Virtually created the home market in video games with the release of space invaders
in 1979. It was the first home license of a coin-op video game which proved
immensely popular and sold in its millions and despite several ups and
downs Atari is still a big name in the gaming industry now being owned
by Infrogrames.
Atari's first consumer product. The idea was to take all of the components
of the coin-op Pong board designed by Al Alcorn and put them onto a chip.
Fairly rare to find one in the UK but sold in the millions in the US.
Atari took the classic mechanical pinball game and turned it into a video rendition.
Features controls built into the console. Quite rare to find one in the UK.
The Atari VCS and 2600 must be one
of the most popular home consoles ever produced. First released in
1978 it is also one of the first. There is at least 800 games available
many of which are simpler versions of popular arcade games such as
Pac-Man, Space invaders and Defender.
Atari released an improved
version of the 2600 released in 1986, features a built in version
of Asteroids. Backwardly compatible with the VCS and featured new
joystick designs in the UK. Loads of arcade conversions such as Commando
Ikari Warriors and Raiden. It's surprising it didn't do better as the
games were much better than the 2600 versions. With backwards
compatibility built in - making a huge library of games readily available.
Used the state-of-the-art
hardware they put into their 400/800 home computers. However, it was
never as successful as it predecessor mainly due to its lack of decent
games, most being the same tired old releases that had already
been seen time and again and although much improved over their Atari
2600 counterparts.
One of Atari's first home computers
featured a MOS Technology's 6502 microprocessor with a
Speed of 1.79MHz
| Processor |
MOS Technology's 6502 microprocessor, 1.79MHz. |
| RAM |
8KB(later models contained 16KB/48K) |
| ROM |
10KB |
130XE had 130,000 bytes of memory
and the XE stood for XL line Enhanced
When first released in the US the
520ST was $799.99 (monochrome monitor) and $999.99 (colour monitor)
The Inclusion of full MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
ports, meant musicians could plug their keyboards and sequencers directly
into a computer and helped sales enormously.
Atari handheld featured
a 16-bit graphics processor, 3.5" colour LCD screen with a resolution
of 160x102. Also made the Lynx 2 enhanced version.
The Atari Jaguar was arguably the
world's first 64-bit home console video game system. Developed after
three years of research, manufactured by IBM, the Jaguar was released
in Autumn 1993. Never really took mainly due to a lack of decent games
and support. Tempest 2000 being the notable exception.
Chilloutgames