• 181 of 7634 collectors (2.4%) have this hardware piece in their collection
• 5 of 7634 collectors (0.1%) have this hardware piece in their wishlist.
• 1 of 7634 collectors (0%) have this hardware piece for sale or trade.

The Atari 7800 was released in early 1986 as a successor to the Atari 5200, and was designed by second-party developer General Computer in late 1983. Unlike the 5200, the 7800 used simple digital joysticks and was backwards compatible with almost every Atari 2600 game, meaning that people didn't have to get rid of their 2600 games or buy an adapter.

The 7800 was first introduced in May 1984, and was set for a fall 1984 release date. The 7800 would be priced at $140, and include two joysticks and Pole Position II as the pack-in game. A computer keyboard and high score cartridge (that saved high scores through battery back-up) were also planned for the new system.

However, in July 1984, Warner Communications, the parent company of Atari, sold Atari's consumer division to Jack Tramiel, who was the founder and former CEO of Commodore. Under Tramiel's new leadership, the 7800 was put on hold while Tramiel worked out contractual issues between them, Warner, and General Computer, mainly concerning payment for the system's development and its launch titles. After these issues were settled, Tramiel set up finding a manager for Atari's video game division, eventually hiring one in November 1985. All of these led to the 7800's initial release being delayed by nearly two years.

The 7800 was finally released in May 1986, with most of the planned 1984 launch titles being released throughout the year. However, Atari kept a slow release schedule for the system, with owners often having to wait months between new releases. In addition, the 7800 faced fierce competition from Nintendo and Sega, and third party support was minimal. Despite this, the 7800 continued on until its official discontinuation in January 1992.

Despite it being short-lived and only having an original library of less than 60 games, the 7800 is regarded as an "underdog" system and is fairly popular with collectors. The 7800's library is mainly known for its great arcade ports (e.g. Joust, Xevious, Ms. Pac-Man), quirky original titles (e.g. Ninja Golf, Scrapyard Dog, Midnight Mutants), and outstanding homebrews (Pac-Man Collection, Beef Drop, Failsafe).

• CPU: Custom 6502C
• Graphics: MARIA (TIA for 2600 games)
• Sound: TIA, two tone generators; external audio through cartridge port
• RAM: 4 KB (128 bytes for 2600 games)

• Atari 7800 console
• Two Pro-Line joysticks
• Pole Position II
• RF switchbox
• AC adapter