Article: Why I (Still) Love the Good Ol' Atari 2600

[VectorGamer]

This is a blog post but in the interest of keeping these outside writings standardized I'll just keep the "Article" portion in the title...

 

Anyway, about 50% of this isn't new reading much like an English 101 assignment...but, discussion of Flashback 2 and home brews make up for it.

 

http://pandapolis.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-i-still-love-good-ol-atari-2600.html

[+Ransom]

Nice article!

 

Atari 2600: proof that pretty graphics don't make the game.

[BigO]

Nicely written. Though, I have to admit that I didn't get the reference to bankswitched code being called like a wireless router.

 

 

If, like me, you hate having errors in your written work, I noticed a couple of things in a very quick read of the article:

"a modified 8-bit Motorola 6502 processor running at 1.6 MHz." I see a number of other references that say 1.19 MHz so 1.6 may be incorrect.

A very minor thing that popped out at me: "like a retiree who gets bored as hell staying home and eventually returns to some kind work" should be "some kind of work"

Not intending to be critical of the article, really. There just seems to be an editor living somewhere inside my head. He won't leave me alone when I'm reading and I haven't been able to kill him.

Edited December 4, 2009 by BigO

[STICH666]

Nice article. looks like that discovery inspired another collector.

[vdub_bobby]

I can explain why I still play 2600 games in a single sentence: They are fun.

 

And yeah, the 6507 runs at 1.19 MHz. And, technically, the 2600 does have video memory, about 10 bytes worth. Enough for a single line.

 

/nitpick

 

Fun little writeup, though.

[almightytodd]

Oh, and the 6502 and 6507 processors were made by MOS Technologies, not Motorola... ...but yeah, overall a good, positive article focusing on what a long and wonderful life the 2600 has enjoyed and how it has gone well beyond its original expectations...

[BigO]

Oh, and the 6502 and 6507 processors were made by MOS Technologies, not Motorola... ...but yeah, overall a good, positive article focusing on what a long and wonderful life the 2600 has enjoyed and how it has gone well beyond its original expectations...

That's a fact that I don't see detailed very often: what the original expectations were. I read a writeup somewhere that explained that it was never really expected to do anything beyond the basic few (9 or 10?) games that were planned.

[Video]

I think that's evident by the fact it was designed to produce 2 8 pixel sprites, 2 balls and one missile. (per scanline, though I believe, and if you look at the early games, that this was intended to be per screen) I think Nolan said he wanted it to do that, but compare early games to later games and the thing was pushed way beyond what it was intended (and someitmes beyond what it could do, which was a mixed bag) And you get games with half a dozen sprites and lots of missile/balls all over the place that's pure chaos in relation to what it was designed to do.

[VectorGamer]

I read a writeup somewhere that explained that it was never really expected to do anything beyond the basic few (9 or 10?) games that were planned.

 

 

That may have been mentioned in that Racing the Beam book released earlier this year...

 

Good book to add to one's holiday list...