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Wasn't the first home gaming console
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- 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.
www.retrothusiast.com/p/atari-2600-gaming-history-revolution
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
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- 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
Aug 4, 2023 · The Atari 2600 is a home video game console released by Atari in 1977 and is widely regarded as the device that gave birth to the modern video game industry. Was the Atari 2600 the first video game console? No, that title belongs to the Magnavox Odyssey which launched five years prior to the Atari 2600 in 1972. Was the Atari 2600 the first home ...
- $199
- September 11, 1977
- 1977-1992
- 30 million
Second generation (1976–1992) The Atari 2600 became the most popular game console of the second generation. The second generation of home consoles was distinguished by the introduction of the game cartridge, where the game's code is stored in read-only memory (ROM) within the cartridge.
In 2004 Atari released the Atari Flashback 2, which contains 40 classic games and mimics the look of the original Atari 2600, including the iconic joystick, for play on newer console systems and personal computers (PCs). Atari continues to make games for PCs and all the major consoles.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Backed by Warner, Atari released the highly anticipated VCS – the first console that brought video games out of the arcade and into the home. The console was released with nine games, and with close to 400,000 units sold in its first year, the VCS sold out its initial production run and was a smash-hit in holiday sales.
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As Pong's popularity started to decline (coupled with the introduction of the Fairchild Channel F, the first system to have programmable "ROM" cartridges), Atari realized that the market for...
