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Narrative
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alt title(s): Atari Twenty Six Hundred The Atari Video Computer System, later known as the Atari 2600, but best known as just the "Atari" during its heyday, was the first really successful home video game console system, and only the second to feature interchangeable ROM cartridges that allowed new games to be published and installed without modifying the basic system itself. It also featured plug-in controllers that could be swapped out, allowing new kinds of controllers to be later introduced.
The Atari was wildly successful, and was one of the forces that drove the Golden Era of video games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, the sudden failure of the market for Atari cartridges in the wake of the disastrous E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Pac Man games for the system was the trigger for The Great Video Game Crash Of 1983. With only a few exceptions, most of the classic games of the era had home versions available for the Atari, some (Space Invaders, and Atari's own Missile Command and Asteroids) more successful than others (Pac Man, whose failure to match the immensely popular arcade version disappointed many consumers). It also began the dubious tradition of licensed games, with titles such as Superman, Indiana Jones, and (worst of all) E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.
The simple joystick controller for the Atari 2600, with a stick capable of rendering input in any of eight directions (from four buttons) plus a single fire button, has become an iconic symbol of video gaming in general, and of classic video games in particular. Many early home computers, such as the Atari 400/800/XL/XE and the Commodore 64, also accepted the Atari's joystick controllers, as well as the Sega Master System and Sega Genesis.
Recently, a homescene dedicated to making new games for the system appeared.
Games available for the system included:
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