2600
It was the month of October 1977 that was to mark the beginning of the video gaming revolution. This was when the Atari 2600 was first released to the world. The Atari 2600 utilized a microprocessor-based hardware and future games that are placed on cartridges. Prior to this are gaming systems featured the games built in. Although the Atari 2600 was not the first microprocessor-based gaming system, it was the most popular. The first microprocessor-based gaming system was actually the Fairchild Channel F.
Although the world knew it as the 2600, the original name of the Atari 2600 was actually the Atari VCS. VCS stood for video computer system. The system was not actually known as the Atari 2600 until 1982 when the Atari 5200 was released. The 2600 came initially with two joystick style controllers and a pair of paddle style controllers. Initially the system was released with the game known as Combat; it would not be until later that Pac Man was the game that would come with the Atari 2600
Before the 1977 release of the 2600, the Atari Company had purchased, in 1973, Cyan Engineering. It was to be this think tank that Atari would utilize to create the first Atari gaming system. When the Atari 2600 was just a prototype, a think tank had used the code name "Stella" which was actually the name of one of the engineer's personal bicycles.
While the 2600 was under development, after the think tank had seen a fake cartridge design, they decided that they could easily utilize a cartridge to hold a game. This led to further research and development into the 2600 until 1976. When Fairchild Semiconductor released their own CPU based gaming system.
The engineers knew that the Atari 2600 was not ready for the production. With Fairchild's Video Entertainment System being released with the ever popular game "Pong," Atari knew they had to act quickly. Without the money necessary to finish development on the Atari 2600, they ended up settling in name to Warner Communications for $28 million US dollars.
In a letter to compete against the Fairchild Channel F, the Atari 2600 was released with nine games for the price of $199 US dollars. The collaboration only lasted four years, between both Atari and Warner Communications; the cost of development for the Atari 2600 was over $100 million US dollars by the time the game system was released in 1977.
This led to a vicious price war between the Fairchild Channel F and the Atari 2600. This price war caused all the parallel companies to go out of business and eventually led to a clogging of the market with the game Pong.
By the end of 1977, Atari had already sold 250,000 VCS units. This forced Atari to move production from Sunnyvale, California to Hong Kong. In 1978, although Atari had made 800,000 units only 550,000 of them were actually sold. This overestimate of production led to a disagreement between Nolan Bushnell who was the founder of Atari and Warner Communications. In 1978, Nolan Bushnell left Atari forever.
In 1979 the Atari 2600 began to gain popularity over the Fairchild Channel F and eventually led to various developers and programmers who wanted to develop new games for the Atari 2600. By the end of the year, the Atari 2600 was the best selling Christmas present. With over one million units sold that year.
When the arcade game Space Invaders was released in 1980, sales of the Atari 2600 were to double over the next two years. Thanks to the use of cartridges, the Atari 2600 sold almost 8 million units in 1982.
Another popular name for the Atari 2600, was given to the system due to its all black appearance. This name was the "Darth Vader" and was given to the Atari 2600 due to the popularity of the recent release of the movie Star Wars.
There was an attempt shortly after to create an Atari 2700 which was going to be a wireless version, however, this unit was never to be seen due to a major flaw in the design. In 1983 there was also an attempt to release the Atari 2800 in the Japanese market but unfortunately, the new Nintendo Famicom was also released that same year.
Many developers for the games for the Atari 2600 were starting to get upset due to the fact that they were not receiving any credit for the games that they had developed. The lack of any further new games would ultimately be the downfall for the Atari 2600. The developers for the games of the Atari 2600 also included in their games the first of what was to become known as the Easter egg. But the thing that eventually led to complete destruction of the Atari 2600 was the 1983 video game crash.
Warner Communications however, did not stop complete production of the Atari 2600 until 1984. They even went as far as creating the Atari 2600 Jr. in 1986. They also produced the Atari 7800, persuasive in the USA and Europe until well into the 1990s. By 1991, the Atari 2600 and 7800 had sold over 40 million units worldwide.
Thanks to the popularity Atari, even after 25 years since the launch of the initial Atari 2600, there was still a large group of enthusiasts who were still producing games for the Atari units.
A Coffee released, what was known as the Flashback 2 in 2005 that is capable of playing the original Atari 2600 game cartridges, and also came with 40 games. Atari has become a legend in the gaming community and even the Atari logo has become a piece of culture for the video gaming enthusiast.
Atari is a legend in the video gaming industry because of their release of the Atari 2600.
Original Authors: Gobel Team (Nick)
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 28/08/2007
