Brief History of the Atari 7800

We are back with Classic Fries! Every Saturday, we will pull something from The Museum and reprint it for those to enjoy! This gives those a chance who never got a chance to read it the first time a second chance, since the Museum itself is so large and its hard for anyone to decide where to begin.

Today, we will be digging from the archives of 2D Gaming Central! Today, we are randomly taking a look at a small piece in video game history... The Atari 7800... the relatively unknown console that was launched a bit after the video game market crash.

Enjoy!

However, that launch never happened when Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, took over Atari. He felt that computers were the future, and not video game consoles. So all of the Atari 7800 plans were put on hold for 2 years.

However, in 1986, the Atari 7800 had launched. The main problem was that the Nintendo Entertainment System had already launched by then and was a huge success. Not to mention that the high score cartridge was removed from the final design, and the marketing budget was only a mere $300,000.

To add to that, the Atari 7800 had very few titles available at launch. Also, the sound chip on the 7800 was the exact same one that was used by the Atari 2600. All of these factors lead to the quick demise of the Atari 7800.

There were only around 60 titles released for the Atari 7800, but there were a few good ones. Some of those titles are: Planet Smashers, Ikari Warriors, Ms. Pac-Man, Midnight Mutants, and Ballblazer.

The
Atari 7800 was never a popular console due to its limited availability and lack of games. There isn't even really many collectors out there. Those who have this console are still very happy with it because of its compatibility with the Atari 2600 and a good selection of decent games, albeit a bit small.