The first 3Dfx card: Orchid Righteous 3D

The first 3Dfx card: Orchid Righteous 3D

On March 20, 1996, Orchid Technologies announced the Orchid Righteous 3D, the first consumer graphics card based on 3Dfx technology. It retailed for $299, achieved FCC certification July 24, 1996, and reached retail shelves October 6, 1996, beating Diamond Multimedia’s Monster 3D to market. Orchid was 3Dfx’s first OEM partner and the maker of the first 3Dfx Voodoo card.

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Magnavox Odyssey 2: 1978-1984

Magnavox Odyssey 2: 1978-1984

The Magnavox Odyssey 2 is an overlooked second generation game console, at least in the United States. I was curious how this console sold 2 million units and yet I never saw one and rarely heard about it growing up. It was launched December 1, 1978 and discontinued March 20, 1984. That makes today as good of a time as any to give this console a second look.

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Atari 2600 Pac-Man went on sale March 16, 1982

Atari 2600 Pac-Man went on sale March 16, 1982

On March 16, 1982, sales of the eagerly anticipated Pac-Man conversion for the Atari 2600 started. The game was supposed to launch April 3, 1982. But some retailers started selling the game early. This wouldn’t happen today, but the 1980s were a different time. Atari didn’t have the power to stop it in March 1982, and although nobody realized it at the time, Atari was at the very pinnacle of its power in the early spring of 1982.

Pac-Man ended up being the best selling video game cartridge of 1982, but in the long run, the reputational damage Atari suffered wasn’t worth the cash it made from the 8 million copies it sold.

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Game designer Sid Meier born Feb. 24, 1954

Game designer Sid Meier born Feb. 24, 1954

Legendary game designer Sid Meier was born February 24, 1954. After creating a run of popular flight simulators in the early and mid 1980s, he shifted to strategy games in the second half of the decade, creating some of the greatest strategy games of all time in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

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Al Alcorn born January 1, 1948

Al Alcorn born January 1, 1948

Al Alcorn was a New Year’s baby, born January 1, 1948. He was Atari’s first full-time engineer and an early casualty of Ray Kassar‘s management style after the Sock King took over as Atari CEO.

Arguably, Alcorn is famous for two things. He was the engineer who designed Pong, and he was also the engineer who hired a young Steve Jobs.

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Fairchild Channel F: First of its kind

Fairchild Channel F: First of its kind

Fairchild isn’t the first name that comes to mind when it comes to video games. Consumer electronics wasn’t really their thing, and that might explain why they lost interest after only 3 years. But it’s easy to forget just how much of a disruptive force in the technology industry Fairchild was. In this blog post, we’ll explore Fairchild’s brief foray into video game consoles in the 1970s and its lasting influence that we’re still feeling today.

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Pong introduced November 29, 1972

Pong introduced November 29, 1972

Pong is 53 years young this week, introduced November 29, 1972. Pong was the first commercially successful video game. It was the product that put Atari on the map.

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Amiga CD32: Commodore’s last stand

Amiga CD32: Commodore’s last stand

On September 17, 1993, just seven and a half months before it went bankrupt, Commodore trotted out one last new product: the Amiga CD32. It was a 32-bit game console based on the Amiga 1200. Was this yet another case of Commodore ineptitude, or did Commodore actually have a good idea this time that failed for other reasons?

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Atari 2600 launch titles

Atari 2600 launch titles

The Atari 2600 was first released on September 11, 1977, along with nine titles. It wasn’t the first home video game console to connect to a TV and it wasn’t even the first one to use cartridges, but it was the first one to gain widespread success, selling 30 million units over its long lifetime. Let’s take a look at the nine Atari 2600 launch titles.

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Tengen and its legal battles with Nintendo

Tengen and its legal battles with Nintendo

Tengen was a video game publisher in the 1980s and 1990s. What platform you remember them for probably depends on which part of the world you grew up in. In the United States, we remember Tengen as a Nintendo NES publisher. Europeans may remember them as a Megadrive or Amiga publisher. Thickening the plot, they had a direct connection to another storied video game company. On September 10, 1992, Tengen lost one of its multiple lawsuits with Nintendo. It ended Tengen as an NES publisher, but not from the game industry entirely.

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