Asteroids was a hit in the United States and became Atari's best selling game of all time.

Asteroids is also the first game to use Atari's " QuadraScan " vector-refresh system ; a full-color version known as " Color-QuadraScan " was later developed for games such as Space Duel and Tempest.

The prototype was given to engineer Howard Delman, who refined it, productized it, and then added additional features for Atari's first vector game, Lunar Lander.

A port was also included on Atari's Cosmos system, but the system never saw release.

Atari's management decided to enter this market, and the new technology was repackaged into the Atari 400 and 800, hitting the market in 1979.

Powering the system was an Atari SALLY 6502 ( Atari's slightly custom 6502, sometimes described as a " 6502C ") processor running at 1. 79 MHz, similar to the processor found in home computers ( Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Commodore 64 ) and other consoles ( Atari 5200 and Nintendo Entertainment System ).

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 ) allowed for the addition of peripherals such as disk drives and printers.

Atari's launch of the 7800 under Tramiel was far more subdued than Warner had planned for the system in 1984 with a marketing budget of just $ 300, 000.

Atari's earlier 7800 games listing showed Millipede as one of the games in the line up ; however, it does not appear that it was ever started or worked on.

Atari's native character set was known as ATASCII, while most Commodore BBSes supported PETSCII.

One of Tramiel's first acts after forming Atari Corp. was to fire most of Atari's remaining staff, and to cancel almost all ongoing projects, in order to review their continued viability.

Though not the first system to challenge Atari, it was the first to pose a serious threat to Atari's dominance.

The Sears model was a specific coup for Mattel, as Sears was already selling a rebadged Atari 2600 unit, and in doing so made a big contribution to Atari's success.

Video game manufacturers used the 68000 as the backbone of many arcade games and home game consoles: Atari's Food Fight, from 1982, was one of the first 68000-based arcade games.

The Odyssey was initially only moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games, that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry.

To allow system customizations, accessories, and other support software to be loaded automatically, the Atari's floppy drive was read for additional components during the boot process.

Eurogamer said the game was " still as playable, addictive and maddening as it was back in 1990 " but criticized Nintendo for re-releasing classic games as standalone titles in the Classic NES Series instead of as a compilation, like Atari's Atari Anthology or Midway's Midway Arcade Treasures.

Finally, Atari's market-leading 2600, then in its sixth year, was starting to approach saturation.

Millipede was ported to Atari's 8-bit and ST computer line as well as the Atari 2600.

Occurring soon after Pac-Mans negative critical response on the Atari 2600, E. T. s poor reception was attributed by Kent to a negative impact on Atari's reputation and profitability.

It was Atari's first dealings with the landfill, which was chosen because no scavenging was allowed and its garbage was crushed and buried nightly.

But her prettiness was what he had noticed first, and all the other things had come afterward: cruelty, meanness, self-will.

There was an artificial lake just out of sight in the first stand of trees, fed by a half dozen springs that popped out of the ground above the hillside orchard.

The first part of the road was steep, but it leveled off after the second bend and curled gradually into the valley.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The herd was watered and then thrown onto a broad grass flat which was to be the first night's bedground.

Once again, Tom Horn was the first and most likely suspect, and he was brought in for questioning immediately.

For Matilda, it was the first she had known in many a night.

Even the knowledge that she was losing another boy, as a mother always does when a marriage is made, did not prevent her from having the first carefree, dreamless sleep that she had known since they dropped down the canyon and into Bear Valley, way, way back there when they were crossing those other mountains.

Stevens was grunting over the last empty pocket when Russ abruptly rose and lunged toward Carmer's hat, which had tumbled half-a-dozen feet away when he first fell.

The Indian's arm whipped sidewise -- there was a flash of amber and froth, the crash of the bottle shattering against the side of the first car.

It was her first smile.

At first, I thought he was out of his head, talking wildly like this.

Hell, I gave him the first decent job he ever had, six, seven -- how many years ago was it, Rob ''??

Miss Langford ( her first name was Evelyn ) was an attractive girl.

School began in August, the hottest part of the year, and for the first few days Miss Langford was very lenient with the children, letting them play a lot and the new ones sort of get acquainted with one another.

It was just as well that the ignorant Dandy enjoyed himself to the hilt that first evening, for the room was to become his prison cell.

`` Bastards '', he would say, `` all I did was put a beat to that Vivaldi stuff, and the first chair clobbered me ''!!

In 1961 the first important legislative victory of the Kennedy Administration came when the principle of national responsibility for local economic distress won out over a `` state's-responsibility '' proposal -- provision was made for payment for unemployment relief by nation-wide taxation rather than by a levy only on those states afflicted with manpower surplus.

The first systematic thinking about this Pandora's box within Pandora's boxes was done four years ago by Fred Ikle, a frail, meek-mannered Swiss-born sociologist.

The smell at first was more surprising than unpleasant.

His collaboration with Washington, begun when he was the general's aide during the Revolution, was resumed when he entered the first Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury.