The VES used a rather sophisticated processor for the time – so sophisticated in fact that it had to come as two chips, as Fairchild couldn’t acquire a chip package with enough pins. By March, 1976 a second prototype had been completed, using the cheaper, feature-reduced MOS 6507 processor, and a custom chip known as the Television Interface Adaptor (TIA) that handled both graphics and sound.Īfraid that competitors would steal the design of the TIA, Bushnell made arrangements with chip manufacturers not to make similar chips for other companies – but he was too late, as Fairchild Semiconductor would beat Atari to the market, launching its microprocessor and cartridge-based console, the Video Entertainment System (VES), in November that year. By December 1975 the team had designed the first prototype around the 6502 processor. They brought in additional talent, including Joe Decuir, who named the project Stella, after his bicycle. But, luckily for Atari technology was marching along and later that year MOS Technology introduced the 6502, an 8-bit processor with a wholesale price of only US$8 – making a microprocessor-based console an achievable prospect.Įxcited by the sudden viability of the project, and afraid competitors might beat them to market, Atari’s engineers sprang into action. The solution was ultimately determined to be a microprocessor-based console – but in early 1975 microprocessors were still far too expensive to be used in a consumer product. In 1975 Atari had successfully converted its smash-hit Pong arcade machine into a home version, but Bushnell worried that releasing dedicated devices that only played one game was not a sustainable business model, fearing that consumers would quickly baulk at the idea of constantly having to buy new equipment just to play whatever the latest craze was.
But only one would ultimately reign supreme over them all – an effort named for a bicycle. The late 1970s saw an explosion of microprocessor-based home videogame consoles, including the Atari VCS, Magnavox Odyssey II, Fairchild VES (Channel F), Mattel Intellivision, amongst others. The second prong of Bushnell’s two-pronged effort to bring arcade games to more children was a secret project codenamed Stella.
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