Activision, Atari, Absolute: How Video Game Companies Once Gamed the Alphabet for an Inside Joke
Notes from a retro game designer
The Atari 2600, or Video Computer System (VCS), introduced in 1977, would ultimately become the first commercially successful video game console that accepted plug-in ROM cartridges, allowing the consumer to expand their library of games without having to buy a new console.¹
The system made inroads into the home video game market for its first couple of years despite a much higher price than its predecessors, thanks in large part to its removable game cartridges. However, the event that propelled the Atari 2600 into the stratosphere was the release of the Space Invaders cartridge in 1980. Space Invaders, a massive arcade hit designed by Tomohiro Nishikado of the Japanese game company Taito, was the first significant license of an arcade megahit to the home video game market.
