this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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I'll always have a soft spot for Atari, despite all of the turmoil over the years regarding the brand.
The 7800 would have been a welcome redemption following the lackluster 5200; however, the crash of 1983 and internal company struggles made them decide to shelve the 1984 release of the 7800.
By the time they chose to jump back into the market by pulling these out of the warehouses and getting them on the shelves in 1986, the stigma of the brand was still somewhat fresh, the hardware was out-of-date, and Nintendo was well on their way to devouring the majority of the US market with the NES.
Didn't help that the games weren't there for it either. But the vicious cycle of "console needs games to sell units -> devs won't make games for consoles that don't sell" was in full effect for the 7800, and really any Atari console after the 2600, except maybe their Lynx handheld (which still lived in the Game Boy monolith's shadow just like every other competing handheld).
The crash was such a huge loss. This thing in 1984 was an evolutionary but very nice update to the 5200. Seriously, look at Asteroids on the 5200 (prototype, but very similar to the 400/800) and 7800, which looked low-key gorgeous on a CRT.
By 1986, Nintendo was the bold savior of the console market, and even then there's an alternate universe where Atari completely abandons the 7800 and XEGS to re-brand the NES or, later, the Sega MD/Genesis.