The Atari 2600 sold something like 30 million units and the video game business it helped create was worth an estimated $116 billion in 2017, more than television’s $105 billion. Its modern namesake, the Atari VCS, is closing its software store on February 1, 2027. One of these histories has aged better than the other.
Cheap silicon, ordinary televisions
The console arrived around September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System. Swappable ROM cartridges were not new; the Fairchild Channel F had used them in 1976. The 2600 was the first such machine to sell well. IEEE Spectrum’s Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame entry says as much, and also offers an explanation: arcade makers had to build new electronics for every game, which was ruinously expensive and useless for the living room. Nolan Bushnell, Atari’s chief executive, wanted something programmable.
The technical reality under the hood was a price drop. In 1975 MOS Technology introduced the 8-bit 6502, far cheaper than rival chips. Atari asked for a smaller one and got the 6507, essentially a 6502 in a 28-pin package instead of 40. Its limited I/O cost a little performance, which did not matter. A custom chip, the Television Interface Adaptor, sent video and sound to the television set that nearly every home already owned. The prototype, built by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering, was codenamed Stella.
Arcade hits at home
The system launched with nine games on 2 KB cartridges. Ported arcade titles such as Breakout and Night Driver were in color, unlike their monochrome originals. The first killer app was the home version of Taito’s Space Invaders in 1980. Adventure, also from 1980, was among the first action-adventure games and carries the first widely recognized Easter egg. The cartridge model also spawned Activision and other outside developers, which Atari viewed as a threat before eventually collecting royalties from them.
By 1982 the 2600 dominated North America, and “Atari” had become shorthand for video games. Atari renamed the VCS as the 2600 that November. Then came a rushed E.T. game and a Pac-Man port that, despite becoming the best seller, was panned for not resembling the arcade original. With a flood of poor third-party titles, they helped drive the 1983 crash. Warner sold the consumer division to former Commodore chief Jack Tramiel in 1984, and a cheaper 2600 appeared in 1986. Production ended in 1992.
The VCS, wound down
The modern Atari VCS is a Linux-based, AMD-powered mini PC loosely styled after the 2600, minus the cartridge slot. It emulates a library of classic Atari games, and its store added streaming apps including Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now. The road was rough: a decade of delays and name changes, and a moment when Atari had to reassure crowdfunding backers the console was not doomed.
Owners can keep downloading until January 31, 2027, according to an announcement on the Atari Club Discord that Tom’s Hardware shared. Downloaded software will keep working. Atari says an OS update will let users migrate everything to the local machine and remove any reliance on its servers for authentication and software. It also plans an Atari Home Brew app so third-party developers can keep adding games.
Sources
- Atari 2600
- The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Atari 2600
- The Atari VCS saga will come to an end next year when its software store closes
Photo: Evan-Amos (Public domain)
