Twitch
09-04-2006, 03:34 AM
In 1977 Atari released a console that would shape and change the world like never before and spawn one of the largest collector followings there is. The console was the then called Atari Video Computer System or VCS and was the first successful system to utilise cartridges, instead of having the games built in. The console became Atari's signature device and enjoyed great success in the early eighties with the console often beign sold with two joysticks, paddle controllers and and a game cartridge.
In 1975 Atari began a side company called Cyan Engineering to as an R&D think tank for next-gen systems. Cyan had been working on a project codnamed stella for quite a while. Rather than using custom logic for the device Cyan used a complete CPU the MOS Tech 6502, in a cost-reduced format labled the 6507. It contained another MOS Tech chi p along with two of their own creation and a CMOS logic chip an d that was all making it a very cost effective console. And after seeing a system utilising a fake cartridge system they realised they could use carts for their games and it wouldn't cost them all that much to make them.
It was in August of '76 however that the competition reared its ugly head when Fairchild Semiconductor released their own cart based console the Channel F and Stella was still not ready for production. Unfortunately for Atari they didn't have the money to complete the console quickly, partially due to the drop of sales in the companies PONG games, and so in late '76 Nolan Bushnell founder of Atari sold the company to Warner communications with the promise that Stella would be finished as soon as possible. Shortly after the company hired Jay Miner an excellent chip designer who managed to place everything they had used the form their Television Interface Adaptor into a single chip.
And so it was that after several years and US$100 million the console was complete and released in 1977, with an initial price tag of $200 and 9 titles in the library it sold surprisingly well. Atari intially named the console the Video Computer System to compete directly with Fairchild who were calling their console the Video Entertainment System, when fairchild learned of this planned naming of the Atari console they changed theirs to the Channel F. With this the early gaming wars began with many of the PONG clone creation companies wiped out but because of the PONG fad the VCS suffered from poorer than anticipated sales selling only a quater of a million in '77 and 550,000 from a production of 800,000 the next year. Which led to Atari needing more money from Warner which in turn led to the disagreements that caused Nolan Bushnell to leave the company in '78.
At the start of 1979 the public began to realise that they could play more than just PONG , and the programmers figured out how to push the envolope of the consoles power. Now as as RedMaN said last week (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost.php?p=852279&postcount=6)“Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups” and Fairchild found out the hard way after abandoning the gaming market beleiving the fad was over, with the Atari being the best selling console an d selling more than a million units in '79. The next year Atari released a version of Taito's arcade hit Space Invaders which increased its popularity and help to double its sales to over 2 million, they continued to grow until it had sold more than 8 million in 1982. Atari also created two other consoles during this time which were variants of the 2600, the 2700 was supposed to be wireless but was never released due to a design flaw and the 2800 a smaller version designed for the Japanese market failed when put against the Famicom.
Atari also had a bad mabit of not crediting its programmers, one such case was where Rick Mauer, who programmed the version of Space Invaders for the 2600 received no credit and only $11,000 for his work despite the game grossing more than $1 Million. Warren Robinett lead programmer of Adventure hid his name in a secret room of the game as a protest against Atari's anonymity policy. So many programmers left to form their own companies the most notable of which was Activision. Atari also tried to stop third party developers in court but failed miserably.
The console was never actually discontinued in a formal manner and continued to sell even after Warner sold Atari to Jack Tramiel who had founded Commodore Business Machines. It was redesigned and re-released in 1986 and continued to sell until 1990, when they stopped producing them the console had more then 900 games in the library. Many of the games can still be found today in classic collections.
The Specs
CPU - MOS Technology 6507, a cut-down version of the 6502, running at 1.19 MHz
RAM - 128K for Runtime
No frame buffer with the console instead using two bitmapped sprites to draw the images.
Well that's it for the 2600 hope the read was informative.
-Twitch
In 1975 Atari began a side company called Cyan Engineering to as an R&D think tank for next-gen systems. Cyan had been working on a project codnamed stella for quite a while. Rather than using custom logic for the device Cyan used a complete CPU the MOS Tech 6502, in a cost-reduced format labled the 6507. It contained another MOS Tech chi p along with two of their own creation and a CMOS logic chip an d that was all making it a very cost effective console. And after seeing a system utilising a fake cartridge system they realised they could use carts for their games and it wouldn't cost them all that much to make them.
It was in August of '76 however that the competition reared its ugly head when Fairchild Semiconductor released their own cart based console the Channel F and Stella was still not ready for production. Unfortunately for Atari they didn't have the money to complete the console quickly, partially due to the drop of sales in the companies PONG games, and so in late '76 Nolan Bushnell founder of Atari sold the company to Warner communications with the promise that Stella would be finished as soon as possible. Shortly after the company hired Jay Miner an excellent chip designer who managed to place everything they had used the form their Television Interface Adaptor into a single chip.
And so it was that after several years and US$100 million the console was complete and released in 1977, with an initial price tag of $200 and 9 titles in the library it sold surprisingly well. Atari intially named the console the Video Computer System to compete directly with Fairchild who were calling their console the Video Entertainment System, when fairchild learned of this planned naming of the Atari console they changed theirs to the Channel F. With this the early gaming wars began with many of the PONG clone creation companies wiped out but because of the PONG fad the VCS suffered from poorer than anticipated sales selling only a quater of a million in '77 and 550,000 from a production of 800,000 the next year. Which led to Atari needing more money from Warner which in turn led to the disagreements that caused Nolan Bushnell to leave the company in '78.
At the start of 1979 the public began to realise that they could play more than just PONG , and the programmers figured out how to push the envolope of the consoles power. Now as as RedMaN said last week (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost.php?p=852279&postcount=6)“Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups” and Fairchild found out the hard way after abandoning the gaming market beleiving the fad was over, with the Atari being the best selling console an d selling more than a million units in '79. The next year Atari released a version of Taito's arcade hit Space Invaders which increased its popularity and help to double its sales to over 2 million, they continued to grow until it had sold more than 8 million in 1982. Atari also created two other consoles during this time which were variants of the 2600, the 2700 was supposed to be wireless but was never released due to a design flaw and the 2800 a smaller version designed for the Japanese market failed when put against the Famicom.
Atari also had a bad mabit of not crediting its programmers, one such case was where Rick Mauer, who programmed the version of Space Invaders for the 2600 received no credit and only $11,000 for his work despite the game grossing more than $1 Million. Warren Robinett lead programmer of Adventure hid his name in a secret room of the game as a protest against Atari's anonymity policy. So many programmers left to form their own companies the most notable of which was Activision. Atari also tried to stop third party developers in court but failed miserably.
The console was never actually discontinued in a formal manner and continued to sell even after Warner sold Atari to Jack Tramiel who had founded Commodore Business Machines. It was redesigned and re-released in 1986 and continued to sell until 1990, when they stopped producing them the console had more then 900 games in the library. Many of the games can still be found today in classic collections.
The Specs
CPU - MOS Technology 6507, a cut-down version of the 6502, running at 1.19 MHz
RAM - 128K for Runtime
No frame buffer with the console instead using two bitmapped sprites to draw the images.
Well that's it for the 2600 hope the read was informative.
-Twitch