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The Atari 2600’s innovative approach to home entertainment contributed significantly to the widespread adoption of video gaming as a mainstream form of leisure. Cost-Efficiency. The Atari 2600’s cost-efficiency was a significant factor that contributed to its widespread popularity, especially when compared to the traditional model of arcade ...
- 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.
Nov 20, 2017 · The cover of Tim Lapetino’s book, published by Dynamite Entertainment. In the years since the Atari 2600’s first arrival, video game culture has developed into one of the dominant forms of ...
May 9, 2024 · However, Atari’s success story wouldn’t last forever. Oversaturation of low-quality games, coupled with a lack of quality control, led to a market crash in 1983. This crash would pave the way for a new challenger to rise – a company from across the Pacific called Nintendo. Enter the Entertainer: Nintendo Rescues the Industry.
Nov 21, 2023 · In contrast, the 2600+ does feel novel, exciting, amid the modern retro console competition. As you’ll have seen or read in the review proper, this is an HD-output, USB-C-powered system that will connect perfectly to modern TVs and output at either 16:9 or (better, obviously) 4:3. It’s a hugely convenient way to put Atari 2600 games – and ...
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Mar 20, 2014 · Upon discovering that the name was already in use in California, the duo changed it to Atari, Inc in 1972. The word “ataru” literally means “to hit a target” in Japanese and is associated ...
