¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Atari
- Year of release: 1977
- CPU: MOS 6507 @ 1.19 MHz
- RAM: 128 bytes
- Video: TIA (Television Interface Adaptor)
- Resolution: 160x192, 128-color palette (NTSC)
- Sound: TIA, 2 channels
- Media: cartridge
¶ Presentation
The Atari 2600, sold as the Atari VCS (Video Computer System) until 1982, is the console that brought video games into the home. Released by Atari in 1977, it popularised the idea of a console with interchangeable cartridges: the machine holds no game of its own, the cartridge carries the program. Its architecture is extremely simple — a MOS 6507 processor running at a little over one megahertz and a mere 128 bytes of RAM — which forced programmers to draw the picture line by line, in sync with the television's scanning beam.
Real success came in 1980 with the conversion of Space Invaders, the first arcade-licensed game on a console, which made sales of the machine explode. Pitfall!, River Raid, Missile Command, Adventure and Yars' Revenge followed, all of them founding titles. The 2600 also saw the birth of third-party publishers, led by Activision, founded by Atari developers unhappy at not being credited on the boxes.
The flood of poor-quality games published without any control, epitomised by the botched Pac-Man and E.T. adaptations, contributed to the 1983 video game crash in North America. The console nonetheless survived the crisis and stayed on sale until 1992, with some thirty million units sold and a library of more than five hundred official titles, still regularly expanded today by a very active homebrew scene.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro Stella | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro Stella2014 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Stella is the default emulator: it is the most accurate and the most complete one, and the only one flagged as compatible with CRT output. Stella2014 is an older, lighter version of the same emulator, worth trying if a game misbehaves under Stella. Both cores support netplay and report high compatibility and high speed on every board. RetroAchievements are available on this system.
The Atari 2600 was played with a single-button joystick or with rotary paddles. A modern controller is more than enough, and paddle games are handled with the analog stick — see the controllers in the Recalbox shop.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/atari2600/
Extensions supported by both emulators: .a26 .bin .zip .7z
.zipand.7zarchives must contain a single game. Otherwise, Atari 2600 roms are plain cartridge dumps of a few kilobytes: keep them as they are.