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Atari 2600

January 26, 2023

"Atari VCS" redirects here. For the 2021 console, see Atari VCS (2021 console).

The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. Branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, the VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat[3] and later Pac-Man.[4]

Atari 2600
Four-switch VCS model (1980–1982)
Also known asAtari VCS (prior to November 1982)
ManufacturerAtari, Inc.
TypeHome video game console
GenerationSecond
Release date
Lifespan1977–1992
Introductory priceUS$189.95 (equivalent to $850 in 2021)
DiscontinuedJanuary 1, 1992 (1992-01-01)[1]
Units sold30 million (as of 2004)[2]
MediaROM cartridge
CPU8-bit MOS Technology 6507 @ 1.19 MHz
Memory128 bytes RAM
GraphicsTelevision Interface Adaptor
Controller input
  • Joystick
  • paddles
  • driving
  • keypad
  • Trak-Ball
Best-selling gamePac-Man, 8 million (as of 1990)[a]
PredecessorAtari Home Pong
SuccessorAtari 5200

Atari was successful at creating arcade video games, but their development cost and limited lifespan drove CEO Nolan Bushnell to seek a programmable home system. The first inexpensive microprocessors from MOS Technology in late 1975 made this feasible. The console was prototyped as codename Stella by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering. Lacking funding to complete the project, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976.

The Atari VCS launched in 1977 with nine simple, low-resolution games in 2 KB cartridges. The system's first killer app was the home conversion of Taito's arcade game Space Invaders in 1980. The VCS became widely successful, leading to the founding of Activision and other third-party game developers and to competition from console manufacturers Mattel and Coleco. By the end of its primary lifecycle in 1983–84, games for the 2600 were using more than four times the storage size of the launch games[5] with significantly more advanced visuals and gameplay than the system was designed for, such as Activision's Pitfall!

In 1982, the Atari 2600 was the dominant game system in North America. Amid competition from both new consoles and game developers, a number of poor decisions from Atari management affected the company and the industry as a whole. The most public was an extreme investment into licensed games for the 2600, including Pac-Man and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Pac-Man became the system's biggest selling game, but the conversion's poor quality eroded consumer confidence in the console. E.T. was rushed to market for the holiday shopping season and was critically panned and a commercial failure. Both games, and a glut of third-party shovelware, were factors in ending Atari's relevance in the console market. Atari's downfall reverberated through the industry resulting in the video game crash of 1983.

Warner sold Atari's home division to former Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel in 1984. In 1986, the new Atari Corporation under Tramiel released a lower-cost version of the 2600 and the backward-compatible Atari 7800, but it was Nintendo that led the recovery of the industry with its 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Production of the Atari 2600 ended on January 1, 1992, with an estimated 30 million units sold across its lifetime.

History

Atari VCS/2600 timeline
1972Formation of Atari
1973
1974Acquisition of Cyan Engineering
1975Debut of the MOS 6502
1976Sale of Atari to Warner Communications
1977Launch of Atari VCS
1978
1979Formation of Activision
1980Release of Space Invaders
1981First bank-switched game: Asteroids
1982Rebranding to Atari 2600
Release of Pac-Man and E.T.
1983North American video game crash
1984Sale of Atari to Jack Tramiel
1985
1986Release of Atari 2600 Jr.
1987
1988
1989
1990Final game from Atari: Klax
1991
1992Discontinuation

Atari, Inc. was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972. Its first major product was Pong, released in 1972, the first successful coin-operated video game.[6] While Atari continued to develop new arcade games in following years, Pong gave rise to a number of competitors to the growing arcade game market. The competition along with other missteps by Atari led to financial problems in 1974, though recovering by the end of the year.[7] By 1975, Atari had released a Pong home console, competing against Magnavox, the only other major producer of home consoles at the time. Atari engineers recognized, however, the limitation of custom logic integrated onto the circuit board, permanently confining the whole console to only one game.[8] The increasing competition increased the risk, as Atari had found with past arcade games and again with dedicated home consoles. Both platforms are built from integrating discrete electro-mechanical components into circuits, rather than programmed as on a mainframe computer. Therefore, development of a console had cost at least $100,000 (equivalent to about $504,000 in 2021) plus time to complete, but the final product only had about a three-month shelf life until becoming outdated by competition.[7]

By 1974, Atari had acquired Cyan Engineering, a Grass Valley electronics company founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons, both former colleagues of Bushnell and Dabney from Ampex, who helped to develop new ideas for Atari's arcade games. Even prior to the release of the home version of Pong, Cyan's engineers, led by Mayer and Ron Milner, had envisioned a home console powered by new programmable microprocessors capable of playing Atari's current arcade offerings. The programmable microprocessors would make a console's design significantly simpler and more powerful than any dedicated single-game unit.[9] However, the cost $100–300 of such chips was far outside the range that their market would tolerate.[8] Atari had opened negotiations to use Motorola's new 6800 in future systems.[10]

MOS Technology 6502/6507

In September 1975, MOS Technology debuted the 6502 microprocessor for $25 at the Wescon trade show in San Francisco.[11][9] Mayer and Milner attended, and met with the leader of the team that created the chip, Chuck Peddle. They proposed using the 6502 in a game console, and offered to discuss it further at Cyan's facilities after the show.[10]

Over two days, MOS and Cyan engineers sketched out a 6502-based console design by Meyer and Milner's specifications.[12] Financial models showed that even at $25, the 6502 would be too expensive, and Peddle offered them a planned 6507 microprocessor, a cost-reduced version of the 6502, and MOS's RIOT chip for input/output. Cyan and MOS negotiated the 6507 and RIOT chips at $12 a pair.[10][13] MOS also introduced Cyan to Microcomputer Associates, who had separately developed debugging software and hardware for MOS, and had developed the JOLT Computer for testing the 6502, which Peddle suggested would be useful for Atari and Cyan to use while developing their system.[9] Milner was able to demonstrate a proof-of-concept for a programmable console by implementing Tank, an arcade game by Atari's subsidiary Kee Games, on the JOLT.[9]

As part of the deal, Atari wanted a second source of the chipset. Peddle and Paivinen suggested Synertek whose co-founder, Bob Schreiner, was a friend of Peddle.[8] In October 1975, Atari informed the market that it was moving forward with MOS. The Motorola sales team had already told its management that the Atari deal was finalized, and Motorola management was livid. They announced a lawsuit against MOS the next week.[10]

Building the system

 
The first Stella prototype on display at the Computer History Museum

By December 1975, Atari hired Joe Decuir, a recent graduate from University of California, Berkeley who had been doing his own testing on the 6502. Decuir began debugging the first prototype designed by Mayer and Milner, which gained the codename "Stella" after the brand of Decuir's bicycle. This prototype included a breadboard-level design of the graphics interface to build upon.[7][9] A second prototype was completed by March 1976 with the help of Jay Miner, who created a chip called the Television Interface Adaptor (TIA) to send graphics and audio to a television.[14] The second prototype included a TIA, a 6507, and a ROM cartridge slot and adapter.[7]

As the TIA's design was refined, Al Alcorn brought in Atari's game developers to provide input on features.[9] There are significant limitations in the 6507, the TIA, and other components, so the programmers creatively optimized their games to maximize the console.[12] The console lacks a framebuffer and requires games to instruct the system to generate graphics in synchronization with the electron gun in the cathode-ray tube (CRT) as it scans across rows on the screen. The programmers found ways to "race the beam" to perform other functions while the electron gun scans outside of the visible screen.[15]

Alongside the electronics development, Bushnell brought in Gene Landrum, a consultant who had just prior consulted for Fairchild Camera and Instrument for its upcoming Channel F, to determine the consumer requirements for the console. In his final report, Landrum suggested a living room aesthetic, with a wood grain finish, and the cartridges must be "idiot proof, child proof and effective in resisting potential static [electricity] problems in a living room environment".[9] Landrum recommended it include four to five dedicated games in addition to the cartridges, but this was dropped in the final designs.[9] The cartridge design was done by James Asher and Douglas Hardy. Hardy had been an engineer for Fairchild and helped in the initial design of the Channel F cartridges, but he quit to join Atari in 1976. The interior of the cartridge that Asher and Hardy designed was sufficiently different to avoid patent conflicts, but the exterior components were directly influenced by the Channel F to help work around the static electricity concerns.[9][16]

Atari was still recovering from its 1974 financial woes and needed additional capital to fully enter the home console market, though Bushnell was wary of being beholden to outside financial sources.[9] Atari obtained smaller investments through 1975, but not at the scale it needed, and began considering a sale to a larger firm by early 1976.[9] Atari was introduced to Warner Communications, which saw the potential for the growing video game industry to help offset declining profits from its film and music divisions.[9] Negotiations took place during 1976, during which Atari cleared itself of liabilities, including settling a patent infringement lawsuit with Magnavox over Ralph H. Baer's patents that were the basis for the Magnavox Odyssey.[9] In mid-1976, Fairchild announced the Channel F, planned for release later that year, beating Atari to the market.[16]

By October 1976, Warner and Atari agreed to the purchase of Atari for $28 million.[9] Warner provided an estimated $120 million which was enough to fast-track Stella.[7][17] By 1977, development had advanced enough to brand it the "Atari Video Computer System" (VCS) and start developing games.[7]

Launch and success

 
The second VCS model has lighter plastic molding and shielding, and a more angular shape, than the 1977 launch model.
 
From 1980, the VCS has only four front switches and a capital-letters logotype.

The unit was showcased on June 4, 1977, at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show with plans for retail release in October. The announcement was purportedly delayed to wait out the terms of the Magnavox patent lawsuit settlement, which would have given Magnavox all technical information on any of Atari's products announced between June 1, 1976, and June 1, 1977.[9] However, Atari encountered production problems during its first batch, and its testing was complicated by the use of cartridges.

The Atari VCS was launched in September 1977 at $199 (equivalent to about $890 in 2021), with two joysticks and a Combat cartridge; eight additional games were sold separately.[18] Most of the launch games were based on arcade games developed by Atari or its subsidiary Kee Games; for example, Combat was based on Kee's Tank (1974) and Atari's Jet Fighter (1975).[7] Atari sold between 350,000 and 400,000 Atari VCS units during 1977, attributed to the delay in shipping the units and consumers' unfamiliarity with a swappable-cartridge console that is not dedicated to only one game.[19]

In 1978, Atari sold only 550,000 of the 800,000 systems manufactured. This required further financial support from Warner to cover losses.[19] Atari sold 1 million consoles in 1979, particularly during the holiday season, but there was new competition from the Mattel Electronics Intellivision and Magnavox Odyssey², which also use swappable ROM cartridges.[20]

Atari obtained a license from Taito to develop a VCS conversion of its 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders. This is the first officially licensed arcade conversion for a home console.[21] Its release in March 1980 doubled the console's sales for the year to more than 2 million units, and was considered the Atari 2600's killer application. Sales then doubled again for the next two years; by 1982, 10 million consoles had been sold in the United States, while its best-selling game was Pac-Man[22] at over 8 million copies sold by 1990.[a] Pac-Man propelled worldwide Atari VCS sales to 12 million units during 1982,[25] eventually selling 15 million consoles worldwide by the end of the year.[26]

In Europe, the Atari VCS sold 125,000 units in the United Kingdom during 1980,[27] and 450,000 in West Germany by 1984.[28] In France, where the VCS released in 1982, the system sold 600,000 units by 1989.[29]

In 1982, Atari launched its second programmable console, the Atari 5200. To standardize naming, the VCS was renamed to the "Atari 2600 Video Computer System", or "Atari 2600", derived from the manufacture part number CX2600.[30] By 1982, the 2600 cost Atari about $40 to make and was sold for an average of $125 (equivalent to $350 in 2021). The company spent $4.50 to $6 to manufacture each cartridge, plus $1 to $2 for advertising, wholesaling for $18.95 (equivalent to $50 in 2021).[25]

Third-party development

Activision, formed by Crane, Whitehead, and Miller in 1979, started developing third-party VCS games using their knowledge of VCS design and programming tricks, and began releasing games in 1980. Kaboom! (1981) and Pitfall! (1982) are among the most successful with at least one and four million copies sold, respectively.[31] In 1980, Atari attempted to block the sale of the Activision cartridges, accusing the four of intellectual property infringement. The two companies settled out of court, with Activision agreeing to pay Atari a licensing fee for their games. This made Activision the first third-party video game developer and established the licensing model that continues to be used by console manufacturers for game development.[32]

Activision's success led to the establishment of other third-party VCS game developers following Activision's model in the early 1980s,[33][34][35] including U.S. Games, Telesys, Games by Apollo, Data Age, Zimag, Mystique, and CommaVid. The founding of Imagic included ex-Atari programmers. Mattel and Coleco, each already producing its own more advanced console, created simplified versions of their existing games for the 2600. Mattel used the M Network brand name for its cartridges. Third-party games accounted for half of VCS game sales by 1982.[36]

Decline and redesign

In addition to third-party game development, Atari also received the first major threat to its hardware dominance from the Colecovision. Coleco had a license from Nintendo to develop a version of the smash hit arcade game Donkey Kong (1981), which was bundled with every Colecovision console. Coleco gained about 17% of the hardware market in 1982 compared to Atari's 58%.[37] With third parties competing for market share, Atari worked to maintain dominance in the market by acquiring licenses for popular arcade games and other properties to make games from. Pac-Man has numerous technical and aesthetic flaws, but nevertheless more than 7 million copies were sold. Heading into the 1982 holiday shopping season, Atari had placed high sales expectations on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a game programmed in about six weeks. Atari produced an estimated four million cartridges,[38] but the game was poorly reviewed, and only about 1.5 million units were sold.[39]

Warner Communications reported weaker results than expected in December 1982 to its shareholders, having expected a 50% year-to-year growth but only obtaining 10–15% due to declining sales at Atari.[40][41] Coupled with the oversaturated home game market, Atari's weakened position led investors to start pulling funds out of video games, beginning a cascade of disastrous effects known as the video game crash of 1983.[40] Many of the third-party developers formed prior to 1983 were closed, and Mattel and Coleco left the video game market by 1985.[42]

In September 1983, Atari sent 14 truckloads of unsold Atari 2600 cartridges and other equipment to a landfill in the New Mexico desert, later labeled the Atari video game burial.[43] Long considered an urban legend that claimed the burial contained millions of unsold cartridges, the site was excavated in 2014, confirming reports from former Atari executives that only about 700,000 cartridges had actually been buried.[44] Atari reported a $536 million loss for 1983 as a whole,[45]: ch14  and continued to lose money into 1984, with a $425 million loss reported in the second quarter.[46] By mid-1984, software development for the 2600 had essentially stopped except that of Atari and Activision.[47]

Warner, wary of supporting its failing Atari division, started looking for buyers in 1984. Warner sold most of Atari to Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore International, in July 1984 for about $240 million, though Warner retained Atari's arcade business. Tramiel was a proponent of personal computers, and halted all new 2600 game development soon after the sale.[46]

The North American video game market did not recover until about 1986, after Nintendo's 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. Atari Corporation released a redesigned model of the 2600 in 1986, supported by an ad campaign touting a price of "under 50 bucks".[48] With a large library of cartridges and a low price point, the 2600 continued to sell into the late 1980s. Atari released the last batch of games in 1989–90 including Secret Quest[49] and Fatal Run.[50] By 1986, over 20 million Atari VCS units had been sold worldwide.[51][52] The final Atari-licensed release is the PAL-only version of the arcade game KLAX in 1990.

After more than 14 years on the market, the 2600 line was formally discontinued on January 1, 1992,[1] along with the Atari 7800 and Atari 8-bit family of home computers.

Hardware

Console

Main article: Atari 2600 hardware

The Atari 2600's CPU is the MOS Technology 6507, a version of the 6502,[53] running at 1.19 MHz in the 2600.[54] Though their internal silicon was identical, the 6507 was cheaper than the 6502 because its package included fewer memory-address pins—13 instead of 16.[55] The designers of the Atari 2600 selected an inexpensive cartridge interface[56] that has one fewer address than the 13 allowed by the 6507, further reducing the already limited addressable memory to 4 KB (212 = 4096). This was believed to be sufficient as Combat is itself only 2 KB.[57] Later games circumvented this limitation with bank switching.[58]

The console has 128 bytes of RAM for scratch space, the call stack, and the state of the game environment.

The top bezel of the console originally had six switches: power, TV type selection (color or black-and-white), game selection, player difficulty, and game reset. The difficulty switches were moved to the back of the bezel in later versions of the console. The back bezel also included the controller ports, TV output, and power input.

Graphics

Main article: Television Interface Adaptor

 
Pitfall! (1982) has more advanced graphics than the games the VCS launched with. The black bar on the left provides extra time for the program to prepare graphics between each scanline.[59]

The Atari 2600 was designed to be compatible with the cathode-ray tube television sets produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which commonly lack auxiliary video inputs to receive audio and video from another device. Therefore, to connect to a TV, the console generates a radio frequency signal compatible with the regional television standards (NTSC, PAL, or SECAM), using a special switch box to act as the television's antenna.[60][12]

Atari developed the Television Interface Adaptor (TIA) chip in the VCS to handle the graphics and conversion to a television signal. It provides a single-color, 20-bit background register that covers the left half of the screen (each bit represents 4 adjacent pixels) and is either repeated or reflected on the right side. There are 5 single-color sprites: two 8-pixel wide players; two 1 bit missiles, which share the same colors as the players; and a 1-pixel ball, which shares the background color. The 1-bit sprites all can be controlled to stretch to 1, 2, 4, or 8 pixels.[61]

The system was designed without a frame buffer to avoid the cost of the associated RAM. The background and sprites apply to a single scan line, and as the display is output to the television, the program can change colors, sprite positions, and background settings. The careful timing required to sync the code to the screen on the part of the programmer was labeled "racing the beam"; the actual game logic runs when the television beam is outside of the visible area of the screen.[62][15] Early games for the system use the same visuals for pairs of scan lines, giving a lower vertical resolution, to allow more time for the next row of graphics to be prepared. Later games, such as Pitfall!, change the visuals for each scan line[63] or extend the black areas around the screen to extend the game code's processing time.[59]

Regional releases of the Atari 2600 use modified TIA chips for each region's television formats, which require games to be developed and published separately for each region. All modes are 160 pixels wide. NTSC mode provides 192 visible lines per screen, drawn at 60 Hz, with 16 colors, each at 8 levels of brightness. PAL mode provides more vertical scanlines, with 228 visible lines per screen, but drawn at 50 Hz and only 13 colors. SECAM mode, also a 50 Hz format, is limited to 8 colors, each with only a single brightness level.[61][64]

Controllers

 
CX30 paddle
 
CX40 joystick

The first VCS bundle has two types of controllers: a joystick (part number CX10) and pair of rotary paddle controllers (CX30). Driving controllers, which are similar to paddle controllers but can be continuously rotated, shipped with the Indy 500 launch game. After less than a year, the CX10 joystick was replaced with the CX40 model[65] designed by James C. Asher.[66] Because the Atari joystick port and CX40 joystick became industry standards, 2600 joysticks and some other peripherals work with later systems, including the MSX, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 8-bit family, and Atari ST. The CX40 joystick can be used with the Master System and Sega Genesis, but does not provide all the buttons of a native controller. Third-party controllers include Wico's Command Control joystick.[67] Later, the CX42 Remote Control Joysticks, similar in appearance but using wireless technology, were released, together with a receiver whose wires could be inserted in the controller jacks.[68]

Atari introduced the CX50 Keyboard Controller in June 1978 along with two games that require it: Codebreaker and Hunt & Score.[65] The similar, but simpler, CX23 Kid's Controller was released later for a series of games aimed at a younger audience.[69] The CX22 Trak-Ball controller was announced in January 1983 and is compatible with the Atari 8-bit family.[70]

There were two attempts to turn the Atari 2600 into a keyboard-equipped home computer: Atari's never-released CX3000 "Graduate" keyboard,[71] and the CompuMate keyboard by Spectravideo which was released in 1983.[72]

Console models

 
The all-black model that first used the Atari 2600 name (released in November 1982)
 
Sears rebranded the VCS as the "Video Arcade" for its Tele-Games line.
 
The design of the Japan-only Atari 2800 was later used in the US for the Sears Video Arcade II.
 
The 1986 cost-reduced version, nicknamed "2600 Jr."

Minor revisions

The initial production of the VCS was made in Sunnyvale during 1977, using thick polystyrene plastic for the casing as to give the impression of weight from what was mostly an empty shell inside.[9] The initial Sunnyvale batch had also included potential mounts for an internal speaker system on the casing, though the speakers were found to be too expensive to include and instead sound was routed through the TIA to the connected television.[9] All six console switches on the front panel. Production of the unit was moved to Taiwan in 1978, where a less thick internal metal shielding was used and thinner plastic was used for the casing, reducing the system's weight. These two versions are commonly referred to as "Heavy Sixers" and "Light Sixers" respectively, referencing the six front switches.[73][9]

In 1980, the difficulty switches were moved to the back of the console, leaving four switches on the front. Otherwise, these four-switch consoles look nearly identical to the earlier six-switch models. In 1982 Atari rebranded the console as the "Atari 2600", a name first used on a version of the four-switch model without woodgrain, giving it an all-black appearance.

Sears Video Arcade

Atari continued its OEM relationship with Sears under the latter's Tele-Games brand, which started in 1975 with the original Pong. This is unrelated to the company Telegames, which later produced 2600 cartridges.[74][75] Sears released several models of the VCS as the Sears Video Arcade series starting in 1977. In 1983, the previously Japan-only Atari 2800 was rebranded as the Sears Video Arcade II.[76]

Sears released versions of Atari's games with Tele-Games branding, usually with different titles.[77] Three games were produced by Atari for Sears as exclusive releases: Steeplechase, Stellar Track, and Submarine Commander.[77]

Atari 2800

The Atari 2800 is the Japanese version of the 2600 released in October 1983. It is the first Japan-specific release of a 2600, though companies like Epoch had distributed the 2600 in Japan previously. The 2800 was released a short time after Nintendo's Family Computer (which became the dominant console in Japan), and it did not gain a significant share of the market. Sears released the 2800 in the US in 1983 as the Sears Video Arcade II packaged with two controllers and Space Invaders.[78] Around 30 specially branded games were released for the 2800.

Designed by engineer Joe Tilly, the 2800 has four controller ports instead of the two of the 2600. The controllers are an all-in one design using a combination of an 8-direction digital joystick and a 270-degree paddle, designed by John Amber.[78] The 2800's case design departed from the 2600, using a wedge shape with non-protruding switches. The case style is the basis for the Atari 7800, designed by Barney Huang.[78]

Atari 2600 Jr.

The 1986 model has a smaller, cost-reduced form factor with an Atari 7800-like appearance. It was advertised as a budget gaming system (under $49.99) with the ability to run a large collection of games.[79] Released after the video game crash of 1983, and after the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the 2600 was supported with new games and television commercials promoting "The fun is back!". Atari released several minor stylistic variations: the "large rainbow" (shown), "short rainbow", and an all-black version sold only in Ireland.[80] Later European versions include a joypad.[81]

Games

Main articles: List of Atari 2600 games and List of Atari 2600 prototype games
See also: List of best-selling Atari 2600 video games

In 1977, nine games were released on cartridge to accompany the launch of the console: Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Combat, Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, and Video Olympics.[82] Indy 500 shipped with special "driving controllers", which are like paddles but rotate freely. Street Racer and Video Olympics use the standard paddle controllers.

 
Cover art for Atari's games, such as this cover for Combat illustrated by Cliff Spohn, were aimed to capture the player's imagination and obviate the low fidelity of game graphics.

Atari determined that box art featuring only descriptions of the game and screenshots would not be sufficient to sell games in retail stores, since most games were based on abstract principles and screenshots give little information. Atari outsourced box art to Cliff Spohn, who created visually interesting artwork with implications of dynamic movement intended to engage the player's imagination while staying true to the gameplay. Spohn's style became a standard for Atari when bringing in assistant artists, including Susan Jaekel, Rick Guidice, John Enright, and Steve Hendricks.[83] Spohn and Hendricks were the largest contributors to the covers in the Atari 2600 library. Ralph McQuarrie, a concept artist on the Star Wars series, was commissioned for one cover, the arcade conversion of Vanguard.[84] These artists generally conferred with the programmer to learn about the game before drawing the art.[83]

An Atari VCS port of the Breakout arcade game appeared in 1978. The original is in black and white with a colored overlay, and the home version is in color. In 1980, Atari released Adventure,[85] the first action-adventure game, and the first home game with a hidden Easter egg.

Rick Maurer's port of Taito's Space Invaders, released in 1980, is the first VCS game to have more than one million copies sold—eventually doubling that[86] within a year[87] and totaling more than 6 million cartridges by 1983.[23] It became the killer app to drive console sales. Versions of Atari's own Asteroids and Missile Command arcade games, released in 1981, were also major hits.

Each early VCS game is in a 2K ROM. Later games like Space Invaders, have 4K.[5] The VCS port of Asteroids (1981) is the first game for the system to use 8K via a bank switching technique between two 4K segments.[88] Some later releases, including Atari's ports of Dig Dug and Crystal Castles, are 16K cartridges.[5] One of the final games, Fatal Run (1990), doubled this to 32K.[89]

Atari, Inc. was the only developer for the first few years, releasing dozens of games.

Two Atari-published games, both from the system's peak in 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[90] and Pac-Man,[91] are cited as factors in the video game crash of 1983.

A company named Mystique produced a number of pornographic games for the 2600. The most notorious, Custer's Revenge, was protested by women's and Native American groups[92] because it depicted General George Armstrong Custer raping a bound Native American woman.[93] Atari sued Mystique in court over the release of the game.[94]

Legacy

 
"The Art of Video Games" (2012) at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Pitfall!, and Combat

The 2600 was so successful in the late 1970s and early 1980s that "Atari" was a synonym for the console in mainstream media and for video games in general.[95] Jay Miner directed the creation of the successors to the 2600's TIA chip—CTIA and ANTIC—which are central to the Atari 8-bit computers released in 1979 and later the Atari 5200 console.

The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York, in 2007.[96] In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the number two console of all time by IGN, which cited its remarkable role behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it "the console that our entire industry is built upon".[97]

In November 2021, the current incarnation of Atari announced three 2600 games to be published under "Atari XP" label: Yars' Return, Aquaventure, and Saboteur.[98] These were previously included in Atari Flashback consoles.[99]

Clones and reissues

Modern Atari 2600 clones remain on the market. The Atari Classics 10-in-1 TV Game, manufactured by Jakks Pacific, emulates the 2600 with ten games inside a Atari-style joystick with composite-video output. The TV Boy includes 127 games in an enlarged joypad.

The Atari Flashback 2 console, released in 2005, contains 40 games, with four additional programs unlocked by a cheat code. The console implements the original 2600 architecture and can be modified to play original 2600 cartridges by adding a cartridge port; it is also compatible with original 2600 controllers.

In 2017, Hyperkin announced the RetroN 77, a clone of the Atari 2600 that plays original cartridges instead of preinstalled games.[100]

The Atari VCS microconsole was released by Atari Interactive in 2021.[101]

Unreleased prototypes

The Atari 2700 is a version of the 2600 using wireless controllers.

An Atari 2600 variant, known by its production code "CX2000" and nickname "Val", was found as two 1982 prototypes at the New York and Sunnyvale Atari facilities, respectively.[102] It is a redesign of the aging 2600. Its design, with two integrated joystick controllers, is the result of human factor analysis by Henry Dreyfuss Associates. The project never reached market production.

Atari started work on a 2600 successor called the "Atari 3200". It was to be compatible with 2600 cartridges, and was rumored to be based on a 10-bit processor, although design documents show it was to be based on the 8-bit 6502. It was still unfinished when preliminary game developers discovered that it was difficult to program. Atari cloned the Atari 3200 into the Sears Super Arcade II, but this was never released.[103]

Notes

  1. ^ a b 7,271,844 in 1982. 684,569 in 1983.[23] 37,063 in 1986. 61,685 in 1987. 3,885 in 1988. 34,374 in 1989. 2,166 in 1990.[24]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Montfort & Bogost 2009, p. 150.
  2. ^ . BusinessWeek. May 9, 2007. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
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  • Tim Lapetino (2016). "Industrial Design". . Dynamite. ISBN 978-1-5241-0103-9. Archived from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  • Montfort, Nick & Bogost, Ian (2009). Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01257-7.
  • Perry, Tekla; Wallich, Paul (March 1983). "Design case history: The Atari Video Computer System". IEEE Spectrum.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atari 2600.
  • A history of the Atari VCS/2600
  • Inside the Atari 2600
  • Hardware and prototypes at the Atari Museum

January 26, 2023
atari, 2600, atari, redirects, here, 2021, console, atari, 2021, console, home, video, game, console, developed, produced, atari, released, september, 1977, popularized, microprocessor, based, hardware, games, stored, swappable, cartridges, format, first, used. Atari VCS redirects here For the 2021 console see Atari VCS 2021 console The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari Inc Released in September 1977 it popularized microprocessor based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976 Branded as the Atari Video Computer System Atari VCS from its release until November 1982 the VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers a conjoined pair of paddle controllers and a game cartridge initially Combat 3 and later Pac Man 4 Atari 2600Four switch VCS model 1980 1982 Also known asAtari VCS prior to November 1982 ManufacturerAtari Inc TypeHome video game consoleGenerationSecondRelease dateNA September 1977EU 1978FRA 1982JP October 1983 Atari 2800 Lifespan1977 1992Introductory priceUS 189 95 equivalent to 850 in 2021 DiscontinuedJanuary 1 1992 1992 01 01 1 Units sold30 million as of 2004 update 2 MediaROM cartridgeCPU8 bit MOS Technology 6507 1 19 MHzMemory128 bytes RAMGraphicsTelevision Interface AdaptorController inputJoystickpaddlesdrivingkeypadTrak BallBest selling gamePac Man 8 million as of 1990 a PredecessorAtari Home PongSuccessorAtari 5200Atari was successful at creating arcade video games but their development cost and limited lifespan drove CEO Nolan Bushnell to seek a programmable home system The first inexpensive microprocessors from MOS Technology in late 1975 made this feasible The console was prototyped as codename Stella by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering Lacking funding to complete the project Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 The Atari VCS launched in 1977 with nine simple low resolution games in 2 KB cartridges The system s first killer app was the home conversion of Taito s arcade game Space Invaders in 1980 The VCS became widely successful leading to the founding of Activision and other third party game developers and to competition from console manufacturers Mattel and Coleco By the end of its primary lifecycle in 1983 84 games for the 2600 were using more than four times the storage size of the launch games 5 with significantly more advanced visuals and gameplay than the system was designed for such as Activision s Pitfall In 1982 the Atari 2600 was the dominant game system in North America Amid competition from both new consoles and game developers a number of poor decisions from Atari management affected the company and the industry as a whole The most public was an extreme investment into licensed games for the 2600 including Pac Man and E T the Extra Terrestrial Pac Man became the system s biggest selling game but the conversion s poor quality eroded consumer confidence in the console E T was rushed to market for the holiday shopping season and was critically panned and a commercial failure Both games and a glut of third party shovelware were factors in ending Atari s relevance in the console market Atari s downfall reverberated through the industry resulting in the video game crash of 1983 Warner sold Atari s home division to former Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel in 1984 In 1986 the new Atari Corporation under Tramiel released a lower cost version of the 2600 and the backward compatible Atari 7800 but it was Nintendo that led the recovery of the industry with its 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System Production of the Atari 2600 ended on January 1 1992 with an estimated 30 million units sold across its lifetime Contents 1 History 1 1 MOS Technology 6502 6507 1 2 Building the system 1 3 Launch and success 1 4 Third party development 1 5 Decline and redesign 2 Hardware 2 1 Console 2 2 Graphics 2 3 Controllers 3 Console models 3 1 Minor revisions 3 2 Sears Video Arcade 3 3 Atari 2800 3 4 Atari 2600 Jr 4 Games 5 Legacy 5 1 Clones and reissues 6 Unreleased prototypes 7 Notes 8 References 8 1 Citations 8 2 General bibliography 9 External linksHistory EditAtari VCS 2600 timeline1972Formation of Atari19731974Acquisition of Cyan Engineering1975Debut of the MOS 65021976Sale of Atari to Warner Communications1977Launch of Atari VCS19781979Formation of Activision1980Release of Space Invaders1981First bank switched game Asteroids1982Rebranding to Atari 2600Release of Pac Man and E T 1983North American video game crash1984Sale of Atari to Jack Tramiel19851986Release of Atari 2600 Jr 1987198819891990Final game from Atari Klax19911992DiscontinuationAtari Inc was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972 Its first major product was Pong released in 1972 the first successful coin operated video game 6 While Atari continued to develop new arcade games in following years Pong gave rise to a number of competitors to the growing arcade game market The competition along with other missteps by Atari led to financial problems in 1974 though recovering by the end of the year 7 By 1975 Atari had released a Pong home console competing against Magnavox the only other major producer of home consoles at the time Atari engineers recognized however the limitation of custom logic integrated onto the circuit board permanently confining the whole console to only one game 8 The increasing competition increased the risk as Atari had found with past arcade games and again with dedicated home consoles Both platforms are built from integrating discrete electro mechanical components into circuits rather than programmed as on a mainframe computer Therefore development of a console had cost at least 100 000 equivalent to about 504 000 in 2021 plus time to complete but the final product only had about a three month shelf life until becoming outdated by competition 7 By 1974 Atari had acquired Cyan Engineering a Grass Valley electronics company founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons both former colleagues of Bushnell and Dabney from Ampex who helped to develop new ideas for Atari s arcade games Even prior to the release of the home version of Pong Cyan s engineers led by Mayer and Ron Milner had envisioned a home console powered by new programmable microprocessors capable of playing Atari s current arcade offerings The programmable microprocessors would make a console s design significantly simpler and more powerful than any dedicated single game unit 9 However the cost 100 300 of such chips was far outside the range that their market would tolerate 8 Atari had opened negotiations to use Motorola s new 6800 in future systems 10 MOS Technology 6502 6507 Edit In September 1975 MOS Technology debuted the 6502 microprocessor for 25 at the Wescon trade show in San Francisco 11 9 Mayer and Milner attended and met with the leader of the team that created the chip Chuck Peddle They proposed using the 6502 in a game console and offered to discuss it further at Cyan s facilities after the show 10 Over two days MOS and Cyan engineers sketched out a 6502 based console design by Meyer and Milner s specifications 12 Financial models showed that even at 25 the 6502 would be too expensive and Peddle offered them a planned 6507 microprocessor a cost reduced version of the 6502 and MOS s RIOT chip for input output Cyan and MOS negotiated the 6507 and RIOT chips at 12 a pair 10 13 MOS also introduced Cyan to Microcomputer Associates who had separately developed debugging software and hardware for MOS and had developed the JOLT Computer for testing the 6502 which Peddle suggested would be useful for Atari and Cyan to use while developing their system 9 Milner was able to demonstrate a proof of concept for a programmable console by implementing Tank an arcade game by Atari s subsidiary Kee Games on the JOLT 9 As part of the deal Atari wanted a second source of the chipset Peddle and Paivinen suggested Synertek whose co founder Bob Schreiner was a friend of Peddle 8 In October 1975 Atari informed the market that it was moving forward with MOS The Motorola sales team had already told its management that the Atari deal was finalized and Motorola management was livid They announced a lawsuit against MOS the next week 10 Building the system Edit The first Stella prototype on display at the Computer History Museum By December 1975 Atari hired Joe Decuir a recent graduate from University of California Berkeley who had been doing his own testing on the 6502 Decuir began debugging the first prototype designed by Mayer and Milner which gained the codename Stella after the brand of Decuir s bicycle This prototype included a breadboard level design of the graphics interface to build upon 7 9 A second prototype was completed by March 1976 with the help of Jay Miner who created a chip called the Television Interface Adaptor TIA to send graphics and audio to a television 14 The second prototype included a TIA a 6507 and a ROM cartridge slot and adapter 7 As the TIA s design was refined Al Alcorn brought in Atari s game developers to provide input on features 9 There are significant limitations in the 6507 the TIA and other components so the programmers creatively optimized their games to maximize the console 12 The console lacks a framebuffer and requires games to instruct the system to generate graphics in synchronization with the electron gun in the cathode ray tube CRT as it scans across rows on the screen The programmers found ways to race the beam to perform other functions while the electron gun scans outside of the visible screen 15 Alongside the electronics development Bushnell brought in Gene Landrum a consultant who had just prior consulted for Fairchild Camera and Instrument for its upcoming Channel F to determine the consumer requirements for the console In his final report Landrum suggested a living room aesthetic with a wood grain finish and the cartridges must be idiot proof child proof and effective in resisting potential static electricity problems in a living room environment 9 Landrum recommended it include four to five dedicated games in addition to the cartridges but this was dropped in the final designs 9 The cartridge design was done by James Asher and Douglas Hardy Hardy had been an engineer for Fairchild and helped in the initial design of the Channel F cartridges but he quit to join Atari in 1976 The interior of the cartridge that Asher and Hardy designed was sufficiently different to avoid patent conflicts but the exterior components were directly influenced by the Channel F to help work around the static electricity concerns 9 16 Atari was still recovering from its 1974 financial woes and needed additional capital to fully enter the home console market though Bushnell was wary of being beholden to outside financial sources 9 Atari obtained smaller investments through 1975 but not at the scale it needed and began considering a sale to a larger firm by early 1976 9 Atari was introduced to Warner Communications which saw the potential for the growing video game industry to help offset declining profits from its film and music divisions 9 Negotiations took place during 1976 during which Atari cleared itself of liabilities including settling a patent infringement lawsuit with Magnavox over Ralph H Baer s patents that were the basis for the Magnavox Odyssey 9 In mid 1976 Fairchild announced the Channel F planned for release later that year beating Atari to the market 16 By October 1976 Warner and Atari agreed to the purchase of Atari for 28 million 9 Warner provided an estimated 120 million which was enough to fast track Stella 7 17 By 1977 development had advanced enough to brand it the Atari Video Computer System VCS and start developing games 7 Launch and success Edit The second VCS model has lighter plastic molding and shielding and a more angular shape than the 1977 launch model From 1980 the VCS has only four front switches and a capital letters logotype The unit was showcased on June 4 1977 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show with plans for retail release in October The announcement was purportedly delayed to wait out the terms of the Magnavox patent lawsuit settlement which would have given Magnavox all technical information on any of Atari s products announced between June 1 1976 and June 1 1977 9 However Atari encountered production problems during its first batch and its testing was complicated by the use of cartridges The Atari VCS was launched in September 1977 at 199 equivalent to about 890 in 2021 with two joysticks and a Combat cartridge eight additional games were sold separately 18 Most of the launch games were based on arcade games developed by Atari or its subsidiary Kee Games for example Combat was based on Kee s Tank 1974 and Atari s Jet Fighter 1975 7 Atari sold between 350 000 and 400 000 Atari VCS units during 1977 attributed to the delay in shipping the units and consumers unfamiliarity with a swappable cartridge console that is not dedicated to only one game 19 In 1978 Atari sold only 550 000 of the 800 000 systems manufactured This required further financial support from Warner to cover losses 19 Atari sold 1 million consoles in 1979 particularly during the holiday season but there was new competition from the Mattel Electronics Intellivision and Magnavox Odyssey which also use swappable ROM cartridges 20 Atari obtained a license from Taito to develop a VCS conversion of its 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders This is the first officially licensed arcade conversion for a home console 21 Its release in March 1980 doubled the console s sales for the year to more than 2 million units and was considered the Atari 2600 s killer application Sales then doubled again for the next two years by 1982 10 million consoles had been sold in the United States while its best selling game was Pac Man 22 at over 8 million copies sold by 1990 a Pac Man propelled worldwide Atari VCS sales to 12 million units during 1982 25 eventually selling 15 million consoles worldwide by the end of the year 26 In Europe the Atari VCS sold 125 000 units in the United Kingdom during 1980 27 and 450 000 in West Germany by 1984 28 In France where the VCS released in 1982 the system sold 600 000 units by 1989 29 In 1982 Atari launched its second programmable console the Atari 5200 To standardize naming the VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 Video Computer System or Atari 2600 derived from the manufacture part number CX2600 30 By 1982 the 2600 cost Atari about 40 to make and was sold for an average of 125 equivalent to 350 in 2021 The company spent 4 50 to 6 to manufacture each cartridge plus 1 to 2 for advertising wholesaling for 18 95 equivalent to 50 in 2021 25 Third party development Edit Activision formed by Crane Whitehead and Miller in 1979 started developing third party VCS games using their knowledge of VCS design and programming tricks and began releasing games in 1980 Kaboom 1981 and Pitfall 1982 are among the most successful with at least one and four million copies sold respectively 31 In 1980 Atari attempted to block the sale of the Activision cartridges accusing the four of intellectual property infringement The two companies settled out of court with Activision agreeing to pay Atari a licensing fee for their games This made Activision the first third party video game developer and established the licensing model that continues to be used by console manufacturers for game development 32 Activision s success led to the establishment of other third party VCS game developers following Activision s model in the early 1980s 33 34 35 including U S Games Telesys Games by Apollo Data Age Zimag Mystique and CommaVid The founding of Imagic included ex Atari programmers Mattel and Coleco each already producing its own more advanced console created simplified versions of their existing games for the 2600 Mattel used the M Network brand name for its cartridges Third party games accounted for half of VCS game sales by 1982 36 Decline and redesign Edit In addition to third party game development Atari also received the first major threat to its hardware dominance from the Colecovision Coleco had a license from Nintendo to develop a version of the smash hit arcade game Donkey Kong 1981 which was bundled with every Colecovision console Coleco gained about 17 of the hardware market in 1982 compared to Atari s 58 37 With third parties competing for market share Atari worked to maintain dominance in the market by acquiring licenses for popular arcade games and other properties to make games from Pac Man has numerous technical and aesthetic flaws but nevertheless more than 7 million copies were sold Heading into the 1982 holiday shopping season Atari had placed high sales expectations on E T the Extra Terrestrial a game programmed in about six weeks Atari produced an estimated four million cartridges 38 but the game was poorly reviewed and only about 1 5 million units were sold 39 Warner Communications reported weaker results than expected in December 1982 to its shareholders having expected a 50 year to year growth but only obtaining 10 15 due to declining sales at Atari 40 41 Coupled with the oversaturated home game market Atari s weakened position led investors to start pulling funds out of video games beginning a cascade of disastrous effects known as the video game crash of 1983 40 Many of the third party developers formed prior to 1983 were closed and Mattel and Coleco left the video game market by 1985 42 In September 1983 Atari sent 14 truckloads of unsold Atari 2600 cartridges and other equipment to a landfill in the New Mexico desert later labeled the Atari video game burial 43 Long considered an urban legend that claimed the burial contained millions of unsold cartridges the site was excavated in 2014 confirming reports from former Atari executives that only about 700 000 cartridges had actually been buried 44 Atari reported a 536 million loss for 1983 as a whole 45 ch14 and continued to lose money into 1984 with a 425 million loss reported in the second quarter 46 By mid 1984 software development for the 2600 had essentially stopped except that of Atari and Activision 47 Warner wary of supporting its failing Atari division started looking for buyers in 1984 Warner sold most of Atari to Jack Tramiel the founder of Commodore International in July 1984 for about 240 million though Warner retained Atari s arcade business Tramiel was a proponent of personal computers and halted all new 2600 game development soon after the sale 46 The North American video game market did not recover until about 1986 after Nintendo s 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America Atari Corporation released a redesigned model of the 2600 in 1986 supported by an ad campaign touting a price of under 50 bucks 48 With a large library of cartridges and a low price point the 2600 continued to sell into the late 1980s Atari released the last batch of games in 1989 90 including Secret Quest 49 and Fatal Run 50 By 1986 over 20 million Atari VCS units had been sold worldwide 51 52 The final Atari licensed release is the PAL only version of the arcade game KLAX in 1990 After more than 14 years on the market the 2600 line was formally discontinued on January 1 1992 1 along with the Atari 7800 and Atari 8 bit family of home computers Hardware EditConsole Edit Main article Atari 2600 hardware The Atari 2600 s CPU is the MOS Technology 6507 a version of the 6502 53 running at 1 19 MHz in the 2600 54 Though their internal silicon was identical the 6507 was cheaper than the 6502 because its package included fewer memory address pins 13 instead of 16 55 The designers of the Atari 2600 selected an inexpensive cartridge interface 56 that has one fewer address than the 13 allowed by the 6507 further reducing the already limited addressable memory to 4 KB 212 4096 This was believed to be sufficient as Combat is itself only 2 KB 57 Later games circumvented this limitation with bank switching 58 The console has 128 bytes of RAM for scratch space the call stack and the state of the game environment The top bezel of the console originally had six switches power TV type selection color or black and white game selection player difficulty and game reset The difficulty switches were moved to the back of the bezel in later versions of the console The back bezel also included the controller ports TV output and power input Graphics Edit Main article Television Interface Adaptor Pitfall 1982 has more advanced graphics than the games the VCS launched with The black bar on the left provides extra time for the program to prepare graphics between each scanline 59 The Atari 2600 was designed to be compatible with the cathode ray tube television sets produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s which commonly lack auxiliary video inputs to receive audio and video from another device Therefore to connect to a TV the console generates a radio frequency signal compatible with the regional television standards NTSC PAL or SECAM using a special switch box to act as the television s antenna 60 12 Atari developed the Television Interface Adaptor TIA chip in the VCS to handle the graphics and conversion to a television signal It provides a single color 20 bit background register that covers the left half of the screen each bit represents 4 adjacent pixels and is either repeated or reflected on the right side There are 5 single color sprites two 8 pixel wide players two 1 bit missiles which share the same colors as the players and a 1 pixel ball which shares the background color The 1 bit sprites all can be controlled to stretch to 1 2 4 or 8 pixels 61 The system was designed without a frame buffer to avoid the cost of the associated RAM The background and sprites apply to a single scan line and as the display is output to the television the program can change colors sprite positions and background settings The careful timing required to sync the code to the screen on the part of the programmer was labeled racing the beam the actual game logic runs when the television beam is outside of the visible area of the screen 62 15 Early games for the system use the same visuals for pairs of scan lines giving a lower vertical resolution to allow more time for the next row of graphics to be prepared Later games such as Pitfall change the visuals for each scan line 63 or extend the black areas around the screen to extend the game code s processing time 59 Regional releases of the Atari 2600 use modified TIA chips for each region s television formats which require games to be developed and published separately for each region All modes are 160 pixels wide NTSC mode provides 192 visible lines per screen drawn at 60 Hz with 16 colors each at 8 levels of brightness PAL mode provides more vertical scanlines with 228 visible lines per screen but drawn at 50 Hz and only 13 colors SECAM mode also a 50 Hz format is limited to 8 colors each with only a single brightness level 61 64 Controllers Edit CX30 paddle CX40 joystick The first VCS bundle has two types of controllers a joystick part number CX10 and pair of rotary paddle controllers CX30 Driving controllers which are similar to paddle controllers but can be continuously rotated shipped with the Indy 500 launch game After less than a year the CX10 joystick was replaced with the CX40 model 65 designed by James C Asher 66 Because the Atari joystick port and CX40 joystick became industry standards 2600 joysticks and some other peripherals work with later systems including the MSX Commodore 64 Amiga Atari 8 bit family and Atari ST The CX40 joystick can be used with the Master System and Sega Genesis but does not provide all the buttons of a native controller Third party controllers include Wico s Command Control joystick 67 Later the CX42 Remote Control Joysticks similar in appearance but using wireless technology were released together with a receiver whose wires could be inserted in the controller jacks 68 Atari introduced the CX50 Keyboard Controller in June 1978 along with two games that require it Codebreaker and Hunt amp Score 65 The similar but simpler CX23 Kid s Controller was released later for a series of games aimed at a younger audience 69 The CX22 Trak Ball controller was announced in January 1983 and is compatible with the Atari 8 bit family 70 There were two attempts to turn the Atari 2600 into a keyboard equipped home computer Atari s never released CX3000 Graduate keyboard 71 and the CompuMate keyboard by Spectravideo which was released in 1983 72 Console models Edit The all black model that first used the Atari 2600 name released in November 1982 Sears rebranded the VCS as the Video Arcade for its Tele Games line The design of the Japan only Atari 2800 was later used in the US for the Sears Video Arcade II The 1986 cost reduced version nicknamed 2600 Jr Minor revisions Edit The initial production of the VCS was made in Sunnyvale during 1977 using thick polystyrene plastic for the casing as to give the impression of weight from what was mostly an empty shell inside 9 The initial Sunnyvale batch had also included potential mounts for an internal speaker system on the casing though the speakers were found to be too expensive to include and instead sound was routed through the TIA to the connected television 9 All six console switches on the front panel Production of the unit was moved to Taiwan in 1978 where a less thick internal metal shielding was used and thinner plastic was used for the casing reducing the system s weight These two versions are commonly referred to as Heavy Sixers and Light Sixers respectively referencing the six front switches 73 9 In 1980 the difficulty switches were moved to the back of the console leaving four switches on the front Otherwise these four switch consoles look nearly identical to the earlier six switch models In 1982 Atari rebranded the console as the Atari 2600 a name first used on a version of the four switch model without woodgrain giving it an all black appearance Sears Video Arcade Edit Atari continued its OEM relationship with Sears under the latter s Tele Games brand which started in 1975 with the original Pong This is unrelated to the company Telegames which later produced 2600 cartridges 74 75 Sears released several models of the VCS as the Sears Video Arcade series starting in 1977 In 1983 the previously Japan only Atari 2800 was rebranded as the Sears Video Arcade II 76 Sears released versions of Atari s games with Tele Games branding usually with different titles 77 Three games were produced by Atari for Sears as exclusive releases Steeplechase Stellar Track and Submarine Commander 77 Atari 2800 Edit The Atari 2800 is the Japanese version of the 2600 released in October 1983 It is the first Japan specific release of a 2600 though companies like Epoch had distributed the 2600 in Japan previously The 2800 was released a short time after Nintendo s Family Computer which became the dominant console in Japan and it did not gain a significant share of the market Sears released the 2800 in the US in 1983 as the Sears Video Arcade II packaged with two controllers and Space Invaders 78 Around 30 specially branded games were released for the 2800 Designed by engineer Joe Tilly the 2800 has four controller ports instead of the two of the 2600 The controllers are an all in one design using a combination of an 8 direction digital joystick and a 270 degree paddle designed by John Amber 78 The 2800 s case design departed from the 2600 using a wedge shape with non protruding switches The case style is the basis for the Atari 7800 designed by Barney Huang 78 Atari 2600 Jr Edit The 1986 model has a smaller cost reduced form factor with an Atari 7800 like appearance It was advertised as a budget gaming system under 49 99 with the ability to run a large collection of games 79 Released after the video game crash of 1983 and after the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System the 2600 was supported with new games and television commercials promoting The fun is back Atari released several minor stylistic variations the large rainbow shown short rainbow and an all black version sold only in Ireland 80 Later European versions include a joypad 81 Games EditMain articles List of Atari 2600 games and List of Atari 2600 prototype games See also List of best selling Atari 2600 video games In 1977 nine games were released on cartridge to accompany the launch of the console Air Sea Battle Basic Math Blackjack Combat Indy 500 Star Ship Street Racer Surround and Video Olympics 82 Indy 500 shipped with special driving controllers which are like paddles but rotate freely Street Racer and Video Olympics use the standard paddle controllers Cover art for Atari s games such as this cover for Combat illustrated by Cliff Spohn were aimed to capture the player s imagination and obviate the low fidelity of game graphics Atari determined that box art featuring only descriptions of the game and screenshots would not be sufficient to sell games in retail stores since most games were based on abstract principles and screenshots give little information Atari outsourced box art to Cliff Spohn who created visually interesting artwork with implications of dynamic movement intended to engage the player s imagination while staying true to the gameplay Spohn s style became a standard for Atari when bringing in assistant artists including Susan Jaekel Rick Guidice John Enright and Steve Hendricks 83 Spohn and Hendricks were the largest contributors to the covers in the Atari 2600 library Ralph McQuarrie a concept artist on the Star Wars series was commissioned for one cover the arcade conversion of Vanguard 84 These artists generally conferred with the programmer to learn about the game before drawing the art 83 An Atari VCS port of the Breakout arcade game appeared in 1978 The original is in black and white with a colored overlay and the home version is in color In 1980 Atari released Adventure 85 the first action adventure game and the first home game with a hidden Easter egg Rick Maurer s port of Taito s Space Invaders released in 1980 is the first VCS game to have more than one million copies sold eventually doubling that 86 within a year 87 and totaling more than 6 million cartridges by 1983 23 It became the killer app to drive console sales Versions of Atari s own Asteroids and Missile Command arcade games released in 1981 were also major hits Each early VCS game is in a 2K ROM Later games like Space Invaders have 4K 5 The VCS port of Asteroids 1981 is the first game for the system to use 8K via a bank switching technique between two 4K segments 88 Some later releases including Atari s ports of Dig Dug and Crystal Castles are 16K cartridges 5 One of the final games Fatal Run 1990 doubled this to 32K 89 Atari Inc was the only developer for the first few years releasing dozens of games Two Atari published games both from the system s peak in 1982 E T the Extra Terrestrial 90 and Pac Man 91 are cited as factors in the video game crash of 1983 A company named Mystique produced a number of pornographic games for the 2600 The most notorious Custer s Revenge was protested by women s and Native American groups 92 because it depicted General George Armstrong Custer raping a bound Native American woman 93 Atari sued Mystique in court over the release of the game 94 Legacy Edit The Art of Video Games 2012 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum with Pac Man Space Invaders Pitfall and Combat The 2600 was so successful in the late 1970s and early 1980s that Atari was a synonym for the console in mainstream media and for video games in general 95 Jay Miner directed the creation of the successors to the 2600 s TIA chip CTIA and ANTIC which are central to the Atari 8 bit computers released in 1979 and later the Atari 5200 console The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester New York in 2007 96 In 2009 the Atari 2600 was named the number two console of all time by IGN which cited its remarkable role behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983 and called it the console that our entire industry is built upon 97 In November 2021 the current incarnation of Atari announced three 2600 games to be published under Atari XP label Yars Return Aquaventure and Saboteur 98 These were previously included in Atari Flashback consoles 99 Clones and reissues Edit Modern Atari 2600 clones remain on the market The Atari Classics 10 in 1 TV Game manufactured by Jakks Pacific emulates the 2600 with ten games inside a Atari style joystick with composite video output The TV Boy includes 127 games in an enlarged joypad The Atari Flashback 2 console released in 2005 contains 40 games with four additional programs unlocked by a cheat code The console implements the original 2600 architecture and can be modified to play original 2600 cartridges by adding a cartridge port it is also compatible with original 2600 controllers In 2017 Hyperkin announced the RetroN 77 a clone of the Atari 2600 that plays original cartridges instead of preinstalled games 100 The Atari VCS microconsole was released by Atari Interactive in 2021 101 Unreleased prototypes EditThe Atari 2700 is a version of the 2600 using wireless controllers An Atari 2600 variant known by its production code CX2000 and nickname Val was found as two 1982 prototypes at the New York and Sunnyvale Atari facilities respectively 102 It is a redesign of the aging 2600 Its design with two integrated joystick controllers is the result of human factor analysis by Henry Dreyfuss Associates The project never reached market production Atari started work on a 2600 successor called the Atari 3200 It was to be compatible with 2600 cartridges and was rumored to be based on a 10 bit processor although design documents show it was to be based on the 8 bit 6502 It was still unfinished when preliminary game developers discovered that it was difficult to program Atari cloned the Atari 3200 into the Sears Super Arcade II but this was never released 103 Notes Edit a b 7 271 844 in 1982 684 569 in 1983 23 37 063 in 1986 61 685 in 1987 3 885 in 1988 34 374 in 1989 2 166 in 1990 24 References EditCitations Edit a b Montfort amp Bogost 2009 p 150 A Brief History of Game Console Warfare BusinessWeek May 9 2007 Archived from the original on May 9 2007 Retrieved October 13 2018 Weesner Jason January 11 2007 On Game Design A History of Video Games Retrieved November 13 2007 Image of box with Pac Man sticker a b c Horton Kevin 1996 Info about cart sizes and bankswitching methods Chafkin Max April 1 2009 Nolan Busnell is Back in the Game Inc Retrieved September 11 2018 a b c d e f g Fulton Steve November 6 2007 The History of Atari 1971 1977 Gamasutra Retrieved September 11 2018 a b c Goldberg Marty January 4 2008 The 2600 Story Part I GameSpy Archived from the original on October 13 2013 Retrieved September 11 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Goldberg Marty Vendel Curt 2012 Chapter 5 Atari Inc Business is Fun Sygyzy Press ISBN 978 0985597405 a b c d Bagnall Brian 2011 Commodore A company on the edge Variant Press ISBN 978 0973864960 MOS 6502 the second of a low cost high performance microprocessor family Computer IEEE Computer Society 8 9 38 39 September 1975 doi 10 1109 C M 1975 219074 a b c Decuir Joe July 2015 Atari Video Computer System Bring Entertainment Stories Home IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine 59 66 doi 10 1109 MCE 2015 2421572 Oral History of Chuck Peddle Computer History Museum X7180 2014 https www computerhistory org collections catalog 102739938 https www youtube com watch v enHF9lMseP8 time index 0 59 10 and 1 19 24 Curt Vendel The Atari VCS Prototype Atarimuseum com Archived from the original on January 17 2013 Retrieved March 30 2014 a b Kohler Chris March 19 2009 Racing the Beam How Atari 2600 s Crazy Hardware Changed Game Design Wired Retrieved August 9 2010 a b Edwards Benj January 22 2015 The Untold Story Of The Invention Of The Game Cartridge Fast Company Retrieved April 9 2021 Goll Steve October 1 1984 When The Magic Goes Inc Retrieved April 2 2021 Forster Winnie 2005 The encyclopedia of consoles handhelds amp home computers 1972 2005 GAMEPLAN p 27 ISBN 3 00 015359 4 a b Fulton Steve August 21 2008 Atari The Golden Years A History 1978 1981 Gamasutra Retrieved September 11 2018 Russell Jimmy December 3 2012 101 Amazing Atari 2600 Facts Andrews UK Limited ISBN 9781782344957 The Definitive Space Invaders Retro Gamer No 41 Imagine Publishing September 2007 pp 24 33 Guinness World Records Gamer s Edition Guinness World Records 2008 p 24 ISBN 1 904994 21 0 10 million number of Atari 2600 consoles sold by 1982 a b Cartridge Sales Since 1980 Atari Corp Via The Agony amp The Ecstasy Once Upon Atari Episode 4 Scott West Productions August 10 2003 23 minutes in Vendel Curt May 28 2009 Site News Atari Museum Archived from the original on December 6 2010 Retrieved November 27 2021 a b Hubner John Kistner William F November 28 1983 The Industry What went wrong at Atari InfoWorld Vol 5 no 48 InfoWorld Media Group Inc pp 151 158 157 ISSN 0199 6649 Bisson Gisselle August 6 1984 Atari From Starting Black to Auction Block InfoWorld Vol 6 no 32 InfoWorld Media Group Inc p 52 ISSN 0199 6649 Technology The games that aliens play New Scientist Vol 88 no 1232 1233 Reed Business Information December 18 1980 p 782 ISSN 0262 4079 EG Goes Continental Europe Joins the Game World Electronic Games Vol 2 no 23 January 1984 pp 46 7 Retrieved December 2 2021 Guerre Dans Le Salon War in the Living Room Science amp Vie Micro in French No 67 December 1989 pp 126 8 Barton Matt Loguidice Bill February 28 2008 A History of Gaming Platforms Atari 2600 Video Computer System VCS Gamasutra Retrieved September 11 2018 Reeves Ben February 26 2013 Activisionaries How Four Programmers Changed The Game Industry Game Informer Retrieved April 2 2021 Flemming Jeffrey The History Of Activision Gamasutra Archived from the original on December 20 2016 Retrieved December 30 2016 Atari Sues to k o Competition InfoWorld Vol 2 no 13 August 4 1980 p 1 Retrieved March 30 2014 John Markoff December 21 1981 Atari attempts to gobble software competition InfoWorld Vol 3 no 31 p 1 Retrieved March 30 2014 Mark P Wolf 2012 Encyclopedia of Video Games The Culture Technology and Art of Gaming Vol 2 ABC CLIO p 6 ISBN 9780313379369 Retrieved March 30 2014 Rosenberg Ron December 11 1982 Competitors Claim Role in Warner Setback The Boston Globe p 1 Retrieved March 6 2012 Gallager Scott Ho Park Seung February 2002 Innovation and Competition in Standard Based Industries A Historical Analysis of the U S Home Video Game Market IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society 49 1 67 82 doi 10 1109 17 985749 Bruck Master of the Game Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner pp 179 180 Buchanan Levi August 26 2008 IGN Top 10 Best Selling Atari 2600 Games IGN Archived from the original on July 26 2011 Retrieved September 21 2009 a b Crawford Chris 1991 The Atari Years The Journal of Computer Game Design Vol 5 Mikkelson Barbara Mikkelson David P May 10 2011 Buried Atari Cartridges Snopes com Retrieved September 10 2011 Ernkvist Mirko 2008 Down many times but still playing the game Creative destruction and industry crashes in the early video game industry 1971 1986 In Gratzer Karl Stiefel Dieter eds History of Insolvancy and Bankruptcy pp 161 191 ISBN 978 91 89315 94 5 Atari Parts Are Dumped The New York Times September 28 1983 Poeter Damon May 31 2014 Atari s Buried E T Games Up for Sale PC Magazine Kent Steven 2001 The Ultimate History of Video Games Three Rivers Press ISBN 0 7615 3643 4 a b Sange David E July 3 1984 Warner Sells Atari To Tramiel The New York Times pp Late City Final Edition Section D Page 1 Column 6 1115 words Archived from the original on November 18 2016 Holyoak Craig May 30 1984 Here are ColecoVision s jewels Deseret News pp 4 WV Retrieved January 10 2015 Atari 2600 1986 Commercial The Fun is Back YouTube Secret Quest Atari Mania Fatal Run Atari Mania Where every home game turns out to be a winter The Guardian March 6 1986 p 15 Retrieved October 3 2021 Pollack Andrew September 27 1986 Video Games Once Zapped In Comeback The New York Times A1 Retrieved November 2 2015 When Pac Ruled the Earth Electronic Gaming Monthly No 62 EGM Media LLC September 1994 p 18 Stewart Keith February 24 2017 10 most influential games consoles in pictures The Guardian Retrieved September 17 2018 Montfort amp Bogost 2009 p 25 Montfort amp Bogost 2009 p 26 The cartridge connector s 24 pins are allocated to one supply voltage line two ground lines 8 data lines and 13 address lines The uppermost address line is used as a so called chip select for the cartridge s ROM chip however leaving only 12 address lines for the chip s game program Thus without special hardware tricks built into the cartridge an Atari 2600 game can occupy a maximum address space of 4 KB Montfort amp Bogost 2009 pp 25 26 Montfort amp Bogost 2009 p 88 a b Kohler Chris March 13 2009 Racing the Beam How Atari 2600 s Crazy Hardware Changed Game Design Wired Archived from the original on July 12 2014 Arceneaux Noah February 19 2010 Review Article Game theories technologies and techniques of play New Media amp Society 12 1 161 166 doi 10 1177 1461444809350996 S2CID 220595570 a b Wright Steve December 3 1979 Stella Programmer s Guide Montfort amp Bogost 2009 Reeves Ben February 26 2013 Activisionaries How Four Programmers Changed The Game Industry Game Informer Retrieved July 10 2021 Atari 2600 TIA color chart Archived July 7 2011 at the Wayback Machine a b Current Michael A A History of WCI Games Atari Atari Games Atari Holdings United States Patent 4 349 708 PDF September 14 1982 Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Hruschak PJ April 1 2008 Gamertell Review Wico s Command Control Joystick Technologytell com Archived from the original on April 3 2016 AtariAge Atari 2600 Controllers Remote Control Joysticks atariage com Retrieved February 18 2019 AtariAge Atari 2600 Controllers Kid s Controller atariage com Retrieved February 18 2019 Current Michael D Atari 8 Bit Computers FAQ The Atari Graduate Computer CX 3000 Atari Museum The Spectravideo Compumate Keyboard Atari Museum Beaudoin Dave May 31 2016 You Can Judge a 2600 By Its Cover Digital Game Museum Retrieved September 11 2018 Yarusso Albert Atari 2600 Catalog Telegames AtariAge Retrieved August 31 2010 Grasso Michael September 19 2017 The Sears Tele Games Video Arcade 1977 and the Coleco Gemini 1982 We Are the Mutants Retrieved July 22 2020 Yarusso Albert AtariAge 2600 Consoles and Clones AtariAge Archived from the original on October 6 2007 Retrieved October 7 2007 a b Yarusso Albert Atari 2600 Sears Picture Label Variation AtariAge Retrieved October 7 2007 a b c Vendel Curt The Atari 2800 System atarimuseum com Archived from the original on May 23 2016 Atari 7800 and 2600 Sears Catalog 1988 2600 Consoles and Clones Retrieved August 2 2018 retroplace Atari 2600 Jr Atari 2600 retroplace com Retrieved August 27 2022 Video Games Console Library Atari VCS Launch Titles Retrieved September 8 2017 a b Webster Andrew September 19 2013 How Atari Box Art Turned 8 bit Games Into Virtual Wonderlands The Verge Retrieved April 4 2021 Wanserski Nick February 22 2017 How fantastical Atari box art taught the world what makes video games special The A V Club Retrieved April 4 2021 Robinett Warren Adventure for the Atari 2600 Video Game Console Archived from the original on October 25 2007 Retrieved October 11 2007 Kevin Day Patrick January 22 2013 Atari bankruptcy Remembering the 2600 7 bestselling games Hero Complex Hutcheon Stephen June 7 1983 The video games boom has yet to come The Age Retrieved February 22 2012 Grand Joe 2004 Hardware Hacking Syngress Publishing ISBN 978 1932266832 Atari 2600 VCS Fatal Run Scans dump download screenshots ads videos catalog instructions roms Parish Jeremy Classic 1UP Com s Essential 50 1UP Com Retrieved November 8 2007 Vendel Curt The Atari 2600 Video Computer System Atari Museum Archived from the original on January 18 2013 Retrieved November 13 2007 AGH Third Party Profile Mystique AtariHQ com Retrieved July 6 2009 Fragmaster Custer s Revenge Classic Gaming Archived from the original on April 16 2009 Retrieved July 6 2009 Gonzalez Lauren When Two Tribes Go to War A History of Video Game Controversy GameSpot p 3 Archived from the original on July 9 2009 Retrieved July 6 2009 Edgers Geoff March 8 2009 Atari and the deep history of video games The Boston Globe Archived from the original on April 16 2009 Retrieved April 13 2009 Farhad Manjoo November 10 2007 The Atari 2600 makes the Toy Hall of Fame Retrieved November 29 2015 Atari 2600 is number 2 IGN Retrieved September 22 2011 Gardner Matt November 17 2021 Atari 2600 Gets Three New Releases 28 Years After Discontinuation Forbes Fahey Mike November 17 2021 Atari s New Collectible Game Cartridges Off To A Rocky Start Kotaku Atari 2600 fans get the revival console they deserve Bonifac Igor June 15 2021 Atari VCS is now available to buy Engadget Retrieved June 15 2021 The Atari CX 2000 Prototype www atarimuseum com Retrieved February 18 2019 The Atari 3200 Super Stella Sylvia AtarL Museum Archived from the original on January 18 2013 Retrieved July 6 2009 General bibliography Edit Tim Lapetino 2016 Industrial Design Art of Atari Dynamite ISBN 978 1 5241 0103 9 Archived from the original on September 12 2017 Retrieved September 11 2017 Montfort Nick amp Bogost Ian 2009 Racing the Beam The Atari Video Computer System MIT Press ISBN 978 0 262 01257 7 Perry Tekla Wallich Paul March 1983 Design case history The Atari Video Computer System IEEE Spectrum External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atari 2600 A history of the Atari VCS 2600 Inside the Atari 2600 Hardware and prototypes at the Atari Museum Portals Video games Electronics 1980s Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Atari 2600 amp oldid 1134903755, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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