Hobbies And Interests
Game Cartridges
Atari marketed their video game system as a programmable computer system that offered "more video game variations than anyone else." Games for the Atari 2600 came in the form of changeable ROM cartridges. Prior to the Atari 2600, Atari's home video games were integrated into the gaming console, which limited the number of games that could be played. With the Atari 2600, the catalog of games to play became practically limitless. The cartridge was actually a circuit board encased in a hard plastic outer shell that was easily inserted by the user into the gaming system. Many of the games were home versions of popular coin-op video games such as "Pac-Man" and "Space Invaders"; others were original games developed just for the home gaming market.
Processor
The Atari 2600 was an 8-bit video game system, with a 6507 central processing unit, or CPU. The 6507 was a smaller, less powerful version of the 6502 processor that was used in home computers at that time. The 6507 had only 13 memory pins for addressing, compared with the 28 pins on the 6502 processor chip. At the time Atari began production on the 2600, memory was expensive, so using a less expensive chip kept the overall price for the system down. The Atari retailed initially for $249. The 6507 processor was relatively cheap but well-suited for the Atari 2600 video game system since at that time 8 KB of processor space was considered plenty for a gaming system. In actuality only about 50 percent of the CPU was available for game play, due to the resources needed by the 24-pin cartridge slot, so the early 2600 games only used 4 KB or less of processing space. In later years a workaround was found that allowed more space to be used for games.
More Specs
The cartridge slot was read only memory, or "ROM" access. This meant the slot was designed to read data but not write anything. There was no way to save your game and return to it later on the Atari 2600. The 2600 used two mono channels for sound output. With a CPU clock speed of only 1.19 MHz, overall game play was a little slow. With a graphics clock speed of 3.58MHz and only 128 colors available for graphics, games for the Atari 2600 had less than stunning graphics, by today's standards.
Controllers and Game Play
Two joystick controllers and two paddle controllers typically came standard with the early Atari 2600. In later years customers could purchase other types of controllers, including a keypad, a trackball and a driving controller. The early 2600 systems also came bundled with the game "Combat." Later systems included "Pac-Man" as a bundled game. An interesting feature of many of the 2600 titles was the ability to play several variations of the game. For example the game "Combat" had 27 variations. Users selected which game they wanted to play by pushing the "select" switch on the console. The Atari 2600 also had a difficulty level switch. Players had the ability in most games to select their individual level of difficulty. This helped level the playing field between novice and advanced players.