Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 is perhaps the single most important console in gaming history. It made swappable cartridges the industry standard and brought video games into living rooms around the world, defining what a home gaming console meant. At its peak, the 2600 had more than 900 game titles and sold over 30 million units globally. It simultaneously birthed the golden age of arcade gaming at home AND triggered the catastrophic 1983 video game crash — when a glut of low-quality games, including the notoriously bad E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, destroyed consumer confidence. Atari infamously buried unsold E.T. cartridges in a New Mexico landfill, a fact that became an urban legend before being confirmed in 2014. Despite its role in the crash, the 2600 laid the foundation for every console that followed.