The
Atari 2600's games
History
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.)
