Atari says goodbye to Pong and Calls Out to "STELLA!"
When Atari released their arcade game Pong as a pre-programmed dedicated home gaming unit, it was a monumental hit and soon mimicked by every electronics manufacturer imaginable. In just a few years shelves were flooded with clones and variations, some even going as far as to using the same microchip. To maintain their position as the industry leader, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell sought to create a new generation of video game systems. To do this Atari purchased Cyan Engineering, who had already been working on a new console technology under the code name "Stella".
At the time, all home video game consoles used the mathematics based Logic Technology, where variables were used to determine relations and deduction. This enabled the same or similar graphics to be reused in a limited number of basic games. The technique was innovated by Ralph Bayer's Brown Box military project that eventually became the Magnavox Odyssey. This is also why all the home video games of the first generation of consoles all looked the same.
Finding and Developing the Right Tech
Instead of logic technology, Cyan's Stella project utilized a central processing unit (CPU) called MOS Technology 6502, an 8-bit microprocessor which was introduced in 1975 as the least expensive processor on the market. This allowed program information to be processed from a microchip quickly without breaking the bank. The next question was how to deliver multiple game programs from an external source.
In 1972, the Hewlett-Packard started using ROM cartridges, a shell housing a Read-Only Memory chip containing a program file that connected to the computer via a cartridge slot. The ROM cartridges offered the perfect solution for the Stella. Game files were stored on the ROM cartridge via the addition of a random access memory (RAM) chip, and the MOS Technology 6502 processor read the program information via an input/output (I/O) chip. Logistics aside, what made this the ideal solution was the low cost of the ROM Cartridges, and with Cyan's self-developed Television Interface Adaptor (TIA) sound chip, both graphic and sound solutions were complete.
Selling Out to The Man
With all of the simultaneous technology happening at once, it was no surprise that another company would be developing the same concept at the same time, and the Fairchild Semiconductor Company beat Atari to the market in 1976 with the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (later called the Fairchild Channel F) which used the Fairchild F8 CPU, developed by Intel creator Robert Noyce.
Atari was financially deep in the development of Stella and needed more revenue and power to make a release happen. Going public was not an option as the stock market was on a steep decline. With the threat of losing the entire market share at the hands of the Channel F, Nolan Bushnell turned to a partnership with Warner Communications, (today known as Time Warner) which eventually became a buyout. Bushnell remained on staff to run the business.
When the Stella was finally completed and released in 1977 its name was changed to the Atari Video Computer System, but later changed again to the now infamous Atari 2600, after its manufacturing part number CX2600. At first the 2600 released with a lackluster reception, but word got around fast and by 1979 it was a hit, selling over a million units in just that year alone. Unfortunately the tumultuous times leading up to its success took a toll on Bushnell's relationship with Warner Communications. Bushnell left the company in 1978, just a year shy of witnessing the console's great success.
Over the next several years Atari continued to make history, outselling all of the competition with its ever growing install base and library of games. It's biggest competition, the Channel F, didn't have the graphics or sound capabilities of the 2600, nor a corporate giant such as Warner Communications behind it. Although Channel F was the first of its kind, only 26 titles were ever released for it, and Fairchild soon succumbed to Atari sales dominance.
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