The Atari 2600 was part of the second generation of home consoles. It eclipsed its competitors with estimated sales figures of 30 million, and the other second-generation consoles, the ColecoVision, Odyssey, and Intellivision, were unable to even reach combined sales of 10 million. The driving force behind the Atari 2600’s sales was its collection of now-iconic games. Titles included classics like Asteroids, Frogger, and Space Invaders.
However, the Atari 2600’s library was also its downfall. The film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial had a huge amount of hype behind it. It was helped in no small part by director Steven Spielberg being at the height of his fame, having just directed Raiders of the Lost Ark. A corresponding game was developed in just six weeks, hoping to capitalize on this success. The game flopped, however, selling just 1.4 million cartridges of the 4 million made.
Furthermore, the game was received so poorly that it almost destroyed the home console industry entirely. Consequently, for many years, the console didn’t get the respect that it deserved for being a pioneer in the gaming industry. Once the dust settled, however, the console began receiving its deserved plaudits. With increased respect and interest in the console, weird and wonderful stories about its lifespan began to surface.
10 The Origins of Activision
Many disgruntled employees daydream about getting one over on their bosses, we’ve all been there. Few have had the success of the creators of Activision, though.
Atari 2600 games were frequently created by just one person from top to bottom. These creators began realizing that they weren’t being fairly compensated by Atari for their work. Their titles were generating far more money than they were being paid, and they weren’t given any accreditation, either. This lack of recognition caused many employees to team up and create their own companies. Activision was one of them, and it is now one of gaming’s leading publishers.
9 Easter Eggs
It wasn’t just Activision that was created off the back of disgruntled employees, either. The first-ever gaming Easter Egg was a creator’s way of protesting against Atari.
Warren Robinett created the Atari 2600 game Adventure. He, too, was disgruntled by not receiving credit for his work, so he created a secret room in his game. The room simply contained flashing words that read “Created by Warren Robinett.”
8 Mystique
Activision wasn’t the only company giving Atari a headache. A 1980s company named Mystique began releasing adult games on the Atari 2600.
Moreover, one game in particular named Custer’s Revenge featured acts so vile that it sparked protests. Atari responded to the complaints by taking legal action against Mystique. Unsurprisingly, they won.
7 Misleading Advertising
The Atari 2600’s box is nostalgic for many people. The iconic packaging had to be altered shortly after release, though, as observant consumers noticed that the box was somewhat misleading.
On the front of the original box was a picture of a chess piece. People wanting to play chess on the console will have been very disappointed, though, as the Atari 2600 wasn’t even capable of running a chess game at the time. The image was soon changed, although hardware alterations did eventually enable the console to run a chess game.
6 The Sad Fate of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
As previously mentioned, Atari was left with an embarrassingly large amount of unwanted E.T. cartridges. An urban legend surfaced at the time, claiming that the games were buried in a landfill.
Many people will have heard this before. Some won’t be aware, however, that the legend was confirmed in 2014. Diggers were hired to search for the games, and they were found in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
5 Price Strategy
Games consoles unsurprisingly have a higher manufacturing cost than the games themselves. This is why Atari’s decision to underprice their Atari 2600 but overprice the games was a huge risk. They aimed to earn the money they lost on the consoles back by selling games at a premium. The risk paid off, and it revolutionized the way consoles are priced.
Nintendo and Sony still use this strategy. For example, Sony is reportedly selling their PS5 consoles at a loss, with expectations of making the money back with its steep $70 game price. PC gamers have had the opposite experience. They have to pay a hefty price to own a gaming PC, but then enjoy cheap games on platforms like Steam. Interestingly, Microsoft is going down a different route with their Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft is hoping that its subscription service Game Pass blows the competition out of the water with its generous price point of five to fifteen dollars per month.
4 Subsequent Bussiness Ventures
Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell didn’t rest on his laurels when sales of the 2600 sky-rocketed. He instead began work on a side-project named Pizza Time Theater.
Nolan Bushnell was forced out of Atari in 1978 and subsequently shifted his focus to this side business. The company is today known as Chuck. E Cheese, a popular restaurant chain in North America known for its animatronic characters and range of arcade games.
3 Office Politics
Speaking of Nolan Bushnell’s departure from Atari, it came about from some good old-fashioned office politics. The Atari 2600 wasn’t always a success; it had a very slow start that led Warner Communications, now Time Warner, to task Ray Kassar with improving the console’s fortunes.
Ray Kassar and Nolan Bushnell constantly butted heads, predominantly due to differences in work ethics. Nolan Bushnell’s laid back working attitude clashed with the disciplined culture that Ray Kassar was used to at Warner Communications. Nolan began trying to schedule key meetings behind the back of Warner Communications, which led to Nolan being pushed out of the company.
2 Quadrun
Gaming historians will likely recognize the name Quadrun instantly. Quadrun was the first Atari 2600 game to feature voice synthesis. Quadrun’s historical relevance, along with only 10,000 copies being made, has made it a rare and valuable collector’s item. Open Sesame was the only other game to include the feature on the console.
1 Pac-Man
Looking at a console’s top-selling games is often a nice way to reminisce about a system’s best titles. This isn’t the case with the Atari 2600, unfortunately. Pac-Man is the highest selling game on the Atari 2600, with sales of nearly eight million units. The game didn’t play like the Pac-Man that we all know and love, though, nor is it just marginally inferior. Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 is considered to be one of the worst games ever made and contributed to the near-collapse of the home console market along with E.T.
Pac-Man was so bad, in fact, that stores began canceling consumer’s orders. They did this because the number of returns and complaints that they were receiving was so high that it wasn’t even worth them selling the game anymore. Atari was believed to have been left with approximately five million unwanted copies of the game.
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