Atari rose like a legend, bringing arcade games home with the 2600 - then fell just as fast. This is the story of a console that shaped gaming history and nearly took the industry down with it.
Atari 2600: The Atlantis of Game Consoles
- Thread starter Amir Shoam
- Start date
Anton Longshot
Posts: 155 +286
My once-girlfriend's mom had one of these in her home.
We spent many happy hours playing Pitfall there.
Possibly the first step towards my love of computers/computing.
Thanks, Atari!
We spent many happy hours playing Pitfall there.
Possibly the first step towards my love of computers/computing.
Thanks, Atari!
Neatfeatguy
Posts: 1,946 +3,827
Atari 2600, oh the memories. Unbeknownst to me, all the games that we had (we apparently had all of them) for the Atari 2600 were not legit copies of the games. All the games were on individual memory chips. To me, that's how I thought all the Atari games were. Just a memory chip you swapped out in the cartridge.
You'd lift/lower the locking arm to release/lock the chip in the cartridge. Then you'd insert the cartridge into the Atari and play the game. At the time I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. We had a handful of fairly large plastic containers with a large dark gray foam padding inside of them. All the chips would be set into the foam for keeping when you weren't playing them.
I can picture so many different games in my head, but I don't recall the names of pretty much all of them. We had Spider-Man, Star Wars, Pitfall and any other official game released for the Atari. We also had all the X-rated games, such as Custer's Revenge. Any Atari 2600 game released prior to 1985, we had.
It wasn't until many years later that I learned that the company my uncle worked at, that is where he got all the copies of the Atari 2600 games. They were all pirated copies.
Perhaps it was this system or the NES my dad picked up for us in 1986 that got me hooked on video games. Great memories.
You'd lift/lower the locking arm to release/lock the chip in the cartridge. Then you'd insert the cartridge into the Atari and play the game. At the time I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. We had a handful of fairly large plastic containers with a large dark gray foam padding inside of them. All the chips would be set into the foam for keeping when you weren't playing them.
I can picture so many different games in my head, but I don't recall the names of pretty much all of them. We had Spider-Man, Star Wars, Pitfall and any other official game released for the Atari. We also had all the X-rated games, such as Custer's Revenge. Any Atari 2600 game released prior to 1985, we had.
It wasn't until many years later that I learned that the company my uncle worked at, that is where he got all the copies of the Atari 2600 games. They were all pirated copies.
Perhaps it was this system or the NES my dad picked up for us in 1986 that got me hooked on video games. Great memories.
airbornex
Posts: 283 +373
It’s kinda poetic that a company started by a guy who put a hot tub in the office helped start an entire industry. Peak Atari was 90% innovation and 10% someone playing Combat half-drunk at a work party.
pencea
Posts: 423 +462
I started my gaming journey on the Atari 2600. Had a great time with the likes of Pitfall, River Raid, Pac Man, & Pong.
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KOLED
Posts: 9 +8
The best games for the system were barely mentioned here.
Pitfall 2 was a platformer that had multiple levels and an ending so you could actually beat the game.
Raiders of the lost ark was the first to capture all elements of the movie and just seeing the movie meant you could figure out how the game was played.
Asteroids and Missile Command were also hugely successful arcade ports.
Then games like Kaboom and Enduro really challenged your reflexes and set off hours of gaming fun.
Space Shuttle had a huge manual and was extremely in depth.
One of the best side scrolling shooters was Empire Strikes Back and it really delivered the feel of battling AT-ATs.
What a good time it was to be into gaming. Lots of fun, $20 - $30 video games, and no cheaters!
Pitfall 2 was a platformer that had multiple levels and an ending so you could actually beat the game.
Raiders of the lost ark was the first to capture all elements of the movie and just seeing the movie meant you could figure out how the game was played.
Asteroids and Missile Command were also hugely successful arcade ports.
Then games like Kaboom and Enduro really challenged your reflexes and set off hours of gaming fun.
Space Shuttle had a huge manual and was extremely in depth.
One of the best side scrolling shooters was Empire Strikes Back and it really delivered the feel of battling AT-ATs.
What a good time it was to be into gaming. Lots of fun, $20 - $30 video games, and no cheaters!
p51d007
Posts: 4,414 +4,469
Had one when I was 18, attending an electronics school. On weekends, I would head home to hang out with friends. Had a portable 12" b&w tv (1979). I made a 12 v adapter for the 2600, ran both from the cigarette lighter of my car. My buddies & I would play video games on the hood of the car, listening to 8track tape, & having a few beers. Good memories.
We were an Atari family for some reason when I was growing up. My sister had the 2600 Jr, my brother had the XEGS with the gun attachment, and my parents had an Atari ST 1040 and a Mega 4 with the 20MB hard drive and laser printer. River Raid by Activision was my favourite game on the 2600.
It is crazy to think how badly Atari mismanaged their early dominance, though when you read the stories about what the corporate culture was like you can also see why. An Atari that was less batsh*t crazy could have grown to be a modern-day Apple if they had just made some better decisions along the way. Cocaine will do that to you though.
It is crazy to think how badly Atari mismanaged their early dominance, though when you read the stories about what the corporate culture was like you can also see why. An Atari that was less batsh*t crazy could have grown to be a modern-day Apple if they had just made some better decisions along the way. Cocaine will do that to you though.
The first game console I played was in the late 70s. I was 7-8 years old and my cousin had it.
I can't remember what it was called, but it had plastic overlays that stuck on the TV.
He let me take it home because he was going in the military. I loved it, but it wore thin pretty quick. Even the 2600 made it look down right primitive.
Come to think of it, folks here may enjoy an article on that.
EDIT:
So I called my cuz and it was the Magnavox Odyssey.
And it turns out there is a lot of info on it out there. I didn't think a quick internet research would have given me any info. I was wrong.
I can't remember what it was called, but it had plastic overlays that stuck on the TV.
He let me take it home because he was going in the military. I loved it, but it wore thin pretty quick. Even the 2600 made it look down right primitive.
Come to think of it, folks here may enjoy an article on that.
EDIT:
So I called my cuz and it was the Magnavox Odyssey.
And it turns out there is a lot of info on it out there. I didn't think a quick internet research would have given me any info. I was wrong.
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I'd say you were talking about the Vectrex, but it only came out in 1982.
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I have a 2600 sitting in the original box, with the games I used to play in an airtight plastic bin in my basement along with my NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, Game Boy, Jaguar, Playstation... I'll never trade or sell any of my stuff. It's like having a basement museum.
Atari. NES. SNES. Playstation. Xbox. Xbox 360....
I really feel like things haven't improved since Xbox 360.
We had way more games and variety of games on the 360/Wii/PS3 era than we did in the Xbox One/ PS4/WiiU era. Now we're in the PS5, Xbox Series X/ Switch era and the game market is more boring than EVER.
Everyone's desperately waiting for GTA6 and Doom Dark Ages. We have less variety than ever.
I really feel like things haven't improved since Xbox 360.
We had way more games and variety of games on the 360/Wii/PS3 era than we did in the Xbox One/ PS4/WiiU era. Now we're in the PS5, Xbox Series X/ Switch era and the game market is more boring than EVER.
Everyone's desperately waiting for GTA6 and Doom Dark Ages. We have less variety than ever.
RickSteele
Posts: 9 +4
My best friend had a 2600, and for Christmas 1981 rumor had it we'd be getting one too. How cool it would be that we could swap games! Instead we got an APF M1000. While at first a bit disappointing, the Space Invaders knockoff was actually far better.
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