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- The incredible success of Asteroids paved the way for Atari to become the fastest growing company in American history. This period also saw Atari becoming the first to hire third-party developers, including the “Gang of Four” that had recently left the company, allowing non-employees to create games for the Atari 2600 platform.
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Mar 20, 2014 · Before that happened, though, there was another massively important Atari invention to come: the VCS, the home games console later known as the Atari 2600. This was the beginning of...
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The infamous Atari 2600 game adaptation of the movie has you...
- Space Invaders
Release Date, Trailers, News, Reviews, Guides, Gameplay and...
- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s saw the Atari 2600 becoming a staple in households across the United States and eventually internationally. Its success in pioneering home gaming laid the foundation for subsequent generations of gaming consoles, shaping the landscape of the video game industry as we know it today.
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 ...
- Jamie Lendino
- Editor-In-Chief, Extremetech
Nov 20, 2017 · Amid this evolution, Atari was a key pioneering force, sparking the initial home video game craze that has laid the foundations for a generation of Wii U and Xbox playing fanatics around the...
Feb 10, 2021 · Contrary to popular belief, the Atari 2600 wasn't the first home gaming console—that honor belongs to the Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972. However, the 2600 was the first to achieve widespread commercial success, thanks to its innovative hardware and an impressive library of games.
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Dec 15, 2014 · In 1982, Atari was one of the most successful companies in United States history, but was also facing significant challenges. Its highly popular console, Atari VCS (also known as Atari 2600), faced competition from other consoles released by competitors, mainly Intellivision by Mattel and Colecovision by Coleco.
