The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, that's right 30 looong years ago.
The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game- initially Combat and subsequently Pac-Man.


Other interesting facts
* The engineering code name for the 2600 was " Stella".
* The initial price was US$199 with a library of 9 titles.
* For a brief time the 2600 was renamed to "Sears Video Arcade".
* The develoment cost of the 2600 was 100 million.

I hate to go on a rant here but who is the lameoid writing these polls?
it seems that they get dumber by the day, If they're trying to be funny they are failing miserably. Take this one for instance,

Maybe it's just me but aren't the first 3 basically the same crap?
And what about the forth one ?... OMG soooo mentally challenged --for lack of a better word-- but that's not all,
guess which one the lemmings are choosing the most?... that's right # 4. It's not all they're fault though, they're just choosing the "funniest" one.
I know we're all just having fun but c'mon threes ha ha funny and ERRRRRR special Ed funny.

With shooters deploying players everywhere except Iraq and Afghanistan, I started to wonder why game makers are so afraid of real-world war so I did a little research and what I find out was shocking, well not that shocking.
Let's take a look at what's out there on this so called war simulators that by the way, sell them self's as the closest thing to the real deal as you'll ever get.
MEXICO? BEEN THERE. VEGAS? SAVED THAT.
But with all the elements of realism---real firearms used by real soldiers, Humvees and tanks straight of the battlefield. official military seals and approval---trumped in the back of game boxes, why do most war games retreat from modern theaters of U.S. military involvement?
While much of the world is embroiled in conflict, games have largely avoided depicting this reality, setting their battles in the unlikeliest of locations. Take the Sin City for the latest setting for the latest in the Tom Clancy series Rainbow Six . "I think Rainbow is one of the most realistic games out there," says Maxime Beland, creative director of last year's Rainbow Six: Vegas. "Our guns are the real guns. We have their real sounds in 5.1 surround sound. They even reload properly." Why then, do the game's counterterrorism squads fight not in Fallujah or Kabul, but in Vegas?
P-whipped
One reason, it seems that game developers and publishers fear the prickly and divisive politics of war."Politics," in the gaming industry, is a naughty word. Consider this: Last year's Splinter Cell: Double Agent broke with the series' usual affinity for implausible international intrigue and exotic locales by dropping famous sneak agent Sam Fisher (whom I think should be portrayed by Clooney in a Splinter Cell Film) into a live war zone in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region engulfed in a real-life civil war. You might assume this was an attempt to bring relevance and realism to the series. But Double Agent coproducer Julian Gerighty says Kinshasa was just an interesting playground for hide-and-seek. "We're creating entertainment, not a political statement," he says. "It's not made to raise awareness of conflict in Africa. It's hard to have a political message within your game experience that people will not flat-out reject."
Nevertheless, it's also hard to make a game about war----whether all-out battlefield combat or behind-the-scenes espionage like in Splinter Cell---without at least accidentally commenting in the subject matter. "War is a political act by definition," say Ed Halter, professor in the department of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College in NY and author of the book From Sun Tzu to XBOX: War and Video Games. " So to say, 'We are making an apolitical view of war' is it self a political statement. It expresses the desire that you can take the politics out of war and just leave this fun experience." But that's exactly what many developers strive for. Games more than movies and TV, are dedicated to the virtues of pure, unadulterated fluff.
Unlike Hollywood, the gaming industry doesn't take unnecessary risks with its hard-earned money. Anything that might cause a fuss gets left in the cutting-room floor. "It takes so much money and manpower to create games now that they don't to invest in something that might offend", says Halter. "They want that paradoxical goal that Hollywood wants: The totally original, (yet) completely predictable hit. It gravitates toward conformity because there's so much money at stake."

Bad Taste
But the almighty dollar isn't the only arbiter here. You don't want a kid whose dad is deployed somewhere to see this game portraying what their dad is doing and have a really negative experience. Rainbow Six's Beland agrees: "We don't want to be where there are actualissues right know because we don't want to have that bad-taste-in-your-mouth feeling. People are dying out there and it's not fun. I don't want to make a game that reminds people of a friend or a brother who died."
Indeed, the few games that have tried to depict relevant conflicts have left a bad taste in the mouths of some. The Ghost Recon series, not always so removed from current events, once tackled a real hot spot."In Ghost Recon 2we set the game in North Korea," says Christian Allen, creative director of GRAW . "We had a lot of issues... We pissed the North Korean government and ended up getting banned in south Korea, which wasn't our intent." The experience helped push GRAW in its current, less realistic direction. "It's partly playing it safe," he says. "But I've always seen it as a sign of respect for our military.
What they do is different. We try to present an authentic experience, but we also present the fun parts." But in presenting only the heroic action (with infinite continues to boot), do games glamorize their subject to an audience of ripe potential recruits?...think about that. The best example of an upcoming game that deals with real life and real war also happens to feature.. an alien invasion. Go figure. BlackSite: Area 51is a directsequel to theold arcade shooterArea 51.But the sequel is a radical departure. Named for secret overseas CIA prisons currently operated for the purposes of, let's say, "rough interrogation" in the War on Terror, Blacksiteis set partially in Iraq and directed by a guy whos says things like this: "(Blacksite) is kind of an allegory of Jihad. You say that in a meeting and all the marketing people get really uncomfortable." Meet Harvey Smith, creative director.
Dealt the unenviable task ofbreathing life into an old franchise, Smith searched for ways to make the game feel relevant. "It was always a struggle for me to get motivated," he says. "So I began asking, 'what are we afraid of today?' we're afraidsomeone may drag us into a secret facility with no oversight, strip us of our citizenship---even our basic human dignity---anddo horrible things tous." Smith doesn't blink at the mention of politics but says that Blacksitewill strive to leave the experience open to interpretation. "I don't want to force (my personal politics) down anyone's throat.. We won't come to any conclusions for you."
A 14-yeargame-industry vet,Smith has seen firsthand the reaction to ideas that venture outside the world of fluff. "I know a lot of people," he says, "and a lot of them have trouble. They justget shot down, or they're told: "No, no ,no... You're going to
be working on Transformers instead."
Until gamers demand moreTransformers is what we'll get.