The Atari 2600 was a revolutionary video game system that hit the market in October 1976.  Prior to the Atari 2600, video games were played on clunky computers, which needed to have video games pre-installed by the manufacturer.  The Atari 2600 was the first major system to utilize video game cartridges that could be purchased individually.  While competitors like Fairchild Semiconductor put out similar video game systems in the late 1970s, Atari had found the right combination of marketing and programming to draw in customers for the long haul.


The Launch of Atari 2600

If you went back to the launch of the Atari 2600 console, it would not resemble the mass craze that gamers experienced for the Playstation 3™ or Xbox 360™.  People had experienced video game burnout with the recent launch of “Pong,” the two-player tennis simulation.  The designers and marketers at Atari convinced the American public that there was more to gaming than playing tennis on a black and white screen.  The Atari 2600 console was sold for $199 dollars, included games like “Combat” and “Pacman,” and had an available roster of games that expanded quickly over the next five years.  By Christmas 1979, one million Atari 2600 consoles were sold in the United States.


Competition for the Atari 2600

The competition for the Atari 2600 game system tried to capture the public with lower priced game systems with lighter inventories.  The Fairchild Channel F was the biggest competition for the Atari 2600 console at a more modest $169.  Fairchild Semiconductor tried to push Atari for the attention of the gaming world by offering simple games like “Battleship” and “Dodge It.”  Other offerings like ColecoVision and Arcadia 2001 fell into the same routine, providing games that were too similar to “Pong” to draw in discerning gamers.  For the Atari 2600 console, the biggest competition was from within its own walls.


Consequences of Expansion for the Atari 2600

Several issues contributed to the demise of the Atari 2600 gaming system. Programmers were not receiving proper compensation or credit for their work within games.  Independent programmers began creating games in their basements and offices that worked on the Atari 2600 console.  The debt that accrued daily from legal issues and research to stay ahead of the competition proved too much for backers like Warner Communications.  Despite resurgence in the late 1980’s, the Atari 2600 system has gone out of production, but lived on through the work of tinkerers and game designers.