8-Bit Atari 2600
Last updated: Tuesday, August 4, 2009
In 1977 Atari released their Atari VCS (2600) and initially had nine games available. Atari sold over thirty million of the consoles, and together with other companies sold hundreds of millions of games. Cartridges for the system were produced across three decades, and believe it or not there are still new games being produced today.
Joe Decuir first envisioned his home video game machine in 1976 and designed the chipset and the first prototypes of what would later become the Atari 2600. He knew that this was a great product but Atari didn’t have the means to manufacture it. That changed once Warner Communications purchased Atari. With the backing of big money the Atari was released to great success.
One peculiar thing about the Atari 2600 was it’s woodgrain frontpiece which was suppose to make it fit right into people’s homes, like it was a piece of furniture. They felt at the time that consumers wouldn’t want some black piece of plastic sitting next to their TVs and this was there solution. Not all versions of the Atari 2600 were “woody” but they are the most sought after ones for collectors.
Also because home video gaming was soon new not all TVs could display the games properly. There were six toggle switches across the top including one that would change it so it could be used on black and white televisions.
I have found memories of the Atari 2600 and some not so found ones (I would constantly get upset with Donkey Kong because of the delay the button had when jumping) but overall this was the grandfather of video games systems and a total blast.
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