Atari VCS
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Atari 2600 four-switch "wood veneer" version, dating from 1980 to 1982
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| Manufacturer | Atari |
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| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Second Generation |
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| Introductory price | US$199 (equivalent to $786.49 in 2016) |
| Discontinued | January 1, 1992 |
| Units sold | 30 million (As of 2004[update]) |
| Media | ROM cartridge, Tape |
| CPU | 8-bit MOS 6507 @ 1.19 MHz |
| Memory | 128 bytes RAM, 4 kB ROM |
| Controller input | Joystick Paddles Driving Controller Trak-Ball Keypad |
| Online services | GameLine |
| Best-selling game | Pac-Man, 7 million (As of September 1, 2006[update]) |
| Predecessor | Atari Pong |
| Successor | Atari 5200 |
The Atari 2600 (or Atari VCS before 1982) is a home video game console by Atari, Inc. Released on September 11, 1977, it is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F video game console in 1976. This format contrasts with the older model of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware, which could only play the games that were physically built into the unit.
The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, an abbreviation for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982, the VCS was renamed to the "Atari 2600", after the unit's Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge: initially Combat, and later Pac-Man.
Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell developed the Atari gaming system in the 1970s. Originally operating under the name "Syzygy", Bushnell and Dabney changed the name of their company to "Atari" in 1972. In 1973, Atari Inc. had purchased an engineering think tank called Cyan Engineering to research next-generation video game systems, and had been working on a prototype known as "Stella" (named after one of the engineers' bicycles) for some time. Unlike prior generations of machines that use custom logic to play a small number of games, its core is a complete CPU, the famous MOS Technology 6502 in a cost-reduced version known as the 6507. It was combined with a RAM-and-I/O chip, the MOS Technology 6532, and a display and sound chip known as the Television Interface Adaptor (TIA). The first two versions of the machine contain a fourth chip, a standard CMOS logic buffer IC, making Stella cost-effective. Some later versions of the console eliminated the buffer chip.
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