Atari 2600
Atari 2600 Specifications
The Atari 2600 was released by Atari in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), and was renamed the Atari 2600 in 1982. It is widely credited with popularising microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on ROM cartridges.
The console launched with nine games, including Combat, Air-Sea Battle and Video Olympics, Atari’s collection of Pong-style games. Over its long life it built up a huge library from Atari and third-party publishers, with games such as Breakout, Space Invaders, Pitfall! and Pac-Man that are still well known today.
The Atari 2600 was usually bundled with two joysticks, a pair of paddle controllers and a game cartridge: Combat at first, and later Pac-Man. Thanks to its large library and low price, the console kept selling well into the late 1980s and was not discontinued until 1992. It sold around 30 million units, and its best-selling game was Pac-Man, at about 7 million copies.
Original hardware is becoming harder to find, so many people now use emulators to play Atari 2600 games.
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Atari 2600 Emulators
Stella is the leading open source Atari 2600 emulator, with very accurate emulation and a powerful debugger, for Windows, macOS and Linux.
EMU7800 is an Atari 7800 ProSystem emulator by Mike Murphy, built on Microsoft .NET. It runs most 7800 games and also emulates the Atari 2600.
PC Atari Emulator (PCAE) is an early Atari 2600 emulator for Windows, known for its fast hand-written assembly core. It has not been developed since 2002.
z26 is an open source Atari 2600 emulator by John Saeger, well regarded for its accuracy. Development ended in 2011, and Stella is the maintained alternative.
