With the Game Brain, Atari sought to bridge the gap between dedicated
Pong consoles and programmable videogame systems like the Fairchild
Channel F machine. Basically, the Game Brain was a cartridge-based
system, with its game library to consist of "Atari's Greatest Pong
Hits." The unit had the paddle controllers built onto the machine
itself, and an area near the top of the machine where game
instructions could be stored for quick and handy reference.
The market for such a hybrid Pong/videogame machine was short-lived, however, as competitors like the Odyssey2, Channel F and Atari's own VCS captured what market was out there for home video entertainment. As a result, Atari wisely decided against debuting the Game Brain amidst the uncertain prevailing market climate.
Only five prototype cartridges exist. They are: Video Pinball, Stunt Cycle, Ultra Pong, Super Pong and Video Music. All of these games were best-selling dedicated game consoles on their own, and more Pong-type games were planned but never got past the drawing board. The Game Brain, along with the 2700, CX-2000, 5100 and 7800 Keyboard, is one of THE rarest of the Atari vaporware machines, and is quite possibly the least known of Atari's unreleased systems due mainly because it was not hyped-up by the company like the 2700 and Cosmos were.
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