Video Game Gazette

Atari VCS CX2600 Archive

Atari VCS cx2600 3/4 view

The Atari Video Computer System was first released in 1977. Ten years later it was still being produced, making it one of the longest lived video game systems in history. In fact, to this day, people are still making games for it. To date, more than 700 games have been produced.

Over its lifetime several versions were released. The first units had classic retro styling complete with faux wood. Various changes were made to this basic model. None of these was particularly important, the most noticible was the removal of two switches on the front of the console, leaving four. In 1982 Atari redubbed the system the 2600, so as to differentiate it from their new 5200 model. It was restyled in black plastic. Various cosmetic changes were made to this model including adding a rainbow stripe to the front.

Atari VCS 2600 front six switch
At the core of the 2600 is a 6507 processor running at 1.19 MHz. The graphics and sound are handeled by a custom television interface adapter nicknamed Stella. The system archtecture supports 2 sprites that are 8 bits wide each and as tall as needed. It also supports 2 missile and one ball sprites that are 1 bit wide each. Lastly there is accomodation for a background of 40 by 192 pixels. Stella supported two voices of sound.

The system has a whopping 128 bytes of ram. This is not such a small number, as the cartridges are limited to 4 kilobytes wihtout bankswitching. Eventually a tape drive attachment was created that increased the storage capacity.

The 2600 was the first system with interchangable joysticks. The system has two joystick ports. The design of the port was later copied by Sega in their Master System and Genesis consoles. A 6532 RIOT handles joystick io. Several different joysticks were produced. These included the classic joystick, paddle controller, and voice controller.

Despite its vast popularity it was not the most revolutionary video game system of its time. Fairchild had already pioneered a system with interchangable cartridges. The Intellevision boasted better graphics. However, 'The Atari' was able to come out on top because of its large collection of software. More than 500 games were released for the unit. Some of the classics included:
Space Invaders
Atari 2600 Space Invaders instructions
Adventure
Atari 2600 Adventure instructions
Defender
Atari 2600 Defender instructions
Asteroids
Atari 2600 Asteroid instructions
Missile Command
Atari 2600 Missile Command instructions
Ms. Pac-Man
Atari 2600 Ms. Pac-Man instructions
Jungle Hunt



Atari Video Computer System 2600 four switch

The following is a list of games for the 2600.