Retro Gaming Hacks

Emulate the Atari 7800

Bring a woefully ignored console back from the dead.

The poor thing never had a chance. Originally designed as the true successor to the incredibly successful 2600 VCS [Hack #34] , the Atari 7800 fell victim to all sorts of internal power struggles and botched management decisions. First, while the 7800 was still in development, Atari hacked its existing line of computer hardware, turning it into the quick-fix Atari 5200, to fend off the Colecovision in 1982.

Two years later, as the system that was supposed to be the next big thing was about to be released, Atari execs decided they didn’t want to be in the video games business anymore, and put the manufactured 7800 systems and games into storage. Only after Nintendo revitalized the video game market did Atari ship the 7800 in 1986. But they immediately followed it with the XE Game System, an incompatible console that played the same games as the company’s line of computers.

Thus bookended by competing hardware from the same company, the 7800 died an ignominious death. But in its short life span it amassed some software support that illustrates just how powerful a system it was (especially for 1984 tech, mind you!). It was even backwards compatible with the 2600 library. The only real problem with the system was its awful standard controller. Atari missed the D-pad revolution ushered in by Nintendo and Sega, sticking the 7800 with a pair of joystick controllers so antithetical to every principle of ergonomics ...