Jimmy Russell - 101 Amazing Atari 2600 Facts

Title Page

101 AMAZING ATARI 2600 FACTS

by

Jimmy Russell

Publisher Information

Published in 2012 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The right of Jimmy Russell to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2012 Jimmy Russell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Disclaimer: Publicly available sources confirm the attribution of these credits, however the authors will be happy to correct any errors. All quotations are subject to applicable fair use laws.

Introduction

In this, the first title in Jimmy Russells Games Console History series, we learn 101 amazing facts about Ataris seminal 2600, the first truly popular home family computer games system. The facts cover many areas, including the history, the hardware, game titles both rare and popular and some incredible information you probably never knew! Everyone from retro gamers who were there at the time to n00bz who think a PlayStation is Old School will find this excellent eBook jam packed full of fascinating trivia!

History - Part 1

1. The 2600 followed the Atari Pong unit and was preceded by the Atari 5200.
2. Originally the console was called the Atari VCS, which stands for Video Computer System.
3. Manufacture of the first wave of units occurred in Sunnyvale, California in the Silicon Valley.
4. The VCS prototype was developed by Cyan Engineering, an engineering firm bought by Atari.
5. The prototype was called Stella, after a bicycle that belonged to one of the engineers!
6. Made entirely from off-the-shelf components, it would theoretically be possible to construct a 2600 Stella yourself, from scratch.
7. The development of Stella cost around $100 million, which left Atari out of pocket to continue with the manufacture.
8. In 1976, Atari was sold to Warner for $28 million so that the Atari VCS could finally be manufactured.
9. The Atari 2600 was launched in October 1977 by Atari Incorporated.
10. The launch price for the Atari 2600 was $199 US.

Peripherals

1. The standard Atari joystick is called the CX40
2. The joystick, the paddles, the Trakball, the twelve-button keypad and the driving controller were the official first-party peripherals for the 2600.
3. The input on the Atari is a standard Kempston DE-9 screwless interface - meaning a wide range of other controllers are compatible, including those used for rival consoles like the Spectrum, Master System and the MSX - something not seen today!
4. A whole host of third party controllers and add-ons were released - two of the best though were a plank of wood and a rubber ball: the controller would sit in a custom square hole in the plank and the rubber ball would fit neatly onto the top of the joystick - this apparently recreated the arcade experience at home!
5. Spitfire Attack from Milton Bradley came packaged with the brilliant Flight Commander which was shaped like a fighter planes gun mount.
6. Track & Field - the world famous joystick waggler. On the VCS the game actually came with a custom controller with two big left and right buttons, ripe for the mashing.
7. The Starpath Supercharger was a tape-deck add-on that facilitated the playing of more complex games and boosted the RAM to 6.5kb
8. Always the trendsetters, Atari released wireless, RF joysticks in 1983 - way ahead of the game.
9. The Atari even had mercury-powered, motion-sensitive controllers, thirty years before the Wii!
10. Believe it or not the machine also had an online download service: the CVC Gameline allowed gamers to plug in a phone cable and download new games via an in-built modem. Impressive!

Hardware - Part 1

1. The console takes its name from the part number attributed to it - CX2600.
2. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick, two paddles and a single game.
3. The initial bundled game was Combat , but this was later changed to Pac-Man .
4. Unlike prior machines, the 2600 had a revolutionary complete CPU - the 1.19MHz MOS 6507.
5. The 6507 chip was a cheaper, more easily-manufactured version of the now-famous MOS 6502 for use in a home console.
6. If youve not heard of the 6502, it was used in the Apple II, the BBC Micro and the Commodore 64 so has a decent legacy!
7. The machine also contained 128 bytes of RAM and 4kb of ROM - what a beast!
8. Jay Miner - engineer extraordinaire created the single-chip TIA (Television Interface Adaptor) out of an entire mess of wire-wrapped circuitry.
9. The CPU, I/O chip, the Television Interface Adapter and the CMOS logic circuit is the sum of all the technology inside - only four chips total.
10. To save on system resources, the 2600 hardware automatically mirrored the right side of the screen to the left, much like in Pong.

Top Selling Games

1. Pac-Man - 1982 - 7 million
2. Pitfall! - 1982 - 4 million
3. Asteroids - 1981 - 3.8 million
4. Missile Command - 1980 - 2.5 million
5. Space Invaders - 1980 - 2 million
6. Demon Attack - 1982 - 2 million
7. E.T the Extra-Terrestrial - 1982 - 1.5 million
8. Adventure - 1979 - 1 million
9. Atlantis - 1982 - 1 million
10. Cosmic Ark - 1982 - 1 million

Impact

1. The 2600 was so popular during its day, the word Atari became the slang term for video games; Do you want to play Atari?
2. Many movies feature characters playing an Atari - Modern Problems, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Cannonball Run II and both Airplane movies to name just some!
3. The VCS sold an incredible thirty million units - for the late seventies that is phenomenal.
4. In 1982 Atari had got the production cost of a 2600 down to $40 and sold them for $125 - proving there was profit in video games.
5. The Atari VCS became so popular that competitors Mattel and Coleco actually manufactured modules for their consoles that allowed the gamer to play 2600 games.
6. Atari embraced the development of third-party software - something which is integral to the modern games industry.
7. The total number of 2600 games weighs in at over 900 titles!
8. The last commercial VCS game was released in 1991 - thats an incredible 25-year span.
9. Each cartridge cost about $6 to make and $1 to promote - considering some games were sold for $60 theres no surprise Atari did so well.
10. Its not all good news - the machine itself is almost single-handedly responsible for the video game crash of 1983!

History - Part 2

1. Take-up was low for three year as consumers didnt understand that they could play more than just Pong !
2. Once Atari licensed the smash arcade hit Space Invaders , this quickly led to some 2 million console sales.
3. By 1979, the VCS was the top-selling Christmas gift for families.
4. In 1979 alone, one million VCS units were sold.
5. By 1980 with the help of Space Invaders and Pac-Man , Atari had turned over $2 billion.
6. After the release of the Atari 5200, the console was retrospectively renamed the 2600.
7. At the height of its success, Atari was responsible for over half of Warner (its parent company)s income.
8. Some VCS consoles were rebranded the Sears Video Arcade to be sold through Sears stores in the USA.
9. By the mid-80s however interest started to wane - Atari had overmilked its cash cow and was haemorrhaging $10,000 every day.