Technological history: 2600 and Atari Adventure

The 70's were times when all users were computer hackers, or something very similar, at least some teachers in the art of optimizing resources. An exciting era in which ideas were generated and technologies which cause revolutions. The Atari 2600 was one of them, and Adventure, the first game of action and adventure, who want to remember today.

Atari 2600 was released in 1977 at a price of 199.95 dollars. There was probably no more popular console since its onset and death in 1990. Totaled 25 million units sold. It came with a pair of joysticks and a video game ROM enclosed in a cartridge (Pacman, for example).

Adventure, meanwhile, was released in 1978 for play on the Atari 2600 and sold 1 million copies, something unheard of for a video game. I invite you to watch this video to get an idea of ​​gameplay in Adventure essential elements that put you in the category of action / adventure, solving problems, finding objects, battles with other characters, freedom to walk by different routes, in a nutshell: interactivity.

The protagonist of Adventure is a square. A cursor that acts as the hero of an adventure through secret passages, keys, swords and dragons. It was the first time a game allowed to explore the world through multiple screens, and the first to contain an easter egg-the name of its creator, Warren Robinett .

One of the most interesting of Adventure is its implementation on a device so limited. The Atari 2600 was

• 128 bytes of RAM.

• Support for ROM cartridges of 4096 bytes.

• 8-bit processor at 1.2 MHz: no frame buffer, but was able to generate 60 frames per second, or cache, let alone floating point arithmetic and multiplication and division instructions.

• Chip to carry the video signal to TV and audio synthesis.

This is the complete map of the game.

Adventure play is still possible, either through an emulator, XBox or PS2 via the "Atari Anthology", or from the site of Atari as a Flash game.

Technological history: Adventure Atari 2600 and written in ALT1040 on 3 May, 2011 alan.lazalde
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