Trivia | Submitted |
The Atari XEGS (XE Game System) was the only Atari 8-bit computer to feature a detachable keyboard. | 4/7/2002 |
The in-house name for the Atari 2600 was "Stella". | 4/5/2002 |
Although the packaging states it is "By Nolan Bushnell - Video game designer and Atari Pioneer", Secret Quest for the Atari 2600 was programmed by Steve DeFrisco. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 2600 was the third programmable console to be produced. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari 2600 cartridges were officially produced during three decades. | 4/5/2002 |
The release of the 2600 was delayed for one year for legal reasons. | 4/5/2002 |
After leaving Atari, Nolan Bushnell went on to start Chuck E. Cheese Pizza. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 2600 originally sold for $200. | 4/5/2002 |
Space Invaders for the 2600 was the first ever 'killer-app' videogame. | 4/5/2002 |
There were nine games available for the 2600 at launch in 1977. | 4/5/2002 |
Nolan Bushnell made $15 million from the sale of Atari. | 4/5/2002 |
Yars' Revenge is named after Atari executive Ray Kassar (Yar backwards). | 4/5/2002 |
In 1976, Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million. | 4/5/2002 |
Adventure, by Warren Robinett, contained the first ever videogame Easter Egg | 4/5/2002 |
Atari grossed $415 million in 1978. | 4/5/2002 |
Activision was started in 1980 by four disenchanted Atari programmers. | 4/5/2002 |
Activision made a $13 million profit in 1980, their first year. | 4/5/2002 |
Imagic was formed in 1981 by nine disenchanted Atari programmers. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 5200 is basically an Atari 400 without the keyboard. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 2600 only has 128 bytes of RAM. | 4/5/2002 |
The Starpath Supercharger originally retailed for $70. | 4/5/2002 |
Imagic's first three games were Trick Shot, Star Voyager, and Demon Attack. | 4/5/2002 |
Apollo changed the name of Lochjaw to Shark Attack for legal reasons. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari sued Coleco in 1982 for $350 million over the Expansion Module #1. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari sales in 1982 were $203 million. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari sued Imagic in 1982 for Demon Attack's similarity to Phoenix. | 4/5/2002 |
Steve Jobs was Atari's fortieth employee, a technician at $5/hour. | 4/5/2002 |
Before Time Warner purchased Atari, MCA and Disney both declined to invest. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari was founded on a $250 investment by Nolan Bushnell. | 4/5/2002 |
2600 Asteroids was the first game to use 'bank-switching' that doubled its ROM space. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari sued Magnavox over their Pac-Man clone, K.C. Munchkin. | 4/5/2002 |
The 2600 was originally called the VCS--the name was officially changed after the release of the 5200. | 4/5/2002 |
In 1984, Atari posted losses of $536 million as a result of the videogame market crash. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari announced the 7800 in 1984, but delayed release until 1986. | 4/5/2002 |
Jack Tramiel bought Atari's home computer and home videogame business in 1984. | 4/5/2002 |
Nintendo suggested selling the NES under the Atari label in the US, Atari declined. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari was not even present at the 1985 Consumer Electronics Show. | 4/5/2002 |
Nolan Bushnell was rehired in 1988 to develop games for the 2600. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari released the 5200 in 1982 in response to the Intellivision and Colecovision. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari sold 400,000 consoles in 1979. | 4/5/2002 |
Sears' version of the Atari 2600 is called the Sears Video Arcade. | 4/5/2002 |
Coleco produced a 2600 clone called the Gemini. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari buried 5 million unsold copies of E.T. in the New Mexico desert. | 4/5/2002 |
The in-house name for the 5200 at Atari was "Pam". | 4/5/2002 |
The "Puffer Project" was a secret plan to develop an exercise bike attachment for the 5200. | 4/5/2002 |
The Gameline Master Module allowed the user to download 2600 games over the phone. | 4/5/2002 |
The Gameline company eventually evolved into AOL. | 4/5/2002 |
You can use an adapter to play 2600 games on the 5200. | 4/5/2002 |
You can use Sega Genesis controllers on an Atari 2600. | 4/5/2002 |
Mystique and Playaround made "adult" games for the 2600. | 4/5/2002 |
Magicard was rated by AtariAge polls as the rarest of all released games for the 2600. | 4/5/2002 |
Eli's Ladder is an educational game that was not widely distributed. | 4/5/2002 |
It is rumored that Coleco intentionally crippled their games for other systems in order to make their own system look better. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 2600 was sold in Japan under the name Atari 2800. | 4/5/2002 |
Secret Quest was the last game released for the 2600 in the U.S.. | 4/5/2002 |
Imagic's game design division was nicknamed "the zoo". | 4/5/2002 |
Rob Fulop, Imagic programmer, sold Cubicolor (2600) on his own after Atari rejected it. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari symbol is known as the "Fuji" because of it's resemblance to Mt. Fuji. | 4/5/2002 |
The name "Atari" comes from a move in the ancient game of Go, a favorite of founder Nolan Bushnell. | 4/5/2002 |
Supercharger games were all developed on an Apple II computer. | 4/5/2002 |
Quadrun and Open Sesame are the only two Atari 2600 games to feature speech synthesis. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari logo symbolizes two pong players separated by a playfield line in the middle. | 4/5/2002 |
Lord of the Rings, featured in a Parker Brothers Catalog was never commercially released, although it does appear to have been completed. | 4/5/2002 |
Parker Brothers sponsored a contest in which you could win a Super Cobra Flight Jacket. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari VCS shipped with two joysticks, a pair of paddle controllers, an RF TV adapter and the Combat game cartridge. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 2600 was originally known as the Atari VCS (Video Computer System). | 4/5/2002 |
Ray Kassar, CEO of Atari, was nicknamed "The Czar". | 4/5/2002 |
Ray Kassar, Atari CEO, once dismissed Atari's engineers as "high-strung prima donnas". | 4/5/2002 |
In 1980, Atari occupied over 80 offices in Sunnyvale, California. | 4/5/2002 |
Space Invaders for the 2600 was the first home license of a coin-op video game. | 4/5/2002 |
The fourth and final Swordquest game, Airworld, was never finished. | 4/5/2002 |
James Morgan was named CEO of Atari in 1983. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari posted losses of $536 million in 1983. | 4/5/2002 |
In 1984, Jack Tramiel fired over one thousand Atari Corp. employees, including then CEO James Morgan. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari announced the Mindlink, a "mind control" peripheral for the Atari VCS in 1984, but it was never released. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 7800 was ready in 1984, but not released until 1986 to compete with the NES. | 4/5/2002 |
Atari Corp. acquired Federated Electronics in 1989. | 4/5/2002 |
20th Century Fox planned a game on the movie 9 to 5, but it was never released. | 4/5/2002 |
20th Century Fox made 17 games for the Atari VCS. | 4/5/2002 |
Starpath was able to make Frogger for the VCS, because Parker Brothers didn't own the magnetic media rights. | 4/5/2002 |
Activision was one of the first companies to credit the programmer for creating a game. | 4/5/2002 |
Carrere Video released Name This Game in Europe as Octopus. | 4/5/2002 |
Commavid was originally called Computer Magic. | 4/5/2002 |
Imagic had a "Numb Thumb Club" that offered newsletters and cloth patches. | 4/5/2002 |
"Women Against Pornography" protested against Mystique's adult line of VCS games. | 4/5/2002 |
Columbia House Record Club offered a 2600 clone called the Columbia Home Arcade. | 4/5/2002 |
VentureVision was founded in 1982 by ex-Apollo employee Robert Hessler. | 4/5/2002 |
Sparrow (2600 Music Machine) is still around today. | 4/5/2002 |
Videosoft was founded by Channel F creator Jerry Lawson. | 4/5/2002 |
Absolute Entertainment was founded by ex-Activision employee Garry Kitchen. | 4/5/2002 |
David Crane wrote 13 games (and contributed to others) for the Atari 2600. | 4/5/2002 |
Tax Avoiders for the 2600 was written by an IRS employee. | 4/5/2002 |
Amiga was founded by former Atari employee Jay Miner in 1982. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 5200 was released to compete with the Colecovision, introduced in 1982. | 4/5/2002 |
The Atari 5200 was one of the first consoles to feature a "Pause" button. | 4/5/2002 |
Epyx created a handheld system called the "Handy", that was purchased by Atari and renamed "Lynx". | 4/5/2002 |
First Star Software (2600 Boing) was founded in 1982 and is still in business today. | 4/5/2002 |
All of Froggo's 2600 titles are re-releases of existing games. | 4/5/2002 |
HES released one original 2600 title - My Golf, by David Lubar. | 4/5/2002 |
The two Milton Bradley games for the Atari 2600, Spitfire Attack and Survival Run, required the purchaser to attach the end label to the cartridge. | 4/5/2002 |
Records Found: 159 |