Atari cartridges (VCS/2600, 400/800, 5200) all had an interesting mechanism to keep fingers and dirt out of the board edge connectors. It was an improvement over the Fairchild Channel F cartridge (1976, a year earlier), which had just a hinged cover with a spring.

And I *love* the idea of celebrating the 50th anniversary of game cartridges. Would be cool to see an exhibit showing all the different form factors, etc.

I have used so many in my life — but I always thought the Atari computer carts (for 800/XL/XE) were unique with the metal shell and the skirt that lifts up when you insert.

Nice piece!

As the current chairperson for the IEEE Silicon Valley Technology History Committee, I hope to organize an event in or around November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the video game cartridge.

Read it online here:
https://blog.archive.org/2025/05/07/vanishing-culture-recovering-lost-software/

Follow my retrocomputing research:
https://breakintochat.com/blog/

#atari #kirschen #breakintochat #digipres #preservation #archives #retrocomputing #retrogaming