History of video games/Platforms/Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 with joystick.

History

Development

Development of hardware which would become the Atari 2600 had begun by December 1975.^[1] The prototype of the Atari 2600 was based on a Jolt card, which used a 6502 processor.^[2] Software for the console was developed on a DEC PDP-11 minicomputer^[2], which despite the classification name was a computer about the size of a refrigerator.^[3] (And thus much smaller then room sized mainframes)

Atari at CES 1982.

Launch

Logo for the Atari 2600.

The Atari 2600 was launched in 1977.^[4] At launch the Atari 2600 cost $199.^[5] Atari was able to leverage their strong arcade game brands to create home ports the same games - achieving massive market success.^[6]

Early Atari 2600 units featured six switches and heavy RF shielding, which were later reduced to four switches and lighter shielding.^[4]

In 1981 VCS cartridges cost as little as $20 and as much as $35.^[6]

The launch of the Atari 5200 in 1982 may have harmed Atari 2600 sales, though a lack of coordination within Atari led to the Atari 2600 overshadowing it anyway.^[7]

The 2700, a version of the 2600 with support for wireless controllers, was planned for a 1981 release but was scrapped with only a few prototype units being produced.^[8]

The Video Game Crash

The combined success of Atari products in the home and in the arcade made the company a captain of industry, and the name Atari itself had become a cultural icon synonymous with video games and high technology. By 1982 Atari products had become so popular that it triggered an early panic among parents regarding possible negative effects of video games.^[9]^[10] By 1983 some politicians involved in promoting new high tech industries in the United States were labeled as "Atari Democrats", a moniker which shows just how much pull Atari had on the public mindshare.^[11] However this influence was not to last long, and Atari as well as the rest of the North American video game industry would soon find itself under an existential threat.

A major Christmas 1982 title, ET, was rushed into development and given only five and a half weeks of development time.^[12] A contributing factor to the glut of systems and games on the market came from Atari requiring retailers to overstock their systems.^[4] The game performed poorly on the market and caused massive financial harm to Atari.^[12]

Landfill

Atari cartridge unearthed at the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill dig in 2013.

In September 1983 Atari disposed of surplus cartridges in a Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill.^[12] This fact became an urban legend as time went on, until it was confirmed in a landfill dig.^[12] Cartridges were found following 30 feet of digging.^[13] The recovery project caused many to look at archeology in a new light, due to the recovery of something relatively recent.^[13]

Later life and discontinuation

Following Nintendo's revival of the American video game market, Atari relaunched the system as the Atari 2600 Jr. in 1986.^[4] The system was discontinued in 1992,^[4]^[14] making the 2600 among the longest lasting consoles on the market.

Legacy

The Atari 2600 remained an iconic gaming system long after it was discontinued.

In 2021 various Atari 2600 games were used to demonstrate machine learning techniques at the organization Uber AI.^[15]^[16]

In 2021 It was announced that Atari would begin producing new Atari 2600 cartridges as part of the Atari XP line.^[17]

Myths

Due to its cultural prominence, a number of historically inaccurate myths have emerged regarding the system. One such false myth is that the blind musician Stevie Wonder was a spokesman for the system, though he was not.^[18]^[19]

Technology

Compute

The NTSC 2600 palette.

The Atari 2600 used a MPU (CPU), the 8 bit MOS 6507 (Low cost version of the MOS 6502) clocked at 1.19MHz.^[20] This processor was bottlenecked somewhat by poor IO performance.^[14] A special chip is used to assist with graphics and sounds called the Television Interface Adapter (TIA)^[14] which contains about 10,000 transistors and handles two (first version) or three (Later revision) sprites.^[21] The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM, and up to a 4KB ROM.^[22]

Some games, such as Pitfall II, used expansion chips to enhance the graphical and audio capabilities of the Atari 2600.^[4]

Because of it's limitations, developers resorted to a number of tricks to make the most of the system performance.^[23] As an example, some skilled commercial developers and skilled Demoscene creators would later be able to push to Atari 2600 to perform pseudo 3D Games or simple 3D via raycasting.^[24]^[25]

Controller

A third party motion sensing controller that used mercury switches, the Le Stick, was released for the system.^[26] This is a notable example of an early motion controller for a home console.

Notable games

Over 500 games were released for the Atari 2600.^[27]

1977

Illustration of the Atari 2600 game Combat. Actual graphics were bitmap, and thus the rotated tanks would look blockier on real hardware.

Combat - Launch title and common pack-in cartridge, based on the arcade hit games Tank (1974) and Jet Fighter (1975).

Video Olympics screenshot.

Video Olympics - Launch title

1978

Super Breakout - port of the 1975 arcade game (see Pong and Breakout), using full-color graphics, instead of the black and white of the original version.

1979

Superman

1980

Space Invaders

Adventure

Adventure was an early game in the Action adventure genre.^[4] This game contained the first example of an Easter Egg in a game, the name of it's programmer Warren Robinett, as a way to protest Atari's decision not to credit programmers.^[4]

1981

1982

River Raid

River Raid was an early console game to use procedural generation to save limited console resources.^[28]

Notably, this game became the first to be banned in West Germany in 1984 as it portrayed paramilitary content.^[28]^[29]

Read more about River Raid on Wikipedia.

1983

Pepsi Invaders

Pepsi Invaders is among the rarest games for the system with only 125 copies produced by Coca-Cola working with Atari.^[30]^[31]

Read more about Pepsi Invaders on Wikipedia.

Gallery

Console variants

Wood veneer

A four switch Atari 2600 with wood grain finish.
The cartridge slot is located in the top bulge of the unit.
The back of the unit contains two controller ports.
The back of the unit also contains the power jack, and some less used switches.

Wood veneer light sixer

A wood veneer Atari 2600 with six switches.
The extra switches on the left and right are used to control player difficulty.
The back switches are not present, leaving only the power jack and two controller ports.
The controller ports on this unit are further down than on four switch units.

All Black

A 1982 model four switch Atari 2600 without a wood finish, the first to be labeled the Atari 2600.^[32]
This model is sometimes unofficially nicknamed "Darth Vader" due to sharing a color scheme with the Star Wars character, another icon during the run of the Atari 2600.^[32]

Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade

The Sears Video Arcade has a marble finish.
The Sears Video Arcade uses six switches.

Controllers

The iconic Atari 2600 Joystick offered simple movement controls and an action button.
A Paddle Controller used for Pong-like games.
The Driving Controller is nearly identical to the paddle controller, but has a car icon on it and uses different mechanics.
The Keypad Controller was used for some games that used overlays, notably BASIC Programming, a cartridge allowing to write small 2600 programs.
The Atari Video Touch Pad.
The Sears Video Arcade II controller offered a paddle and two buttons.
The Atari Track Ball helped bring the arcade feel of Centipede and Missile Command to the home.
The Atari Mindlink Controller at the National Videogame Museum in Frisco Texas.

Accessories

The Atari 2600 AC adapter takes AC electricity from mains and turns it 9 volt, 500 mAh DC current.
The Starpath Supercharger is an adapter allowing to run much bigger games from audio cassette.
The Spectravideo CompuMate (German Universum HEIMCOMPUTER variant pictured) was a membrane keyboard allowing to turn the Atari 2600 into a primitive computer running BASIC.