Atari 7800

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari in 1986.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It had a library of almost 60 games.
 * 2) It is fully backward-compatible with every Atari 2600 cartridge and peripherals. It is the world's very first video gaming console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules.
 * 3) * It even works with the Atari 2600 Joystick for the Atari 2600 games.
 * 4) It has significantly improved graphics hardware over the Atari 2600.
 * 5) It had several popular arcade hits, including Food Fight, Dig Dug, Mario Bros., Joust and Ballblazer.
 * 6) The 7800 graphics are very immersive, as the graphics are generated by a custom graphics chip called MARIA.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Terrible sound. The 7800 relied on the TIA chip from the 2600 for sound generation. While the 7800's graphics were superior to the 2600 and on par with the NES and Master System, the sound was exactly the same as its predecessor. There was a provision to allow a POKEY chip from the Atari 8-bit computer line on the game cartridge for better sound, although only two officially licensed games, Ballblazer and Commando, took advantage of this, likely due to the additional cost of implementing the POKEY chip. Some 7800 homebrew games such as Beef Drop (a clone of BurgerTime made by Ken Siders) uses a POKEY chip while Rikki and Vikki uses a microcontroller for additional sound generation.
 * 2) The Atari 7800 Proline Joystick isn't very comfortable, since it resembles the Atari 5200's controller which was already bad.
 * 3) * Only the European models got redesigned flat gamepads similar to the NES and Master System.
 * 4) No composite output without modification and comes with only RF, which was inferior and also impossible to connect to modern TVs without an adapters or mentioned composite mod. It also had a pause button on the console, instead of the controller.
 * 5) The console was a flop because it was overshadowed by the NES and the Master System. As a result, no more than 60 games were made.