The Atari 2600 was originally known as the VCS (for Video Computer System) and came with two joystick controllers, attached set of paddles, and one cartridge (typically Combat or Pacman). Unlike the prior generation of home consoles that had a small number of games built in, the 2600 utilized a CPU-based system. The games were placed on removable cartridges, an idea that first came to light when Hewlett Packard released the HP 9830. This desktop computer packaged ROM memory into removable cartridges. For this reason the Atari 2600 is credited for popularizing the microprocessor/cartridge based system among the game playing public.
Although it wasn't released until 1977, research and development for the VCS began back in 1973. Atari spun off an engineering think-tank called Cyan Engineering and by 1975 they were working on a prototype machine named “Stella”, but it wasn't quite ready for production. Mean-while, Fairchild Semiconductor released their own CPU-based gaming system, the Channel F. Fearing the market would soon be flooded with similar products and lacking the funds to complete the system quickly, Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million. The hiring of Jay Miner proved to be key to the eventual success of the machine. He was a chip designer and managed to squeeze an entire breadboard into a single TIA chip. Once that was completed and the system was debugged, the console was ready for shipping. The total cost came in at around $100 million.
