Released in October 1977, the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), which is now better known as the Atari 2600 (hence the atari2600.com website), hit store shelves. It was packaged with two joysticks, two rotary paddle controllers, an AC adapter, a TV/game switch, and a Combat cartridge. Eight other games hit the shelves at the same time as the 2600: Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, and Video Olympics.

The second cartridge-based console (after the Fairchild Channel F), the 2600 dominated the industry in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, crushing such competitors as the Odyssey2, the Intellivision, and the Bally Astrocade, and helping make obsolete such dedicated systems as the original Odyssey and Atari Video Pong. The system was originally designed to play simplistic racing games, Pong variations, basic educational titles, and the like, but that would soon change as programmers and marketers for the company got more savvy.

One of the primary reasons for the success of the 2600 was the release of the Space Invaders (1980) cartridge, which was a phenomenal reimagining of Taito’s 1979 arcade smash. Space Invaders put the 2600 on the map and was followed by such popular arcade conversions as Missile Command, Asteroids, and Centipede. Most of these titles were blocky and less detailed visually than their arcade counterparts, but they usually captured the spirit of their respective coin-op cousins, making them very popular with consumers.

During its heyday, numerous peripherals were released for the 2600, including keyboard controllers for such games as Basic Programming and A Game of Concentration, a touch pad for Star Raiders, a trackball for such games as Missile Command and Centipede, a Kid’s Controller for Sesame Street games, a joypad for Mogul Maniac, the Starpath Supercharger for cassette-based games, a driving controller for Indy 500, and lots of different third-party joysticks.

Prior to the release of the Nintendo NES in 1985, the Atari 2600 was the most recognized and most commercially successful videogame console, ultimately moving around 30 million systems. Today, the 2600 maintains a rapid following, as evidenced by the plethora of homebrews being produced by fans and programmers. Collectors love the system for its large library (more than 400 titles), its rarities, its label variations, and more. Gamers love it for its fast, fun, arcade-like games, and for such groundbreaking titles as Adventure and Pitfall!

Atari 5200

The Atari 5200 SuperSystem was released in the fall of 1982 as a follow-up the Atari 2600, which was starting to show its age, and to compete with the Intellivision, which had more power and better graphical capabilities than the 2600. Unfortunately for Atari, the highly popular ColecoVision hit store shelves several months before the 5200 (which, in terms of processing power), was basically an Atari home computer sans the keyboard), taking away much of its market and starting the second console war (the 2600 vs. the Intellivision was the first).

The 5200 was a large, black system that came with a power supply and two fragile, non-centering controllers that were met with much derision. The 5200 itself is a great system, but the loose analog controllers made playing such games as Pac-Man and Frogger unnecessarily difficult. Games with broader ranges of movement, however, worked fine with the controllers. One good thing about the controllers is the pause button. Even better, there were three third-party controllers released for the 5200: the Wico Command Control, the GIM Electronics Fire Command, and the Coin Controls Competition Pro. Unfortunately, all three are tough to find today. Other peripherals include a trackball and a hard-to-find Atari 2600 adaptor.

Like the ColecoVision, the Atari 5200 was a victim of the Great Videogame Crash of 1983/84, and Atari quit producing the unit in 1984. Prior to its demise, numerous graphically and aurally superior (when compared to the 2600 offerings) arcade ports, including Missile Command, Kangaroo, Pac-Man, Pengo, Dig Dug, and Defender. Two titles in particular stand out: Robotron: 2084 and Space Dungeon, both of which came with dual controller holders for arcade-like control.

The Atari 5200 maintains a loyal fan base to this day, but most gamers still complain about those analog controllers.

Atari 7800

The Atari 7800 ProSystem was released in 1986, which was about a year or so too late, since it had to compete with the vastly superior Nintendo NES. The NES trumped the Atari system with its plethora of longer, mission-based games, including such popular (not to mention groundbreaking) titles as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. The 7800 was home to fine translations of such arcade classics as Joust, Asteroids, Centipede, and Ms. Pac-Man, but most consumers were clamoring for the more modern, more sophisticated NES offerings.

The 7800 should have hit store shelves in 1984, but former Commodore executive Jack Trammiel (who had purchased the videogame and computer divisions from Atari in 1984) sat on the system for a couple of years. Legend has it that he preferred computers and that he was skeptical about videogame systems until he saw the success of the NES. Also hurting matters was the fact that the 7800, which didn’t get much marketing push to begin with, got lost in the Atari lineup, which included the aging 2600 and the newly released Atari XE (which was compatible with Atari home computers).

Comparisons to the NES and marketing concerns aside, the 7800 is a solid system. Its sound capabilities are pretty sad (essentially the same as the 2600), but it can display lots of moving images at once with little or no flickering, and the arcade ports are nice improvements over the 2600 and 5200 versions. Perhaps more importantly, the system is backwards compatible with the 2600, giving it a large library of games. On a less positive note, the controllers, though more durable and more accurate than the 5200 joysticks, are stiff and have side buttons that can be tiring on the hands.

Atari stopped production on the 7800 system in 1991.

Odyssey2

Released by Magnavox in 1978, the Odyssey2 was a follow-up to the primitive Odyssey system (circa 1972). Unlike the more well-known Atari VCS (a.k.a. the Atari 2600), which was released the year before, the Odyssey2 came with a 49-button membrane keyboard that made the machine more like a real computer. The keyboard, which was used to good effect in such educational titles as Compute Intro!, also made the system more “respectable” in the minds of parents and other non-gamers.

The Odyssey2 had boxy, one-button controllers with a sturdy, eight-direction joystick that worked pretty well in controlling ships, characters, and other implements accurately. Unfortunately, most models of the O2 contained hard-wired joysticks, meaning you couldn’t simply plug in a new joystick when one went bad. Graphically, most O2 games had a simplistic look (stick figures are a common sight), but the system could generate up to 16 moving, flicker-free objects onscreen at once, helping give the visuals for most games a sharp, clear, streamlined look.

Ultimately, the Odyssey2 couldn’t compete with the massive success of the Atari 2600, which boasted a much larger library (third-party support for the O2 was limited to Imagic) and faster, more colorful games. In addition, the Atari 2600 benefited from numerous popular arcade-licensed games, such as Ms. Pac-Man, Missile Command, and Space Invaders. In the U.S., Turtles! was the only coin-op game ported to the Odyssey2.