2600 gets too much credit. NES didn't save the industry; the NES was the phoenix down that revived it from nonexistence. The NES was actually worse off than the 2600 ever was. Thanks to the crash, both retailers and consumers had a negative view of video games (terribly selling consoles and games for the retailers; terrible games for the consumers). The NES had to overcome the negative perception, and after doing so, proceeded to expand the market like negative before.
At the same time, the 2600, while responsible for a great majority of that initial growth back in the early 70s, was also responsible for a lot of the problems that led to the crash (ridiculously long life cycle, no quality protection, etc). A lot of people forget just how terrible most games were on the 2600, and they focus on the few shining examples of greatness.
