Atari 2600
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The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, was the first successful video game console to use plug-in cartridges instead of having one or more games built in.[1] Originally known as the Atari VCS—for Video Computer System—the machine's name was changed to "Atari 2600" (from the unit's Atari part number, CX2600) in 1982, after the release of the more advanced Atari 5200. It was wildly successful, and during the 1980s, "Atari" was a synonym for this model in mainstream media. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game.
Emulation
Atari 2600 emulation is available for most major operating systems and is now very accurate. Despite the relative simplicity of the 2600 system, it is not a simple system to emulate. While it does not require lots of computational power to emulate the 2600, it is hard to accurately do so. For example, because of the lack of a frame buffer (discussed below), 2600 emulators must not only emulate the console, but the television as well. Due to the longevity of the system, many 2600 games used undocumented features, and even exploited bugs in the hardware and firmware to harness the most of the system, doing things even the original designers would deem impossible (a notable example is the starfield of the game Cosmic Ark). It took some time for the emulator programmers to mature their software to properly emulate the undocumented features, bugs and quirks of the system.
Some well known Atari 2600 emulators today are:
- Stella - An open source, multiplatform, very popular emulator (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) .
- z26 - Another open source, multiplatform, very popular and customizable emulator (Windows, MS-DOS, Linux)
- PC Atari Emulator - Easy to use, very fast and popular emulator (Windows, MS-DOS). Handles the Cosmic Ark starfield effect correctly.
- The Pocket VCS - PPC - Easy to use, very fast and popular emulator (Windows CE).
Top Roms
- Atlantis Imagic (1982)
- Breakout Atari (1978)
- Combat Atari (1977)
- Donkey Kong Coleco (1982)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari (1982)
- Kaboom! Activision (1981)
- Keystone Kapers Activision (1983)
- Pac-Man Atari (1982)
- Pitfall! Activision (1982)
- Pole Position Atari (1983)
- RealSports Tennis Atari (1983)
- Solaris Atari (1986)
- Space Invaders Atari (1980)
How to Play
Just download one of the emularots from any internet site who offer it. For example Stella is an open source, Multiplatform very popular emulator (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) .
Emulators are in zip format. Unzip it to your favorite location. Now you need a rom of your favorite game. Download it from any website. You can Google it if you don't know where to get game roms. just enter in Google search roms, game roms, free roms or some other keywords to get the names of websites offering free roms. Go there and download your favorite rom and save it to your Emulator's rom directroy. Congratulations! now you ready to play. just run exe file of your Emulator and select the game you want to play.
External links
Top Roms
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