Even if my first home video game system was the Atari Super Pong in 1976 my life of gaming really started the next year in 1977 months after my mother took me to see Star Wars in the theater that same year I got the Atari VCS for my birthday and all nine games that was first launch with the system. To this day I still own it and it still works.
@@RetroHackShack Your not alone as I saw many of my friends also sold and trade there old consoles for the new one that came out like the Nintendo and Sega units.
indeed it was! I was 11 when I first saw a 2600 game on the tv screen, but already been used to street arcade games, I wondered how different the graphics were. Even though, now I just love them for whet they were and it is the only system that have graphics like that (in a sort of a 2x1 fashion) because of the 160 color clocks!
My favorite game was called Star Raiders (or something similar). It came with 2 extra game specific controllers and you got to chase and destroy Ships across a vast universe. I remember it cost nearly 40 bucks with those controllers but I enjoyed it immensely.
I could never win on the hard mode and found it difficult to shoot ships. They had knock-offs from Imagic, Activision and even M-Network. I was asking myself if I ever got a game I should have returned to the store. Canyon Bomber was the least favorite game I had (not counting Combat 👎 blah, which you couldn't return) prior to Star Raiders.
I remember also Activision had a similar 2600 game called Starmaster, which used the console switches instead of a separate keypad. I liked them both. Also, there was a game made for the Starpath Supercharger that came on a cassette which was also a souped-up Star Raiders type of game.
Yeah me too,i first didn’t care about the atari 2600 for decades,because i considered it as a primitive piece of shit,BUT once i learned about the specs of the 2600 and how it can be expanded with extra ram,how game developers did got around many of the limitations of the system,how some games did use enhancement chips and when sega and nintendo games were also on that system,i felt in love with the atari 2600 so since then i bought myself an atari 2600 jr along with the harmony cart and many nintendo and sega games for it among other ones,i also do love the atari 5200 because of it’s builtin pokey soundchip and the fact that there were also many nintendo & sega games on it as well,i was alway’s a big nintendo fan,but since then i am also a huge atari fan🙁😁
My mother-in-law was the west coast manager at Atari so I got to go play all the stand up games in their gameroom. That was really cool back in the day.
@@jC-kc4si No. They only released Atari's arcades in Japan. Hell back in the early-mid 80's Bally Midway would release Namcos arcades here in the US. And Midway/Williams would eventually buy the Atari Arcade division.
This was great. It was awesome seeing Nolan, Al, and the other guys from Atari together in the same room. I could watch that stuff for hours. Thanks for this vid, and if possible, keep em coming.
From that Atari Inc. legends VCS 20th anniversary reunion video, a perfect description of why I much prefer retro gaming: Nolan Bushnell's Law - A video game should be easy to learn, but difficult to master.
And no more recent games are this way? And why should anything be any particular way, seems like a matter of taste to me. And as we say in Holland: Over smaak valt niet te twisten (there can't really be arguing, when it comes to taste/preferences). .........Hah i win.
lol atari is still insulting their fanbase to this day 20th anniversary collection? NOT on the vcs (recent computer system, ryzen) despite being announced no updates 😂🎉 things would have been different if they could keep a lid on activision
Great video. Some of my earliest memories was watching my sister's boyfriend playing Activision Grand Prix. He actually memorized the pattern and was able to finish the game perfectly every time. The guy was a genius, he made a controller for asteroids out of doorbells and a cigar box. But anyway I enjoyed your video. Atari 2600 and intelevision we're both big parts of my early childhood.
I played Grand Prix as a kid and really liked it, but never bought it new because the Activision games, though pretty, felt like a gyp because they didn't have many game variations, and were almost all timed games that lasted a couple minutes max, that involved memorization of a course like Barnstorming, Skiing, etc. Pitfall! was one of three third-party games I bought new and after putting in hours, there was no reward screen for finally winning it. I did finally get Grand Prix on eBay two years ago, but got bored trying to memorize the third course.
When I was a kid I loved playing Yar’s Revenge. As a young adult serving in the US Navy as an aviation electronics technician, I used to buy old Atari 2600’s and original NES systems and repair them.
Was wondering how long they expected it to last in order to be a success. Those Pong systems that preceded it only lasted a few years, too. If Mattel had licensed Space Invaders, then that would have been the console to get and Atari would have been forced to launch a new console, I think. Instead because they dominated the market, they kept it going too long, selling 10 million by end of 1981 and an additional 2-5 million more consoles due to Pac-Man fever in 1982. I think if they wanted to, they could have launched a new system for Christmas 1981 with Pac-Man making it a sure-seller. After 1983, Atari's name became "mud."
I knew about the Stella bicycle factoid. The Emulator for the 2600 is called STELLA and the programmer explained about the bicycle. Life was so good back in the Atari days...
Your UA-cam channel takes me (and all of us watching it) down memory lane!! Even the little LED handheld electronic basketball 🏀, baseball ⚾️, and football 🏈 games by Mattel Electronics!! They were so 1970’s!! Atari, Sega, whatever games were around then, they were GREAT 😊!! Thanks 😊 for having the channel!! Just subbed!! Your friend, Jeff!!
Anyone remember Demon Attack and Cosmic Ark? I remember my parents let me get them because they were cheap. I didn't know anything about them at the time but they turned out to be awesome games.
18:40 that "screen saver" was also called "Attract Mode" since the changing colors would attract the attention of shoppers when passing near an Atari demo kiosk at stores. This function was also put into the Atari 400/800/XL/XE computers that would activate about 10 mins when there was no user input. I don't know if that was was implemented in the Amiga or Atari ST computers, not likely since people didn't use TV sets for the 16bit computers (some could) but they still used CRT monitors that could still suffer from burn-in, so it's possible, or by then they were using more common screensavers we know today.
@@RetroHackShack But they did know better in 1979. One guy shelved his version of Space Invaders for months because people at Atari were ignoring the success of Space Invaders and didn't believe in licensing. A Warner exec said, "License Space Invaders" to the head of Atari and he did. Atari sales quadrupled in 1980, with it being the number 2 most-selling Atari game at 6 million. Mattel's Intellivision was D.O.A. when it debuted, only selling 3 million including the Intellivision II, with its most successful game MLB Baseball selling 900,000 copies.
@@sandal_thong8631 That was great they did but Warner was short sighted and Nolan Bushnell told them that the VCS was already old hardware and they should stop placing all their eggs in one basket and design a new console. Warner didn't want to and kept trying to ride the VCS as long as they could without really doing much to develop new hardware. The 5200 never panned out and by 1984 Jack Tramiel bought Atari and focused more on home computers.
I think I had more fun with the Atari 2600 than any other gaming machine except for my PC and Call of Duty 4. What it brought out was the brainiacs who made that machine do things it was unable to do, much like the Atari 800. Even my wife loved both the 2600 and 800 and spent hours and hours playing. It was a good time. I like their principle, make game simple but hard to master.
Dude, did you break into my childhood home and do that video in my basement you got all the stuff from the 70s that we had the wood paneling the Stainglass light fixture
Very informative bit of video! I received my first 2600 system in 1983. Plenty of nostalgia from that "gift from Grandma". One item that the video provided that gave me the biggest smile, seeing that image of the Coleco Telstar Arcade. I finally have a name for it instead of just trying to explain its triangular shape and three sides consisting of "pong, racing, or cowboy shooting", lol. Our family got that one in '79 or '80.
Hello! We are working on a project focuses on a retro product that we’ve never had the chance to use due to our age. In this context, we’d like to hear your thoughts about the "Original Oldschool Atari 2600 Video Computer System". Did you ever encounter any issues with it? For example, were there moments when you thought, "It would have been better if it had/it was..."? Do you think there were aspects, such as the material quality or technical features, that needed improvement? Considering today’s technology and expectations, how could this product be enhanced or reimagined? Your insights would be incredibly valuable for our project!
Being a fan of the 2600 is even better now than it was back in the 80's...there are games being released for the console that are light years better than a large percentage of it's 70's and 80's game library. Companies like Champ Games are doing things I never thought possible on the console.
A good addition to this would be how games such as Pitfall II contained a special chip to push the Atari 2600 beyond the limits it originally had. "Pitfall II was one of the last major releases for the console and one of the most technically impressive. The cartridge contained a custom "Display Processor Chip," designed by Crane, for improved visuals, and four-channel music instead of the two the system was normally capable of."
The idea that it lasted until 1992 is disingenuous. Things were pretty much over in 1984 when the company was broken up, and the release of only 5 games and none in 1985. There should have been synergies between making arcade games and translating successful ones to home console and computer, but the divisions didn't work well with each other and they outsourced for games for the 5200 in 1982-3 and the 2600 in 1983. Not a fun place to work.
I sure miss going to CGEXPO in Vegas each summer and seeing all these great Pioneers and hearing their stories! Even went to the first one called "World of Atari".
I bought the "Stella at 20" video tapes when they were brand new in 1997 or whatever, and still have them of course. In those videos (among many other things), David Crane's description of Linear Feedback Shift Registers which powered Pitfall! and River Raid had a tremendous influence on me and influenced much of my programming from then on.
Love this, Robin. Let me know if you have something you think I should include in the technical follow-up video. I already have more that 10 things already for that one, too. 🙂
Here's something about the 2600 that's not exactly a secret, but which many people may not know: Many people complain about the fact that Atari joysticks only had one button and that games had to be designed to accommodate this. However, the Atari 2600 could have easily had three buttons on the joystick. Two of the lines in the controller ports were meant for analog paddle input, but those two lines could have been used to add two additional buttons to a joystick. Unfortunately it was a catch-22 in that people wouldn't buy a special joystick if no games supported it, and companies weren't going to write games for a joystick that nobody had. CBS Electronics tried to add more buttons with their Booster Grip accessory, but it only worked with the stock Atari joysticks, since it was designed to physically fit onto the the joystick. Omega Race was the only game that ever supported it. Incidentally, since the Atari and Commodore computers used the same inputs (paddles worked on both), any three buttons joysticks would have been usable on those systems as well.
Most of us bought aftermarket controllers for our atari 2600 anyway, right? I had one that had auto/rapid fire and a comfy grip. Played Phoenix and Space Invaders like a boss "clocking it" again and again. Fun times.
@@danatmonst3594 Back when my family was playing the Atari 2600, we mostly used actual Atari joysticks. We did buy some other joysticks, but most of them weren't very good. We had a Quickshot joystick (button on top and on the left) that sucked. A Gemstick, which was OK for a while. Some no-name joysticks with hard plastic sticks that you could easily pull off the base, etc. I had a Wico joystick that someone gave me, but I never really liked the mushy feel of it. The little Amiga Powersticks seemed nice at first, but they didn't like to go diagonal. My favorite Atari compatible joystick was the Tac-2, but I didn't get it until long after the 2600 packed away. I used it with the C64 and Amiga. I once tried an Epyx 500XJ joystick at a friend's house. I liked the feel of it, but it also had a problem with diagonals, so I never wanted one for myself.
True, and alternatively the 2600 (and Atari computers and the C64) could have supported analog joysticks with 5 buttons. The 2 paddle inputs could handle the joystick position, leaving the 4 digital direction lines available for 4 additional buttons (each port and joystick).
If so then they should have done a special release with Defender. Someone said Commodore could have allowed multi-button joysticks since it used the same port, but chose not to set it up with that capability. You could say the same thing about the trackball. They didn't make the games compatible with it, so it still only moved like a joystick rather than a mouse. However, that might have been a programming issue, since the Atari computer versions of Missile Command are said to work with it, even though it came out before the controller. I miss the opportunities for more steering controller games like Tempest, a successor to Indy 500, Wild Western and Tron which latter two used a combo joystick-steering controller for their games.
Nice seeing the Atari VCS from 1977 covered. I still own the original heavy sixer my grandparents purchased in October 1977. As a side note, I own the original VHS tapes for Stella at 20. It's a great historical piece of Atari history.
@@rondadams Thanks! I really need to do a video on my channel about it. I'm always frustrated in historical documentaries when they talk about the Atari and almost always show the 4 switch unit. Yep, I'm that old guy shaking his fist at clouds LOL!
Grandparents! I never thought of it like that. My parents bought the 2600 in 1978 but I have children who are grown up. If they had had children they could have been playing on their great grandparents video game console. Yet everyone still thinks video games are a new thing.
So many memories playing my Atari VCS in the late 70's. I have the Stella emulator on my PC. But it's not the same. I really need to get the Retron 77 to play my actual cartridges again on my TV
@@RetroHackShack I have 2 already. My original heavy sixer and a four switch model with difficulty switches moved to the back. But I don't play it often enough to set it up. I don't have space to keep it just hooked up all the time. The Retron has HDMI and would just make for alot quicker hook up for me. Why I don't hook up my original Odyssey my Dad bought in 1974 when I was barely old enough to know what it was.
Nolan Bushnell is such a cool and engaging person. There are interviews on the Atari 50 package and even age 79 he still has the humour, the laughter, the down-to-earth vibe. A legend!
We met Jack Tramiel in 1988 (he bought Atari Corp in 84) , and we had dinner in a fancy restaurant. Order anything you like he said, and I did order the most expensive wine on the menu. Still remember it, when Jack picked up the bill and had a surprised smile on his face. 🙂
I have the initial fiber optic schematics (I scanned them last year) from TI where they did the fiber optic video option. There was only one or two versions of the Dimension 4 schematics that had that. Wow, now I know why!
Joe Decuir was my EE lab instructor! Having grown up playing the 2600 (both the wood panel design and the later gray-box release), and with video gaming being the catalyst that got me interested in technology and programming, I remember feeling like I was being mentored by a childhood hero. Awesome nostalgic video.
Really great video! Nolan Bushnell was my first “business idol” back at the age of 12, and I yearned to make my own company just like he did one day. It all worked out (I made an anime store at the dawn of the Internet, and also created an anime visual novel game distribution business), and I feel I owe it all to Nolan Bushnell.
I remember as a kid playing with the 2600 (VCS) that you could make some games glitch out by turning the system off and on very quickly. It depended on the game maker. It seemed to work on almost all Activision titles but did not work on the Atari titles. The glitch was even somewhat playable. The Carnival game was one that worked.
Oh yes, these video clips! You can actually find them on one of the Atari Anniversery game compilation editions for one of the consoles of the 90's. I think it was for PS1, which would make the most sense. I've got a big vintage gaming collection and I know I have this somewhere!
I had Atari Anniversary Edition too, but I never knew it came out on consoles. I had the PC version as a kid and it was so cool! I made an iso backup for it not too long ago actually.
Excellent work here, great to see the original people. Loved Atari back in the day, I had their computers too, which were quality, their R&D was second to none for computers and peripherals. It was a good time and experience to be a part of. I think the early 80's just became too saturated with everyone wanting a piece of the action, which led to shovelware and ultimately the crash.
This is excellent! I have seen a few documentaries about Atari, but I don't think any of them were as packed with information, nor had as many clips of video interviews from the actual developers as this video does. Well done! I knew all of these things, but I'd never heard all of them 'from the horses' mouth' as it were from video clips like this. Most of this info I had read in magazines or on internet blogs, but it's hard to say, especially on blogs, what is true and what isn't until you hear it from the guys who lived it. I have a lot of memories of the VCS. My mom's mom loved computers and everything to do with technology. My dad's mom (and dad for that matter) knew next to nothing about tech unless it had to do with farm equipment like hydraulics, gears etc. as they were ranchers. My mom's parents though were really into tech and got me interested in computers. In fact, my grandma worked for TRW and helped factory workers with assembling parts in one of their electronics plants when she was young. She later got into the Commodore computers and was a member of a couple of different Commodore Computer Clubs and had a Vic 20 and a C64 when I was a kid. She got me my first two game consoles for Christmas. The Pong console when I was five and a VCS when I was seven. I got Combat, Casino and Circus with the VCS that year. She loved playing the games with me, especially Casino and Circus. Circus cracked her up with the 'little fellers with their flailing little arms and legs' as she called them. Such a fun version of Breakout! Both she and my grandpa enjoyed Casino because both of them enjoyed playing real table top card games with their friends and knew all about the games in that cartridge. They taught me the best strategies for winning at Blackjack and Poker in part by playing them on the VCS with me. I loved (and still do) those games mainly because I loved playing with my grandparents. But my all-time favorite VCS games would later be Defender and The Empire Strikes Back when I got those later on. I maintain that Atari's version of Defender is superior to the coin-op arcade versions because it is much easier to control, the cityscape makes more sense for the humanoids to be in than a mountain valley and the solution for making the controller's action button do both lasers and the smart bomb by having you duck your ship behind the horizon to set off the smart bomb was brilliant. I especially loved it when I realized that I could fly clear around the playfield of the game while behind the horizon - safe from enemy attacks. I could also pop up at just the right time to blast an alien lander as it was coming down to capture a humanoid. Made me feel rather clever to do that. As much as I liked the arcade version of Defender for its sounds, it was far too frustrating for me compared to the Atari version. The Empire Strikes Back game was very impressive to me because I was already a big 'Star Wars' fan and loved the sequel movie so much! (There were just those two movies in 1980). I thought the game captured the battle scene on Hoth very well. It's especially great to get to the point where you 'feel the force' and your ship flashes colors while the theme music plays and your Snowspeeder is invincible (or you are so with the Force that you are dodging all the attacks - as I imagined it). I say it's one of the best movie - based games ever made. There are fancier looking ones, but few that capture the excitement and main point of part of a movie better than this one does.
Hello! We are working on a project focuses on a retro product that we’ve never had the chance to use due to our age. In this context, we’d like to hear your thoughts about the "Original Oldschool Atari 2600 Video Computer System". Did you ever encounter any issues with it? For example, were there moments when you thought, "It would have been better if it had/it was..."? Do you think there were aspects, such as the material quality or technical features, that needed improvement? Considering today’s technology and expectations, how could this product be enhanced or reimagined? Your insights would be incredibly valuable for our project!
@@zeybutzei The Atari Video Computer System or VCS (aka 2600) is the best built games console ever made. I played mine almost daily from 1978 until 2010. That tells you something about how durable it is that it could handle daily use for over 30 years and still work. By 1990, I was needing to open it up (which is rather easy to do with a basic Phillips screwdriver) and clean the dust out of it so that it wouldn't over heat. I could tell it was over heating because after playing games on it for a while, the picture on the TV would start to get squiggly lines and waves in it. If you shut it off for a while then turned it back on, the picture would be clear again, but if you kept it on for a while, the lines and waves would come back. The games would still be playing, but you couldn't see them very well. So, I would take it apart and blow the dust out of it and gently wipe out dust with cotton swabs. I had to do that every couple of years and it seemed that I had to shut the system off sooner and sooner over the years due to the over heating. Finally by 2010, cleaning it didn't help anymore - it had a bad picture all of the time. I tried to re-tune the RF Modulator after reading about doing that online. I discovered that the picture didn't get better, even after just cleaning the console, no matter how I turned the screw in the modulator. I found out that they can be replaced, but in trying to remove the original one, I managed to break some things on the motherboard. I was careful but the over- 30 - year old parts just snapped off or crumbled when I messed with them. Even though my VCS no longer works, I still keep it on a shelf in my living room because I love that iconic wood-grain and black chassis with its chrome switches. Such a great looking console. I'd say that having vents in the top of the console was a bad design. Yes, it needed ventilation as the electronics parts generate heat, but the vents should have been on the sides so that dust didn't fall into the console so easily. The way the motherboard and other internal components were mounted inside the chassis could have been a little better too. They were well seated in there, but the angles you had to get them at in order to close the chassis were difficult to achieve at times. I'm sure that they didn't even consider making the console easy for customers to take apart to clean it and I bet that most people who had one never opened it, but for those of us who do like to take stuff apart to clean it thoroughly or repair it, it's nice to be able to do so without too much of a struggle. While having the controller be very simple is a brilliant idea, it wouldn't have hurt to have more buttons on it. As game designers got used to programming for the VCS and got to where they wanted to challenge the console to play the most complex games that it could, they started adding more controls for the player to use to play the game. Since there was only one action button on the controller, they had to resort to using the black and white/ color switch, difficulty switches, select switch etc. even have you plug both controllers in for a single player game, just to have enough buttons for all of the game controls. Games like Space Shuttle are a good example. Check out all the controls for this game: Game System Flight Deck Console Power On/Off Internal Power Color/B&W Primary Engines Left Diff. Backup Engines Right Diff. Cargo Doors/Landing Gear Game Select Status Game Reset Activate Countdown You had to sit next to the console which was on the floor (I always put mine on a TV tray to keep it off the carpet because even at the age of eight, I already knew that putting electronics on a dusty carpet was bad for them) in order to play the game because you had to reach all of these switches during the game. If the controller would have had more buttons, you could have sat on the couch instead. Some games, like Star Raiders, did come with special controllers, but it added to the cost since the customer had to buy a keypad controller to play the game. It would have been better for the console to come with a keypad controller to start with. I don't fault the VCS for having crude, blocky graphics and beeping sounds. It was designed in 1975-76 when it was a major technical achievement to make a computer show color graphics at all, especially one inexpensive enough for families to afford to get one for their kid. In fact, I find the graphics and sounds of the VCS to be a form of somewhat abstract art that you can interact with. Yars Revenge is an excellent example of how artistic the games can be. The last thing I'll mention that could have maybe been better is how you hooked the VCS to the TV. It had a power cord and an audio/video RF cable both of which were incredibly long so that you didn't have to sit next to the living room wall to play the games. That was a good idea. I think consoles today should have longer cords. However, the RF cable should have come with a built in adapter. As it was, you had to buy an adapter from an electronics store (I loved Radio Shack!) and screw that into your TV, then plug the RF cable into the adapter. The first adapters and the old TVs were such that you had to unscrew the antenna from the TV with flat head screws, then screw on a long flat brown cable that dangled from the adapter. Then figure out a way to situate the adapter next to the TV so that you could reach the switch on it. In case your family wanted to use the TV for something besides playing Atari, you had to slide the switch from 'game' to 'antenna' first. Most people only had one TV in the 70's, so it was a good idea to be able to do this switching, but there surely could have been a better way to design it. I love my dear old VCS, but it wasn't perfect. These three things - dust and heat management, not enough controller buttons for some games, and hooking it up to the TV are the main problems I had with it. I still play Atari VCS games today, but I play them on a refurbished and modified Atari 7800 that I bought from an Air Force veteran who was an electronics tech in the service. I hope this helps your project.
@@enfieldjohn101 I truly don’t know how to thank you! I am really grateful for every detailed explanation you’ve provided and the care you’ve shown. Thanks to your input, I’ve not only gained a much clearer understanding of the subject but also found precise answers to the questions I had in mind. The information you’ve shared is so valuable to me that it’s hard to put into words. You didn’t just make my work easier; you also boosted it significantly. You’ve done an amazing job, and I’m genuinely thankful for everything. Receiving such support has been both motivating and inspiring!! :)
Hi Retro Hack thank you for this video. Is really fantastic and interessino and for those as me that grew with that incredible VCS 2600 can't be better that knowing those hidden and unknown things. Please do one more videos (almost) to reveal other super interesting unknown aspects of vcs 2600 world! Es. why some sprites flickering durino the game (es. MS Pacman one of my best ever games) and why in some games appears some blavk lines in the side of the screen. Thanks again for all your work!
I remember that interview with Nolen Bushnell about the Atari name, it was one of many interview clips that was on an Atari game collection on cd rom I had as a kid. The cd also had some really cool stuff like ads, box art... if it weren't for that cd rom, I wouldn't have been as fascinated with retro computing as I am now.
Locking up chip manufacturers story reminds me of a sneaky thing I did in college. I was taking Physics 105, a sort of introductory, hands-on course that had several design contests in its curriculum. We were given specs one day, for a rubber band powered boat contest. Before the day was out, I went to the only hobby shop in town and bought every bit of competition grade rubber band they had in stock. I was a regular customer there, and was friends with the owner. He assured me that it would take a few weeks to restock. I was evil.
@@BrainSlugs83 long story... The original spec sheet had a maximum prop torque of .10 Newton-Meters. To generate that torque, I had a pontoon design made of foam pinkboard with 8 rubber loops diverging at the bow and converging at the prop shaft. A rat could waterski behind the thing. So... the Friday before the Monday of the contest, the professor says he had a typo on the spec sheet. It was supposed to be .01 Newton-Meters. Now I had a Formula 1 car with a Briggs and Stratton engine. Early on, the prof had advised us that all the fast boats have a screw in the water for efficient energy transfer. I didn't have time to do a scaled-down version of the original design, so I went against conventional design and went with a narrow flat bottomed hull and an air prop with a trimable rudder made of aluminum flashing. The thing cranked, but liked to roll over if released too soon due to prop torque. The contest came down to another student and I. My boar rolled on the first heat from letting go too soon, smoked the other boat on the second heat, and rolled again on the third. The beautiful part was the last heat... my boat rolled, then paddled itself half onto the opposition boat, which had to drag mine with it. So, I got second. The takeaway for me was that scale and full-size objects don't always behave alike. I'm also good at dealing with last-minute design changes. Live well!
Well put together and entertaining. Well done man. I remember getting my darth vader vcs for Christmas as a kid and spending months trying to figure out swordquest at 5 years old .
I'd say my favorite memory is how we got an Atari in 1980. It was near Christmas and my mom knew she had to get us one. It was the only thing we really wanted. There was an ad in the paper classifieds that was for an Atari with storage case and 10 games for $150. Somehow, she ended up being the first to call on it and got it. She was then instantly elevated to best mom ever and it was the best Christmas ever. Our house became the place to be in the neighborhood that year.
This is a nice compilation of some of the best moments from Stella at 20. I figured I'd know all 10. Glad to find that there were instead 13 that I knew. ;) Of course, a few of those I learned from watching Stella at 20 some time back. But most I knew before that video.
I didn't have an Atari 2600 back in the day - I had a Magnavox Odyssey 2 - or rather a Philips G7000 as it was called in Europe - I would have loved to hear the Atari people talk about the launch of Pacman and their lawsuit against Philips and the K.C. Munchkin game. Great video review of the old Atari folks - I will be watching your 10 TECHNICAL things you didn't know about now :-)
If it is a book written by Marty Goldberg, no thanks. I distinctly remember the days he hung out as a bully at a certain prominent Atari forum site, and had carte blanch to talk trash to anyone he liked.
Funnily enough, my family got the Coleco Arcade for Christmas 1977, but the video on it was extremely wonky. When my dad went to exchange it, the shop owners explained that they no longer recommended it due to many such issues. He walked away with the Atari VCS instead. I was sad because there was no gun to point at the TV.
Nice video! There's actually a good bit here about the Atari VCS/2600 I did already know, but at least a few I didn't despite being a fair video game historian of sorts for this era myself. I tend to use Atari VCS/2600 to refer to the console as a type of compromise. Some grew up knowing it during it's original Video Computer System days while some grew up knowing it during the 2600 designation days. It can be a sore point for some while I didn't really get into it until my preteens in the mid 1990s. So having no real attachment to either name myself it seems like a fair way to avoid triggering any who my have an attachment to either name. I only had an idea of the limited plans originally envisioned for the system. Of course they may have stayed fairly limited had the Warner sale not happened with Warner, and later Mr. Jack Tramiel deciding to continue milking the system for all they could.
Thanks for making this, much love for the 2600 and its mishmash of limits and tech genius. I also can relate to the “failure of imagination” with projects I’ve been on in the past 😂
I would very much enjoy a "10 Technical Things You Didn't Know (or might have forgotten)" episode on the Atari 2600!
Same as the first guy.
Likewise. Please do it.
Yes please :-). I love technical deep dives :-)
I thought that's what this video was going to be about and I'm disappointed that it wasn't! So yes, please make this episode.
Nice one
Yes, I would love to see the tech. side of this! Happy Christmas!
Even if my first home video game system was the Atari Super Pong in 1976 my life of gaming really started the next year in 1977 months after my mother took me to see Star Wars in the theater that same year I got the Atari VCS for my birthday and all nine games that was first launch with the system. To this day I still own it and it still works.
That's awesome. I sold mine in a garage sale when I was a kid. Doh! 😣
@@RetroHackShack Your not alone as I saw many of my friends also sold and trade there old consoles for the new one that came out like the Nintendo and Sega units.
I read more money was spent on Pac-Man than Star Wars tickets. (Probably not including the merch though.)
It was such a great thing to grow up in 83 playing the 2600.
Agreed
indeed it was! I was 11 when I first saw a 2600 game on the tv screen, but already been used to street arcade games, I wondered how different the graphics were. Even though, now I just love them for whet they were and it is the only system that have graphics like that (in a sort of a 2x1 fashion) because of the 160 color clocks!
Yes. Completely agree, the Atari VCS started my journey into computers and now earn a good living in the I.T. Industry
Awesome
Pinball was a hoot. The last level was so beautiful. I still have my system...
Love the video. It took 3 minutes to get to the point which is a long time in the UA-cam world.
Hold down the reset button and turn on Space Invaders and you can fire two shots at once and blow them away .
This was such a fun watch! Thank you for posting the actual video, it made this hit so much harder!
Subscribed!
Thanks for that!
My favorite game was called Star Raiders (or something similar). It came with 2 extra game specific controllers and you got to chase and destroy Ships across a vast universe. I remember it cost nearly 40 bucks with those controllers but I enjoyed it immensely.
Yeah. Star Raiders was awesome. It was the killer app for the Atari 800 and them ported to the 2600.
I could never win on the hard mode and found it difficult to shoot ships. They had knock-offs from Imagic, Activision and even M-Network. I was asking myself if I ever got a game I should have returned to the store. Canyon Bomber was the least favorite game I had (not counting Combat 👎 blah, which you couldn't return) prior to Star Raiders.
I remember buying Star Raiders at Kay Bee Toys for $8 in a discount bin. It was a lot of fun.
I remember also Activision had a similar 2600 game called Starmaster, which used the console switches instead of a separate keypad. I liked them both. Also, there was a game made for the Starpath Supercharger that came on a cassette which was also a souped-up Star Raiders type of game.
Fun video. I still have the Sears branded 2600 console we had as kids. I keep thinking of setting it up.
Cool
The 2600 will always have a place in my heart. I also happen to love the 5200.
Yeah me too,i first didn’t care about the atari 2600 for decades,because i considered it as a primitive piece of shit,BUT once i learned about the specs of the 2600 and how it can be expanded with extra ram,how game developers did got around many of the limitations of the system,how some games did use enhancement chips and when sega and nintendo games were also on that system,i felt in love with the atari 2600 so since then i bought myself an atari 2600 jr along with the harmony cart and many nintendo and sega games for it among other ones,i also do love the atari 5200 because of it’s builtin pokey soundchip and the fact that there were also many nintendo & sega games on it as well,i was alway’s a big nintendo fan,but since then i am also a huge atari fan🙁😁
Atari men were big on facial hair. Great episode, I vote for a part two.
Ha. That's for sure. It's odd to see the early pics of the founders where Nolan is clean shaven.
One of the best info vidoes on Atari 2600 that i have seen. Really great work here.
Thanks!
My mother-in-law was the west coast manager at Atari so I got to go play all the stand up games in their gameroom. That was really cool back in the day.
So cool
Wasn't the Atari arcade division owned by Namco?
@@jC-kc4si I don't know but Atari had all the games in a room for employees and family to play.
@@jC-kc4si No. They only released Atari's arcades in Japan. Hell back in the early-mid 80's Bally Midway would release Namcos arcades here in the US. And Midway/Williams would eventually buy the Atari Arcade division.
The tempo you maintain through this whole video is perfect. That's hard to do. Love your content.
Thanks for noticing. It's harder than some might think.
And it's not monotone, it has nice, soft inflection. It makes him very easy to listen to. Just subscribed.
Thanks
This was great. It was awesome seeing Nolan, Al, and the other guys from Atari together in the same room.
I could watch that stuff for hours. Thanks for this vid, and if possible, keep em coming.
Thanks
From that Atari Inc. legends VCS 20th anniversary reunion video, a perfect description of why I much prefer retro gaming: Nolan Bushnell's Law - A video game should be easy to learn, but difficult to master.
Yep. All the best follow this principle.
That was also Trip Hawkins' law in the early days of Electronic Arts.
And no more recent games are this way? And why should anything be any particular way, seems like a matter of taste to me. And as we say in Holland: Over smaak valt niet te twisten (there can't really be arguing, when it comes to taste/preferences). .........Hah i win.
lol atari is still insulting their fanbase to this day
20th anniversary collection? NOT on the vcs (recent computer system, ryzen) despite being announced
no updates 😂🎉
things would have been different if they could keep a lid on activision
Loved the video. Thanks!!
Omg is that berserk on the tv behind you? My favorite game when I was little.
Yes
I am a massive retro Atari disciple, so I knew most of these. Nevertheless, it's still nice to see these guys all together.
Really nice episode! Thanks for that. [Regarding the proposed follow-up (10 interesting/surprising/quirky technical facts): yes, please!]
PS: Objectively, putting decades of emotive nostalgia aside, Syzygy* would've been a rad name! (*'Scissor-G' 🕹)
Thanks
Great video.
Some of my earliest memories was watching my sister's boyfriend playing Activision Grand Prix. He actually memorized the pattern and was able to finish the game perfectly every time. The guy was a genius, he made a controller for asteroids out of doorbells and a cigar box. But anyway I enjoyed your video. Atari 2600 and intelevision we're both big parts of my early childhood.
I played Grand Prix as a kid and really liked it, but never bought it new because the Activision games, though pretty, felt like a gyp because they didn't have many game variations, and were almost all timed games that lasted a couple minutes max, that involved memorization of a course like Barnstorming, Skiing, etc. Pitfall! was one of three third-party games I bought new and after putting in hours, there was no reward screen for finally winning it. I did finally get Grand Prix on eBay two years ago, but got bored trying to memorize the third course.
Modified title: at least Ten things you will likely be interested in hearing discussed about the Atari 2600
When I was a kid I loved playing Yar’s Revenge. As a young adult serving in the US Navy as an aviation electronics technician, I used to buy old Atari 2600’s and original NES systems and repair them.
Nice
@@darrellcopejr5 You are very welcome. And thank you for the acknowledgment.
Playing Pacman for hours until the score went back to zero
Yeah. It did take hours though.
Awesome vid! I always thought Stella was a secretary at Atari 🤣
Ha
Jay Miner was a friend of mine. He ran my Amiga Skyline BBS software for a couple of years. Crusty old guy and I'm glad I had the chance to know him.
I wish I had the chance
I love how it was planned for a 3 years (tops) lifespan when the VCS really didn't take off until 1980 and the release of Space Invaders
Was wondering how long they expected it to last in order to be a success. Those Pong systems that preceded it only lasted a few years, too. If Mattel had licensed Space Invaders, then that would have been the console to get and Atari would have been forced to launch a new console, I think. Instead because they dominated the market, they kept it going too long, selling 10 million by end of 1981 and an additional 2-5 million more consoles due to Pac-Man fever in 1982. I think if they wanted to, they could have launched a new system for Christmas 1981 with Pac-Man making it a sure-seller. After 1983, Atari's name became "mud."
I knew about the Stella bicycle factoid. The Emulator for the 2600 is called STELLA and the programmer explained about the bicycle. Life was so good back in the Atari days...
Yes, please. Looking forward to part 2. Maybe you can include info about heir BASIC programming cart and keyboard controllers. Those were fun.
Your UA-cam channel takes me (and all of us watching it) down memory lane!! Even the little LED handheld electronic basketball 🏀, baseball ⚾️, and football 🏈 games by Mattel Electronics!! They were so 1970’s!! Atari, Sega, whatever games were around then, they were GREAT 😊!! Thanks 😊 for having the channel!! Just subbed!! Your friend, Jeff!!
Anyone remember Demon Attack and Cosmic Ark? I remember my parents let me get them because they were cheap. I didn't know anything about them at the time but they turned out to be awesome games.
Imagic!
18:40 that "screen saver" was also called "Attract Mode" since the changing colors would attract the attention of shoppers when passing near an Atari demo kiosk at stores. This function was also put into the Atari 400/800/XL/XE computers that would activate about 10 mins when there was no user input.
I don't know if that was was implemented in the Amiga or Atari ST computers, not likely since people didn't use TV sets for the 16bit computers (some could) but they still used CRT monitors that could still suffer from burn-in, so it's possible, or by then they were using more common screensavers we know today.
Warner buying Atari was the beginning of the end for Atari in some ways. Fun video!
Yeah. Classic case of an acquiring company that thought they knew better than the people they acquired.
But without it the vcs would be vaporware
@@RetroHackShack But they did know better in 1979. One guy shelved his version of Space Invaders for months because people at Atari were ignoring the success of Space Invaders and didn't believe in licensing. A Warner exec said, "License Space Invaders" to the head of Atari and he did. Atari sales quadrupled in 1980, with it being the number 2 most-selling Atari game at 6 million. Mattel's Intellivision was D.O.A. when it debuted, only selling 3 million including the Intellivision II, with its most successful game MLB Baseball selling 900,000 copies.
@@sandal_thong8631 That was great they did but Warner was short sighted and Nolan Bushnell told them that the VCS was already old hardware and they should stop placing all their eggs in one basket and design a new console. Warner didn't want to and kept trying to ride the VCS as long as they could without really doing much to develop new hardware. The 5200 never panned out and by 1984 Jack Tramiel bought Atari and focused more on home computers.
@@joefell5311 Beginning of their success, and ending of their success then.
Truly enjoyed your video and learning more of the history of Atari....first video I've watched of yours. New subscriber. Keep up the great work.
Thanks
Liked, Subscribed and now I'm looking forward to another ATARI video,
Thanks
Thanks
I think I had more fun with the Atari 2600 than any other gaming machine except for my PC and Call of Duty 4. What it brought out was the brainiacs who made that machine do things it was unable to do, much like the Atari 800. Even my wife loved both the 2600 and 800 and spent hours and hours playing. It was a good time.
I like their principle, make game simple but hard to master.
Great video this! With so many channels mindlessly reciting Wikipedia these days it's so great to see real research from firsthand sources. 👍
Hey. Thanks man! Hope you are doing well.
Dude, did you break into my childhood home and do that video in my basement you got all the stuff from the 70s that we had the wood paneling the Stainglass light fixture
Very informative bit of video!
I received my first 2600 system in 1983. Plenty of nostalgia from that "gift from Grandma".
One item that the video provided that gave me the biggest smile, seeing that image of the Coleco Telstar Arcade. I finally have a name for it instead of just trying to explain its triangular shape and three sides consisting of "pong, racing, or cowboy shooting", lol. Our family got that one in '79 or '80.
Awesome. I am looking for one to do a video on.
@@RetroHackShack I'd love to offer one up, but sadly hurricane Katrina happened.
Hello! We are working on a project focuses on a retro product that we’ve never had the chance to use due to our age.
In this context, we’d like to hear your thoughts about the "Original Oldschool Atari 2600 Video Computer System".
Did you ever encounter any issues with it? For example, were there moments when you thought, "It would have been better if it had/it was..."? Do you think there were aspects, such as the material quality or technical features, that needed improvement? Considering today’s technology and expectations, how could this product be enhanced or reimagined?
Your insights would be incredibly valuable for our project!
Great video! Lets get that 2600 Technology Top 10 video!
Thank you for an excellent video. You have dug up some brilliant stories!
Thanks
Being a fan of the 2600 is even better now than it was back in the 80's...there are games being released for the console that are light years better than a large percentage of it's 70's and 80's game library. Companies like Champ Games are doing things I never thought possible on the console.
There's a whole lot better programming that can be done when you have 8K of memory instead of only 2K.
A good addition to this would be how games such as Pitfall II contained a special chip to push the Atari 2600 beyond the limits it originally had. "Pitfall II was one of the last major releases for the console and one of the most technically impressive. The cartridge contained a custom "Display Processor Chip," designed by Crane, for improved visuals, and four-channel music instead of the two the system was normally capable of."
The idea that it lasted until 1992 is disingenuous. Things were pretty much over in 1984 when the company was broken up, and the release of only 5 games and none in 1985. There should have been synergies between making arcade games and translating successful ones to home console and computer, but the divisions didn't work well with each other and they outsourced for games for the 5200 in 1982-3 and the 2600 in 1983. Not a fun place to work.
92 was when it was officially discontinued.
@@RetroHackShack So you said, as well as new games are being made today, which is technically true.
I'm interested in lesser known technical aspects of the Atari 2600. Great video, thanks!
Thanks
I sure miss going to CGEXPO in Vegas each summer and seeing all these great Pioneers and hearing their stories! Even went to the first one called "World of Atari".
I bought the "Stella at 20" video tapes when they were brand new in 1997 or whatever, and still have them of course. In those videos (among many other things), David Crane's description of Linear Feedback Shift Registers which powered Pitfall! and River Raid had a tremendous influence on me and influenced much of my programming from then on.
Love this, Robin. Let me know if you have something you think I should include in the technical follow-up video. I already have more that 10 things already for that one, too. 🙂
I think the biggest surprise to me was that the VCS remained in production until 1992!
I got mine around 1985, 1986, somewhere in there.
17:55 wow I always thought the cycling screens were sort of "demo" mode showcase but not a screensaver! Subscribed and thumbs up 👏
Thanks
Here's something about the 2600 that's not exactly a secret, but which many people may not know: Many people complain about the fact that Atari joysticks only had one button and that games had to be designed to accommodate this. However, the Atari 2600 could have easily had three buttons on the joystick. Two of the lines in the controller ports were meant for analog paddle input, but those two lines could have been used to add two additional buttons to a joystick. Unfortunately it was a catch-22 in that people wouldn't buy a special joystick if no games supported it, and companies weren't going to write games for a joystick that nobody had.
CBS Electronics tried to add more buttons with their Booster Grip accessory, but it only worked with the stock Atari joysticks, since it was designed to physically fit onto the the joystick. Omega Race was the only game that ever supported it.
Incidentally, since the Atari and Commodore computers used the same inputs (paddles worked on both), any three buttons joysticks would have been usable on those systems as well.
And you can use it on a sega genesis, but only button "B". I play Atari with a genesis 6 button all the time
Most of us bought aftermarket controllers for our atari 2600 anyway, right? I had one that had auto/rapid fire and a comfy grip. Played Phoenix and Space Invaders like a boss "clocking it" again and again. Fun times.
@@danatmonst3594 Back when my family was playing the Atari 2600, we mostly used actual Atari joysticks. We did buy some other joysticks, but most of them weren't very good. We had a Quickshot joystick (button on top and on the left) that sucked. A Gemstick, which was OK for a while. Some no-name joysticks with hard plastic sticks that you could easily pull off the base, etc. I had a Wico joystick that someone gave me, but I never really liked the mushy feel of it. The little Amiga Powersticks seemed nice at first, but they didn't like to go diagonal. My favorite Atari compatible joystick was the Tac-2, but I didn't get it until long after the 2600 packed away. I used it with the C64 and Amiga.
I once tried an Epyx 500XJ joystick at a friend's house. I liked the feel of it, but it also had a problem with diagonals, so I never wanted one for myself.
True, and alternatively the 2600 (and Atari computers and the C64) could have supported analog joysticks with 5 buttons. The 2 paddle inputs could handle the joystick position, leaving the 4 digital direction lines available for 4 additional buttons (each port and joystick).
If so then they should have done a special release with Defender. Someone said Commodore could have allowed multi-button joysticks since it used the same port, but chose not to set it up with that capability. You could say the same thing about the trackball. They didn't make the games compatible with it, so it still only moved like a joystick rather than a mouse. However, that might have been a programming issue, since the Atari computer versions of Missile Command are said to work with it, even though it came out before the controller.
I miss the opportunities for more steering controller games like Tempest, a successor to Indy 500, Wild Western and Tron which latter two used a combo joystick-steering controller for their games.
Fantastic video, man. I really enjoyed this!
Thanks!
Nice seeing the Atari VCS from 1977 covered. I still own the original heavy sixer my grandparents purchased in October 1977. As a side note, I own the original VHS tapes for Stella at 20. It's a great historical piece of Atari history.
Yeah. Looks like it took all day to record those, but I am glad they did.
Nice! Not too many of those still around, and most pictures of the Atari only show the models with 4 switches.
@@rondadams Thanks! I really need to do a video on my channel about it. I'm always frustrated in historical documentaries when they talk about the Atari and almost always show the 4 switch unit. Yep, I'm that old guy shaking his fist at clouds LOL!
Grandparents! I never thought of it like that. My parents bought the 2600 in 1978 but I have children who are grown up. If they had had children they could have been playing on their great grandparents video game console. Yet everyone still thinks video games are a new thing.
@@wayland7150 Exactly! My first experiece to video games was with Pong at home on a black and white TV. I should do a video about that too LOL.
Yes. I'd like to see the tech 10 things too. Thanks!
Awesome. I've started working on it.
So many memories playing my Atari VCS in the late 70's.
I have the Stella emulator on my PC. But it's not the same. I really need to get the Retron 77 to play my actual cartridges again on my TV
Yeah. Or just an actual VCS.
@@RetroHackShack I have 2 already. My original heavy sixer and a four switch model with difficulty switches moved to the back. But I don't play it often enough to set it up. I don't have space to keep it just hooked up all the time. The Retron has HDMI and would just make for alot quicker hook up for me. Why I don't hook up my original Odyssey my Dad bought in 1974 when I was barely old enough to know what it was.
Love "The Incredible Hulk" poster!
My favorite show!
@@RetroHackShack Easily one of my top 5.
I'm finding this much more interesting than I expected, so I think the follow up on technical things would be interesting too.
Nice shirt. I’ve seen the Millennium Falcon schematics shirt but not one for the X-wing.
Great video, thank you. And I am already waiting for the sequel.
Thanks
Ah great vid! Cool to see and hear from the folks that were there doing the work!
For sure!
Nolan Bushnell is such a cool and engaging person. There are interviews on the Atari 50 package and even age 79 he still has the humour, the laughter, the down-to-earth vibe. A legend!
Agreed
@@RetroHackShack Great video by the way!
Thanks. I am working on the follow-up but it will be next month probably.
We met Jack Tramiel in 1988 (he bought Atari Corp in 84) , and we had dinner in a fancy restaurant. Order anything you like he said, and I did order the most expensive wine on the menu. Still remember it, when Jack picked up the bill and had a surprised smile on his face. 🙂
I have the initial fiber optic schematics (I scanned them last year) from TI where they did the fiber optic video option. There was only one or two versions of the Dimension 4 schematics that had that. Wow, now I know why!
Wow. How cool.
Yes, please. 10 more things. Technical or otherwise.
This all reminds me of the show Halt and Catch Fire, all that 80s tech history and wild west business practices. Great video.
For sure. Great show. I've watched that first season 3 or 4 times.
I really enjoy the list and I like that you kept giving so much credit to the sources. Having said that, YES, I'd love to see a follow up video!
Thanks
Joe Decuir was my EE lab instructor! Having grown up playing the 2600 (both the wood panel design and the later gray-box release), and with video gaming being the catalyst that got me interested in technology and programming, I remember feeling like I was being mentored by a childhood hero. Awesome nostalgic video.
Wow awesome.
Really great video! Nolan Bushnell was my first “business idol” back at the age of 12, and I yearned to make my own company just like he did one day. It all worked out (I made an anime store at the dawn of the Internet, and also created an anime visual novel game distribution business), and I feel I owe it all to Nolan Bushnell.
Cool
I remember as a kid playing with the 2600 (VCS) that you could make some games glitch out by turning the system off and on very quickly. It depended on the game maker. It seemed to work on almost all Activision titles but did not work on the Atari titles. The glitch was even somewhat playable. The Carnival game was one that worked.
Yeah. I remember that.
Oh yes, these video clips! You can actually find them on one of the Atari Anniversery game compilation editions for one of the consoles of the 90's. I think it was for PS1, which would make the most sense. I've got a big vintage gaming collection and I know I have this somewhere!
Cool. Someone said they came out on VHS as well.
I had Atari Anniversary Edition too, but I never knew it came out on consoles. I had the PC version as a kid and it was so cool! I made an iso backup for it not too long ago actually.
A big like Aaron because I have the same T-Shirt! Played the 2600 a lot! Broke a million missle command - took about 5 hours.
Wow. That's not easy. Seems like I did that on Pacman as well and my parents were mad because I had to play through dinner.
Excellent work here, great to see the original people. Loved Atari back in the day, I had their computers too, which were quality, their R&D was second to none for computers and peripherals. It was a good time and experience to be a part of. I think the early 80's just became too saturated with everyone wanting a piece of the action, which led to shovelware and ultimately the crash.
I'm glad you mentioned that the Atari VCS is responsible for so many of us getting into the computer field, myself included.
Jay Miner (2600 TIA, Amiga chips) wrote me back once long ago on his BBS. He was so kind.
What a fun little series you have here, thank you for throwing this together
You are most welcome 😁
This is excellent! I have seen a few documentaries about Atari, but I don't think any of them were as packed with information, nor had as many clips of video interviews from the actual developers as this video does. Well done!
I knew all of these things, but I'd never heard all of them 'from the horses' mouth' as it were from video clips like this. Most of this info I had read in magazines or on internet blogs, but it's hard to say, especially on blogs, what is true and what isn't until you hear it from the guys who lived it.
I have a lot of memories of the VCS. My mom's mom loved computers and everything to do with technology. My dad's mom (and dad for that matter) knew next to nothing about tech unless it had to do with farm equipment like hydraulics, gears etc. as they were ranchers. My mom's parents though were really into tech and got me interested in computers. In fact, my grandma worked for TRW and helped factory workers with assembling parts in one of their electronics plants when she was young.
She later got into the Commodore computers and was a member of a couple of different Commodore Computer Clubs and had a Vic 20 and a C64 when I was a kid.
She got me my first two game consoles for Christmas. The Pong console when I was five and a VCS when I was seven. I got Combat, Casino and Circus with the VCS that year. She loved playing the games with me, especially Casino and Circus. Circus cracked her up with the 'little fellers with their flailing little arms and legs' as she called them. Such a fun version of Breakout!
Both she and my grandpa enjoyed Casino because both of them enjoyed playing real table top card games with their friends and knew all about the games in that cartridge. They taught me the best strategies for winning at Blackjack and Poker in part by playing them on the VCS with me.
I loved (and still do) those games mainly because I loved playing with my grandparents. But my all-time favorite VCS games would later be Defender and The Empire Strikes Back when I got those later on. I maintain that Atari's version of Defender is superior to the coin-op arcade versions because it is much easier to control, the cityscape makes more sense for the humanoids to be in than a mountain valley and the solution for making the controller's action button do both lasers and the smart bomb by having you duck your ship behind the horizon to set off the smart bomb was brilliant. I especially loved it when I realized that I could fly clear around the playfield of the game while behind the horizon - safe from enemy attacks. I could also pop up at just the right time to blast an alien lander as it was coming down to capture a humanoid. Made me feel rather clever to do that. As much as I liked the arcade version of Defender for its sounds, it was far too frustrating for me compared to the Atari version.
The Empire Strikes Back game was very impressive to me because I was already a big 'Star Wars' fan and loved the sequel movie so much! (There were just those two movies in 1980). I thought the game captured the battle scene on Hoth very well. It's especially great to get to the point where you 'feel the force' and your ship flashes colors while the theme music plays and your Snowspeeder is invincible (or you are so with the Force that you are dodging all the attacks - as I imagined it). I say it's one of the best movie - based games ever made. There are fancier looking ones, but few that capture the excitement and main point of part of a movie better than this one does.
Thanks
Hello! We are working on a project focuses on a retro product that we’ve never had the chance to use due to our age.
In this context, we’d like to hear your thoughts about the "Original Oldschool Atari 2600 Video Computer System".
Did you ever encounter any issues with it? For example, were there moments when you thought, "It would have been better if it had/it was..."? Do you think there were aspects, such as the material quality or technical features, that needed improvement? Considering today’s technology and expectations, how could this product be enhanced or reimagined?
Your insights would be incredibly valuable for our project!
@@zeybutzei The Atari Video Computer System or VCS (aka 2600) is the best built games console ever made. I played mine almost daily from 1978 until 2010. That tells you something about how durable it is that it could handle daily use for over 30 years and still work.
By 1990, I was needing to open it up (which is rather easy to do with a basic Phillips screwdriver) and clean the dust out of it so that it wouldn't over heat. I could tell it was over heating because after playing games on it for a while, the picture on the TV would start to get squiggly lines and waves in it. If you shut it off for a while then turned it back on, the picture would be clear again, but if you kept it on for a while, the lines and waves would come back. The games would still be playing, but you couldn't see them very well. So, I would take it apart and blow the dust out of it and gently wipe out dust with cotton swabs.
I had to do that every couple of years and it seemed that I had to shut the system off sooner and sooner over the years due to the over heating. Finally by 2010, cleaning it didn't help anymore - it had a bad picture all of the time. I tried to re-tune the RF Modulator after reading about doing that online. I discovered that the picture didn't get better, even after just cleaning the console, no matter how I turned the screw in the modulator. I found out that they can be replaced, but in trying to remove the original one, I managed to break some things on the motherboard. I was careful but the over- 30 - year old parts just snapped off or crumbled when I messed with them. Even though my VCS no longer works, I still keep it on a shelf in my living room because I love that iconic wood-grain and black chassis with its chrome switches. Such a great looking console.
I'd say that having vents in the top of the console was a bad design. Yes, it needed ventilation as the electronics parts generate heat, but the vents should have been on the sides so that dust didn't fall into the console so easily. The way the motherboard and other internal components were mounted inside the chassis could have been a little better too. They were well seated in there, but the angles you had to get them at in order to close the chassis were difficult to achieve at times. I'm sure that they didn't even consider making the console easy for customers to take apart to clean it and I bet that most people who had one never opened it, but for those of us who do like to take stuff apart to clean it thoroughly or repair it, it's nice to be able to do so without too much of a struggle.
While having the controller be very simple is a brilliant idea, it wouldn't have hurt to have more buttons on it. As game designers got used to programming for the VCS and got to where they wanted to challenge the console to play the most complex games that it could, they started adding more controls for the player to use to play the game. Since there was only one action button on the controller, they had to resort to using the black and white/ color switch, difficulty switches, select switch etc. even have you plug both controllers in for a single player game, just to have enough buttons for all of the game controls. Games like Space Shuttle are a good example. Check out all the controls for this game:
Game System Flight Deck Console
Power On/Off Internal Power
Color/B&W Primary Engines
Left Diff. Backup Engines
Right Diff. Cargo Doors/Landing Gear
Game Select Status
Game Reset Activate Countdown
You had to sit next to the console which was on the floor (I always put mine on a TV tray to keep it off the carpet because even at the age of eight, I already knew that putting electronics on a dusty carpet was bad for them) in order to play the game because you had to reach all of these switches during the game. If the controller would have had more buttons, you could have sat on the couch instead. Some games, like Star Raiders, did come with special controllers, but it added to the cost since the customer had to buy a keypad controller to play the game. It would have been better for the console to come with a keypad controller to start with.
I don't fault the VCS for having crude, blocky graphics and beeping sounds. It was designed in 1975-76 when it was a major technical achievement to make a computer show color graphics at all, especially one inexpensive enough for families to afford to get one for their kid. In fact, I find the graphics and sounds of the VCS to be a form of somewhat abstract art that you can interact with. Yars Revenge is an excellent example of how artistic the games can be.
The last thing I'll mention that could have maybe been better is how you hooked the VCS to the TV. It had a power cord and an audio/video RF cable both of which were incredibly long so that you didn't have to sit next to the living room wall to play the games. That was a good idea. I think consoles today should have longer cords. However, the RF cable should have come with a built in adapter. As it was, you had to buy an adapter from an electronics store (I loved Radio Shack!) and screw that into your TV, then plug the RF cable into the adapter. The first adapters and the old TVs were such that you had to unscrew the antenna from the TV with flat head screws, then screw on a long flat brown cable that dangled from the adapter. Then figure out a way to situate the adapter next to the TV so that you could reach the switch on it. In case your family wanted to use the TV for something besides playing Atari, you had to slide the switch from 'game' to 'antenna' first. Most people only had one TV in the 70's, so it was a good idea to be able to do this switching, but there surely could have been a better way to design it.
I love my dear old VCS, but it wasn't perfect. These three things - dust and heat management, not enough controller buttons for some games, and hooking it up to the TV are the main problems I had with it.
I still play Atari VCS games today, but I play them on a refurbished and modified Atari 7800 that I bought from an Air Force veteran who was an electronics tech in the service. I hope this helps your project.
@@enfieldjohn101 I truly don’t know how to thank you! I am really grateful for every detailed explanation you’ve provided and the care you’ve shown. Thanks to your input, I’ve not only gained a much clearer understanding of the subject but also found precise answers to the questions I had in mind. The information you’ve shared is so valuable to me that it’s hard to put into words. You didn’t just make my work easier; you also boosted it significantly. You’ve done an amazing job, and I’m genuinely thankful for everything. Receiving such support has been both motivating and inspiring!! :)
@@zeybutzei I am glad. I hope that your project is a big success.
Thanks so much for this informative video. I love learning the history behind the beloved consoles and games from my childhood!:)
Me too
Yes, totally do a technology video on the VCS please!
*Pretty* Please?
I'll add it to the list.
Hi Retro Hack thank you for this video. Is really fantastic and interessino and for those as me that grew with that incredible VCS 2600 can't be better that knowing those hidden and unknown things.
Please do one more videos (almost) to reveal other super interesting unknown aspects of vcs 2600 world! Es. why some sprites flickering durino the game (es. MS Pacman one of my best ever games) and why in some games appears some blavk lines in the side of the screen. Thanks again for all your work!
Wish I still had my Atari 2600.
I remember that interview with Nolen Bushnell about the Atari name, it was one of many interview clips that was on an Atari game collection on cd rom I had as a kid. The cd also had some really cool stuff like ads, box art... if it weren't for that cd rom, I wouldn't have been as fascinated with retro computing as I am now.
Locking up chip manufacturers story reminds me of a sneaky thing I did in college. I was taking Physics 105, a sort of introductory, hands-on course that had several design contests in its curriculum. We were given specs one day, for a rubber band powered boat contest. Before the day was out, I went to the only hobby shop in town and bought every bit of competition grade rubber band they had in stock. I was a regular customer there, and was friends with the owner. He assured me that it would take a few weeks to restock. I was evil.
Ha ha. That was mean, but funny.
... Did you win? 😉
@@BrainSlugs83 long story...
The original spec sheet had a maximum prop torque of .10 Newton-Meters. To generate that torque, I had a pontoon design made of foam pinkboard with 8 rubber loops diverging at the bow and converging at the prop shaft. A rat could waterski behind the thing.
So... the Friday before the Monday of the contest, the professor says he had a typo on the spec sheet. It was supposed to be .01 Newton-Meters. Now I had a Formula 1 car with a Briggs and Stratton engine. Early on, the prof had advised us that all the fast boats have a screw in the water for efficient energy transfer.
I didn't have time to do a scaled-down version of the original design, so I went against conventional design and went with a narrow flat bottomed hull and an air prop with a trimable rudder made of aluminum flashing. The thing cranked, but liked to roll over if released too soon due to prop torque. The contest came down to another student and I. My boar rolled on the first heat from letting go too soon, smoked the other boat on the second heat, and rolled again on the third. The beautiful part was the last heat... my boat rolled, then paddled itself half onto the opposition boat, which had to drag mine with it.
So, I got second. The takeaway for me was that scale and full-size objects don't always behave alike. I'm also good at dealing with last-minute design changes.
Live well!
@@adirondacker007 Love your story :) I'd love to see how it would have looked as I'm having trouble picturing it in my mind :)
Well put together and entertaining. Well done man.
I remember getting my darth vader vcs for Christmas as a kid and spending months trying to figure out swordquest at 5 years old .
Thanks!
Yes, would love to learn more about Atari! Another list, please!
I'd say my favorite memory is how we got an Atari in 1980. It was near Christmas and my mom knew she had to get us one. It was the only thing we really wanted. There was an ad in the paper classifieds that was for an Atari with storage case and 10 games for $150. Somehow, she ended up being the first to call on it and got it. She was then instantly elevated to best mom ever and it was the best Christmas ever. Our house became the place to be in the neighborhood that year.
Awesome story. Great memories.
This is a nice compilation of some of the best moments from Stella at 20.
I figured I'd know all 10. Glad to find that there were instead 13 that I knew. ;) Of course, a few of those I learned from watching Stella at 20 some time back. But most I knew before that video.
The story about the name Stella is great. “Oh, they’re naming products after women!”
Very nice and informative video. Love the lamp, still cherish mine as well. The beard completes you btw.
Thank you kindly!
I’m more amazed that “Syzygy” was taken in the first place.
💯
THank you Retro Hack Shack! That was fun. I think I only knew about how they got the Atari name.
I didn't have an Atari 2600 back in the day - I had a Magnavox Odyssey 2 - or rather a Philips G7000 as it was called in Europe - I would have loved to hear the Atari people talk about the launch of Pacman and their lawsuit against Philips and the K.C. Munchkin game. Great video review of the old Atari folks - I will be watching your 10 TECHNICAL things you didn't know about now :-)
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it.
My first ever gaming console Atari 2600 many many year's ago.
If it is a book written by Marty Goldberg, no thanks. I distinctly remember the days he hung out as a bully at a certain prominent Atari forum site, and had carte blanch to talk trash to anyone he liked.
Great video. Please do a 10 technical things you didn’t know!
Funnily enough, my family got the Coleco Arcade for Christmas 1977, but the video on it was extremely wonky. When my dad went to exchange it, the shop owners explained that they no longer recommended it due to many such issues. He walked away with the Atari VCS instead. I was sad because there was no gun to point at the TV.
Great memory.
There was a gun accessory and game that a company sold for the Atari VCS.
@@CometENL Not in 77! There were only 13 games in the olive-green Atari catalogue, and no third party games yet.
Atari Inc. is by far the best Atari book out there and the competition is strong.. Highly recommended.
I still have my Sunnyvale heavy sixer and it operates just as it did when brand new.
I also would enjoy a "10 Technical Things" segment. This one was great and I knew far fewer than I thought :)
Thanks
Nice video! There's actually a good bit here about the Atari VCS/2600 I did already know, but at least a few I didn't despite being a fair video game historian of sorts for this era myself. I tend to use Atari VCS/2600 to refer to the console as a type of compromise. Some grew up knowing it during it's original Video Computer System days while some grew up knowing it during the 2600 designation days. It can be a sore point for some while I didn't really get into it until my preteens in the mid 1990s. So having no real attachment to either name myself it seems like a fair way to avoid triggering any who my have an attachment to either name. I only had an idea of the limited plans originally envisioned for the system. Of course they may have stayed fairly limited had the Warner sale not happened with Warner, and later Mr. Jack Tramiel deciding to continue milking the system for all they could.
Yeah. I should probably link my 7800 history video in the comments. Very interesting.
Thanks for making this, much love for the 2600 and its mishmash of limits and tech genius. I also can relate to the “failure of imagination” with projects I’ve been on in the past 😂
Thanks. Agree.