Throwback Thursday: Atari 2600

By on Jun 17, 2010 at 2:20 PM
Gaming June 17, 2010

atari-2600

In honor of E3 week, we thought we would dedicate this week’s Throwback Thursday to a gaming device from the past: the Atari 2600. The console that really brought in-home gaming to the masses and a gadget we have a real soft spot for, the 2600 was first launched in 1977. At the time it retailed for $199, which is roughly equivalent to $730 today. Despite the high cost, Atari managed to move over a 250,000 units in its first year. Although by today’s standards its 8-bit 1.19MHz processor and 128 bytes of RAM are absolutely ridiculous, the 2600 managed to keep generations entertained — thanks to insanely addictive titles such as Missile Command, Pitfall and Space Invaders (don’t get us started on that awful Pac-Man port). In spite of the fact that many of the people who revere it weren’t even alive when it was finally discontinued in 1992, the 2600 retains a huge cult following. What memories do you have of the Atari 2600?

BGR Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets of yesterday and yesteryear.

Tags:
, , , ,
96 Comments

Related Articles

  • AlphaMail

    We had the Sears branded version of this…*sigh*

  • Enlightened

    What about PONG?!? We had Atari until the Apple IIGS became my family’s first computer purchase (and last Apple). Pong kept me occupied for… minutes at a time. But that in and of itself was impressive considering the fact that I was only 6 or 7 max before our Atari sadly refused to power on one day.

    I think Pong and Pac-man may have been the only 2 Atari games we ever had. And the faux wood fit in perfectly with our late 70s/ early 80s decor. Ahh, Atari…

  • Tony

    We had one of these when I was a kid; which made our house the neighborhood hangout. We had dozens of cartridges. It was great to have in the summer when it was too hot to play outside.

  • Bill Borders

    Reminds me of coming close to being a multi-millionaire. Seriously. A friend and I went to San Jose to pitch Atari on a wild idea: “Exervision”…where you control the gaming action by jumping and moving on a large pad we designed and constructed. They gave us $5 K to make a better prototype. We did, took it back and they loved it. Then silence. Then Atari went almost belly up. We hear the prototype wound up in Seattle at Nintendo. True (and very sad) story. The one that got away….

  • JD

    Playing Yar’s Revenge and Video Pinball for hours. Best score was almost 10 million… which is roughly the equivalent of a trillion today. :-)

  • OD

    Oh man, brings back memories… Raiders of the Lost Ark, Battlezone, River Raid……

  • Davide-NYC

    My first (and only) gaming console.

    DONKEY KONG!!!!

  • Mike

    Lol I’m barely out of my teens and I actually grew up playing my dad’s Atari 2600 (and his Atari Lynx). I may not be old enough to remember it in its prime, but I sure do have fond memories:)

  • Jarrett

    KABOOM! Greatest paddle game ever created.
    Pitfall, enough said. Good times, good times.

    • dubbdee

      Loved Kaboom! and Demon Attack, played them for hours.

  • Justin

    “many of the people who revere it weren’t even alive when it was finally discontinued in 1992″
    ????

    Hey! I revered it and was only 20 in 1992. Who do you think was playing the 2600? Folks in their 70s and 80s? Last I checked, cards and board games were still the preferred game of assisted living communities.

    • dubbdee

      I believe what was meant by the 1992 comment is that many people who revere it TODAY, hadn’t been born when they discontinued it in 1992.

      On another note, I remember people getting blisters from the not-so-ergo-friendly joystick. Some of those games were so entertaining but so simple. The good old days.

  • Dave
  • http://www.davidwmartin.com David W. Martin

    We never owned one of these, but our friends did. Instead we got a Commodore Vic-20 and later a C-64. By then I was writing for tech magazines, writing my own games, etc. We did however use Atari joysticks on Commodores. :-)

  • OJ Magnus

    I still have one with about 15 games! Still works too!

  • Ike Bee

    As Archie and Edith Bunker sang in All in the Family,”Those Were the Days”. I just had to have one for Christmas and got one in 1978. Needless to say, me and my sister were all over the console that morning. We had the model with six levers on top of it. The games included: Night Driver, Berzerk, Super Breakout, Pac Man, and Kaboom. Many hours wasted playing these games and this one system started my fascination with video games.

  • Brian

    My fav’s were RiverRaid, Pitfall, combat, missle command, and ET. Just kidding about ET, did anyone ever figure that one out?

    • T

      Yeah… even tho it was fucking impossible. I beat it ONCE. The worst thing ever was falling into a hole and not being able to get back out…

      I still have mine. I know it works, but I’m pretty sure that huge box you plugged into the back of the TV required you stick it to the antenna of the TV to play it… hmmm…

      • T

        Screwed into the back of the TV, to be more accurate for the 2-prong hookup style of those days…

1 2 3
blog comments powered by Disqus