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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.
- 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 ...
Here are some of the games that made the Atari 2600 what it is today. The original box to come with the Heavy-Sixer is also well known for it’s picture of a chess piece. This can be seen as the fifth picture in from the top right hand corner of the box.
This article traces the rise and fall of Atari 45 years later and explores some of the major game releases that made the Atari 2600 a household name. An interesting look at the history of one of the first video game systems that changed how we understood, played, and lived with video games.
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...
- Jamie Lendino
- Editor-In-Chief, Extremetech
Mar 6, 2015 · When the Atari 2600 — initially known as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) — came out in 1977, it caused a massive Atari craze, including entire lines of merchandise, including...
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Oct 13, 2007 · The concept of a software-centered game hobby was so foreign to the company, which made its first mark with single-use coin-op units, that it originally opposed the concept of third-party software.
