Atari Game Brain

Atari Game Brain
Developer	Atari
Type	Dedicated home video game console
Generation	First generation
Release date	Unreleased (1978)
Units sold	0
Units shipped	Unknown
Online services	None

The Atari Game Brain (model number: C-700) is an unreleased dedicated home video game console that was planned for release by Atari^[2] in June 1978. It plays 10 particular games, ported from all of Atari's previously released dedicated consoles, such as Pong, Stunt Cycle, and Video Pinball. Its controllers were built onto the system, with 4 directional buttons, a paddle, and a fire button.^[2] Games are inserted in the top of the system by opening a door that also bears a small instruction booklet.

The system was not intended as a big seller for Atari but rather as a clearance of CPUs from unsold dedicated consoles.^[2] By the time the Game Brain was finished, dedicated consoles were becoming obsolete against consoles with removable ROM cartridges, such as the already released Fairchild Channel F, the RCA Studio 2, and Atari's own Atari 2600. Atari cancelled the Game Brain around 1978. Three Atari Game Brain consoles and five prototype cartridges are known to exist.

Games

Pong
Stunt Cycle
Super Pong
Super Pong ProAm
Super Pong ProAm 10
Super Pong 10
Ultra Pong
Ultra Pong Doubles
Video Music
Video Pinball

References

^ Music Backdrop For Vegas CES, By Stephen Traiman, Page 81, 14 Jan 1978, Billboard, Listings from $19.95 to $59.95, additional carts were shown by...Atari(Warner Communications) for its new Game Brain,..
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Intermission: Innovative Oddities, Page 497, By Marty Goldberg, Curt Vendel, Atari Inc: Business is Fun, Another interesting console blip that appears on the radar briefly appeared at the 1978 Summer CES. Called the 'Game Brain' Model C-700, it's a cartridge based console system, but it's not microprocessor based like the VCS.
^ Page xiii, Weekly Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, Volume 18, Part 1, Editorial & Business Headquarters, 1978, NEW ATARI MPU GAME:Atari is moving into lower end of programmable market with new "moderately prices" Game Brain scheduled for introduction at CES this week. At same time Atari ...will be..., delivered in June along with Game Brain.
^ A History of WCI Games / Atari / Atari Games / Atari Holdings, 1978 June 11-14: At the Summer CES in Chicago Atari introduced the Game Brain (C-700; $115; never shipped), along with four new VCS titles: Basketball (previously announced in April), Capture the Flag (would ship as Flag Capture), The Maze (would eventually ship as Maze Craze), Wizard (never shipped)

External links

The Atari Museum's page about the Game Brain

[1] Music Backdrop For Vegas CES, By Stephen Traiman, Page 81, 14 Jan 1978, Billboard, Listings from $19.95 to $59.95, additional carts were shown by...Atari(Warner Communications) for its new Game Brain,..

[gamebrain1978-2] Intermission: Innovative Oddities, Page 497, By Marty Goldberg, Curt Vendel, Atari Inc: Business is Fun, Another interesting console blip that appears on the radar briefly appeared at the 1978 Summer CES. Called the 'Game Brain' Model C-700, it's a cartridge based console system, but it's not microprocessor based like the VCS.

[3] Page xiii, Weekly Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, Volume 18, Part 1, Editorial & Business Headquarters, 1978, NEW ATARI MPU GAME:Atari is moving into lower end of programmable market with new "moderately prices" Game Brain scheduled for introduction at CES this week. At same time Atari ...will be..., delivered in June along with Game Brain.

[4] A History of WCI Games / Atari / Atari Games / Atari Holdings, 1978 June 11-14: At the Summer CES in Chicago Atari introduced the Game Brain (C-700; $115; never shipped), along with four new VCS titles: Basketball (previously announced in April), Capture the Flag (would ship as Flag Capture), The Maze (would eventually ship as Maze Craze), Wizard (never shipped)

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