2600

2600 (related terms being 5200 and 7800) is often a style of game Tangent creates. The 2600 label has been put onto both computer games and calculator games, the latter of which has the label "Atan 2600". Atari 2600 games were among the first video games that Tangent has played.

## Origins

   The term (Atari) 2600 comes from one of the best-selling video game consoles in the early 1980s. The console was initially known as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) and later retrospectively renamed "Atari 2600" after the Atari 5200 SuperSystem was released.

The console had on it 2 difficulty switches and a game select switch, among other switches. The difficulty switches were toggle switches, with B signifying novice and A signifying advanced. The select switch was "depressed", not toggled, to cycle through the game modes (known as "game variations" in the manuals). In later models, the difficulty switches were moved from the front to the back of the console. Despite the simplicity of Atari 2600 games, a lot of games offered various difficulty settings and game modes, with *Space Invaders* offering 112 modes.

The system is modally limited to displaying, in simpler terms, 2 highres sprites, 2 lines, and 1 square on each horizontal line, as moving objects. The 2 highres sprites may be scaled and cloned so that up to 3 of the same sprite are on the screen at a time, moving in unison.

## Style

In Tangent's calculator games, an Atan 2600 version of a game usually signifies that the game is highly customizable, compared with the original version of the game, which has more fixed variables. This can include allowing the player to freely set the number of lives and the difficulty.

In PC games, 2600 is often attached to the end of games that borrow from the Atari-style aesthetic, which includes usually a blocky sprite that is not wider than 8 (big) pixels across. True rotating and transparent sprites were also generally avoided (though the latter can surface as a result of phosphor). Initially, Atari-style aesthetics were more strictly followed, with sprites only consisting of 1 single colour, flickering sprites if too many are on the screen, and either no background music (sometimes a mordern-styled background music plays, which is considered to be from a radio in the background, inspired by *Activision Anthology*) or 8-bit music.

This was dropped in favour of making the images more colourful/nicer-looking to an average audience. However, the strict Atari-style graphics returns in the dedicated "authentic" Atari consoles miniseries that started with *Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie Hunt (Atari 2600 version)*. Additionally, the miniseries introduced various gameplay options as this is what Tangent finds to be a defining feature of Atari games. Games before this series did not feature difficulty settings, marginally aside from the original version of *Zombie Hunt*, which had 2 game modes.

Some features added to the 2600 version of *Zombie Hunt* to give it a more Atari feel are:

* Sprites are only 1 colour and may flicker
* Optional Atari palette-changing screensaver
* Difficulty settings by use of the difficulty switches
* Select switch selects playable character
* Game goes into the demo mode after losing (and before game start)
* The game is now score-based, unlike in the original version, which ended with the player's victory (or loss)
* The game loops back to the beginning with increased difficulty after the game is completed
* The "seizure screen" where the screen flashes in bright colours for a short period
* The "Atari flash", like the one in the chalice in the Atari game *Adventure*. Essentially the same as the seizure screen except the flashing only occurs on one object
* Atari-style controls, using only directional keys and a single action button
* Removal of the DS mode, but the difficulty elements in it are incorporated into the A difficulty settings.
* Background music was removed

## See also

* Touhou 2600 series
* Gretel Attack