The VCS/2600

The Atari VCS aka Atari 2600 video game console and iconic joystick

VCS/2600 - Dominating the Landscape

(Page 1 of 4)
Atari 1977

Have You Played the Atari VCS Today?

Atari’s infamous entry in the programmable home video game system race, known as the Atari VCS or Video Computer System, begins in the latter part of 1975, as the company’s PONG (and its myriad knock-offs) are ruling the arcade and home TV’s. The first prototype the soon-to-be-famous device begins development this year by Steve Mayer and Ron Milner, of the Atari consulting firm Cyan Engineering. Cyan is part of the company’s far-out Grass Valley, CA think tank, located northeast of Sacramento. It is from this wellspring of innovative thinking that the basic design of what will be known as the VCS, Atari’s 8-bit computers and the QuadraScan vector monitor seen in games like Asteroids will be born, among other marvels. A further prototype of the programmable system is then further refined by Cyan employee Joe Decuir, with Jay Miner (who later designs the ground-breaking Amiga computer) further refining the hardware at Atari’s Los Gatos plant. When Decuir is developing software for the system, he is required to create a password for the time-sharing computer Atari is leasing time on to compile the code. Thinking of his trusty bicycle with the label of its French bike manufacturer Stella printed upon it, he uses that for the password. This is then co-opted by Miner as the name of the chip that is the centre of the system, and then used for the overall project name, and thus solidifies a long tradition of naming Atari systems with women’s names (never mind that it was really Joe Decuir’s bike). Miner would eventually rename the chip the TIA or Television Interface Adapter. It is responsible for generating on-screen graphics, sound effects, and handling joystick control inputs. Miner would also lead design on the chipset for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, as well as the groundbreaking Amiga computer sold by Commodore.

Image of the prototype for the Atari VCS/2600, 1977

First VCS prototype, assembled in 1975

The finished casing holding all this hardware for Stella measures 23.5″ by 13.45″, constructed of plastic with a simulated wood grain panel on the front to help the machine fit in next to family TV console sets.  Two banks of three silver toggle switches perch near the top of the device, controlling power, B&W or colour display, difficulty levels for each player, game select to navigate through the various modes offered by some games and a reset switch to restart an inserted game. Named the Video Computer System (VCS), it barely arrives in stores in time for the 1977 Christmas season.

Atari VCS, later known as the Atari 2600 video game system

The 1977 version of the Atari VCS, known as the “Heavy Sixer” due it its 6 front-mounted switches, as well as maximum thick case plastic and heavy RF shielding…. to protect consumers from not exactly refined RF components that would later be improved upon in redesigns

Click the button to play Combat on the Atari VCS

The Atari VCS comes with the pack-in cartridge Combat, designed by programmer Larry Kaplan, along with DeCuir and Larry Wagner. Under the initial design of the console, Combat had been planned to be integrated right into the ROMs of the machine as a built-in game. The included cartridge combines two early Atari arcade games, Tank by the Kee Games subsidiary, as well as Atari’s Jet Fighter, released to the arcades in 1975. A dedicated home version of Tank, the name of which vacillates between just Tank and Tank II, is also announced by Atari for release in 1977. The console comes with two joysticks, rounder variations of the controllers that will eventually ship with the VCS, with a single fire button and a flared tip. These sticks can be placed into two holders in the Tank II unit, allowing one player to control the left and right treads of the tank separately.  In two-player mode, the sticks can be taken out for each player. Tank II is quietly canceled by Atari after the release of the VCS and its Combat game. With the VCS setup, there are two rheostat paddle controllers included as well, to facilitate comfortable play of the various PONG-type games to be sold for the console. Along with the included Combat, the library of nine launch titles to accompany the console is composed of: Air-Sea BattleIndy 500, Star Ship, Street RacerVideo Olympics, Blackjack, Surround, and Basic MathThe VCS is also sold by huge department store chain Sears, as the Sears Video Arcade.

retail display for the Sears Video Arcade, their version of the Atari VCS video game system

Kids of all ages enjoy the Sears Video Arcade, their version of the Atari VCS, at an in-store demo kiosk, 1981

Image of the box for the Video Computer System, a home video game system by Atari 1977

Box for the Atari Video Computer System

Nolan Bushnell, Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?

Running a 1.19 MHz 8-bit MOS Technology 6507 microprocessor, the designers of the system initially figure that it would only be playing tank battle games and PONGesque titles, so the allocated ROM memory for the programs is 2K. It is eventually decided to bump that to 4K, even though Combat itself is only 2K and there is little hope that any program would ever need as much as the allowed maximum. Upon release, nine cartridges are introduced along with the system. With an initial retail price of $249.95, there is very little markup on the machines due to the high price of the components, although the game carts cost very little to produce and sell for around $40 each. Sound is sent through the speakers of the television hooked up to the device, allowing users to hear the action as loud or as soft as they like.

Controllers for the Atari 2600 video game console

Exploded view of the Atari VCS controllers

Atari 2600 paddle controllers

Box cover for the Atari VCS paddle controllers

Spurred on by the money injected into the company from new owners Warner Communications to the tune of about $120 million, Atari mass produces about 800,000 VCSs in 1977, and manages to sell 400,000 of them. For two years the VCS struggles to reach sales goals in comparison to the budget for marketing the device, and Atari profits drop precipitously, substantially dragging down Warners stock price. There are major production problems, including defective chips and cases, and the easy-going Zen attitude of Atari co-founder and CEO Nolan Bushnell, who describes himself as “a bizarre manager”. This extends to, as a reward for when projected production numbers are met, throwing big “kegger” or “backlot beer busts” drinking parties for employees, in the company parking lot. Considering Atari’s explosive growth and demand for their products, this equals a LOT of parties. This even goes so far as having an oak beer tap in Bushnell’s office. The Coors would flow freely everyday after work, during informal manager meetings where the gang would peruse the latest game prototypes. In addition, Bushnell has recalled, heavens forfend, cannabis being used freely during Atari planning sessions, perhaps all the better for the facilitating of creative brainstorming, where no idea is considered too outlandish or out of reach. Bushnell’s antics at Atari starts to wear out his welcome even with Warner head Steve Ross, himself a chairman noted for having a laissez-faire management style. Things get so rough with sales numbers for the  VCS that Bushnell dramatically stands up during an Atari/Warner board meeting and suggests that the console has its price slashed, in order to increase market share and enlarge the market for the games the company also sells.  Dismayed by the direction the company has decided to take, and himself increasingly absent from Atari offices as he loses interest in running things the way they are, Bushnell steps down from formal duties as chairman in late 1978, with a multimillion-dollar package. Former Burlington textile executive Raymond Kassar is tagged as president and CEO of the video game company, having been hired as a consultant to Atari since March of 1978. Joe Keenan, company veteran and former Atari president, is named as chairman, but would soon leave the company as well. At the time Atari announces that Bushnell will “continue to serve Atari in the development of coin-operated games,” but that he also will “devote more time to his personal affairs, investments and other interests, including politics.” His ultimate exit package comes with strings attached: a 5-year “no-competition” clause that prevents Bushnell from operating within the video game space. This aspect of his agreement with Atari is later cited by the company for a lawsuit launched against Bushnell and Sente Technologies, a video game company he introduces to the public in October of 1983 (covered below). Atari and Bushnell eventually reach an agreement in the fall of that year, with his former company gaining the consumer rights to any arcade games released by Sente.

After Bushnell’s exit, the work atmosphere changes perceptively as disciplinarian Ray “The Czar” Kassar cracks down on the relaxed attitude towards dress and work hours that the ‘hippies’ at Atari had previously enjoyed. Following a $120 million infusion of cash from Warner, in 1978 Atari produces 800,000 VCS units. The console is selling; Atari moves over a million units between 1977-1979. Still, that’s only on the cusp of the kind of mass-market penetration Atari is looking for to be a real success. Indicating his allegiance to marketing over technical innovation, Kassar quickly halts funds for R&D and pours $6 million into an advertising campaign to help move VCS consoles off the shelves. As a whole, 1979 sees about 1-1.5 million U.S. homes with some kind of game console. These systems require games, so somewhere between 3-4 million cartridges are sold for them this year. The projected explosive growth of the VCS market also spawns an industry for third-party video games for the system, starting with Activision in 1979. Founded by disgruntled former Atari game programmers Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, David Crane and Larry Kaplan, their venture is quickly followed by others entering the lucrative  market, including Imagic in 1981.

Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, David Crane, Steve Cartwright and Bob Whitehead, programmers a video game company Activision

The Gang of Five: L.-R.: Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, David Crane, Steve Cartwright and Bob Whitehead of Activision, 1982

Screenshot of Space Invaders, a video game for the Atari VCS/2600 1980

Space Invaders for Atari VCS/2600

Space Invaders on the Atari VCS

By 1980, there are 36 cartridges available for the Atari VCS, including a simplified version of soccer featuring three players to a side, plus goalies. After signing Brazilian football superstar Pele in 1980 to a five-year contract as spokesman, Atari quickly changes the name of the game from Soccer to Pele’s Soccer, resulting in one of the earliest celebrity athlete video game endorsements. But the company is about to make a move that will truly blow the lid off the home videogame industry: Atari becomes the first home videogame company to license an arcade game. It is Warner executive Manny Gerard who realizes the enormous home potential for arcade hit Space Invaders, originally made by Japanese game maker Taito and then licensed for North American release by Midway. He persuades Kassar to enter into an agreement with Taito for exclusive non-coin-operated, personal computer and handheld video game licenses for Space Invaders, and the January 1980 release of Atari’s home video game version becomes the killer app for the VCS; people rush out and buy the system just to play the game. There are 112 different variations on gameplay available, including invisible aliens, moving bunkers and simultaneous two-player action.

Game manual showing game variations of Atari Space Invaders home video game

Game Matrix from the Atari Space Invaders manual showing the myriad of game variations, 1980

Selling over a million cartridges in its first year, the arcade adaptation rakes in over $100 million for Atari, as well as moving tonnes of VCS consoles to people who want to play the game. The designer of the game, Rick Maurer, was one of a few, if not the only, early programmer for the VCS with previous video game design experience: he had created Pinball Challenge, Hangman and Pro Football for the Fairchild Channel F game console. As an Atari employee, he only earns his $11, 000 salary that year in the wake of Space Invaders. He eventually moves to the Atari arcade division and their more favourable bonus program. Looking at the market overall, dealers buy 1.7 million video games in 1980.

Atari’s attitude towards the authors making all these games for their company is that they should remain anonymous and that the games are identified as a corporate creation rather than the effort of individual employees. In a response to that, Warren Robinett hides his name within his VCS game Adventure, a graphical version of Will Crowther and Don Woods’ text adventure Colossal Cave, aka Adventure. This is widely recognized as the first hidden “Easter Egg” within a video game, and it initially attract the ire of upper management. Eventually, however, Atari relents and understands the possible draw of hidden features of video games. In 1981 Software Development Director Steve Wright invites gamers to keep an eye out for a plethora of easter eggs the company will hide in its games, and even floats the idea of a contest to find them, perhaps inspiring the idea for Atari’s later Swordquest games and related treasure hunting contest. Robinett would leave Atari and, with Leslie Grimm, design the educational program Rocky’s Boots for The Learning Company. The program teaches kids simple boolean logic circuitry by having them manipulate circuits and complete tasks within a simulated world.

Stan Lee regals a group of kids, along with Spider-Man and Green Goblin

Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee regals a group of kids, along with Spider-Man and Green Goblin

Over the next two years, the Atari VCS completely dominates the home videogame market, its only rival of any significance being Mattel’s Intellivision unit. Profits for the company jump from $6 million in 1979 to $145 million in 1981, on sales of over $1 billion. In November of 1981, Atari announces a deal with Namco for exclusive rights to license, build and sell their new arcade games for North America and elsewhere, along with home game rights for the company’s Galaxian and Pac-Man. This paves the way for Atari’s dubious version of the latter arcade game for the 2600 in 1982. Bucking industry convention, the idea of keeping toy promotion only to the end-of-year Holiday season is thrown out the window; Atari begins pushing the VCS and all of its games throughout the year, including a $75 million ad campaign through 1982. The company also spends $334,000 for a commercial spot during Super Bowl XVI. Combined with $25 million in cooperative ad dollars spent by Atari dealers, Atari figures this makes them the biggest spender in advertising for a single brand in America. 

Atari was the sole sponsor of the first episodes of PBS series Discover: The World of Science, 1983

1983 also sees Atari provide full sponsorship of a prime-time science education series of TV specials produced by two alumni from the PBS series Nova, Graham Chedd and John Angier. Titled Discover: The World of Science, it is produced in association with science magazine Discover, and airs on around 75 stations across the U.S, covering more than 80% of American homes. Hosting duties for the show are carried out by Peter Graves, of Mission: Impossible and Airplane: The Movie fame. Atari co-produces some episodes at a cost of $1 million each which promote computer use and literacy, a nice bit of synergy with the company’s 8-bit home computer line. After the video game market evaporates in 1983-1984, the science series finds a home at PBS. The VCS monopolizes family use of the television set to such an extent that TV pundits start referring to the “Big Four” networks: CBS, ABC, NBC, and Atari. Over the course of its production run, over 200 games are produced for the VCS/2600 by 40 manufacturers. Approximately 120 million cartridges are sold, and there are 55 different compatible videogame systems eventually released worldwide. Atari, the company that had shrunk Warner Communication’s market share during the early days of the VCS is now responsible for half of the mother corporation’s profits, with sales for Atari in 1981 at over $600 million, and total revenues for Warner amounting to $1.23 billion. But despite this success, perhaps sensing something in the wind, perhaps tired of toiling under Kassar, perhaps just tired… Al Alcorn, hardware designer of the Atari arcade game PONG, in 1981 is one of the last of the originals to leave Atari.

Pages - 1 2 3 4

Comments >>

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *