"Atari" used to be synonymous with video games — the Atari 2600 console wasn't the first home video game system (that was the Magnavox Odyssey), but it was the one that brought it into most people's living rooms.
But the video game market crashed in 1983. Atari never recovered.
At this week's Game Developers Conference 2015, the Videogame History Museum celebrated the first big video game company with a showcase of Atari artifacts from back in the day.
"Atari started it all. Atari is what brought video games into the mainstream," says Sean Kelly, director of the Videogame History Museum, which plans on opening its doors to its first permanent location in Frisco, Texas later this year.
You're not going to believe some of the stuff they've got.
The collection paid special attention to the Atari 2600, the company's biggest hit. "The Atari 2600 was the s**t, bar none, in that period," Kelly says.
When the Atari 2600 — initially known as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) — came out in 1976, it caused a massive Atari craze, including entire lines of merchandise, including t-shirts, frisbees...
...and Halloween costumes.
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