Atari 2600: The Atlantis of Game Consoles

Many stories have been told about an ancient power that tried to conquer the world, only to be punished for its hubris and vanish. This power wasn't Atlantis – it was Atari. Following the home version of arcade sensation Pong, the Atari 2600 became a cornerstone of the second generation of gaming consoles. With replaceable cartridges and a programmable CPU instead of hardwired transistors, it aimed to bring the arcade experience into the home – and succeeded, becoming the first game console owned by millions. The Atari 2600's downfall was just as spectacular as its rise. In Japan, it became known as the "Atari shock." In the U.S., it was called the video game crash. Despite this, the 2600 survived and remained on the market into the 1990s, competing with Nintendo until newer players took its place. Image credit: darkrisingmitch The Rise of 1D Graphics When Atari began working on Project Stella in 1975, there was little to compare it to. The company quickly realized that the bigges ... Read full article.