile executive, as CEO of Atari. The ground immediately shifted, as Kassar and Bushnell battled over the company’s direction, most notably...
If you were a kid in the early 1980s, you had to have an Atari console, or at least know a close friend with one—particularly after Atari's conversion of Space Invaders arrived. Excellent conversions of Atari's own Asteroids and Missile Command arrived the year after, plus new hits such as Yars' Revenge. After a highly publicized break with managem...
All three new consoles launched in 1982, but fizzled out within a year. So did everything else related to video games. An oversaturation of arcades, consoles, cartridges, and increasingly poor quality cartridges led to a massive video game crash in 1983. Atari was hit particularly hard, thanks in part to the colossal bungling of its home Pac-Man re...
In January 1984, Tramiel and his sons had a falling out with other Commodore management. They left the company, entered negotiations with Warner, and then struck a deal to split off and buy Atari Computer from Atari Coin. The coin-op division became Atari Games. Tramiel bought everything else and named the new company Atari Corporation. Tramiel imm...
By 1990, it was clear Atari wasn’t doing well—especially in the US, where sales had reached a near standstill. Atari's upgraded 1040STE model launched in late 1989 with support for 4,096 colors, digital sound, and hardware scrolling, which better positioned it against the Commodore Amiga 500, but it was two years late. Otherwise, the operative word...
- Jamie Lendino
- Editor-In-Chief, Extremetech
Sep 10, 2022 · On Sept. 11, 1977, Atari unveiled the Video Computer System (VCS). It wasn’t the first game console, or even the first console to accept cartridges. But the Atari 2600, as the VCS came to be ...
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Nov 28, 2023 · UPDATE 22 Nov. 2023— It took nearly 50 years, but at last the Atari 2600 has been re-released to the public. As of 17 Nov. 2023, Atari now offers for sale what they call their “2600+” model gaming console.
