Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released by Atari in autumn of 1977. It is the first game console to use the Fairchild Channel F format, and receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public. The Atari 2600 was initially named Atari Video Computer System, though, upon the release of the Atari 5200, the name was changed to be after the part number CX2600, dubbing the Atari VCS "Atari 2600."
In Japan, the Atari 2600 was released under the name "Atari 2800" in 1983, six years after its initial release in North Amercia. Due to the release of the Nintendo Famicom, the Atari 2800 didn't sell well with the Japanese market. 
Atari released the Atari 2600's successor, the Atari 5200, in the autumn of 1982.
== Atari 2600 Jr. ==
In 1985, Atari unveiled a new version of the Atari 2600, the Atari 2600 Jr. This new version of the Atari sported a much smaller design as well as an appearance similar to that of the Atari 7800. The Atari 2600 Jr. had a very low cost value of merely $50 USD, however, due to its release in the mid-1980s, people lost interest in the Atari 2600 Jr. and looked forward to consoles from developers at Sega and Nintendo.
== Technical specifications ==
* CPU: MOS Technology 6502
* RAM: 128 bytes of RAM
* ROM: 4 kB ROM
* Colors: For NTSC format, a 128-color palette is provided, while only 104 colors are available for PAL. Additionally, the SECAM palette consists of only 8 colors.
* Sprites: one-pixel "ball," and a 40-pixel "playfield" that was drawn by writing a bit pattern for each line into a register just before the television scanned that line.
* Sound: Television Interface Adaptor
Category:Consoles released by Atari