Atari – Arcade Report

Introduced in 1977, the Atari Video Computer System (VCS and now called the Atari 2600) wasn't the first home video game system on the market but it's the first one that people tend to remember best. Atari was launched in November 1977 at a cost of $199. The system included two basic controllers that had a joystick and red button. That was it. The tank game Combat was included in the bundle. At the time the home video game market was still very young and wasn't established in the minds of the majority of consumers. Most people only had a single tv in their house so that would be the one that they'd have to use to set up a video game system to. Older tv sets may not have even been capable of playing games on them. Sales were relatively slow at first and didn't really take off until 1980. That year, Atari got the rights to produce a Space Invaders port that helped to grown console sales. I was 10 years old in 1980 and had started to get into video games albeit at the one arcade we had at the local mall and from a few small handheld games like Coleco Electronic Quarterback that I got for Christmas from my parents. It's also likely that the introduction of Mattel's Intellivision in 1979 while providing stiff competition, also helped Atari and the game business in general since it encouraged more people to talk about home video games and take a look at this new industry. Console I love the look of the Atari VCS console as it just has a classic old school design for a legendary video game system. First generation VCS consoles were heavy, built with wood grain and had 6 switches on them. Hence they have been affectionately nicknamed the "woody" and "heavy sixer." They are worth more than other newer 2600 consoles as they are the originals made in Sunnyvale California. Newer 2600 consoles were lighter with only 4 switches, not 6. Over time Atari also produced branded versions of the 2600 including the Sears Video Arcade System which played the same games but were sold in Sears stores specifically. Atari produced most of the their games internally to start with but over time third party companies like Activision produced games for the 2600 as did Sears, other third party producers, and even amateur hobbyists. Activision was in fact founded by several disgruntled Atari programmers who were low paid, were not compensated for the success of their games and decided to go into business for themselves as a result. Games Over time Atari introduced a wide variety of games from different genres likes sports, action, shooter, adventure, learning and gambling. Due to the limitations of the system with regards to graphics, many of the games looked the same and had a very basic design. In all, at least 526 games exist for the Atari VCS that were produced by Atari, Sears, Activision and others. When the VCS was introduced to the market in fourth quarter 1982, it came bundled with the Combat game and additionally had 8 other games available for purchase: Air-Sea BattleBasic MathBlackjackIndy 500Star ShipStreet RacerSurroundVideo Olympics Interesting to note that in 1982, Atari's first round of game releases included sports, learning, gambling, shooter and action genres. A wide variety of game types to be sure but within a few years, learning and gambling games fell to the wayside among all major manufacturers and weren't nearly as represented as the others game types for decades. Also interesting to note that when Intellivision launched in 1979, they included Poker and Blackjack as the bundled game when you bought the console. By the time ColecoVision was launched in 1982, their bundle included Donkey Kong, an extremely popular arcade game of the day. Gameplay and Graphics As mentioned above, the inherent limitations of the Atari VCS as a console and its controller design severely limits both the gameplay and graphics. In a word, the system is poor in that regard and if we're being honest, the charm that the system and games have outweighs its ability to be remembered as a high quality system either in terms of the console or games, which it wasn't. For the time, it was a decent system which was quickly exceeded in every way by both Intellivision and ColecoVision. Atari 5200 and 7800 Atari 5200 released in 1982. Modernized controller with joystick, overlay and keypads were a positive. Everything else was pretty much a negative. If you want to know more about the Video Game Crash of 1983, I've written an article on that. But the genesis of this crash started several years earlier and certainly the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982 was at least part of the reason why the home video game market imploded shortly thereafter. Atari expected that the 5200 would compete with Intellivision but ended up being a competitor to ColecoVision which also came out in 1982. The 5200 was initially imcompatible with many games that worked on the VCS which by this time was known as the Atari 2600. So imagine you have a library of 2600 games, buy the 5200 console and realize you can't play many of the games on it. You also find out over time that the new controllers aren't reliable and tend to break. This lack of backward compatibility and poor quality were key factors in the relative lack of success with the 5200 and quick withdrawal from market. The 5200 only sold for 2 years before being discontinued in 1984 having sold around 1 million units during that time. It was replaced by the Atari 7800 which went back to a more basic but modernized controller without the numeric keypad. You'd think that Atari would have solved the backward compatibility problem though, right? No such luck. The 7800 was compatible with the 2600 but not the 5200. So to summarize: Atari 2600 games could be played on the Atari 2600.Atari 5200 could play 5200 games and some 2600 games.Atari 7800 could play 2600 and 7800 games. The Atari 7800 originally retailed for $140 USD so well below its competitors and was produced from 1986 to 1992 at which time Atari ceased production of 7800 and 2600 consoles. In the end about 100 games were specifically produced for the 7800. The lack of foresight, planning and backward compatibility as well as poor gameplay and graphics, and overall low quality largely ensured that the Atari 5200 and 7800 are afterthoughts in the history of home video games. The Atari VCS/2600 is fondly remembered mostly for being the first commercially successful home video game console rather than for its quality of gameplay or graphics. My Thoughts As a kid born in 1970, I was about 9 years old when I first got wind of the Atari VCS from a few kids at school that had it. By that time, I was already familiar with Intellivision since two of my friends owned it and I had played it many times at their respective houses. For me, the Atari system was inferior in every way. The games, graphics, gameplay, sounds, the console itself and the controllers themselves were vastly inferior to Intellivision. I didn't have enough paper route money to buy Intellivision new at $300 and since the Internet didn't exist, it's not like I could go online and find a used version. I do remember checking the classified ads in the local papers and seeing many ads for used systems. I never pulled the trigger and bought it though as people selling them with cartridges tended to be asking for $300 all in. Atari 7800 joystick. Basically a modern version of the 2600 joystick but with 2 side buttons. My dad had a friend at work that was selling his Atari system along with over 30 games and I remember having an interest in it. But it was only because it was cheaper than Intellivision which is what I really wanted so I never ended up buying the Atari system. Until much later in life when I bought a used 2600 system and 22 games from eBay along with both Intellivision and ColecoVision. I've also written articles on both the Intellivision and ColecoVision systems which I own and have used extensively over the years.