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Today, I'm going to be setting up my first Atari 2600 Video Computer System. This was the first video game console I ever played, and I was amazed by it, e...
Sep 11, 2017 · 40 years ago today, Atari released its Video Computer System (aka VCS), and went on to define the second generation of video gaming. Ultimately, it would al...
- 8 min
- 17.9K
- Famicom Dojo
- Press Reset
- The Key to Success
- Riding High
- The Market Splinters
- What Goes Up…Well, You Know
- Atari Forever
Atari was already flying high by the mid-1970s, having launched the coin-op video game industry with Computer Space and Pong. But it had nothing in the home yet—that fell to Magnavox, which was selling Ralph Baer's brilliant Odyssey. Originally designed in 1967 and launched in 1972, the Odyssey played 12 different games on your television; it didn'...
Thanks to the 2600’s cartridge slot, you could never get bored of the system—all you had to do was buy another game, or ask your parents to. Some early cartridges were mediocre (anyone out there love Basic Math?), but other games were fun despite their simplicity. It’s tough to beat two friends shooting up the carriages, and each other, in Outlaw. ...
Mattel tried to compete by launching the Intellivision, a solid system with numerous hardware advantages over the 2600 that especially helped in sports and strategy games. Mattel secured licenses from all the major sports organizations such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL. It eventually sold several million units, but it never threatened the 2600’s lead. ...
Famously, Atari kept its formulas secret—and even its employees, refusing to give them credit in games. In response, the Adventure cartridge contained the first popular Easter Egg, a hidden feature that showed programmer Warren Robinett's name in a special room if you executed exactly the right steps, a wonderful protest in retrospect. Four other k...
Then it all went south. Many people erroneously blame E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial as the reason the market sank. It certainly wasn’t a great game, with its crude graphics and frustrating pits. Anything less than perfection would have made a mockery of Atari’s $20 million deal with Steven Spielberg, but it wasn’t a terrible cartridge. Still, it fuel...
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the 2600 is how much has happened since. The homebrew scene lit up in the 1990s with excellent titles such as Oystron (1997) and Conquest of Mars (2003). All kinds of people began hacking existing titles, such as “fixing” the original 2600 Pac-Man release in various ways, or adding the missing voices to Berzerk ...
- Jamie Lendino
- Editor-In-Chief, Extremetech
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976.
In 1977, Atari released what is perhaps the most famous of the pre-Nintendo videogame consoles: the Video Computer System (VCS), later known as the Atari 2600. The company had scored an earlier triumph for the burgeoning industry with its Pong console, but the deluge of cheap knockoffs threatened its future.
Over time Atari also produced branded versions of the 2600 including the Sears Video Arcade System which played the same games but were sold in Sears stores specifically. Atari produced most of the their games internally to start with but over time third party companies like Activision produced games for the 2600 as did Sears, other third party producers, and even amateur hobbyists.
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When did Atari 2600 come out?
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What is the Atari 2600 VCS?
The Atari 2600, originally released as the Atari Video Computer System in 1977, codenamed “Stella” and mostly known simply as “Atari,” is one of the most iconic consoles in video game history.
