What if the Atari 7800 was called the Atari 3600? It might have been, had it not been for Coleco bringing out ColecoVision in late 1982. According to an inside source, the Atari 5200 was not originally intended to be the successor to the venerable VCS - the 3600 was - as Atari's answer to Mattel's Intellivision. But that's another story. The Atari 7800 is the topic, and so goes the story. It's 1984, and Atari is losing money in a big way. Videogame sales have tapered off, and their home computer line is not selling up to their expectations. Their Atari 5200 was getting flak from many of its users for its controller problems, and the fact that you had to buy a separate adapter to play its 2600 games. Atari came up with a solution: the 7800.
This system could play all Atari 2600 games without an adapter and play a new line of games that had superior graphics to any machine at that time. At the heart of the 7800 was the MARIA graphics chip. This chip did not use the player-missile graphic set up that the 2600 and 5200 used, but used an approach to graphics commonly used in arcade machines. The MARIA chip could allow over 100 objects on-screen at one time. The games planned for this system were enhanced versions of classics such as Asteroids, Centipede, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man; first time translations of Food Fight and Xevious; and original title Desert Falcon. Atari was hoping to revive the sagging videogame industry with a new product that would generate some excitement.
Then, in July 1984, Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel. Tramiel, who founded Commodore as a typewriter repair shop, was ousted from Commodore that January. He bought Atari to get back at Commodore, and came out with a new 16-bit computer. He bought the technology of a proposed computer from a small company called Amiga, then Commodore bought the company. Jack did not see a market for the 7800, so he held onto it in the meantime. Tramiel's strong points were never videogames. He scrapped the Commodore Max Machine, a proposed console. He even proposed an 800XL with a voice chip to attract game players. His motto was "It can play games, and the keyboard is there for those curious enough to explore it". In 1985, Nintendo had a successful test market with their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was then that Tramiel saw that there was money to be made, so in 1986 Atari re-introduced the Atari 7800. His strategy was to see how good the 7800 sold by selling its existing inventory it had from 1984, then supporting it with new software.
1986 saw another new console, the Sega Master System (SMS). By 1987, Nintendo had a big lead, Sega right behind, and the 7800 third. The problem with the 7800 was software. New games would trickle in at a rate that seemed like once every three to four months. This problem was further hampered by the introduction of the Atari XE Game System, a 65XE Computer in disguise. The 7800 took a back seat as Tramiel was pushing this system to compete directly with the NES and SMS. Software support that went to the XE should have gone to the 7800. Instead, it was just Tramiel's way to get rid of excess inventory of 8-bit computer games and devices. By 1989, the 7800 was considered to be an also-ran in the videogame industry. 1989 was also the last year most stores carried the 7800 line. Atari held a developers conference to get some new developers for the 7800, and they also had an exchange program in which you could trade in your old 2600 or 5200 and for a small price, get a new 7800 system.
1990 and 1991 saw the last games made for the 7800, and in my opinion, some of the best. Many of these games were available only through Atari direct, until they sold a large part of their inventory in 1992. Some of these games include Alien Brigade, Scrapyard Dog, Midnight Mutants, Fatal Run and others. It was late 1991 when Atari finally dropped the 7800 line.
The 7800 was almost never mentioned when people were arguing which was the best. It seemed like everyone was saying, "which is better, the NES or the SMS?". The MARIA graphics chip could allow over 100 moving objects, so flickering almost never showed up. The 7800 also featured a "Kangaroo" mode, which eliminated transparency in backgrounds. Even though the 7800 has only 2 sound channels, sound chips could be put on the cartridge (Ballblazer and Commando are examples). Not just any sound chip, but the 5200 sound chip with 4 sound channels thus bypassing the 7800's 2 channel chip. RAM chips and even microprocessors could be put onto a 7800 cartridge. Most 7800 games are superior to 5200 games (although Gremlins and Zone Ranger approach 7800 standards) with sharper images. The 7800 is an ideal start-up system. It offers compatibility with two lines of games and can interchange many different controllers.
Although the 7800 is no longer being produced, many people, including myself continue to play the "system that could have been". There are newer and better systems out there, but I still get a kick playing some of my favorite 7800 games like Alien Brigade, Midnight Mutants, Tower Toppler and Asteroids. Many people who are playing the 7800 for the first time have the luxury of having most of the 7800 library readily available. Check out the flags for the "must haves". The 7800 remains as the system that should have gotten more support.
Some Atari 2600 games do not work on the 7800 for a number of reasons. For example, games from Tigervision and some Imagic games won't fit into the slot, and games that require the color/black & white switch might not work properly. Some titles such as Coleco's Time Pilot and Imagic's Laser Gates mysteriously do not function at all.