Zogging Hell!!!

Released in October 1977 the 2600 or VCS, as it was known then, bought true videogaming to the home for the first time. No longer did you need to be some sort of computing genius just be able to get a game up and running. The console is primitive by todays standards but no- one can argue with the quality of the catalogue of games available for it. Space Invaders, Centipede, Pole Position (One of the first true racers), Pit Fall etc. The list is great. The VCS has had the greatest life of any games console. It was re-released as the 2600 in 1984 and then again in 1987, finally being dropped in 1989 (officially this was 1992). Recently the Flashback 2 was released by the new Infogrames Atari, which is basically a scaled down version of the VCS. No other games console could claim this sort of longevity.

Specs

Two main different forms of the VCS exist. The original VCS with it's kitchen grill looks (in both six and four button variants) and the newer VCS, including the 2600 junior, with it's door wedge (or ST with no keyboard) styling. Most Atari machines seem to age looks-wise quite well, which is more than can be said for their competitors. In fact the original VCS looks cooler every day (it's styling looking increasingly fashionable), even though you do occasionally feel like you want to fry a chop on it.

Specs from Wikipedia

CPU: MOS Technology 6507 @ 1.19 MHz

Audio + Video processor: TIA. 160 x ~192 pixel, 128 colors (128 on screen. Max 4 per line without tricks), 2 channel mono sound.

RAM (within a MOS Technology RIOT chip): 128 bytes (additional RAM may be included in the game cartridges)

ROM (game cartridges): 4 KB maximum capacity (32 KB+ with bank switching)

Input (controlled by MOS RIOT): Two screwless DE-9[3] controller ports, for single-button joysticks, paddles, "trakballs", "driving controllers", 12-key "keyboard controllers" (0–9, #, and *) and third party controllers with additional functions, Six switches (original version): Power on/off, TV signal (B/W or Color), Difficulty for each player (called A and B), Select, and Reset. Except for the power switch, games could (and did) assign other meanings to the switches. On later models the difficulty switches were miniaturized and moved to the back of the unit.

Output: B/W or Color TV picture and sound signal through RCA connector (NTSC, PAL or SECAM, depending on region; game cartridges are exchangeable between NTSC and PAL/SECAM machines, but this will result in wrong or missing colors and often a rolling picture.)