Atari 2600 Console

ATARI 2600

Manufacture – Atari Inc.

Generation - Second Generation Game System

Retailed – October 1977 - October 1983

Units Sold – 30 million (as of 2004)

The Atari 2600 was a prodigy of its time, one of the first successful video game consoles at the beginning of the gaming era and basically kick started what is now one of the biggest trades on the planet. Since it’s an old system, I decided to help everyone out and give a crash course on the history of the system and company.

Atari was a company that got their start by making the game everyone knows and loves, Pong. Pong, released in 1972 and a spawn from Magnavox Odyssey’s Tennis game, was the first successful arcade game which was a kick start for video games. It was first developed only as an arcade game but in 1975 they released Home Pong, which was successful and that led to other developments including the Atari 2600. Magnavox, which released the first home gaming system, filed lawsuit against Atari, among other companies, for infringing on some copyrights (making different versions of their Tennis game (Pong)). Later Magnavox and Atari ended up coming to an agreement.

Atari Inc. came out with the Atari 2600 in 1977, originally called the VCS; it got its current name from a unit part number CX2600. It eventually led to its succesors; Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari XE gaming system and the Atari Jaguar. Even though the Jaguar was the first 5^th generation Game system with a nice 64-bit processing power and a year ahead of everyone else it failed to do well in the market. Atari ended their game system run after the Jaguar. Mainly due to competitors growing popularity; 3DO, Sega, Nintendo and later Sony PlayStation.

The Atari 2600 had the most popularity among its successors and starting at $199 (That’s $518 in today’s dollars!) it was accepted really well .Especially after they introduced new games, other than Pong, including Pac Man. Pac Man which is one of the most popular games of all time was the systems best selling game, selling over 8 million copies.

Atari’s best selling games (sold or shipped copies)

1. Pac Man – 8 million copies

2. Pitfall! – 4 million copies

3. Missile command -2.5 million copies

4. Demon Attack – 2 million copies

5. E.T the Extra-Terrestrial -1.5 million copies

6. Adventure, Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, Kaboom!, Megamania, River Raid and Space invaders all tie at over 1 million copies.