Distributor: Atari
Manufacturer: Atari
Released: Japan, N.America, Europe
Units Sold: Over 30 Million Worldwide (Includes all versions of the Atari 2600)
RS:3/2
Expect to pay: 50GBP
List of games available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_games
Best Fan Site:
www.atariage.com

General Info:
The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F. However, it was the Atari 2600 that made the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
Originally known as the Atari VCS for "Video Computer System".The machine's name was changed to "Atari 2600" (from the unit's Atari part number, CX2600) in 1982, after the release of the more advanced Atari 5200. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game,initially Combat and subsequently Pac-Man.


Best selling game:
Pac Man sold over 7 Million copies. It is an inferior version of the arcade classic.


Top 10 Must have games:
Space Invaders, Missile Command, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Pitfall, Asteroids, Combat, Defender, Double Dragon, Frogger.

Technical Specs:
The basic layout of the 2600 is fairly similar to most consoles and home computers of the era. The CPU was the MOS Technology 6507, a cut-down version of the 6502, running at 1.19 MHz in the 2600. The 6507 included fewer memory address pins —13 instead of 16 —and no external interrupts to fit into a smaller 28-pin package. Smaller packaging was, and still is, an important factor in overall system cost, and since memory was very expensive at the time, the 6507's small 8 KB of maximum external memory space wasn't going to be used up anyway. In fact, memory was so expensive they couldn't imagine using up even 4K, and when they got a deal on 24-pin connectors for the cartridge socket, they were only too happy to thereby limit the games to 4K
Technical Advice: