A Historical Look At Video Games
The Ancestry of the Arcade
The Birth of the Video Game
On the Go and in the Home
Early Arcade Classics
Competition on the Home Front
Video Games: A Cultural Movement
The Downward Spiral
Noticing the overwhelming appetite for video entertainment, game companies continued to search for a way to bring their titles into the home and make them portable. A handful of early attempts like the Coleco Telestar and the Odyssey 1000 surfaced, but turned out as merely a flash in the pan due to their limitations. However, companies such as Tiger, Mattel and Coleco developed their own single-game, hand-held units. Games like the Electronic Quarterback popped up everywhere and became an overnight sensation. You couldn't get on a bus or plane, or walk into a classroom without hearing that high-pitched touchdown signal.
Video amusement centers were enjoying an unprecedented prominence in
the culture of the day. Coin-operated arcade palaces began popping up
on every street corner. Also in 1978, Atari developed a way to bring
their popular titles into the homes of the consumers. They introduced
the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. This was the first
interchangable programmable cartridge-based system available for home
use and contained an 8-bit 6507 micro-processor. The 2600 VCS,
packaged with a cart version of Combat, became an instant
success by bringing the arcade experience into the home with coin-op
cross-over titles and a host of controllers that would imitate their
stand-up counterparts.
