2600 - NicheInterests/mistfunk GitHub Wiki

The number 2600 figures prominently in the hacker mind:

1. Its biggest splash, culturally, was likely in the form of [Atari]'s Video Computer System (later aka the [Atari 2600], named after its company internal part number CX2600 for the fully assembled console), the first widespread home video game console that ruled the roost from 1977-1982, home to such hallowed games as David Crane's Pitfall!, Warren Robinett's [Adventure], and Howard Scott Warshaw's E.T.

2. Through the '60s-'70s, the number 2600 was also one beloved of phone [phreak]s, as the tone of 2600 hz (famously discovered by [Captain Crunch] to be produced by toy whistles included in boxes of breakfast cereal) could be used to manipulate and control telephone equipment.

3. The long-running magazine [2600: The Hacker Quarterly] was named in homage to that freak/phreak discovery. Of all the magazines in the world, they have undoubtedly run the most photos of exotic pay phones.

4. In recursive homage to that publication, countercultural groups of [h/p/a] types in cities all over would congregate on a monthly basis for "2600 meets" at mall food courts (traditionally ominously nearby to the coin-operated pay phones) to share forbidden knowledge on technological matters and apprise their colleagues of their progress on their hacks and projects.