The History of Atari: 1971-1977
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The most important project at Atari in 1977 was the interchangeable games console, Stella. The final version of (Stella), now renamed by marketing as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) contained the following:
- 6507 processor (6502 derivative) running at 1.2 MHZ
128 bytes of RAM, 4K bytes of ROM addressable on cartridges
- TIA custom video and audio chip
- 6532 timer
- Two controller ports that could support 8-way joysticks with a fire button, potentiometer-based paddles, driving controllers, or keypads
The target was to support Pong and Tank!-style games. For this they included 2 8-bit (player) objects, and 3 1-bit (ball) objects plus a low-resolution playfield supported in hardware.
With the millions of dollars Warner poured into the company, Atari was able to attract some of the best engineering talent around to make games for the system. Atari put an ad out to hire programmers for the their new machine. Larry Kaplan was one of the first to get hired, along with Alan Miller, Larry Wagner and Ed Riddle.
