The Weird Story Of The Atari 7800

In 1986, after a troubled few years, Atari finally released their 7800 console. The first Atari console to be outsourced to an outside company, the 7800 was a flawed machine but all the more fascinating for it. So let's find out the story, perform a UAV composite and s-video mod, and check out some of the interesting and unique games on the Atari 7800!

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Chapters:
00:00 Introducing Atari's Weird 7800
01:38 Ultimate Atari Video & USB-C Power Mods - The Plan
05:01 7800 Hardware Design - The GCC Story
12:04 The Ultimate Atari Video Mod & A Bit Of An Ordeal
18:14 Audio Output & AV Connections For 7800 UAV Mod
21:54 USB-C PD Power Supply Mod
25:47 The Finished Console... For Now
27:25 Recommended Atari 7800 Games - The Cheapest
33:18 My Personal 7800 Game Recommendations
42:05 7800 Story - The 2800, Jack Tramiel & Controller Variations
43:44 A Commercial Failure - What Went Wrong!?

[vwestlife]

An important correction about the "massive foothold" the NES and Sega Master System had in the U.S. by the time the Atari 7800 was (re-)released in 1986: *that isn't true.* The NES was test-marketed in the New York City area beginning in October 1985, but both it and the SMS weren't released nationwide until September 1986, while the 7800 had its nationwide release in May 1986, so it had a head-start by several months. And by the spring of 1988 the 7800 had sold one million units, pretty much neck-and-neck with the SMS.

But what made the 7800 seem like a distant third place was the lack of 7800-specific games for it, especially in the first year after release. Atari tried to make up for it by putting "also plays on 7800" stickers on 2600 games, but those gave a poor impression of what the system was really capable of.

[japhyriddle]

Some of the 7800 games were designed with RF blurriness in mind. For instance, Tower Toppler's bricks are supposed to appear as solid colors, instead of stripe patterns. It makes it much easier to see what’s going on.

[jacofwudsn]

Cool! Thanks for the background information about GCC. I wasn't aware of that or that the DMA uses a higher clock than the CPU. I'm very happy to see that my write-up was helpful in modding the machine. Fun fact: The mod was for a friend's machine. My own 7800 still has its RF output. And I drove 500 miles on a Sunday some years back to buy a 1997 Lowew Calida 5672Z CRT. It has an analog receiver but digital noise filtering and 100 Hz output. One of the very last CRTs of that era. It is probably the best it can get without a mod.

[RetroBytesUK]

I had no idea about the sound chip. Atari made some interesting business decisions around this period. Sitting on warehouses full of them for 2 years probably being the oddest.

[TheWellHungPony]

The 7800 was my first console, since they were sold out of NESes when dad was going to buy me one for xmas and I was way too impatient to wait for them to restock.

[djcsdy]

I enjoy this story because it illustrates that Jack Tramiel, the famously shrewd businessman, was in truth a feckin eedjit who got lucky a few times when he hired some engineers who were far more capable than he was.

[mikedehn]

I work in the IT world on the hardware side.

I also have a background in electronics.

I find your video very entertaining.

I especially like that you aren't coming off condescending about the old technology.

It was state of the art in its day.

I show some of these games to my grandkids and they are quickly bored of them.

My dad used to show my brother and I old black and white movies and we did the same as my grandkids.

Except for Space Invaders. I guess some of the classics aren't too dated.

Keep up the great work 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[polymatt]

Super cool and I love the USBC PD angle. It’s such a great eliminator of aging bricks to keep track of.

And gotta love the sultry tones of MFMI in the background during a nice solder session!

[steveafulton]

Nice work! The 7800 is one of my favorite "lost" consoles and it's nice to see it getting out there more.

[EdgyNumber]

So daft not allowing a modern soundchip.

[faenethlorhalien]

I only saw a couple ads for it on Spectrum magazines published in Spain early on and never a bit more. That's how little Atari mattered there, sadly.

[mikewest]

I was an Atari dealer in the 80s and went to an Atari trade show at a local hotel. One of the salesmen brought me and a few others to show us the Atari 7800 that they were working on. No case, just PCB boards and the pole position prototype cart. He told us it would be released within six months, that never happened. We were very impressed and mentioned to him, it was not much better then the current Atari 8-bit line. He told us within time the games would reflect the capability of the machine.

[dustinramsey]

Absolutely stoked to see this video. The Atari 7800 is by far my favorite obscure console out there, with my favorite homebrew community as well. I'm sure this is an excellent video, very happy to see your content!

[StooCambridgeArtist]

Superb video! I've got a 7800, un-modded so really needs to be given some TLC to allow me to use it again without severe eye and ear strain! The USB mod is a great idea and it's nice to see it working so well. Nice one! 😎👍

[hosk]

My family’s first console! Got a lot of hours in with Pole Position, Barnyard Blaster, and Jungle Hunt. My dad followed this with the XE. Two rather quirky but great systems.

[neakmenter]

excellent vid rees! history - solder work - mods & updates - keep 'em coming - you're on a roll!

[VincentGroenewold]

I must say that I'm very happy I didn't follow the saga behind the computers of Atari or Commodore back in the day and just enjoyed whatever came out. :) If I would've known it would've been so frustrating. Great overview and video!

[custardo]

Good video! The 7800 deserves some love.

[Meebzorp]

Speaking of Best Electronics, they had blown out 2600 red box and 7800 games back in the 90s for a few dollars apiece. Some rare titles, too. Can't believe they are still in business and they still seem to have new old stock of Atari items today.

[WalrusFPGA]

tower toppler is much easier to play when using the intended composite blend to make the backgrounds more cohesive. The blending feature on MiSTer's core was added pretty much exclusively for that game and there's a vid showing that in action in my archive for example. Really transforms it.