The Atari 2800 VCS, which was codenamed "Cindy" within Atari was sold through
Sears as the Sears Telegames II system. The unit was also sold
in Japan as the Atari 2800J. An electronics engineer
by the name of Joe Tilly did the electronics design.
The Atari 2800 had several new and unique features over the original Atari
2600/2600A systems. The Atari 2800 had (4) four controller
ports instead of the standard (2) two on the Atari 2600's.
The unit also came with a new type of all-in-one controllers designed by
John Amber which sat in the users palm quite comfortably. These
controllers were 8 position joysticks as well as 270 degree paddle controllers
all in one and worked extremely well. If the Atari 2800 case
looks slightly familiar, that is because the basic case design was later
redesigned by Barney Huang into what became the Atari 7800 pro-system case.
After a meeting in Chicago with Sears regarding the Atari 2800, Sears loved
the whole concept of the Atari 2800 so much that it was one of Atari's
shortest presentation meetings for a project to be accepted.
To celebrate, the Atari 2800 team went out after the meeting to celebrate
at Hy's of Canada in Chicago.