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|Successor = [[Atari 5200]]
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The '''Atari 2600''' was is a video game console released in September 1977 by [[Atari|Atari Inc.]] It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and ROM cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the [[Fairchild Channel F]]; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.
It did make by far the biggest impact of any console released during the golden age. In fact, to much of the general public, it made the word “Atari” synonymous with the word “video game” (at least until Nintendo assumed the throne in the mid to late 1980s).
