2nd Generation - Atari 2600

Atari 2600 was the first cartridge-based home console system, released in September 1977 by Atari, Inc., although the project for this console had been going on since Atari acquired a company called Cyan Engineering in 1973. At the time they were developing a console with the name “Stella” which they changed to Atari 2600 later on.

This home console popularized the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code. Atari 2600 came with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game.

The Atari 2600 used an MOS 6507 CPU with a speed of 1.19 MHz. The console also contained a RAM of 128 bytes and 4Kb of ROM. It had a maximum resolution of 160x192 pixels and it could produce 16 colors without the need of screen overlays. The game produced a 2-channel, mono audio sound, with the use of a TIA Atari sound chip. Multiple peripheral devices were released, such as: touch pads, keyboard controllers and paddle controllers.

The console was originally priced at $199, and it came with two joysticks and a Combat game cartridge. To compete with the Channel F console, Atari named their machine the Video Computer System (VCS). The VCS became popular because unlike other games at that time, the users could play games other than Pong on it. After Pong, Atari released Space Invaders in 1980, and it was such a great hit that it rapidly increased the console's popularity. The console had sold 10 million units by 1982, while its best-selling game Pac-Man sold 7 million copies.

Figure 1 - Atari 2600 console

In 1980, the VCS was redesigned so that the console was left with four switches on the front, after the difficulty switches were moved to the back. In 1982 the console was released again, this time without wood grain. These consoles were nicknamed “Darth Vader” due to their all-black appearance.

Some of the games that could be played on the Atari 2600 were: Pac-Man, Pitfall!, Asteroids, Galaxian, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and Defender.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Atari 2600. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 [Accessed 5 March 2015]

Gaming.wikia.com, (2015). List of Atari 2600 peripherals. [online] Available at: http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_peripherals [Accessed 5 March 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). List of Atari 2600 games. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_games [Accessed 5 March 2015]