Joystick Port

The Atari 7800 ProSystem features twin 9-Pin joystick ports located on the front of the unit, with the A and B difficulty switches located in between. (These are for use when the machine is operating in 2600 mode). As the system is primarily based off of existing 2600 technology, Atari decided to utilize the standard 2600 9-Pin joystick ports as to accommodate existing 2600 controllers and peripherals. The Atari Pro-Line joystick was developed in conjunction with the 7800 system, so that it can operate on games designed specifically for the 7800 which uses two separate fire functions, as well as on the 2600 series systems operating as twin single function fire buttons.

Pro-Line Joystick

The Atari 7800 ProSystem was sold in America complete with two Atari Pro-Line Joysticks packaged with the system. The Pro-Line Joystick features 4 individual positions for the joystick, along with two separate and distinctive fire buttons. The Pro-Line Joystick was designed to operate on both 7800 and 2600 series systems.

Pro-Line Joystick Dual Button Configuration

On the 7800, the fire buttons operate separately from one another. This allows for example a single button for acceleration, and another button for braking in the game Pole Position II. When in operation on the 2600 series systems, or on the 7800 operating in 2600 mode, the two buttons work as single twin fire buttons operating in tandem with each other. In this situation, both buttons perform the same function.

Expansion Bay

The Expansion Bay was originally incorporated into the design of the Atari 7800 during development at Warner in 1983. This port was originally intended to support an extremely advanced LaserDisc™ peripheral for playing games like Dragon's Lair. This LaserDisc™ device is believed to have been scheduled for introduction in 1985 or 1986, however was immediately candled in the summer of 1984 when Jack Tramiel and family took over operations at Atari. This port was incorporated into the first 5,000 production units of the 7800 series system, but was later taken out of the system to cut costs, as Tramiel had no intentions of releasing any nice peripherals in support of the 7800. One interesting historical side note here, this port has been commonly believed to have been the "7800 Keyboard Computer Expansion Port" for the never-to-be-released 7800 Keyboard to be plugged into the 7800 system. This is actually not true. The 7800 Computer Keyboard was never designed to utilize this expansion port, nor were any printers, disc drives, etc. The 7800 Computer Keyboard was to plug into a joystick port on the front of the 7800, just like any other controller. The keyboard its self housed all of the standard ports for the line of Atari 8-Bit Computers so that the 7800 could print and save to a disc. The expansion bay's only known purpose was to support the LaserDisc™ device. Had this advanced peripheral been released on schedual, I believe that it would have changed the direction of home video gaming entirely. The TurboGrafx-CD and Sega CD systems would have looked pitiful in comparison to full motion digital video, fifteen years before its time.

* Uses EXTOSC

Technical Links

Jindroush's Page - In Depth Technical Information On The Atari 7800 ProSystem