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Atari 2600

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Did you play with a friend on a rainy day?
Did you play with your dad? Did you show him the way?
Did you play with your sis?
Did your mom always miss?
Did... you... play a game from Atari?
Have you played Atari today?

TheAtari Video Computer System, later known as theAtari 2600, but best known as just the "Atari" during its heyday, was the first really successful home video game console system, and only the second to feature interchangeable ROM cartridges that allowed new games to be published and installed without modifying the basic system itself. It also featured plug-in controllers that could be swapped out, allowing new kinds of controllers to be later introduced. Originally, just ten games were planned for it. The idea was to make a better system down the line to replace it eventually but the success of the system changed everything.

The Atari was wildly successful, and was one of the forces that droveThe Golden Age of Video Games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, the sudden failure of the market for Atari cartridges in the wake of the disastrousE.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial andPac-Man games for the system was the trigger forThe Great Video Game Crash of 1983. With only a few exceptions, most of the classic games of the era had home versions available for the Atari, some (Space Invaders, and Atari's ownMissile Command andAsteroids) more successful than others (Pac-Man, whose failure to match the immensely popular arcade version disappointed many consumers). It also beganthe dubious tradition of licensed games, with titles such as|Superman,Raiders of the Lost Ark, and (worst of all)E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.

The simple joystick controller for the Atari 2600, with a stick capable of rendering input in any of eight directions (from four buttons) plus a single fire button, has become an iconic symbol of video gaming in general, and of classic video games in particular. Many '80s home computers, such as theAtari 8 Bit Computers, theCommodore 64, theAtari ST, and theAmiga also accepted the Atari's joystick controllers, as did theSega Master System andSega Genesis.

The Atari 2600 was actively supported for 14 years, from October 14, 1977, to January 1, 1992, making it the second-longest supported video game system in U.S. history, the longest running being theNeo Geo (January 1990-August 2004). The SonyPlayStation 2 (2000–present) isexpected to be supported for as long as it's selling and might surpass both in longevity.

The Nineties saw the beginnings of a homebrew development scene, with it taking off as interest in game development grew.

In 2005, Atari released the Atari Flashback 2 (the original, a re-creation of an Atari 7800, was released in 2004), whichis a pretty faithful re-creation of the actual thing and contains numerous games built into it, including the Activision gamesPitfall andRiver Raid. The Atari Flashback 2+, released in 2010, contains all of the games on the Atari Flashback 2 with the exception of five (including both Activision games, which are replaced with a couple of sports games). AnAtari Flashback Portable, which contains a bunch ofpretty awesome features, was launched in 2016 after ten years inDevelopment Hell.

Atari Age is the biggest Atari fan Web site online and features an almost complete archive of legally downloadable 2600ROMs (as well as ones for Atari's other systems). Only a few games are unavailable, such asActivision's 2600 library (for legal reasons, but they're available elsewhere online) and a handful of woefully obscure titles.