By June 1979, Atari had sold over one million VCS consoles.
Speaking of an even weirder hybrid before the hybrids... By 1979 Atari released a BASIC cartridge for the Atari VCS (later renamed Atari 2600): the VCS/2600 was a console. No keyboard. So the BASIC cartridge shipped with the most horrible keyboard ever invented.
So in a way the console themselves were the first hybrid.
Believe, I know: it's how I wrote my very first program ever. It was super simple: basically modifying programs drawing colored lines across the screen.
IIRC -- but I was a kid back then and now I'm nearly the mid 50s -- that BASIC cartdridge's keyboard required to be plugged in both joystick ports.
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Speaking of an even weirder hybrid before the hybrids... By 1979 Atari released a BASIC cartridge for the Atari VCS (later renamed Atari 2600): the VCS/2600 was a console. No keyboard. So the BASIC cartridge shipped with the most horrible keyboard ever invented.
So in a way the console themselves were the first hybrid.
Believe, I know: it's how I wrote my very first program ever. It was super simple: basically modifying programs drawing colored lines across the screen.
IIRC -- but I was a kid back then and now I'm nearly the mid 50s -- that BASIC cartdridge's keyboard required to be plugged in both joystick ports.
Oh. The. (128 bytes of RAM) Memories.