Atari 2600

Being noticed as the console that started it all the Atari 2600 was first released in 1977 and has sold about 30 million units. Like many consoles of the day the Atari 2600 let you plug in select cartridges. The Fairchild Channel F had this concept years before Atari however it was Atari that made this popular and having the vast number of television commercials greatly helped increase the consoles popularity.

It was originally called the Video Computer System (Atari VCS) but was later changed to the consoles part number being CX2600. It was sold with two joysticks, a paddle and usually a cartridge game being either combat or Pac-Man.

When the Atari first came out it sold for $199 and had about nine games to its name. Atari wanted to get the market so it sold clone consoles though Sears stores and called the new clone console the Sears Video Arcade.

Fairchild soon dropped out of the video game race as they believed video games were dying out however when Christmas came around Atari easily sold thousands. Atari 2600 had games such as Space Invaders, Adventure, Breakout, Yars’ Revenge, Pac-man and many more great games.