The Great Old Atari 7800
In 1982, when my dad was 14 the Atari 5200 was released. The level of technological innovation that console had was as jaw dropping as when the world was introduced the all new 3D open world environment of Grand theft auto 3, absolutely jaw dropping. The revolutionary 5200's controllers had an analog joystick, a numeric keypad with start, pause and reset buttons and even a 360-degree non-centering joystick. The 5200 also featured the innovation of the very first automatic TV switchbox, allowing it to automatically switch from regular TV viewing to the game system signal when the system was activated. Previous RF adapters required the user to slide a switch on the adapter by hand. This unique RF box was also where the power supply connected in a unique dual power/television signal setup. A single cable coming out of the 5200 plugged into the switch box and was used for both electricity and the television signal. There were a total of 69 games officially released for the system. Well, not very impressive you might say. Anyway he yearned to get this game console, but unfortunately his family didn’t have the affordability for it since he had 7 siblings in total. Hence, my dad decided to buy himself the next Atari console that would be released.
So he saved up for years, spending the least amount of money possible. Four years later, he finally managed to save up a whooping sum of three hundred dollars. The same year, 1986, the Atari 7800 was released. 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. My dad bought the sleek and impressive looking console immediately and still had some change to spare which he bought tons of enjoyable arcade games with.
Sadly, by the time of the cancellation of the Atari 7800, Nintendo's NES dominated the North American market, controlling 80% while Atari Corp. controlled just 12%. Although he no longer plays console games his enjoyable times with his beloved Atari back in the day will be forever etched in his mind.
This ‘Singapore Memory Project’ the Victoria School Humanities Department had assigned to us students has truly made me realize that although the people from the past did not enjoy the breath taking games with crisp and clear graphics or surround sound system like my Xbox console has, they did have great technological innovations like the Nintendo entertainment system or the sega genesis gaming consoles that brought them fun and joy, just like the current gaming consoles of the present day. Thank you Atari, Sega, Nintendo and all the other gaming companies that led men to create the awesome consoles that we have today.
