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The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986.〔(Top 25 Videogame Consoles of All Time: Atari 7800 is Number 17 ), IGN.〕 It had simple digital joysticks and was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, the first console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules. It was considered affordable at a price of US$140. The 1986 launch is sometimes referred to as a "re-release" or "relaunch" because the Atari 7800 had originally been announced on May 21, 1984, to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200,〔〔"(Atari Video Game Unit Introduced )", ''New York Times''〕 but a general release was shelved due to the sale of the company.〔(AtariAge: Atari 7800 History ), AtariAge.〕 A few units were released to test markets in June 1984 though. However, by 1987 the Nintendo Entertainment System was already dominating the home console market, and the 7800 could not gain a major footprint.〔http://www.giantbomb.com/atari-7800/3045-70/〕 In 2009, IGN chose the 7800 to be their 17th best video game console of all time. They justified this relatively low ranking (though higher than every other Atari console save the 2600) with the summary statement: "Its delayed release, its cancelled peripherals, and a lack of financial backing from the company's new owners all combined to ensure that Atari 7800 would never see any success beyond being a sexier way of playing Atari 2600 titles."〔(2009).(Top 25 Videogame Consoles of All Time: Atari 7800 is Number 17 ), IGN.〕 == History == The Atari 7800 ProSystem was the first game system from Atari Inc. designed by an outside company, General Computer Corporation (GCC). The system had been designed in 1983 through 1984 with an intended mass market rollout in June 1984, but was canceled shortly thereafter due to the sale of the company to Tramel Technology Ltd on July 2, 1984. The project was originally called the Atari 3600, though was later renamed the Atari 7800. Several key factors influenced the design of the 7800. First, Atari had been facing mounting pressure in the form of competition from the ColecoVision, which boasted graphics that more closely mirrored arcade games of the time than Atari’s reigning 2600 VCS system. Second, the Atari 5200 (the original intended successor to the Atari 2600 VCS) had been widely criticized for not being able to play Atari 2600 VCS games without an adapter. Previous game consoles sometimes had a difficult time replicating the arcade experience in home versions of popular arcade games. In particular, home versions of arcade games sometimes had problems with flickering and slow down when more than a few moving objects appeared on the screen at once. GCC, which had a background in creating arcade games, designed their new system with a graphical architecture similar to arcade machines of the time. The 7800 allows a large number of moving objects (75 to 100) that far exceeds previous consoles. Powering the system is a a slightly custom 6502 processor, the Atari SALLY (sometimes described as a "6502C"), running at 1.79 MHz. It is similar to the 6502 processor found in the Atari 8-bit computers, Apple II, and Commodore 64, as well as the Atari 5200 and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles. In contrast to the Atari 5200, the Atari 7800 could play almost all Atari 2600 games out of the box, without the need for an adapter. In addition, it featured a return to a digital controller. To address the concerns of parents that home computers were a better investment than consoles, the system was designed to be upgraded to a full-fledged home computer. A keyboard was developed, and the keyboard had an expansion port (which was the SIO port from Atari's 8-bit computer line, though the 7800 could not run Atari computer programs) that allowed for the addition of peripherals such as disk drives and printers. To further enhance the gaming experience, GCC had also designed a "high score cartridge", a battery-backed RAM cartridge designed for storing game scores. On the side of the 7800 was an expansion port, reportedly for a planned connection with a laserdisc player. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Atari 7800」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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