Atari 2800

Atari 2800

The Atari 2800 with box and everything the full system included in 1983
Model Code:	CX-2800
System Internal Codename	Cindy
Production Date	1981-1982
Release Date	Debated, some time between May and October 1983
Produced at	Sunnyvale, Industrial Design group

The Atari 2800 is an export specific variation of the Atari 2600 intended to push the system into the Japanese market at the start of the 1980s economic miracle period amidst the rise of the native Japanese home market. Carrying many things recycled and repurposed from the unreleased Atari 2700, the system was ultimately years too late to make any headway and ultimately is more remembered now for having been brought back into the US to be resold as part of the Sears Video Arcade line of rebadged Atari systems.

History

Designed within some point in late 1981 per the copyright on the main board, the Atari 2800 was designed as a way to update the look and controls of the existing Atari 2600 in a way to make it more appealing to Japanese electronics market in order to establish a foothold for Atari in the growing economic boom in Japan in the 1980s. Although smaller than the 2700, the case design carried on elements of the design language such as its sizable wedge shape and surfact mount buttons with LED indicators, but the system was also amended further in ways no other 2600 variation ever received such as four controller ports with required multiplexing hardware being built into the system and both the RF channel and TY type switches being moved to the bottom of the case. Otherwise, the motherboard is still a standard three chip configuration as with the majority of Atari 2600 versions and has a RF modulator tuned to NTSC-J broadcasting standards.

The motherboard of the 2800/SVAII showing its 2700 influence along with four controller ports

The controllers are also another point of recycling from the Atari 2700, in this case being designed off of the all-in-one joystick and paddle intended for the wireless joysticks of the 2700 but now with the wireless function being removed entirely for the standard DB9 connection cable. This is also why the system was given four controller ports, as since the controllers now have dual funtion there is no way to easily replicate the Y-cable function of the original paddle controllers. Although the controllers sound like a good idea when read, most user experience online talks of how soft the controls feel in comparison to other Atari controllers of the time including even the 5200 controller.

Two 2800 controllers along with the original 100V 2800 power supply

While a precise release date has yet to be pinned down, most estimates fall toward either May or October of 1983, either date being wildly poorly timed. The hardware in the system was a product of 1976 engineering and at that point was not only wildly out of date compared to its contemporaries, the system's release was up against, ironically enough, two spiritual successors to one of its existing rivals, the Colecovision. If the May 1983 date is to be believed the Atari 2800 was released two months before the Family Computer (whose hardware was designed based off of Nintendo's ideas for a better Colecovision) and the SG-1000 (Sega's reworking of the Texas Instruments hardware set used by the Colecovision along with the first MSX computers which saw release the month prior). The hardware didn't resemble arcade graphical and sound quality enough to look appealing to Japanese buyers and with a multitude of new hardware arguably now two or three generations of technology ahead, the 2800 failed to sell to a new audience.

Oddly enough, even though the 2800 was rebranded under Sears as the Sears Video Arcade II to be sold through their stores exclusively, the FCC filings for the Sears release predate those for the 2800 by over eight months, showing that the 2800 may have actually been a secondary thought with the Sears Video Arcade II meant to be the original sole release before being held back to manufacture more units to launch in Japan. Likewise, manufacturing codes on the Sears Video Arcade II indicate many of them were made months ahead of any Atari 2800 system, meaning that if the October launch date is to be believed they were stockpiling Japanese market systems from December 1982 onward even though the Video Arcade II has production dates as early as July making the Sears release held back by the decision to export.

Even odder is that for some reason the Atari 2800 was liquidated in Mexico after its failure in Japan with all systems being retuned for NTSC-U usage and the packaging seemingly being left entirely intact even though it is entirely in Japanese. As a result Atari 2800s are oddly easily acquired throughout North and Central America more than they are from where they were originally released. Remaining game stock was likely repackaged and resold as all games released for the 2800 were stock US cartridges with new packaging and translated manuals. Oddly enough this may have also been the source of localized copies of Pac-Man as the game seemingly never had an official release in Japan right down to not even being listed on official engineering listings from Atari themselves To make matters more grim on top of all of this, according to former fellow employee Jerry Jessop the system's lead electrical engineer, Joe Tilley, was gunned down the same year of release by police in San Jose during a mental breakdown due in part to being fired from Atari the previous year after work on the 2800 was largely finished.

An Atari 2800 shown with games having translated manuals but no new cart labels

Gallery

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  Overhead view of the 2800's surface with 2700 inspired design language
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  The underside showing the new placement of the channel and color/B&W selection switches
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  The packaging of the Sears Video Arcade II release in the US
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  Overview of the SVAII along with controllers, manual and power supply showing the system was just a name plate and modulator change