ROM cartridge, illustrating the ROM chips mounted to a circuit board within the casing. The cartridges were inserted into the console via the exposed contacts on the top of the board. The primary driver of the second generation of consoles was the introduction of the low-cost
microprocessor. Arcade games and the first generation of consoles used discrete electronic components including simple logic chips such as
transistor-transistor logic (TTL)-based
integrated circuits (ICs). Custom
application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) like the
AY-3-8500 were produced to replicate these circuits within a single chip, but still presented only a single fixed logic program. Once a game was shipped, there were only minimal variations that could be made by adjusting the positions of
jumpers (effectively the behavior of the "cartridges" that shipped with the
Magnavox Odyssey). As
Atari, Inc. recognized, spending from and several months of development time on a hardware unit with a single dedicated game with only three-month shelf life before it was outdated by other competitors' offerings was not a practical business model, and instead some type of programmable console would be preferred.
Intel introduced the first microprocessor, the
4004, in 1971, a special computer chip that could be sent a simple instruction and provide its result. This allowed the ability to create software programs around the microprocessor rather than fix the logic into circuits and ICs. Engineers at both Atari, Inc. (via its
Cyan Engineering subsidiary) and at Alpex Computer Corporation saw the potential to apply this to home consoles as prices for microprocessors became more affordable. Alpex's work led to partnership with semiconductor manufacturer
Fairchild Camera and Instrument and lead to the release of the first such programmable home console, the
Fairchild Channel F released in 1976, based on the
Fairchild F8 microprocessor. The Channel F also established the use of
ROM cartridges to provide the software for the programmable console, consisting of a
ROM chip mounted on a circuit board within a hard casing that can withstand the physical insertion into the console and potential
static electricity buildup. Other console manufacturers soon followed suit with the production of their own programmable consoles. At the start of the second generation, all games were developed and produced in-house. Four former Atari programmers, having left from conflicts in management style after Atari was purchased by
Warner Communications in 1976, established
Activision in 1979 to develop their own VCS games, which included
Dragster initially and the hits
Kaboom! and
Pitfall! later. Atari sued Activision and its founders on the basis of theft of trade secrets and violation of their
non-disclosure agreements, and for
Dragster allegedly infringing on the
Drag Race arcade game from Atari's arm
Kee Games; the cases were thrown out of court and the two companies settled in 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay Atari for a "technology license". This established Activision as the first
third-party developer for a console. It also established a working model for other third-party developers, and several such companies followed in Activision's wake, partially contributing to the
video game crash of 1983 due to oversaturation. As the second generation of consoles coincided with the
golden age of arcade video games, a common trend that emerged during the generation was licensing
arcade video games for consoles. Many of them were increasingly licensed from
Japanese video game companies by 1980, which led to Jonathan Greenberg of
Forbes predicting in early 1981 that Japanese companies would eventually dominate the North American video game industry later in the decade. At this stage, both consoles and game cartridges were intended to be sold for profit by manufacturers. However, by segregating games from the console, this approach established the use of the
razorblade business model in future console generations, where consoles would be sold at or below cost while licensing fees from third-party games would bring in profits.
Fairchild Channel F The Fairchild Channel F, also known early in its life as the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (VES), was released by Fairchild Semiconductor in November 1976 and was the first console of the second generation. It was the world's first CPU-based video game console, introducing the cartridge-based game-code storage format. The console featured a pause button that allowed players to freeze a game. This allowed them to take a break without the need to reset or turn off the console so they did not lose their current game progress. Fairchild released twenty-six cartridges for the system, with up to four games being on each cartridge. The console came with two pre-installed games,
Hockey and
Tennis. Following the release of the Atari 2600, the Channel F's popularity waned quickly as the more action-driven games of the Atari 2600 drew more attention than the more educational and slow-paced games on the Channel F. By 1979, only an additional 100,000 units of the Channel F were sold for lifetime sales of 350,000. In 1978, Fairchild redesigned the system into a new model, the Channel F System II. The System II streamlined some of the initial Channel F to reduce cost and improve consumer usage compared to the Atari 2600, such as improved controller connections and using the television speakers for audio output, but by the time it was released, the Atari 2600 had too much market advantage for Fairchild to overcome. After releasing 21 games for the system, Fairchild sold the Channel F technology to Zircon International in 1979, who then discontinued the system by 1983. Nine games were designed and released for the holiday season. Atari held exclusive rights to most of the popular
arcade game conversions of the day. They used this key segment to support their older hardware in the market. This game advantage and the difference in price between the machines meant that each year, Atari sold more units than Intellivision, lengthening its lead despite inferior graphics. The Atari 2600 sold over 30 million units over its lifetime, considerably more than any other console of the second generation. In 1982, Atari released the Atari 5200 in an attempt to compete with the Intellivision. While superior to the 2600, poor sales and lack of new games meant Atari only supported it for two years before it was discontinued. Early Atari 2600 cartridges contained 2 kilobytes of read-only storage. This limit grew steadily from 1978 to 1983: up to 16 kilobytes for Atari 5200 cartridges. The Atari 2600 directly supports up to 4 kilobytes (4096 bytes) of cartridge ROM.
Bank switching, a technique that allows two or more different parts of the program to use the same
memory addresses, was required for the larger cartridges to work. The Atari 2600 cartridges got as large as 32 kilobytes through this technique. The Atari 2600 has only 128 bytes of RAM available in the console. A few late game cartridges contain a combined RAM/ROM chip, or an additional separate RAM chip, thus adding another 256 bytes or more (up to 2 kilobytes) of RAM inside the cartridge itself. The Atari 2600 standard joystick is a digital controller with a single button, released in 1977. The Atari 2600 also supports 4 analog paddle controllers (or, in theory, 2 analog joysticks).
Bally Astrocade The
Bally Astrocade was released in 1977 and was available only through mail order. It was originally referred to as the Bally Home Library Computer. Delays in the production meant that none of the units shipped until 1978. By this time, the machine had been renamed the Bally Professional Arcade.
Magnavox Odyssey 2 In 1978,
Magnavox released its microprocessor-based console, the Odyssey 2, in the United States and Canada. It was distributed by
Philips Electronics in the European market and was released as the Philips G7000. A defining feature of the system was the speech synthesis unit add-on which enhanced music, sound effects and speech capabilities. The Odyssey² was also known for its fusion of board and video games. Some titles came with a game board and pieces which players had to use in conjunction to play the game. Although the Odyssey² never became as popular as the Atari consoles, it sold 2 million units throughout its lifetime. This made it the third best selling console of the generation. It was discontinued in 1984.
Intellivision The
Intellivision was introduced by
Mattel to test markets in 1979 and nationally in 1980. The Intellivision console contained a 16-bit processor with 16-bit registers and 16-bit system
RAM. This was long before the "
16-bit era". The Intellivision was the first console with a thumb-pad directional controller and tile-based playfields with vertical and horizontal
scrolling. The system's initial production run sold out shortly after its national launch in 1980. It also provided real-time human voices during gameplay. It was the first console to pose a serious threat to Atari's dominance. A series of TV advertisements featuring
George Plimpton were run. They used side-by-side game comparisons to show the improved graphics and sound compared with those of the Atari 2600. before being discontinued in 1990.
ColecoVision The ColecoVision was introduced by toy manufacturer Coleco in August 1982. It was more powerful than previous consoles, providing an experience that was closer to Arcades than what the 2600 could provide. The console launched with several arcade ports, including Sega's
Zaxxon, and later saw third-party support from many developers such as Activision and even their competitor Atari. The ColecoVision is notable for its Atari 2600 expansion module, which enabled the console to play 2600 games, resulting in a lawsuit from Atari. The ColecoVision was a victim of the video game crash, ultimately being discontinued in 1985.
Vectrex The Vectrex was released in 1982. It was unique among home systems of the time in featuring
vector graphics and its own self-contained display (necessitated by the fact that a normal TV set cannot display vector graphics, since the TV is a raster display.) At the time, many of the most popular arcade games, such as
Asteroids, used vector displays. Through a licensing deal with Cinematronics, GCE was able to produce high-quality versions of arcade games such as
Space Wars and
Armor Attack. Despite a strong library of games and good reviews, the Vectrex was ultimately a commercial failure. It was on the market for less than two years.
Comparison Sales standings The best-selling console of the second generation was the
Atari 2600 at 30 million units. As of 1990, the Intellivision had sold 3 million units. and eight times the number of purchases for the
Fairchild Channel F, which was 350,000 units. File:Acetronic-MPU-1000.png|
1292 Advanced Programmable Video System(released in 1978) File:VC-4000-Console-Set.png|
VC 4000(released in 1978) File:APF-MP1000-FL.jpg|
APF-MP1000(released in 1978) File:Blank.svg|
Unisonic Champion 2711(released in 1978) File:Bandaisupervisionconsole.jpg|
Bandai Super Vision 8000(released in 1979) File:Epoch-Cassette-Vision-Console.png|
Epoch Cassette Vision(released in 1981) File:CreatiVision-Console-Set.png|
VTech CreatiVision(released in 1981) File:Compact Vision TV Boy, Gakken 01.png|
Compact Vision TV Boy (released in 1983) ==Handheld systems==