Atari VCS Peripherals

The Atari VCS, however, remains as a cottage industry for third-party developers of hardware add-ons for the system. One of the most significant and successful of these is the SuperCharger by Arcadia Corporation and designed by former Atari engineer, home PONG co-creator and VCS developer Bob Brown, who also serves as executive vice-president of Arcadia. Another former Atari employee, Craig Nelson, is also involved in the venture. Initially offered at $69.95 and eventually dropped to $49.95, the SuperCharger is an outsized cartridge that plugs into the VCS and adds an extra 6K of RAM memory available to the system. It also boosts the graphics capability, allowing for more objects onscreen at a time and hi-res output. A cable comes out the side of the SuperCharger and ends in a 1/4 inch audio jack, which users plug into the headphone jack of any regular cassette recorder. They can then play games sold by Starpath on audio cassette tape, with each priced at an attractive $14.95. Loading a game in via this procedure usually takes about 30 seconds, and a clean duplicate version of the game is offered on the other side of the cassette if something goes wrong with the original. Putting games on cassette tape has another advantage: programs for the SuperCharger typically have relatively complex multiple levels, that the system can load in off the tape as play progresses. Phaser Patrol is the tape packed in with the SuperCharger, a graphically advanced version of the popular game Star Raiders for Atari’s 400/800 computers, then ported later for the 2600.

When the SuperCharger is shown at the 1982 Summer CES, Arcadia ends up getting five times the orders for the device than they had planned to sell over the whole year. This causes scuttlebutt to swirl around the show that Atari is ready to sue or buy out Arcadia, although the makers of the SuperCharger firmly state the company is not for sale. The unit itself though is released in August of 1982, and others games are eventually follow the system, such as Escape From the Mindmaster (working title: Labyrinth), Rabbit Transit (working titles: Harebrain and Hopalong Catastrophe) and Communist Mutants From Space. The company is also actually able to produce an official version of the arcade classic Frogger for the 2600, in the face of another version released for that system by Parker Brothers. This is because Parker Brothers only has the cartridge rights for the game from Sega, opening the door for Arcadia’s version on magnetic media. The company is eventually forced to change their company name to Starpath after threats of litigation from Emerson Electronics, maker of the Arcadia 2001 home game console.

Click button to play Escape from the Mindmaster, 1982

12 games in all are eventually sold for the SuperCharger, including two sold via mail order after Starpath declares bankruptcy. The company is eventually merged with computer game maker Epyx. One prototype product never released by Starpath, called Sweat: The Decathlon Game, ends up as the basis for Epyx’s hugely popular sports extravaganza Summer Games.

Following on the heels of the SuperCharger is the Power Module, part of The Power System line from Amiga. The company might be better known as the maker of the Joyboard, a 2600 controller that one stood on to use. Well, I suppose they might be more well-known as the maker of the Amiga computer for Commodore. Their Power Module plug-in cartridge memory expander for the 2600 would also run games off cassette, as well as add 6K of memory to the 2600. What’s more, it would hook up to other Power Modules over a phone line for multiplayer games, AND have the capability to play in real 3D. This last bit is proved by one of the two cassette games included in the package being 3-D Ghost Attack. The other is to be Depth Charge, featuring the online capability. Announced in early 1983, Amiga’s Power Module is ultimately cancelled; Amiga reasons that since cartridge prices are dropping like a rock, the main cost benefit of putting out games on cassette has been undercut. Their 3-game Power Play cartridges also in development for the 2600 similarly never make it to store shelves.

In the Key of Atari

A few companies also try to make good on the “computer” part of the name Video Computer System, developing prototype computer add-ons with keyboards and storage devices. In 1983, Atari announces an under-$90 attachment that fits easily into the 2600 cartridge slot, offering users a 56-key, chiclet-style keyboard and 8K of RAM, expandable to 32K with add-on modules. Inside the add-on is the vaunted 6502 microprocessor, also seen in Atari’s 8-bit computer line. The system will output a 192×160 graphics resolution and a text screen format of 32 columns by 24 rows. It also has two sound generators. Initially called My First Computer, built into the system is the Microsoft BASIC programming language, combined with specialized graphics and sound statements from Atari BASIC. There is also a connection to allow any regular cassette tape recorder to provide data storage. Atari’s add-on can also accept standard 2600 game cartridges through a slot on its side, as well as a planned library of around 20 new cartridges at launch, featuring entertainment and educational programs. some enhanced to take advantage of the keyboard. In addition, the expansion module will also be able to accept Atari’s planned storage system utilizing high-speed, 1/16 ” wafer-tape ‘stringy floppy’ cassettes holding 128K of data. Eventually renamed The Graduate, other peripherals are announced for the keyboard, such as a 40-column thermal printer, as well as a modem. Instructional software such as  Introduction to Programming and Typo Attack, as well as home productivity programs The Home Filing Manager and Family Finances are announced with the add-on. It’s not all serious stuff though; adaptations of Donkey Kong, Robotron: 2084 and Caverns of Mars are also touted for the system. The whole shebang is promised by Atari for September of 1983, with Atari president of consumer electronics Michael Moore introducing the system with Drew Barrymore during a press conference, but the Atari 2600 computer add-on is ultimately postponed indefinitely that month by the company after the introduction of their XL computer line, and also “in light of the turmoil in the under-$100 home computer market”, according to Atari. At $150, the 600XL home computer is priced only slightly higher than the projected cost of the Graduate.

The planned Entex Piggyback Colour Computer add-on stands out by sporting 70 keys that travel when pressed like a real computer keyboard. In spite of the name, the unit sits in front of the VCS as opposed to neatly on top of it. The keyboard contains nine function keys, as well as four cursor keys to control movement. The computer add-on contains a Z80A CPU, along with 8K of ROM to hold the internal instruction set. Only a meagre 2K of RAM is available for the Piggyback out of the gate, although an expansion module is offered for boosting the unit through 16K memory cartridges to a respectable 32K of RAM, as well as an access port to allow a cassette tape for program storage. Onboard the Piggyback will be 8K of BASIC. With a price tag of at or below $125, for an additional $7 users will be able to purchase an adapter to allow the system to connect to the Intellivision, ColecoVision, or the Atari 5200. RS-232 and parallel ports promise connection to peripherals such as printers.

Other keyboard attachments for the 2600 are announced, such as Unitronics’ Expander (16K RAM), but only Spectravideo’s membrane keyboard Compumate (2K RAM), with its included music composition and Magic Easel drawing programs, makes it past the prototype stage and onto store shelves in 1983, only to disappear along with the videogame market by the end of the year.

Reach Out and Play Someone on the Atari 2600

One of the more interesting and far-reaching of the third-party companies servicing the 2600 market is Control Video Corporation (CVC) out of Vienna, Virginia, with a service called Gameline. The company is created by online information technology visionary William F. Von Meister, who had founded the first commercial online service The Source in June of 1979. He was eventually forced out of ownership of The Source that year by financial supporter Jack Taub in a power struggle, although receiving a million dollar payout for his trouble. In 1980, a controlling interest in the online service itself is eventually sold to Reader’s Digest for $3 million.

What would eventually become Gameline had originally been developed for Home Music Store, which had hoped to offer song selections to cable services via satellite. Audio music channels later become standard offerings on Cable TV, but at the time music retailers balked at the idea of this kind of distribution and lobbied the music industry to refuse participation in such a scheme. Von Meister, with support from high-tech financial investors like Hambrecht & Quist and Kleiner Perkins, heads back to the drawing board and turns to video games as a venue for the technology. Targeting the 14 million installed Atari 2600 consoles (although probably only several million are actively used by this time in its life-cycle), Gameline offers downloadable games for the 2600 over conventional phone lines through a modem which operates from between 900 – 1200 baud, in order to compensate for varying connection quality. This versatile yet inexpensive-to-make modem was the key to a viable dial-in video game service, and a large part of CVC’s $2 million R&D budget is devoted to building it, developed by vice president of engineering Ray Heinrich, as well as Hartsville, AL-based consultants Seven Systems. The games are stored on the 8K memory bank inside a special, $49.95 cartridge called the Master Module, which connects to the phone line. After dialing into the system via a local or toll-free number, the phone line is typically tied up for about a minute while retrieving a choice from the rotating roster of 30 games to be offered each month. Customers get a free subscription to Gameliner magazine, where currently available games are listed. There is a one-time hook-up fee for the service of $15, with a $10-$12 annual fee coming into play in the second year of membership. Charges are approximately $1 for up to an hour of play, and the system offers on-screen instructions for the chosen game, as well as a library of instructions for other games on the system. Parents can also set a weekly or daily limit, to prevent kids from overindulging.

With a promise that GameLine is to be compatible with Atari’s announced My First Computer keyboard add-on for the 2600,  the online service is the first stage of a planned comprehensive online BBS type of system for  Atari’s console. This is to include MailLine, offering text messages pecked off an onscreen keyboard with a joystick at 15 cents per 8,000 characters, sports news and scores via SportsLine, and home banking and financial management through StockLine. The two-way nature of the data connection also allows large, nation-wide video game tournaments. High scores are recorded by the system if the customer pays an additional 50 cents, and tournament prizes such as college scholarships, sports-cars and $100,000 in gold bullion are promised for the winners of Gameline’s World Video Game Championship. Downloading of games also comes to the Intellivision via PlayCable, and Coleco announces a partnership with AT&T to deliver games over the phone lines to their ColecoVision console. Also touted is The Games Network, where players would rent a special box from their cable providers with a $20 deposit. With this equipment, an initial catalog of 20 games from various manufacturers would be available to gamers.

Gameline launches wide by mid-1983, but licensing disagreements with most of the big cartridge makers such as Atari, Mattel and Coleco prevent many of the biggest 2600 hits from appearing on the system. At launch, Imagic is the sole major manufacturer of games available on the system, as well as a reported financial backer of the project. Product from Fox, TigerVision and Spectravision are also planned, as well as games from defunct game houses like Data Age and Games by Apollo.. In a repeat of what had happened at The Source,  CVC President Von Meister again is eventually relieved of his duties, but not before he brings Marc Seriff and Jim Kimsey into the company. Steve Case, another key member, had been lured over to CVC in 1982 from PepsiCo Inc. The Gameline system eventually shuts down in early 1985, after spending $12 million operating the network and now carrying a debt load of $500,000. The remaining execs and venture capitalists reform CVC into Quantum Computer Services. The company develops a telecommunications network package dedicated to the Commodore C64/128 computers, with a system based on tech licensed from an already existing online entity called PlayNET. QuantumLink is set for launch on October 1, 1985, and the system is operated jointly with Commodore International, who bundle QuantumLink products with their computers and modems. QuantumLink offers connectivity for a flat fee of $9.95 a month, and a registration charge of $25 is put into place at the beginning of 1986. A disk drive is needed to load the system software, and if you already have a modem for your 64/128, you get a month of free service. If you need a modem, you are provided one free if you sign up for a four-month term. After logging on, services available free to users include news updates from USA TODAY, access to the Academic American Encyclopaedia, online courses in the Electronic University, trivia games, a software store and an electronic mall for other shopping needs, among other services. Users are also billed six cents a minute to access “Plus” features such as online chat, electronic mail, head-to-head games like Chess and Hangman, and the ability to download demo programs and public-domain software. You do get an hour of “Plus” time free every month, however. Operating hours for the service are 6pm to 7am on weekdays and 24 hours a day through the weekend and holidays. Users, or Q-Linkers as they’re called, can use up to five different accounts on one computer; great for parents, who can set time limited profiles for their kids. Q-Linkers can also change their online handles at their whim; a boon for those who want to juggle a few different online personalities. Q-Link eventually adds support for Apple computers under the AppleLink banner, and PC Link for IBM compatibles in a partnership with Tandy. An online service for IBM’s PS/1 operating system is also made by Quantum and called Promenade.

If you thought emojis or emoticons were a fairly recent Internet invention, then :p. They actually show up in email and chat room communications on QLink, such expressive symbols known there as QShorthand graphics or QGraphics for short. Hang around long enough and you’ll see happy :), a wink (;)), somebody angry (>:(), a glasses-wearing nerd (8)), or as I demonstrated above, someone sticking their tongue out… among many others. Things get even more visually expressive when the first virtual online graphical community ever is set up on QuantumLink, with the superbly-named Chip Morningstar as project leader, programmer and principle designer. LucasFilm initially pitches the service as MicroCosm to Steve Case in September of 1985.  It is eventually made available to Commodore 64 users in a beta phase on QuantumLink between 1986 and 1988. Renamed Habitat, it allows users to create graphical avatars and walk around, chat and barter for items in a real-time animated environment, including potentially hundreds of different areas, along with user-created rooms. Laws and acceptable behaviours are created by the users, including the robbing and killing of each other. At the end of the pilot period in 1988, Habitat is scaled down and opened wide to users as a simple graphical chat room called Club Caribe. In this form the service continues until 1994. In 1989, Case, Kimsey and Seriff morph QuantumLink and all its sundry services into another little online company…America Online. Von Meister does not share in the billion-dollar success of AOL, and succumbs to cancer in 1995 at the age of 53.

From Gameline to AOL – America Online announces version 4.0 of their software, 1998

As an alternative to the delivery of videogames through a phone line like with Gameline, in 1984 Atari and Activision join forces with an experiment to stream games via FM radio. Via a FM receiver cartridge with circuitry designed by Larry Karr of SCA Data Systems, Inc., an FM subcarrier signal of 12 kbits/s sending game data would originate from a local radio station and be received by either the 2600 console or an Atari computer. Tests in the field are successful, but the public has turned the dial away from video games, and the scheme to send Atari and Activision games over radio waves loses its signal. This technology would eventually rise from the static, with Karr and SCA Data helping to shrink the technology for Microsoft’s SPOT smart watch tech in 2003.

End of the Line for the Atari 2600

Atari itself  has been milking the VCS for all it’s worth, trying to stave off the obvious obsolescence of the console by redesigning the same basic technology into smaller or more gimmicky versions, as well as sundry peripherals to “improve” gameplay. One such attempt is the CX-2700 Remote Control VCS, sporting wireless hand units with a radio connection to the game console, allowing gamers to control the onscreen action as well as pause or reset games without getting off the couch. The controllers also feature a combination joystick and paddle configuration similar to what will show up on the later 5200 Supersystem, along with heat sensitive, finger-touch buttons. The 2700 is unveiled at the 1981 Winter CES pegged with a hefty suggested retail price of $299.95, and it is given a release date of August. The game console ends up quietly shelved by Atari, after reports of the radio signals from the wireless controllers opening people’s garage doors. Voice recognition and voice synthesis for the 2600 is also dabbled with, via a device called the Voice Controller, manufactured for Atari by Milton Bradley. Surfacing at the Summer CES in 1983, the module plugs into the controller port of the 2600, with a headset attached to it. With this headset, players will then be able to speak commands and hear voice prompts in supported games such as RealSports Baseball, Star Raiders, Battlezone and Berzerk. Sporting a proposed retail price of $100, the system only supports one player; the other must use a regular joystick in the other port, and hopefully will refrain from shouting false commands and screwing his more technically advanced “friend”. Perhaps because of this fatal flaw in human gamesmanship, the Voice Controller does not make it to store shelves in October as planned. Even a system that is strongly inferred by Atari to allow players to control games by mind-control is prototyped, called Mindlink. Most media who check out the controller at the 1984 Summer CES comment that it appears to respond to mere pressure from the eyebrows. The dubious system is prototyped,  but never released.

In 1982 the original VCS is remodeled in an all-black version referred to unofficially as the Vader console, the first to be given the new official name the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. The new title is based on the console’s model number and done to put the name in line with the new 5200 console, also released that year. This name is popularly just condensed down to the 2600. The pack-in cartridge becomes Pac-Man, an arcade license that the company figures will send the 2600 back into the top-sellers list. With Pac-Man in the title, the game sells over 10 million copies, but it is apparent the arcade adaptation is a rush job and critics declare it a creative disaster.

It takes the development of Coleco’s graphically advanced ColecoVision to prompt Atari to offer more advanced technology with their 5200 Supersystem machine, although even this new unit is only a repurposing of Atari’s 8-bit computer line in console form. Groping for avenues to shoring up their market share Atari announces a series of signed deals with content companies: in early 1983 Atari announces deals with United Feature Syndicate and Charles Shultz Creative Association to create games based on the Peanuts characters; an agreement with Destron, Inc to create software around their coin-operated biorhythm and astrology machines; and an arrangement with the Children’s Television Workshop to make Sesame Street games under the label Children’s Computer Workshop. They also tout a long-term deal with Williams Electronics for first refusal of their arcade works for home video and computer games. Having previously made Defender, Atari also lands games like Moon Patrol and Joust out of this deal, and begins planning home versions while the arcade games are still in the R&D stage at Williams.

In early 1984, Atari releases 12 original and licensed games for competing computer and video game systems, under the Atarisoft label. The games include Centipede, Defender, Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Robotron, Stargate, Picnic Paranoia, Protector, Shamus, and Galaxian. They are released for systems such as the Apple II  and IIe, IBM PC, C64, VIC-20, TI 99/4A, ColecoVision and Intellivision.