Which way, 2600 to 8-bit or 8-bit to 2600?

[Great Hierophant]

Many games happened to be released for both the 2600 and the 8-bit computers and later the 5200. Atari had to support both systems with games, and the same games happened to come out on both systems. Third parties like Activision quickly discovered that releasing their games for both systems would be to their advantage. But what generally came first? Did programmers first program an 2600 game, as the console had the greater penetration in the homes, then port it to the more powerful 8-bit line with a few extra bells and whistles? Or did the developers prefer the more open 8-bit line to develop programs more easily, then try to make it work on the inferior 2600 hardware?

 

For some games, the answers are somewhat certain. There were many 2600 games available before the 400s and 800s first say the light of day. Atari never shared its computer hardware secrets with other companies, forcing them to figure out how to unlock the 8-bit line's power. This took some time. Further, many third parties in their early days were just starting up and did not have the manpower to focus on ports. Some 5200 games, for example, clearly look like 2600 games.

[atari_wizard]

good question. i am not sure. i would say that the games were made for atari 2600 1st, then for the higher bit systems next. just a guess though. lol.

[geosteve]

As far as the 5200 most games released for it in '83 were released about the same time as the 2600 versions, give or take a month, but I'm not sure about the 400/800/XLs which was a separate division of Atari. Notice the later Atari Age magazines show both versions advertised together.

[LYNXGUY]

I agree with atari_wizard,

I believe the 2600 was first then the 5200 then the 7800 then the 8bit 400 then 800 then 1200XL however I am not sure when the 600XL & 800XL came out, then 520 ST then 1040 ST.

 

If I am missing anything please let me know

[Ze_ro]

Considering the differences between the systems, I'd guess that they probably wrote each version completely seperately. Having a working 5200 version is nice, but due to the limitations of the 2600, you're pretty much forced to rewrite the entire game rather that simply porting it like companies do now with the current generation of systems.

 

--Zero