8-Bit Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 was released in 1986 just after the Nintendo brought their Famicom system to America. The system was actually more powerful graphically then the NES and Sega Master System but it still utilized the same sound chip that was in the Atari 2600 so that hurt the system.
Since the Atari 7800 was fully backwards compatible with the Atari 2600 that meant it had a full compliment of games ready at launch. Which was good because the system only had 3 games at launch and many were announced that were never released. The Atari 7800’s short life was marred by it’s vaporware and inability to attract gamers from Nintendo’s machine.
The NES style controllers seen in the screenshot below were not actually released with the system. An update to the Atari 5200’s controllers called the “Atari Proline Controller” was released with the system but received many complaints again about how uncomfortable they were.
The games were great though and if anyone wants to try some out there are lots on Ebay all the time and of course emulation is a good way to play the classics.