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Period: to
Atari Inc. Lifetime
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Period: to
Introduction
- release of the Atari 2600
- $250,000 in sales (1977) = $1.2 million in 2023
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Atari 2600 released
- Cartridge-based system that allowed gamers to play many different games (Popular: Pac Man, Pong, and Space Invaders)
- It had much better graphics and sound quality than its predecessors
- Cost: $125 in 1977 = $700 in 2023
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Period: to
Growth
- popularity of Atari 2600
- the next year, Atari sales reach 1 million
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Sales: $1 million
- approximately $4 million in 2023
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Sales: $2 million
- approximately $7.5 million in 2023
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Space Invaders released
- caused Atari's sales to double because of its popularity
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Period: to
Maturity
- video games at their peak (Atari, Nintendo, Sega leading sales)
- release of the game Space Invaders
- release of the Atari 5200
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Asteroids released
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Sales: $10 million
- approximately $32 million in 2023
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Atari 5200 Released
- Introduced at the all time peak of the Atari Consoles.
- It wasn't nearly as popular as the 2600 was.
- The 5200 featured an all new slim design
- Upgraded CPU (processor)
- 125x the amount of RAM. (Random access memory)
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ET disaster
- Caused the video game crisis of 1983
- Large number of ET games where left unsold
- Was meant to be a major stocking stuffer
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Pac Man released
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Video Game Crash
- First begin of Atari's decline
- Many companies lost $
- Thousands of workers were fired
- Cost of games fell to below $20 from the previous $100
- Magnavox, another VG company was abandoned completely.
- Atari lost 356 million dollars.
- Millions of copies of games were left forgotten in landfills. (see pictures below)
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Period: to
Decline
- slowing down of production
- video game crash
- release of the Atari 7800
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Sales: $20 million
- approximately $57 million in 2023
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Atari 7800 released
- cost: $140 in 1986
- lower price meant to compete with Nintendo
- failed to take over the video game market
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Abandonment: Stopping of the Atari Systems Productions
- Atari stopped producing consoles
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Atari Flashback 2 released
- Atari tries to take back the video game market.
- mimics the original Atari 2600
- compatible with new TVs, thanks to Composite cables. (yellow red and white)
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Sales: $16 million
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Present Day - Atari 2600+ and Atari VCS (modern)
- In recent years Atari has actually released 2 new consoles.
- The Atari 2600 + is a reimagined version of the original. It features a modern HDMI connection and widescreen capability. It comes with a 50-in-1 game cartridge.
- The Atari VCS is an all in one console. It is capable of backwards compatibility with 2600 games.