When it comes to Atari, especially from the perspective of Video Game History, the first word that comes to mind is almost certainly Pong, the video game that in 1972 effectively defined the standard for any video game-themed product that would come after, no more and no less.
In reality, despite Pong and Atari going hand in hand like two lovers who cannot do without each other, the value of the console I am about to talk to you about goes far beyond the game.
The Atari 2600 was released in 1977 according to the chronicles, an important year for video games as we know them, a hotbed of ideas and experimentation that led the industry to branch out into every genre, in order to attract audiences of kids, and not only them, eager to test themselves.
Bushnell, legendary as well as controversial founder of Atari, produced the console with the secret hope of riding the wave of Pong arcade cabinets, around which masses of players crowded every day just to challenge each other and set new records to beat.
[Ted Dabney, Nolan Bushnell, Larry Emmons, and Alan Alcorn]
L'Atari 2600 accepted a seminal challenge for the future of home video games: it is indeed thanks to it that home consoles began their process of spreading, bolstered by the success achieved by Atari's firstborn.
In simple terms, we must thank the venerable mother of masterpieces such as Jungle Hunt and Adventure, immortal classics still cited today in many media outlets, for the fact that we have had the PlayStation and Xbox.
Perché then speak of Revolution? If I were to analyze under the microscope the graphic and technical sector of the console, the futuristic vision of those who designed the machine in question would immediately catch the eye, mine and yours, with its advanced chip and multiple features, surprising for the time.
Ma una console, like a cartridge, is nothing more than an object, and no matter how technologically advanced it may be, it remains an inert form if it is not capable of transmitting emotions to those who own it and interact with it through the aforementioned peripherals.
The Atari 2600 presented itself to the public with a lineup of video games that had nothing to do with those that had been released in arcade cabinets up to that point, alongside the classics that players of the Seventies had learned to love, making them part of their everyday lives just like the food they ate for lunch and dinner.
[ATARI 2600 Advertisement]
Sì, because the Revolution of the Atari 2600 also passed through here, through its almost hypnotic ability to fill boys’ days, between one task and another, while the American Dream regained vitality after the routes of death that the States had traced in a place very far from home.
I find illuminating the images handed down by documentaries and news broadcasts of the time: if you pay attention, in the reports that talked about the arrival of Pong and Bushnell’s console, the narration linked to the clusters of boys around the arcade cabinet and the glossy images “stolen” from the rooms of nerds who bought the Atari 2600 tells of people who were wildly excited and with their eyes wide open in front of the screens.
Almost as if the video game medium were by definition synonymous with estrangement from reality and a subtle form of mind control over young people (I swear, that’s how it was seen, and even today some still insist on pointing the finger).
The truth is something else entirely. Atari connected two worlds that were apparently very far apart from each other, allowing video games to enter the home in grand style, to begin the real Revolution: bringing fun everywhere.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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![[Ted Dabney, Nolan Bushnell, Larry Emmons, and Alan Alcorn]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fatari-2600-la-rivoluzione-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
![[ATARI 2600 Advertisement]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fatari-2600-la-rivoluzione-img-1.png&w=3840&q=75)
