Atari 2600 "did you knows"

[CFMM]

The oldest this site goes back seems to be the NES. We should honor the first large-scale home console too, the Atari 2600.


Some facts about the Atari 2600:
- The second model of the Atari 2600 was nicknamed "Vader" due to its all-black appearance.
Source: http://www.thegameconsole.com/atari-2600-vader/

- Activision was the world's first third-party game developer.
Source: http://www.atariage.com/company_page.htm...mpanyID=11

- "Gamma-Attack" by Gammation is said to be the rarest Atari 2600 game in existence. Only two copies are known to exist.
Source: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-260...20510.html

- "Gamma-Attack", the rarest Atari 2600 game in existence, was found by a collector named "Phantom" who purchased a large box of assorted Atari stuff from an online seller. At first glance he passed the game off as a "dancy homebrew".
Source: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/04/0...me-500000/

- "Air Raid" was formerly considered to be the rarest and most valuable Atari 2600 game in the world. 13 copies are known to exist, and in 2010 a copy of the game complete in its box sold for over $31,000.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife...index.html

- Two builds exist of an unknown, untitled, and unreleased Activision puzzle prototype for the Atari 2600. There is no mention of the game in any Activision catalog.
Source: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software...known1.htm

- David Crane (of Activision) programmed an Atari demo known as Venetian Blinds in 1982 as a joke when Atari attempted to sue Activision for stealing trade secrets pertaining to a style of sprite display known colloquially as "venetian blinds". The game was formally released almost 30 years later as a title available in the Xbox 360 title Game Room.
Source: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software...blinds.htm

- Atari once worked on prototypes for a controller called "MindLink" that detected muscle movements in the player's face and translated them into movement on-screen. The idea was scrapped but two unfinished titles exist for the peripheral: Mind Maze and Bionic Breakthrough.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Mindlink

- A popular urban legend in gaming involves Atari burying millions of unsold and returned copies of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in an Alamogordo, NM landfill. They have never been found.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial

- The music video for "When I Wake Up", a single by alternative rock group Wintergreen, recounts a fictional story of the members of Wintergreen finding the rumored mass of buried E.T. games in Alamogordo, NM.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rt_3_bQVJU

- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, originally named his company "Syzygy" but changed it due to conflicting copyrights.
Source: http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/atari.html

- Showbiz Pizza (Chuck E. Cheese's) was created by Nolan Bushnell, who also founded the Atari company.
Source: http://www.showbizpizza.com/info/history/timeline.html

- Combat, the original pack-in title for the Atari 2600, had a sequel in production (Combat Two). The game was canceled, but later released for the Atari 2600 in 2001.
Source: http://www.atariage.com/software_page.ht...belID=1137

- Every game produced for the Atari 2600 by Mystique/Playaround was of a pornographic nature.
Source: http://www.atariage.com/company_page.htm...mpanyID=12

- The Atari 2600 game "Adventure" contains the first easter egg in gaming history.
Source: http://www.atariage.com/software_page.ht...eLabelID=1