Why are the joystick ports at the back?

[Albert]

It's only logical for the plugs to be in the back on the 2600.  Where do you tend to find plugs on any piece of electronic equipment?  In the back of course!  So why not do the same thing for the first consoles?

 

Many different types of equipment that have to be hooked up in some fashion have connectors on the front for items you may want to plug and unplug frequently. Stereo receivers often have a headphone jack on the front, and A/V receivers usually have a set of A/V connectors on the front. Many televisions have a set of inputs on the front also, useful for plugging in video cameras and the like. Many computers now have USB and Firewire ports on the front for easy access, and of course all modern game systems have the controller and memory card ports in the front.

 

When Atari designed the 2600, there weren't many examples to follow. They were one of the few companies "paving the way", so to speak. Given the size and the way the original circuit board is mounted in the 2600, I'm not surprised the controller ports ended up in the back, and as others have said, it was probably an aesthetic decision as well. Ergonomics wasn't always highly regarded back then, which can be demonstrated time and time again with some of the poor controller designs over the years (5200, 7800, Intellivision, ColecoVision, to cite some of the better examples).

 

..Al