The Weird Story Of The Atari 7800

An important correction about the "massive foothold" the NES and Sega Master System had in the U.S. by the time the Atari 7800 was (re-)released in 1986: that isn't true. The NES was test-marketed in the New York City area beginning in October 1985, but both it and the SMS weren't released nationwide until September 1986, while the 7800 had its nationwide release in May 1986, so it had a head-start by several months. And by the spring of 1988 the 7800 had sold one million units, pretty much neck-and-neck with the SMS.

But what made the 7800 seem like a distant third place was the lack of 7800-specific games for it, especially in the first year after release. Atari tried to make up for it by putting "also plays on 7800" stickers on 2600 games, but those gave a poor impression of what the system was really capable of.

I work in the IT world on the hardware side.

I also have a background in electronics.

I find your video very entertaining.

I especially like that you aren't coming off condescending about the old technology.

It was state of the art in its day.

I show some of these games to my grandkids and they are quickly bored of them.

My dad used to show my brother and I old black and white movies and we did the same as my grandkids.

Except for Space Invaders. I guess some of the classics aren't too dated.

Keep up the great work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

It basically was the first mainstream system that was backwards compatible, as it could play 2600 games.

The console was announced in June 1984. I wanted one because the specs sounded really cool. However, it came out in May 1986. By this point, with the NES already out, it felt like too little too late.

That is Count Binface you're listening to while you're removing the power connector about halfway through the video, rifght? :D

I think what happened with the 7800 is that Atari was saddled product from a previous era and was forced to either sell it or destroy it and write it off. They chose to sell it likely because of it's compatibility with 2600 games. So, it just got chucked out as the strange middle child between the 2600jr which was clearly meant to be a budget option and the XEGS which was meant to drive gamers to Atari's home computer division.

It's funny, because it wasn't even that long ago, but everyone thinks that there were no videogames in 1984 or 85 and then all of the sudden the NES appears in 86 and was just overnight the most popular thing ever. In reality it was way more of a slow burn. Most kids I knew didn't have an NES until about 88, it was massively popular, and reduced in price buy then.

I just finished modding my 7800, leaving the RF modulator completely in the system. And it took me way too long. Also I needed help from tfhh, who diagnosed some issues and replaced the crappy SRAM board. Now I have the UAV board in there as well as the RF modulator. Nice.

Connect it to a VCR lmao

Ugh I wish they would’ve just released it in 84. Or just not bothered and fixed the 5200 controller

The 7800 would of done better if their library wasnt focused around older already released arcade titles. It needed more original games like Ninja Golf and Dark Chambers and shoukd made sequels for them like the NES did with games like Mega-Man or Ninja Gaiden. What could of been? 🤔

Just out of curiosity. Im sure some of you 7800 fans will watch this video. I have a loose working copy of tank command for the 7800 that I bought as a kid in a discount bin. I don't have the original box but I understand it's one of the rarest games for the 7800. What should I list it for on eBay as a starting bid if i decide to sell it? I don't currently see any copies on eBay.

GCC were amazingly talented. Unfortunately they had to deal with Warner which was led by people that had no idea what they were doing, and ended up with Jack Tramiel, who was pretty clueless himself and also a total sleazeball as a businessman.

Ive been gaming starting before the 2600,and I absolutely love retro games. seeing new projects with older hardware or software makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside!🫠

Wish I kept mine.

The hat trick arcade game is fun as hell. Too bad the 7800 had a port that looks like it runs at 5fps

or get roms and forget this mess

I saw the first console i ever owned.. then i saw the british guy... then I heard his accent.. then I subscribed. This was a 2 second thing.

The 7800 was my first console, since they were sold out of NESes when dad was going to buy me one for xmas and I was way too impatient to wait for them to restock.

What a waste of time and electricity...

So daft not allowing a modern soundchip.

I enjoy this story because it illustrates that Jack Tramiel, the famously shrewd businessman, was in truth a feckin eedjit who got lucky a few times when he hired some engineers who were far more capable than he was.

Can confirm that Hat Trick is a great 2 player game.

7800 was my first new console and i loved it even with the nes being a thing. All the 2600 games available cheap or free was amazing.

Wish the sound chipnwas standard though. Sound really hurt it

Whaf a great episode! A bit of everything and reslly interesting.

What did Atari put their energy into while not selling these for two years?

Ignoring sheer resolution, this thing seems to have had better graphics hardware for games than an ST(up to FM) 😳

You paid HOW MUCH for a 7800?

I never knew about the atari 7800 until a few years back.
Now while it is true that the nes was became a huge success i wich atari just couldn’t stand a chance against it.
I actually found it very very interesting that there are a few official nintendo games on it, something i absolutely never ever throught to ever happen, in fact i throught that there would be atleast some clones or rip offs from nintendo games on it but not official ones.
But because of a deal with nintendo from the past, it just so happened.
Heck atari did even put nintendo games into it’s advertisement posters and brochures wich might could,ve formed a thread against nintendo.
But because of all these discoveries, i do love atari alot ever since.
Before that i was always a big nintendo guy.

Some of the 7800 games were designed with RF blurriness in mind. For instance, Tower Toppler's bricks are supposed to appear as solid colors, instead of stripe patterns. It makes it much easier to see what’s going on.

You guys got lucky with the gamepads since the joysticks aren't great, Atari could never seem to make an arcade stick no matter how many years passed Eg. NES Advantage.😒 Gamepads were the future, compact and easy to operate in an ergonomic two-handed grip. Hard to say what the light gun plan was other than one existing by Atari and bundled with the XEGS.
I don't know if I'd call a lack of backwards compatibility a "mistake", it was more just something consumers wanted even when it was unreasonable on a technical level Ie. a Betamax tape playing on a VHS player.😄
The POKEY chip produces some really nice sound, that is really the biggest mistake hamstringing 7800 games to have 2600 sound by default. Been a real pain in the aftermarket to find originals, replacements, and FPGA solutions much like Nintendo's extensive list of mapper-chips and the like.
Yep dumb, dumb, dumb, was just watching a similar story about Capcom overreacting to a SF2 mod kit too bitd. I wonder if that department is simply full of billing lawyers lol, rather than someone that can recognize the value of production expansion. At least they came to their senses in the end.
Quite the journey you took there heh.😏 Altogether the 7800 is a strong solid console platform, it actually doesn't suffer heavy sprite flicker like the NES and SMS often do, just needed more game titles to show off that strength. I ended up going the flash cart route(Dragonfly) since it was just too hard to find many cheaply and the games I wanted were high dollar. Got a sweet arcade stick from an Atari Age forum member, just like Atari should have made. Been meaning to make a pinout adapter, the SMS gun is compatible.😉

I first learned about the 7800 from an article in Electronic Games magazine. They had what turned out to be artist's renderings of the games, but at the time, I thought that they might be actual screenshots, just printed out on a color printer. Anyway, i immediately wanted one. Of course it then disappeared until one day I happened to see stacks of them in a local toy store. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to spare.

I did later get a used one off the net, along with a couple games. I also later bought a few games. I really didn't end up playing it that much, but just owning it scratched the itch that I had had since seeing that magazine article. I also got one of the better ones, as it had no problem playing Robot Tank, or working with the Starpath Supercharger, which are two things that some version of the console had trouble with.

As for the sound, while the sound chip was fairly outdated, various Atari 2600 games showed what it could do in the right hands. For example, Gyruss plays a respectable version of the arcade's music. Mountain King (which only includes some extra RAM in the cartridge), plays one tune when you're hunting for the flame spirit, and after you grab the crown, it plays a nice rendition of In the Hall of the Mountain King.

Super Huey - This is a port of an 8-bit computer game. I never cared for this on any platform.

Hat Trick - This is actually an arcade port. I liked it better on the C64. The 7800 version feels too stiff.

Impossible Mission - I'm sure you know that the NTSC version of this shipped with a bug that made the game impossible to complete. Fans have since fixed that bug and released ROM images of the corrected version. Unfortunately, however nice it might be to play, that annoying, droning sound whenever you enter a room completely discourages me from playing it. Obviously this one was never actually playtested, because I can't see ANYONE being OK with that. I know they did it because the C64 original had the robots make noise, but there it was a subtle effect, not a loud screeching that makes you want to drive ice picks into your ears.

i played 2600 pitfall so much as a kid.

I like the 7800, but for me the best output is emulation. I emulate all my retro consoles for 3 man reasons. 1, I dont have to ever worry about having to change capacitors which i could never do to save my life as my eyes are shot. 2, I always get the perfect video output and 3 i can play any compatible game I want on it without it costing me any money, or any room space unnecessarily. I use an xbox one controller for my Atari. I am playing combat at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. I think next will be pitfall 1 and 2. And if you think that I am a dirty pirate for downloading the games and not buying the originals, then to this i say if i was giving the money back to the original programmers of the game, then yes i agree. But when i am giving my money to greedy people who are in it for profit only then no, it's definitely not piracy, it's preservation.

2 different boards with the exact same fault after applying the video mod; did you test the boards before any modifications?

i had one and it sucked. had over 40 games for it only 1 actually ever got played .. robotron .. all the other games were no buano i became friends with let down at an early age. sure they were CHEAP games but.. eh.......eh..... really get what you paid for game wise back then.

Now this is my kind of video. Top work, Rees. This makes me want to mod my (as yet) unmodded 7800. Having seen the results of the UAV mod that you did for me on my 2600, I'm thinking I might have to have a go at this soon.
Anyway, loved the video. Keep at it, mate.

Fatal Run, Ninja Golf and Food Fight for the 7800 have already been released a couple months ago, though Food Fight is now only available in NTSC regions since the PAL version apparently did not work on the 2600+ with the original firmware. It works with newer firmware versions but they did not want to release it knowing that a firmware update would be necessary. So currently it is on hold.

The Atari Repair Parts website offers a replacement for the US power supply for $15 US

Was the 7800 asterioids built into the system? In the US or Europe only?

I had no idea about the sound chip. Atari made some interesting business decisions around this period. Sitting on warehouses full of them for 2 years probably being the oddest.

That was lovely Rees. Thank you!

Watching a usbc being used as a replacement is wild.

If they hadn't waited 2 years, we could've had a much different historical record.

Still have my family's 7800 from 1986. Other than having to resolder the RF port at one point, it still works perfectly.

weird story at what timestamp?

The nes had a staggering 1359 titles across 6 regions.....the sms roughly 360,the 7800 only 59 including over 400 2600titles really atari were behind in their own event...the 7800 should have been 16bit to keep ahead

The CX78 has been re-released as the CX78+ and also the wireless (Yes, 9 pin compatible) CX78+ is available for pre-order. From a collecting PoV I personally have a Concerto cart, which is an SD card solution, but supposedly the 7800 GD cart is the best as it also offers RGB out and also supports Rikki & Vikki which has rather special hardware, however it is quite expensive compared to the Concerto price these days. Love my 7800, it's a great console.