134 replies to this topic

[Zwackery]

Xmas 1980.  One of the mid-Atlantic department store chains, Jamesway, offered a  bonus copy of Space Invaders with every new 2600 purchased, and that was  enough of a financial incentive for my parents to buy it.

I keep Atari alive because it is a big part of the foundations of video game history, part of my own personal history, and part of what I do currently as a vocation (communications/media studies professor).

[Jr. Pac]

SlowCoder, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 11:18 AM, said:

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:50 AM, said:

It was 10x as dirty as shown in the picture on the eBay listing (which I saved and attached). About a month and half ago, I was searching for Atari 2600s. I just searched atari and no category so I could find the sellers in the world who don't know anything about what they are selling, and I found this one: The description was "atari game system works great" and the title was "atari game" The seller barely knew what it was and didn't have any cables, so how could he test it? I didn't have any money at the time and it didn;t seem like it was tested, but I took the risk and payed my mom back eventually. After I won, I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet, but he didn't respond. But 7 days after I payed, he wrote back that he was on vacation. It took another 5 days to arrive, and it came in a dirty re-used over and over again Flat Rate box at my doorstep. I opened it, and voila! My new Atari VCS!..... But I didn't have a power supply and the system was in rough shape. I stayed up all night cleaning it and polishing it, etc. And now it looks almost brand new except for the fact that a little bit of the bezel paint is worn off. I didn't know where to get a power supply because the ones on eBay are soo expensive, and I remembered I had an AA account, so I created a Wanted thread, and got PMs and got a lot of my favorites (I just had boring commons like Combat, Asteroids, etc so I got my favorites like Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc) and... A power supply! It was the moment of truth. Plugged her in, hooked her up popped in Ms. Pac... And... Nothing. Then I realized I was on channel 4 instead of 3. I set it to channel 3... And... She was perfect! No RF interferance!  Now she's all wrapped up in luxury and a small shelf of games. She's my little Stella and she'll always be my favorite. The big bummer is, since the controller ports are on the back, I scratched up the back a bit from trying to plug in a controller. It used to have the Left Controller  Right Controller sticker in like new shape, but now it's scratched. Nothing's perfect!
Listing Pic (it was 10x as dirty as this when I recieved it. ):   2600iwon.jpg
Present day (I took her out of her fancy television stand for this pic): rsz_dscn1117.jpg
(Yes, that is a brand new original Rev. 1 CX-40)
The Manufactured date stamped on the inside was JUL 28, 1979. I had a blast playing her with my family for her birthday.

+1 for your efforts!  Great job!  Tell your mom AA says she should be proud too, and give you a bigger allowance to support your habit.

Thanks. My mom laughed her head off.

[Deja-Q]

Short Version:
I got my first Vader 1982. After been fed up to be jealous about the 2600 of a buddy I sold my TCR Racing Track, a steam train Size N and some other things to get my first, holy ATARI 2600 Darth Vader VCS.  

[Keatah]

Dauber, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 8:38 AM, said:

TurnStyle? Wow, they still existed when Atari 2600 was out???  (Keatah -- you from the Chicago Metro area???)

I remember Venture was a good source for Atari games, and a surprisingly large number of arcade games in front of the store....

Yes. This might have been a lingering store that hadn't been converted to Venture yet.

[BydoEmpire]

My family had an Intellivision , and we relied on our neighbors for the occasional Atari fix.  Somewhere around 84 a friend of mine got an Apple 2 and I ended up trading him a pile of pirated disks for his 2600 setup (he didn't really want it anymore after getting a computer).  Great deal for me because I got basically a free system and I remember picking up cheap games being closed-out at Kay Bee Toys due to the crash.  Wish I had bought more!!!  I loved my Intellvision, but there were a lot of 2600 games I wanted to play as well so it was great to have both systems.  I had a black and white TV in my room and had a blast with the 2600 - I still have that specific console even though it died on me a while back.  I kept it mostly for nostalgic reasons, but also because it had a red stripe around the switches rather than orange, and it's the only one I've seen like that.  I doubt it was anything special, but I'd since acquired many 2600s and I'd never seen another one with the red stripe.

Edited by BydoEmpire, Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:18 PM.

[Schizophretard]

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:50 AM, said:

It was 10x as dirty as shown in the picture on the eBay listing (which I saved and attached). About a month and half ago, I was searching for Atari 2600s. I just searched atari and no category so I could find the sellers in the world who don't know anything about what they are selling, and I found this one: The description was "atari game system works great" and the title was "atari game" The seller barely knew what it was and didn't have any cables, so how could he test it? I didn't have any money at the time and it didn;t seem like it was tested, but I took the risk and payed my mom back eventually. After I won, I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet, but he didn't respond. But 7 days after I payed, he wrote back that he was on vacation. It took another 5 days to arrive, and it came in a dirty re-used over and over again Flat Rate box at my doorstep. I opened it, and voila! My new Atari VCS!..... But I didn't have a power supply and the system was in rough shape. I stayed up all night cleaning it and polishing it, etc. And now it looks almost brand new except for the fact that a little bit of the bezel paint is worn off. I didn't know where to get a power supply because the ones on eBay are soo expensive, and I remembered I had an AA account, so I created a Wanted thread, and got PMs and got a lot of my favorites (I just had boring commons like Combat, Asteroids, etc so I got my favorites like Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc) and... A power supply! It was the moment of truth. Plugged her in, hooked her up popped in Ms. Pac... And... Nothing. Then I realized I was on channel 4 instead of 3. I set it to channel 3... And... She was perfect! No RF interferance!  Now she's all wrapped up in luxury and a small shelf of games. She's my little Stella and she'll always be my favorite. The big bummer is, since the controller ports are on the back, I scratched up the back a bit from trying to plug in a controller. It used to have the Left Controller  Right Controller sticker in like new shape, but now it's scratched. Nothing's perfect!
Listing Pic (it was 10x as dirty as this when I recieved it. ):   2600iwon.jpg
Present day (I took her out of her fancy television stand for this pic): rsz_dscn1117.jpg
(Yes, that is a brand new original Rev. 1 CX-40)
The Manufactured date stamped on the inside was JUL 28, 1979. I had a blast playing her with my family for her birthday.

I enjoyed your story. Especially the part where you said,"I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet." I bet when he got home from his 7 day vacation he crapped himself when he saw his inbox full. I agree with Slowcoder that your mom should raise your allowance. The trick is to beg her to play with you and then make her think the VCS is hers too. Before you know it she will be a member and be buying games for the "family's" VCS.

[Rikkarr]

Summer of 2008.  It came with 2 games (one of which was Squeezebox...  Can't remember the other).  After learning that my friend had a closet full of A2600 games that I could borrow at any time, my interest for the system really took off.  I may not have been alive during its prime, but I can always appreciate a great system with great games

[Jr. Pac]

Schizophretard, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:27 PM, said:

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:50 AM, said:

It was 10x as dirty as shown in the picture on the eBay listing (which I saved and attached). About a month and half ago, I was searching for Atari 2600s. I just searched atari and no category so I could find the sellers in the world who don't know anything about what they are selling, and I found this one: The description was "atari game system works great" and the title was "atari game" The seller barely knew what it was and didn't have any cables, so how could he test it? I didn't have any money at the time and it didn;t seem like it was tested, but I took the risk and payed my mom back eventually. After I won, I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet, but he didn't respond. But 7 days after I payed, he wrote back that he was on vacation. It took another 5 days to arrive, and it came in a dirty re-used over and over again Flat Rate box at my doorstep. I opened it, and voila! My new Atari VCS!..... But I didn't have a power supply and the system was in rough shape. I stayed up all night cleaning it and polishing it, etc. And now it looks almost brand new except for the fact that a little bit of the bezel paint is worn off. I didn't know where to get a power supply because the ones on eBay are soo expensive, and I remembered I had an AA account, so I created a Wanted thread, and got PMs and got a lot of my favorites (I just had boring commons like Combat, Asteroids, etc so I got my favorites like Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc) and... A power supply! It was the moment of truth. Plugged her in, hooked her up popped in Ms. Pac... And... Nothing. Then I realized I was on channel 4 instead of 3. I set it to channel 3... And... She was perfect! No RF interferance!  Now she's all wrapped up in luxury and a small shelf of games. She's my little Stella and she'll always be my favorite. The big bummer is, since the controller ports are on the back, I scratched up the back a bit from trying to plug in a controller. It used to have the Left Controller  Right Controller sticker in like new shape, but now it's scratched. Nothing's perfect!
Listing Pic (it was 10x as dirty as this when I recieved it. ):   2600iwon.jpg
Present day (I took her out of her fancy television stand for this pic): rsz_dscn1117.jpg
(Yes, that is a brand new original Rev. 1 CX-40)
The Manufactured date stamped on the inside was JUL 28, 1979. I had a blast playing her with my family for her birthday.

I enjoyed your story. Especially the part where you said,"I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet." I bet when he got home from his 7 day vacation he crapped himself when he saw his inbox full. I agree with Slowcoder that your mom should raise your allowance. The trick is to beg her to play with you and then make her think the VCS is hers too. Before you know it she will be a member and be buying games for the "family's" VCS.

I'm going to make a thread with my collection soon, I think I'm spoiled enough. Right now, it's $2-5 a week.

[BDW]

I got my 2600 in the fall of 07. I've had to replace several components since then, but it still runs fine.

[retrorussell]

I think our family got ours back in 1981.  Had a blast playing it with my sisters but we didn't have many games.  Asteroids was our favorite.  I got so much use out of it and my grades suffered that my playing time had to be rationed: 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour at night.  I think we garage saled it out of our possession; now I just open up Stella when I get the itch to play again.

[Atomik]

I got my Atari 2600 Jr. a little bit more than a month ago, wish I would have had interest in retro gaming before. Also I'm amazed at how many people in this forum actually had an Atari back in the days and still have it as a hobby.

[SlowCoder]

Atomik, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 4:04 PM, said:

I got my Atari 2600 Jr. a little bit more than a month ago, wish I would have had interest in retro gaming before. Also I'm amazed at how many people in this forum actually had an Atari back in the days and still have it as a hobby.

Ataris are a hail to many of our pasts, and something different from today's games.

In 30 years today's kids will think back to their PS3s, Xboxes and Wiis, but none will have one because they aren't designed to last like the systems from the past.

[Syntaxerror999]

My first atari was given to me about 95 by my uncle. I had seen the atari as a child, but my parrents would not get one (i got a texas instrament instead). The tari as a love afair that lasted till I was 18 and lost intrest in many things. I eventualy gave the atari and all 100 games I collected via thrift shops (at that time thrift shops were treasure troves for atari games... literaly baskets of them.)

To this day I regret that decision. My second atari I aquired last year via ebay... its a heavy sixer (possibly sunnydale) with some minor issues with the control ports (paddles don't work unless I juggle the ports a little and genesis controlers give me a rainbow-ish effect when inserted sometimes... I think something might be bridging the paddles caps if the board shifts slightly)

[tz101]

Atomik, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 4:04 PM, said:

Also I'm amazed at how many people in this forum actually had an Atari back in the days and still have it as a hobby.

While I have had mine for almost 31 years, I did lose interest during the NES and Genesis years. Only really came back around to playing it in the past couple. I am glad I kept it all those years.

[Rex Dart]

I'd always seen ads for Atari systems & games in magazines growing up, but never had one.  Got an NES in '89 or so and that definitely satisfied the gaming urge for a long time.  I've had plenty of other systems since then.

I bought myself a 7800 in the middle of 2010 as a birthday present to myself.  Got a bundle off eBay with a couple dozen carts & a sack of hardly-working controllers, and I love it.  I've got about 100 various 7800 & 2600 carts now and I'm pretty happy with my collection.  I'd like to get a couple homebrew games when those are available again, but no other older games really catch my interest.

[Keatah]

The thing with the 2600 is it focuses on gameplay, by necessity of the limited capabilities. Any new graphic trick or programming trick comes as a bonus. I know for a fact that there are lots of things yet to be discovered in getting more out of this system.

Designing in-game art and graphics is child's play compared to programming. And today's gaming consoles focus too much on spiffy graphics out of laziness. Today's games have super sparkling graphics with little personality.

Look, if you're gonna build a game on the 2600, you got shit to work with for graphics and sound. But you got instant 30ms or better response time on the controllers and you got scanline-by-scanline updating of game action and on-screen activity. So it's all about the gameplay. The graphics and sound come second. And this is the heart and soul of VCS gaming.

[Schizophretard]

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:51 PM, said:

Schizophretard, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 12:27 PM, said:

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:50 AM, said:

It was 10x as dirty as shown in the picture on the eBay listing (which I saved and attached). About a month and half ago, I was searching for Atari 2600s. I just searched atari and no category so I could find the sellers in the world who don't know anything about what they are selling, and I found this one: The description was "atari game system works great" and the title was "atari game" The seller barely knew what it was and didn't have any cables, so how could he test it? I didn't have any money at the time and it didn;t seem like it was tested, but I took the risk and payed my mom back eventually. After I won, I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet, but he didn't respond. But 7 days after I payed, he wrote back that he was on vacation. It took another 5 days to arrive, and it came in a dirty re-used over and over again Flat Rate box at my doorstep. I opened it, and voila! My new Atari VCS!..... But I didn't have a power supply and the system was in rough shape. I stayed up all night cleaning it and polishing it, etc. And now it looks almost brand new except for the fact that a little bit of the bezel paint is worn off. I didn't know where to get a power supply because the ones on eBay are soo expensive, and I remembered I had an AA account, so I created a Wanted thread, and got PMs and got a lot of my favorites (I just had boring commons like Combat, Asteroids, etc so I got my favorites like Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc) and... A power supply! It was the moment of truth. Plugged her in, hooked her up popped in Ms. Pac... And... Nothing. Then I realized I was on channel 4 instead of 3. I set it to channel 3... And... She was perfect! No RF interferance!  Now she's all wrapped up in luxury and a small shelf of games. She's my little Stella and she'll always be my favorite. The big bummer is, since the controller ports are on the back, I scratched up the back a bit from trying to plug in a controller. It used to have the Left Controller  Right Controller sticker in like new shape, but now it's scratched. Nothing's perfect!
Listing Pic (it was 10x as dirty as this when I recieved it. ):   2600iwon.jpg
Present day (I took her out of her fancy television stand for this pic): rsz_dscn1117.jpg
(Yes, that is a brand new original Rev. 1 CX-40)
The Manufactured date stamped on the inside was JUL 28, 1979. I had a blast playing her with my family for her birthday.

I enjoyed your story. Especially the part where you said,"I constantly PMed him asking if he sent it yet." I bet when he got home from his 7 day vacation he crapped himself when he saw his inbox full. I agree with Slowcoder that your mom should raise your allowance. The trick is to beg her to play with you and then make her think the VCS is hers too. Before you know it she will be a member and be buying games for the "family's" VCS.

I'm going to make a thread with my collection soon, I think I'm spoiled enough. Right now, it's $2-5 a week.

If I had an allowance of only $2-5 a week I would save the money to buy a used lawnmower and a snow shovel.

[Jr. Pac]

I would save it to buy a car! Only? I think it's alot!

[SlowCoder]

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:38 PM, said:

I would save it to buy a car! Only? I think it's alot!

What Schizo is saying is that you should save for a lawn mower so you can start mowing people's lawns for more money.  Easy $15 per lawn, if it's small.  2 or 3 hours of work on a weekend and you'll be the richest self-made 10 year old on your block.   It's also great exersize.

There's so much a kid your age can do to rake in some dough.  Lawn mowing, snow shoveling (if you live where it snows), car wash, sweeping the garage and driveway, etc.

[rolenta]

I bought my first VCS, my first videogame console, in May 1979. I had a friend who worked in the Service department at Crazy Eddie in Union, NJ and he allowed me to get a console at his cost. I couldn't decide between an Odyssey2 or a VCS. The Odyssey2 had the keyboard, which I really liked, but the VCS had Breakout, which I really loved. So I bought the VCS for $110 and with it I got the Breakout cart and the Casino cart. The box for the Casino cart said it was a 'Special Edition' so I wanted to get it before it wasn't available anymore!

After that I was hooked. The collector in me then went and bought every cartridge that was available for it. And I hven't stopped yet.

[BigErn]

I got a Light Sixer off the internet back in 2002.  I used to crank up "Saturday Night 80's" on the radio and play Space Invaders, Frogger, or Air Sea Battle (My only three games).  I had to wiggle the power cord to get it to work, and after about a year it just snapped right off.  I just replaced it with a Heavy Sixer, and I finally bought myself a bunch of great games from ebay.

Even though I didn't grow up with an Atari 2600, I love the feeling I get when I play it.  Like when you watch an old movie or TV show like Smokey and the Bandit, or The Dukes of Hazzard, and you get to experience the good old days.  I like immersing myself in the experience. I'd love to get an old TV set with knobs and wood paneling and play on that.  Maybe get some old Atari posters up on the walls...

Edited by BigErn, Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:35 PM.

[A2600]

When dad migrated to the US from Cuba in 1984 he bought a Vader and a ton of carts, I used it from 1989 to 1993 just about the time dad said that I broke it, in 2000 bought a Heavy Sixer from EPAY and had it untill 2005 when I sold it to CPUWIZ, havent had another 2600 since... (got a 7800 in 2003 but also sold it in the 2005 sale)

Lately I have been itching for another Vader lets see what happens

[Deteacher]

I played my first Atari in the fall of '78.  I was 8 years old, living in a very remote part of Northern ME (5 minutes from the Canadian border.) We would travel down to NJ once a year for our family reunion.  My uncle had just purchased the Sears Heavy Sixer and set it up for us and our cousins to play.  We played it on this huge console color TV and you couldn't pry us away from that thing.

My parents bought us (me and my 3 siblings) an Atari Heavy Sixer that Christmas, in '78.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  It came with Combat, but they also bought each of us a game to go with it.  We got Video Olympics, Breakout and Air/Sea Battle (my little brother was too young at the time, so he didn't get one.)  We also had a big console color TV, but my parents wouldn't let us play in color because they were afraid that the Atari would "burn the color out."  Every now and then they'd let us play in color, but not before they washed the color out so much, you could barely see it.  But that was ok.  We still played the heck out of it.  Of course, when they weren't around, we'd play in full color.  

I keep it alive because it's a nice reminder of my childhood.  Growing up in such a remote area, there was very little to do.  We had 3 other houses on our road.  2 of them were elderly couples and the other one had 2 kids close to our age, but they were jerks, so we didn't play with them very often.  We didn't have cable TV, growing up (4 channels, 1 of which was Canadian French.)  We played a lot outside, but when we couldn't, we had the Atari.  I had our original system until 2000, when I decided to sell my collection off.  Then, my Uncle gave me his old system in 2002.  I still have that system and I'll never get rid of it.  He just recently passed, so I cleaned polished and stored that unit away for preservation.

Today, I play on my modified 7800 and Emulation/Stelladaptor.  Atari will always be close to my heart.  When I die, don't put rosary beads in my hands.  Put a CX-40!  

[Dan Iacovelli]

Christmas 1977, basically that when I got most of my atari's
2600 Crhistmas 1977(when it was first out)
7800 Christmas 1989 (again when it first came out)
Lynx Christmas 1999.
I passed over the 5200 because I didn't care for it
the Jaguar I got at it's release date in IL but not on xmas.
sadly my original 2600 bit the dust and I'm on my second one
now which I picked up at garage sale about some time ago with some games.
my 7800 is also dead, need a power supply to see if they(I got a spare but never checked it)
are working because I might have fried it.
I still have my orginal Lynx and my jaguar the CD drive though works but the cart slot only reads
the memory cart so I'm on hunt for a new one.

and why I keep my 2600 alive all these because I really enjoying play the homebrews and classics
plus it helps me when I need to test my games on a real system thanks to harmony cart and batari and VBbasic.

[Jr. Pac]

SlowCoder, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:46 AM, said:

Jr. Pac, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 9:38 PM, said:

I would save it to buy a car! Only? I think it's alot!

What Schizo is saying is that you should save for a lawn mower so you can start mowing people's lawns for more money.  Easy $15 per lawn, if it's small.  2 or 3 hours of work on a weekend and you'll be the richest self-made 10 year old on your block.   It's also great exersize.

There's so much a kid your age can do to rake in some dough.  Lawn mowing, snow shoveling (if you live where it snows), car wash, sweeping the garage and driveway, etc.

I'm in sunny CA, no snow here. I actually LOVE to clean cars and help my dad... But I also go to the car wash alot.