The Atari VCS or Atari 2600 is the most recognizable game console. Let's try to figure out how and why it appeared.
Atari was founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Debney in January 1971, but they called it Syzygy Engineering. Atari Inc received its official name only on June 1, 1972. At that time, the company was developing arcade machines. Her Pong slot machine was an incredible success. It was a tennis simulator in which each player had to rotate a handle, control a rectangle bat and hit a square "ball". There is a story that the owner of the bar where Pong was standing filed a support complaint the day after the machine was installed. An engineer who came to service found a completely clogged coin acceptor, due to which the machine did not start.
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Below is a video overview of this console at the Software & Computer Museum. Subtitles in Russian are available.