September 11 is marked by fire in the memory of many Americans as a disastrous date for history, since on that day, but in 2001, the attacks on the Twin Towers took place, which changed the course of history. and possibly our lifestyle since then, especially when it comes to traveling.
But for lovers of consoles and video games it is a revered and remembered date, precisely because of the fact that on September 11, but 24 years before (in 1977), a video game console launched under the name of Atari was born. VCS , although today it is remembered as Atari 2600 .
Its impact is difficult to quantify, but today it is clear that the video game industry has become one of the most powerful, even ahead of the television industry. And if we pay attention to the estimate published in 2018 by Reuters, about how much income this industry had in 2017, we find the not inconsiderable figure of 116,000 million dollars . In 2019 it reached $ 120.1 billion, which was 3 percent more than the previous year. While Fortnite became the video game that has generated the greatest profit.
Before we get to where we are, the reality is that the video game industry has evolved a lot since then. Atari became one of the first video game companies, founded in 1972.
At that time, most arcade games had built-in screens, while the company was pursuing a very different objective: to develop a home console capable of taking advantage of the television screen, which had become one more device in most of the houses. Thus, Atari designed circuits to transmit video and sound to televisions, resulting in the appearance of a custom integrated circuit (IC).
But it also had other major components: a memory cartridge and a game controller . The memory cartridges consisted of ROM modules (that is, read-only memories), which stored the different instructions of the game, which would be executed by both the microprocessor and the associated circuits. In turn, the modules could be easily interchanged, so that with the introduction of a different module, the user could enjoy a different game.
While it is true, it must be said, that it was not the first game console with interchangeable cartridges, it was the first that sold surprisingly well. And thanks to its arrival on the market, the launch of the module approach inspired the creation of a new industry. During the early years, the console sold quite well, although sales didn’t skyrocket until 1980 , when the company began marketing a licensed version of the Space Invaders game.
Subsequently, Atari built on that success to launch two of its best-known titles, Missile Command and Asteroids, the following year. Although many will also remember the arrival on the market of many other poor quality games, such as the title associated with the movie ET , which was released quickly, but did not achieve the expected success. On the contrary, by then Atari was reeling until, in 1983, the video game market collapsed in the United States, mainly due to competition from new – and revolutionary – personal computers and market saturation.
Although, luckily for many of its followers, Atari continued to produce its 2600 line of consoles, which managed to survive until 1992, when the last one was officially launched.
