History of video games/Platforms/Atari 2600

History Development Development of hardware which would become the Atari 2600 had begun by December 1975.Gamasutra - The History of Atari: 1971-1977 https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130414/the_history_of_atari_19711977.php?print=1 18 January 2021 www.gamasutra.com The prototype of the Atari 2600 was based on a Jolt card, which used a 6502 processor.Atari 2600 prototype - CHM Revolution https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185/758 www.computerhistory.org 27 October 2020 Software for the console was developed on a DEC PDP-11 minicomputer, which despite the classification name was a computer about the size of a refrigerator.An Entire PDP-11 On Your Bench https://hackaday.com/2019/08/24/an-entire-pdp-11-on-your-bench/ 21 February 2021 Hackaday 24 August 2019 (And thus much smaller then room sized mainframes) thumb|Atari at CES 1982. Launch thumb | Logo for the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 was launched in 1977. At launch the Atari 2600 cost $199.Atari 2600 Teardown https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Atari+2600+Teardown/3541 iFixit 29 October 2020 en 1 September 2010 Atari was able to leverage their strong arcade game brands to create home ports the same games - achieving massive market success.Kunkel Bill Katz Arnie THE VIDEOGAMES: HOW THEY RATE (Published 1981) https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/21/style/the-videogames-how-they-rate.html 11 February 2021 The New York Times 21 November 1981 Early Atari 2600 units featured six switches and heavy RF shielding, which were later reduced to four switches and lighter shielding.Gamasutra - A History of Gaming Platforms: Atari 2600 Video Computer System/VCS https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131956/a_history_of_gaming_platforms_.php?print=1 22 October 2020 www.gamasutra.com In 1981 VCS cartridges cost as little as $20 and as much as $35. 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.Trautman Ted Excavating the Video-Game Industry’s Past https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/excavating-the-video-game-industrys-past 22 December 2020 The New Yorker en-us 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.Super Rare Atari 2700 Found At California Thrift Store https://kotaku.com/super-rare-atari-2700-found-at-california-thrift-store-1797394693 22 January 2021 Kotaku en-us 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.Children of the ‘80s Never Fear: Video Games Did Not Ruin Your Life https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/children-80s-never-fear-video-games-did-not-ruin-your-life-180963452/ 18 February 2021 Smithsonian Magazine enOpinion VIDEO GAMES FOR THE 'BASEST INSTINCTS OF MAN' (Published 1982) https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/28/opinion/l-video-games-for-the-basest-instincts-of-man-151899.html 18 February 2021 The New York Times 28 January 1982 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.InfoWorld https://books.google.com/books?id=sy8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA151#v=onepage&q&f=false 18 February 2021 InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. 28 November 1983 en 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. A contributing factor to the glut of systems and games on the market came from Atari requiring retailers to overstock their systems. The game performed poorly on the market and caused massive financial harm to Atari. Landfill thumb|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.Robarge Drew From landfill to Smithsonian collections: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" Atari 2600 game https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/landfill-smithsonian-collections-et-extra-terrestrial-atari-2600-game 22 October 2020 National Museum of American History 15 December 2014 en This fact became an urban legend as time went on, until it was confirmed in a landfill dig. Cartridges were found following 30 feet of digging.Archaeologists Dig for Video Games - Blog - The Henry Ford - Blog - The Henry Ford https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/archaeology's-underground/ www.thehenryford.org 22 December 2020 en The recovery project caused many to look at archeology in a new light, due to the recovery of something relatively recent. 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. The system was discontinued in 1992,The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Atari 2600 https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/the-consumer-electronics-hall-of-fame-atari-2600 IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News 18 January 2021 en 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.Amer Pakinam Machine Learning Pwns Old-School Atari Games https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gamer-machine-learning-vanquishes-old-school-atari-games/ 25 April 2022 Scientific American enUber AI plays any Atari 2600 game with 'superhuman' skill https://www.engadget.com/uber-ai-masters-atari-games-012832222.html 25 April 2022 Engadget In 2021 It was announced that Atari would begin producing new Atari 2600 cartridges as part of the Atari XP line.Handley Zoey Atari XP will let you put some new cartridges in your old Atari 2600 https://www.destructoid.com/atari-xp-limited-edition-physical-cartridges-let-you-put-new-games-in-your-old-atari-2600/ 11 November 2023 Destructoid 16 November 2021 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.Did Stevie Wonder Endorse Atari Video Games? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stevie-wonder-atari-ad/ Snopes.com 15 August 2021Sorry, That Crazy Stevie Wonder + Atari Poster Is Fake https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/05/sorry-that-crazy-stevie-wonder-atari-poster-is-fake/ 15 August 2021 Kotaku Australia 1 May 2014 en-AU Technology Compute thumb|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.Atari Compendium http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html www.ataricompendium.com 22 October 2020 This processor was bottlenecked somewhat by poor IO performance. A special chip is used to assist with graphics and sounds called the Television Interface Adapter (TIA) which contains about 10,000 transistors and handles two (first version) or three (Later revision) sprites.Atari Compendium http://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/vcs_tia/vcs_tia.html www.ataricompendium.com 22 October 2020 The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM, and up to a 4KB ROM.OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=2&c=878 www.old-computers.com 22 October 2020 Some games, such as Pitfall II, used expansion chips to enhance the graphical and audio capabilities of the Atari 2600. Because of it's limitations, developers resorted to a number of tricks to make the most of the system performance.Inventing the Atari 2600 https://spectrum.ieee.org/atari-2600 31 December 2021 IEEE Spectrum 15 December 2021 en 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.Beyman Alex Pushing the Crusty Old Atari 2600 to its Absolute Limit https://alexbeyman.medium.com/pushing-the-crusty-old-atari-2600-to-its-absolute-limit-e90e9aa053cb 31 December 2021 Medium 4 January 2019 enRaycasting on VCS https://atariage.com/forums/topic/284798-raycasting-on-vcs/ 31 December 2021 AtariAge Forums Controller A third party motion sensing controller that used mercury switches, the Le Stick, was released for the system.Datasoft Le Stick Joystick - Peripheral - Computing History http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32397/Datasoft-Le-Stick-Joystick/ www.computinghistory.org.uk 29 October 2020 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.Atari game cartridges collage - CHM Revolution https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185/770 www.computerhistory.org 27 October 2020 1977 thumb|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). thumb|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. 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. 1981 Asteroids Missile Command Laser Blast Freeway Kaboom! 1982 Pitfall! Yars' Revenge Donkey Kong - Port Pac-Man - Port Frogger Demon Attack Atlantis Megamania Cosmic Ark Centipede Raiders of the Lost Ark Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial River Raid River Raid was an early console game to use procedural generation to save limited console resources.The Women Who Raided Rivers and Crushed Centipedes https://highscoreesports.com/2019/03/08/the-women-who-raided-rivers-and-crushed-centipedes/ High Score Esports 30 December 2020 8 March 2019 Notably, this game became the first to be banned in West Germany in 1984 as it portrayed paramilitary content.River Raid causes "erratic thinking" https://atariage.com/forums/topic/182303-river-raid-causes-erratic-thinking/ AtariAge Forums 30 December 2020 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.Pepsi Invaders Retro Gamer https://www.retrogamer.net/retro_games80/pepsi-invaders/ www.retrogamer.net 30 December 2020Atari 2600 VCS Pepsi Invaders : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-pepsi-invaders_11875.html www.atarimania.com 30 December 2020 Read more about Pepsi Invaders on Wikipedia. Gallery Console variants Wood veneer Wood veneer light sixer All Black Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade Controllers Accessories Development External Resources Atari 2600 Atari 2700 Atari 2600 Atari Museum - Atari 2600 section. AtariAge - Atari 2600 section. Atari Mania - Atari 2600 section. Old Computers - Atari 2600 page The Strong National Museum of Play National Toy Hall of Fame - Atari 2600 page. Science Museum Group (UK) - Atari 2600 Page. Retro Games UK - Atari VCS page. References 2100%__NOTOC__