Atari 2600 Facts
The Atari 2600 has a prominent if often forgotten place in video game lore. The system, which used a top-loading cartridge and connected to televisions through a coaxial cable, was the first widely available and marketed home video game player. Thanks to the Atari 2600, video games were no longer just something for arcades.
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History
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Atari was founded in 1972. After several years of research and development, Atari released its first home video game system, then called the Atari Video Computer System, in October of 1977. It became the hit of the Christmas season that year. In 1982, Atari gave the system the name Atari 2600.
Pricing
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The original price for the game system was $199. This included the console two joysticks, paddle controllers and the game "Combat." The price dropped in each of the following years. By 1984, a new Atari 2600 with a "Pac-Man" game cost $50. A nostalgia factor kicked in later and boosted prices again on the secondary market. In July of 2010 an Atari 2600 in good condition and packaged with a large library of games could sell for upwards of $200.
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Games
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The original Atari game lineup consisted of just nine titles. They were "Air-Sea Battle," "Basic Math," "Blackjack," "Combat," "Indy 500," "Star Ship," "Street Racer," "Surround" and "Video Olympics." The system's most famous game though was "Pong," which had previously been the first widely available arcade video game. "Pac-Man," a major arcade hit of the early 1980s, eventually replaced "Combat" as the game Atari bundled with the 2600 Console.
Third-Party Games
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In 1980, several former Atari programmers formed Activision and produced games such as "Dragster," "Fishing Derby" and "Boxing" that could be played on the Atari system. According to the website AtariAge, Activision grossed $70 million in its first year of operation. That was in spite of informal complaints from Atari that Activision should not be allowed to produce games for the Atari 2600. Zimag, Amiga, US Games, Coleco and Telesys all began producing games for the Atari 2600 too. Some of those companies quickly went out of business due to the competition.
Competition and Legacy
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The Atari 2600 originally competed primarily with the Sears Tele-Games, which closely resembled the Atari 2600, and the Intellivision console. In 1986, Japanese game maker Nintendo introduced the NES console system in the United States. To remain competitive, Atari released the 7800 console,which could handle more advanced and complex games than the 2600 could. The company also began selling an Atari 2600 Jr. It came in a smaller case and could play all of the games from the original 2600. Nintendo eventually won the battle and Atari's 2600 was pulled from production entirely in the early 1990s.
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