1976
 |  The Coleco Telstar. |
Attracted by Atari's success, several companies release home video game consoles. Because of a rush on circuits, only Coleco receives its full order in time for Father's Day. Coleco fails to receive FCC approval due to a radio-frequency interference problem and hires Ralph Baer to find and fix the problem. Baer solves the problem at the last minute, and Coleco's huge oval Telstar machine debuts.
|  The Fairchild Channel F. |
Fairchild Camera & Instrument releases its Video Entertainment System (later renamed Channel F), the first programmable home game console. You can actually insert large cartridges (which look very much like audio 8-track cartridges) into the console and change the games.
Violent Video Game
Exidy Games releases Death Race 2000, a driving game based on a 1975 movie of the same name. You earn points by running over stick figures. Public outcry against video game violence gains national attention, and the game is taken off the market.
Atari Is Sold for $28 Million
Nolan Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million. Bushnell remains with Atari as chairman of the board.
1977
Pizza Time Theatre
Atari opens the first Pizza Time Theatre, a new arcade-restaurant combination that features moving robotic animals, electronic games, and food. The mascot for the restaurant is a rat named Chuck E. Cheese. Bushnell thought up the concept three years earlier while standing in line at a pizza parlor.
|  The Atari VCS. |
Atari releases its first programmable (cartridge-based) game system, the Video Computer System (VCS--later known as the Atari 2600), in time for Christmas, for $249.
Bally Enters Consumer Market
Bally releases a programmable console called the Bally Professional Arcade. With a retail price of $350, the system fails to catch on.
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