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Pong is the game that started it all. Atari released its Home Pong console as its first system in 1972. -
Atari founders Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell with Fred Marincic and Al Alcorn. -
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Steve Mayer and Ron Milner built this prototype system for the Atari 2600 Video Computer out of a standard Jolt card that used the 6502 microprocessor. -
First called the Atari Video Computer System, 1977’s Atari 2600 fits multiple games in its ROM storage. The system came with two joysticks and two controllers for multiplayer fun. -
The Atari 400 is a less expensive version of the Atari 800, costing only $550 at the time of its release. It offered many of the Atari 800’s perks. -
Atari introduced an 8-bit family of home computers in 1979 with the Atari 800. Its custom coprocessor chips allowed for better audio quality and graphics than previous models. It had a price tag of $1,000 at the time of its release. -
By 1980, the third-party video game company Activision had started producing games for Atari’s consoles, which ate into Atari’s profits. -
The 1982 Atari 5200 was a follow-up to the Atari 2600 that improved processing power and featured a new joystick with 360-degree responsiveness. -
The video game crash was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. This crash negatively impacted Atari's sales and they would unfortunately never fully recover from that point on. -
Atari added to its 8-bit family in 1985 with the Atari 65XE. The 65XE contained 64 KB of Ram. -
The Atari 130XE had a new case and keyboard, double the RAM at 128k and an Enhanced Cartridge Interface, which allowed external devices access to the computer's bus and data lines. -
The Atari 7800 ProSystem was released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges which made it one of the first consoles with backward compatibility. -
The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit fourth-generation hand-held game console released by Atari Corporation in September 1989. It was the first handheld game console with a color liquid-crystal display. -
The final console Atari ever produced was in 1993. The Jaguar was a 64-bit console.
