Atari: All info and interesting facts about the console

The Atari console ushered in a whole new dimension. Hardly any other name is so closely linked with video games. To this day, the console has many fans.

How the Atari console changed the gaming world

In the 1970s and 1980s, so-called arcade games were incredibly popular. In the beginning, the games were mainly played on machines in corresponding arcades. This changed with the Atari game console.

• With the Atari 2600, the manufacturer Atari brought the world of games to people’s homes. From 1977, the popular console was initially available in the USA under the name Atari VCS. At the end of the 1970s, the device also went on sale in western Germany.

• With the new type of console and the MOS 6507 microprocessor built into it, game fans could now play popular arcade games like Pacman, Pong, Space Invaders and Asteroids at home. No wonder, then, that some 30 million of these consoles were sold.

• The production of the popular game console was discontinued in 1991. Due to the competition prevailing at the time, Atari was no longer able to hold its own on the market with its popular but now also outdated and sometimes very poorly made games. Remaining stocks of the console and the games were sold at rock-bottom prices, or written off and disposed of in the rubbish bin.

Worth knowing about the Atari console

For die-hard fans and gamers, the Atari console has not lost its magic. Many still own an original console today or play the popular classics as so-called emulators on the PC.

• The Atari 2600 can be connected to the TV with the appropriate antenna cable and thus does not need its own monitor. No games are pre-installed on the console, which is shaped like a desk, but is inserted into the housing as a plug-in module.
• Atari itself has released around 130 games for the popular console. However, since many third-party manufacturers also launched games for the device, there are about 2,000 playable titles for the console.
• Almost legendary is the bad reputation of the game “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”. Since the film of the same name was an absolute box office hit, Atari tried to jump on this bandwagon. Since they wanted to take advantage of the Christmas business in 1982, the game was programmed in only five weeks and was correspondingly bad. The majority of the modules could not be sold and were partly buried in the New Mexico desert.
• The successor to the Atari 2600 came onto the market as early as 1982 under the name Atari 5200 in the USA and Canada. However, the new release could never match the success of its predecessor. Atari itself published only 69 games for this console. The Atari 5200 was therefore never available in Europe.