Core77

A 1982 Aftermarket Device for Switching Between Games on an Atari

The Compro Videoplexer

By Rain Noe - November 15, 2023

in Games

Having been invented in the 1970s, the UX of the Atari 2600 videogame console wasn't great. Games were loaded via cartridge, and in order to switch games, you had to turn the machine off, pull the cartridge, blow out the new cartridge, insert it, then turn the machine back on. It was sort of like changing LPs on a record player.

In 1982, a company called Compro made an aftermarket device to compensate. Called the Videoplexer, it could hold eight cartridges at once. You plugged the entire thing into your Atari, and could switch games at will without having to turn the machine off or futz with cartridges. It was sort of like the CD changers that would eventually be invented.

No idea why the cartridges are upside-down in this photo.

Switching between games, however, was not exactly seamless. See for yourself:

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Man. When was the last time you saw and heard "snow" on a TV?

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Arch Stanton

a year ago

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Looks like we're going to be seeing a lot of cool designs from the DAK/JS&A catalogs here in the coming days. ;-)

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Michael DiTullo

a year ago

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oh wow! I've never seen this before! If one of my friends had this when I was a kid they would have been the coolest kid on the block.

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