Atari 2700

Atari 2700

One of the between 12 and 25 test units with a surviving proof test of the packaging and two wireless joysticks
System Internal Codename	RC Stella
Production Date	1981
Produced at	Sunnyvale, Industrial Design group

The Atari 2700 is an upgrade of the Atari 2600 designed in 1981 and ultimately unreleased. The main upgrades over the original VCS hardware consist of the first of the "wedge" shaped system casings with integrated controller storage (later updated further into the Atari 5200's case), usage of push button switches with LED indicator lights instead of large metal switches on the topside of the system, and the biggest update overall, fully RF operated wireless joysticks with integrated paddles and the ability to switch between both modes using switches on the system itself. Developed far enough to reach multiple packaging proofs and having up to 25 different test units assembled, the 2700 ultimately was cancelled due to major technical issues with the RF control hardware and all of the system's components and traits being either repurposed in later systems or redone with hardware from outside vendors.

Development history

Designed as part of an overall push to bring Atari's design language out of the 1970s and to boost the image of the VCS in the wake of newer and more advanced systems such as Intellivision being on the market or being announced as coming soon. Although the case was designed to be futuristic compared to the older woodgrain and ridged lines of the orignal VCS design, Roy Nishi, who headed the Industrial Design group at Atari's headquarters once stated the system was based on older push button radio receivers of the vacuum tube era. Alongside the new look, the system introduced a built-in controller storage for the new controls at the rear of the case, a move that made more logical sense than it did later on the Atari 5200 as the controllers now didn't have cords that needed to be bunched up to fit.

An overhead view of a 2700 motherboard

Internally the motherboard has had a major layout redesign both to fit the new form factor and to accomodate part of the support hardware for processing RF signals from the controllers. The main chipset is still encased in a metal shell in the middle similar to that of the VCS, but now all ports including secondary controller ports toggled with onboard push buttons have been moved to the right side of the board along with the power switch. The RF video hardware has been moved to the left side of the board in an odd reverse of all other existing VCS/2600 hardware layouts, its video output still being handled by a built in cable lead like on existing VCS models of the time. Along with the main motherboard, the RF hardware for the controllers are now on two separate subboards with one for each controller and with a large flat shield spreader on each one to try and limit frequency leakage.

A partial rev 0 motherboard, front side

The system motherboard itself seems to have gone through much iterating too as 2/3 of a "R/C MOTHER REV 0 (CO16886)" motherboard from earlier development turned up in 2020 from a user named electronizer on AtariAge showing that the lefthand side had a lot of parts rearranging to be done along with a lower amount of associated chips (at this point left as entirely unpopulated sockets) compared to the final revisions along with showing the RF controller boards once used 15 pin connections instead of eight. Additionally, the internal RCA connection for the RF cable was still mounted to the topside of the board while on all boards fitted into the test units the connection has been moved to the underside.

One of the Atari 2700's controllers shown powered on

The new controllers themselves relied on existing technology used in garage door opener units with what can assumed to be basic multiplexing as the controller would need nine different input signals (four directions, fire, two lines for paddle measurement, and the now controller integrated select and reset). Alongside the wireless controls the joystick now used an integrated module that contained a 270 degree potentiometer for paddle usage within the joystick base. The controllers themselves are powered by a single 9 volt battery held at the upper end of the lower shell with an off switch located opposite of the antenna protruding from the top of each controller. While the rest of the system was solidly built, the controllers themselves are what led to the system's cancellation as not only were the controllers factory configured to act strictly as left and right controls which could cause major problems if one went missing but the controllers were not designed with switchable radio frequency channels meaning that not only could mutiple 2700s interfere with each other due to sharing the same channel but due to its origin as repurposed garage door opener controls the controllers likely would have interfered with any automatic garage door openers near the 2700.

Ultimately, while the system itself was cancelled, the wedge design language would still go on to define the look of Atari into the mid to late 1980s as the case design would be largely reworked as the design of the "Atari Super System X" which then became named the Atari 5200, and the new joystick design of the system sadly would not be part of the 5200, instead finding new life without the wireless part in the Atari 2800 which was Atari's far too late attempt to enter the Japanese market at the same time as both the Famicom and SG-1000. Subsequently Atari would still release wireless 2600 joysticks but not of their own design, instead acquiring the far less efficient and far, far bulkier sticks designed by a company named Cybex and releasing them as the CX-482 wireless set in 1983.

A reproduction of the first box draft using an original proof

A near mint second box draft cut formerly owned by Curt Vendel, fully assembled

It seems the project, even for all its advancements, was divisive internally as well, with Atari employee and early Amiga designer Jerry Jessop once stating:

The ones that were used for the show had the paddles disabled. The paddles were working, but not to the resolution (0-255) and as reliable as we wanted. There was a ton of 'jitter' in the paddles, even in the pilot stage. Another stupid project and product that should have been killed long before it ever got to this stage. Unfortunately the legacy of the 'wedge' design, controller storage compartment, and the unplayable side firing controllers lived on in the next disaster evolution, the 5200.

—Jerry Jessop, Atari Compendium

Existing units

Numbers of existing units are unsure, with claims as high as 25 units from Curt Vendel in 2016 while estimates from other engineers on the project such as Dan Kramer place it as 12 total being made for local testing before cancellation.

eBay auction photo of the kitbash buttons unit in 2008

Of the existing systems themselves, most are of the recessed button variety with red LEDs in windowed circles to indicate status, but an earlier unit with above surface mounted push buttons from Radio Shack kitbashed in appeared in 2008 from another Atari engineer working at the company at the time named Bill Aspromonte under the AtariAge username pigsinspace. The controllers for this revision were also reported as not being fully functional as select and reset were not yet working for either controller.

The system even made it far enough into the production process that not only were promotional ads being made for trade shows, but two separate proofs for the main packaging were produced with one of them oddly enough showing more of a brown plastic reflectivity compared to all the units currently known in the wild that use all black plastics. The first box was ultimately turned down due to resembling the existing 70s style of packaging and Atari wanting a clean break from this era designed a second package that threw out everything down to even their traditional fontface in favor of showing the system in a blue laser grid void with two controllers firing cannon blasts at the system along with a narrower and more angular font for the system naming.

Gallery

Atari Museum

• 
  Overhead view recovered via Archive.org
• 
  Side angle with a clearer view of the controller
• 
  Low res view of the underside of the controller's main board
• 
  A 1981 ad made for trade shows
• 
  A near mint second draft box flattened, front/sides view
• 
  The bottom and additional flaps

Atari Compendium

• 
  Overview of another Atari 2700 unit with controllers
• 
  The system on its own, looking beat up from age and use
• 
  Another side profile showing the frosted plastic storage lid
• 
  Both controllers side by side
• 
  The RF switchbox provided with the unit

AtariAge

• 
  A third unit as shown on AtariAge by jehule
• 
  Closeup of the 2700 turned on with the status LEDs lit up
• 
  Clearer view of the side ports
• 
  The reverse of the "R/C MOTHER" board, very very crudely hand soldered]]

Original pigsinspace eBay auction photos

• 
  First pic of the pigsinspace unit
• 
  Closeup on the kitbashed switches
• 
  Another view of the side ports
• 
  Underside with a deep RF cable winding recess
• 
  Pic showing how the controllers would be stored in the rear
• 
  The storage lid removed showing one hinge is missing and the other snapped
• 
  The system powerd on and running a pinball game (early Midnight Magic?) off a personally made EPROM cart
• 
  Same 2700 powered on with Barnstorming running