The Second Generation of Consoles
The Atari 2600 - http://tinyurl.com/cg2ud2c
Back then, many consoles had at least one game built into the hardware. Many were cloned Pong consoles and there was no way to play new games on that hardware. All of that changed when new consoles came into the market. In August 1976 The Fairchild Channel F, attempts to make a console with game cartridges that are individually programed. Back in 1972 a man by the name of Nolan Bushnell left the company Nutting Associates, famous for the popular arcade game Space Wars, and formed his own company called Atari. So, in 1976, Atari started to make a new cartridge-based home video game console. A few years later Atari released their own cartridge-based console called the Atari 2600.
The Odyssey 2 and the 2600 were part of the second console generation, but unfortunately the Odyssey 2 failed to deliver since there are lack of games and upcoming competition. In the year 1980, a company by the name of Mattel Electronics released their own home console.
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In 1980 Mattel released the Intellivision. With twelve games and better graphics than its competition, Mattels goal is to take on Atari's home console. The console sold quite well when it was first launched at around 200,000 units. There was also promise of a keyboard add-on for the Intellivision, so the console could serve as a home computer at the time, but unfortunately the development of the keyboard was scrapped because it took many years for a prototype and it was very expensive.
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In August 1982, Coleco released the ColecoVision with graphics and sound better then both the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. What made the console a success is it came with a game packed in with the system that would become an all time classic, Donkey Kong. The Atari 2600, despite its competition, was still a success in the console market. Atari was so successful that even Mattel and Coleco had developed add-ons for their consoles so Atari 2600 games could be played on them. Things were looking good for Atari since they are in the lead in the gaming industry, but the console gaming giant would fall victim to a catastrophe that almost destroyed video games and the industry.
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