The Atari 2600 (Video Gaming Console) - Part 1

Manufactured by Atari
Released in October 1977
Original Retail Price US$199.99
Via AtariAge, Peter Hirschberg, Atari2600.com

Wikipedia Entry

I don't have to tell you much you don't already know about this 80's icon. The Atari 2600 was synonymous with video games and if you didn't own one, you know someone who did.

In Wikipedia's Entry for Atari, it says, "The original Atari Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid 1980s. Before Atari's official incorporation, Bushnell wrote down several words from the game Go, eventually choosing atari, a term which in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. In Japanese, atari is the nominalized form of ataru (verb), meaning "to hit the target" or "to receive something fortuitously". The word 'atari' is used in Japanese when a prediction comes true or when someone wins a lottery. The choice of Atari as a brand name was arguably better than Syzygy for most markets in terms of spelling, pronunciation and potential name recognition. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972."

Now that the brief history of the company's out of the way, Wikipedia says of the Atari 2600, "It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 is credited with making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed "Atari 2600", after the unit's Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and later Pac-Man."

 

But, wait! You didn't own an Atari 2600! You owned Sears Tele-Games? That's fine. All that was a rebadged 2600 to sell through Sears department stores. I certainly remember playing one there every time my parents drug me to the mall.

 After seeing the TV movie Adam where Adam Walsh is abducted while playing the store display Tele-Games, I steered clear of it.

  

Going forward, there's of course way too much to cover in one article. Now that we've touched on the 2600 and the Sears variant we can figure up more in future articles. Stay tuned!