The year 1977 marked a major breakthrough in video game history-the
release of the Atari 2600 (initially
released as the Video
Computer System). The system
popularized the use of gaming cartridges-during
the first generation
of video games, gaming
consoles were restriced to very few games, all of which were programmed into the console. While
the system was not very popular upon its release, when Space Invaders, a game originally
released for the arcade in 1978,
was released
for the system in 1980, its sales
quadroupled. Space Invaders
also sparked a "golden age" of
arcade gaming. The
system remained very
popular until the video game
crash of 1983, which was caused
in large part by the
massive failure of the
E.T. game for
Atari.