Atari Video Game System

The unofficial pioneers of the gaming industry.  Atari first launched in the early 1970's and ruled the game market until the early 80's. 

• Atari realesed pong in the Mid 70's and was an instant hit.  Pong featured a single console with 4 built in games with two circle knobs which were the controllers.  Not to mention being powered by 4 c batteries. 
• Atari was one of the most popular game systems in the early 1980's. With lots and lots of games to choose from, with such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, Pitfall, with such a great history, and awesome games no wonder it was so popular.
  
• Then the game crash in 1983 and various corporate issues with in the company pretty much ended their reign. 
• Even though atari came out with other systems in the 1980's, they just didn't have the technology to compete with nintendo.
• Atari is still one of the most collected game systems today.  What to find out how rare you games are?
  

What you get When You Buy Atari from Us:

• A fully functional Product, Tested & Cleaned
  
• We Test our Systems for a minimum of 4 hours, and try all the switches and Controllers, to see that they work properly
  
• Cleaned / All our games and connectors have been cleaned.
  
• All of our games and controllers are tested as well.

Why You Should Go Old School

• The gameplay on the 2600 blow away most of today's most popular titles!
• I love my Nintendo Wii, but the Atari 2600 or 7800 is just as-sometimes even more fun. The games are short and action-packed
• The Atari is still fun for all, even today.  Not to mention you can get an atari with everything you need to play with 20 or so games for still under $100
• The Atari takes me back to being a kid again. Atari still proves that just because it doesn't have the graphics that these newer systems have it's still a lot of fun.

Top Ten Titles You Must Own

So If you are deciding to buy an Old School Atari.  Here are a few games that you must get.

1. Q* Bert
2. Centipede
3. Frogger
4. Pole Position
5. River Raid
6. Space Invaders
7. Pac Man
8. Asteroids
9. Space Jockey
10. Deadly Duck

 Atari Game System History

Atari Pong - 1972

• This was first a coin operated video game console. Similar to an arcade game.
• Pong was not the first video game system, the Odyssey was.
• In 1975 the home version was released, way better than magnavox, in that it had sounds, and the ability to spin the controller easily
• Pong connected to your TV through radio frequency.

Atari 2600 – 1977

• The Atari 2600 was Atari’s most popular unit sold to date
• Atari was credited with the use of game cartridges
• The original price was $199.99 with 2 controllers and Combat
• Atari did release 2 other models of this unit, with the first unit having 6 switches, know as the (heavy sixer) atari’s next unit was released in 1980 featuring a 4 switch wood grain unit, the last unit released was all black in color with 4 switches. Both of the 4 switch units looked very similar to the original 6 switch heavy sixer.

Atari 400 / 800 – 1979

• Designed as a home based computer system with superior graphics. These units were released for nearly 1 decade
• Surprising they were around for a decade, since this is the first I heard about them.

Atari 5200 - 1982

• The 5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the Colecovision shortly after its release
• The Atari 5200 suffered from its software incompatibility with the Atari 2600 though an adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games, using the more reliable controllers native to that system.

Atari 7800 – 1986

• Released to be a superior model with less of the problems from the original Atari 5200.
• The Atari 7800 could play almost any Atari 2600 game with out any sort of modulator or expansion module
• The 7800 was always viewed as a Atari 2600, but with supposedly better graphics and what not.

• The Atari 7800 had the ability to play tons of games, but the development for new games for the system wasn’t their. It has been stated that Atari released on 60 or so titles just for the Atari 7800.