You know your Atari reputation precedes you when...

[Scrabbler15]

A friend at work walks into my cubicle and says, "I saw this at Target and I said to myself, oh, I have to get this for my friend." Then he gave me the shirt in the attached pic.

 

So, I just wanted to share that, and then I got to wondering if anyone else has had something similar happen to them. Have you ever had someone from outside our Atari World unexpectedly favor you, just because it's known that you still live inside our Atari World?

[bennybingo]

One of the guys at my work did similar not too long ago, but it was a pitfall t-shirt.

[Fr0st]

Yep, a costomer last Christnas gave me four 2600 games. It was actually the best present I got last year!! Totally unexpected.

[marillion]

My better half bought me an Atari sweatband over 2 years ago (we'd only been dating a short time then), then she bought me the set of 4 arcade game glasses for my birthday a couple years ago, she bought me the Pitfall shirt when she first saw it last year, and that same Atari shit pictured above over 6 months ago.

 

Yup, she knows me.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[Sek]

I've had people stop me at work/inbox me on Facebook because they know I'm the "video game guy" who they can give all their old stuff to.

[shadow460]

Yep. I've been offered video game stuff just because people know I'm an Atari collector.

[Schizophretard]

My boss had me come over to his house to take all his retro video games. Mostly Nintendo stuff and a boxed 7800. The thing that really caught my eye was his Apple ][. It was the first time I saw one.

[+Random Terrain]

Friends only buy friends Atari T-shirts when they want to play with their joysticks.

[Zwackery]

I've gotten Atari, Colecovision, and even Vectrex hardware & software because people know I collect. Networking is a great way to keep these items from going to the trash bin. Most of the time people just let me have it for free.

[uglyclone]

My friends wife bought me some Pacman bandaids a few weeks ago. pretty cool random gift

[Atari2600Lives]

Cool stories , i never got an atari 2600 related present but a vendor I dealt with ( we became friends later) knew I loved retro gaming and he had worked for commodore and he gave me a brand new sealed box C64 ( this was about 2005 time frame ) that he had gotten many years ago and never used .

 

That was incredible.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Atari2600Lives

[8th lutz]

A friend at work walks into my cubicle and says, "I saw this at Target and I said to myself, oh, I have to get this for my friend." Then he gave me the shirt in the attached pic.

 

So, I just wanted to share that, and then I got to wondering if anyone else has had something similar happen to them. Have you ever had someone from outside our Atari World unexpectedly favor you, just because it's known that you still live inside our Atari World?

 

I actually got that shirt earlier this year as a birthday gift and it wasn't a favor. I was an unexpected birthday gift that I had no problem with getting.

 

Yes, I do get birthday gifts despite my age. Lets say the person who gave it to me a gift got the information from my younger brother that I am still into Atari like I was back in the 1980's and early 1990's. My younger brother knows that I am still into Atari by the fact he buys me video games as Christmas gifts including Atari 2600 games.

 

I did forgot to mention that back in the early 1990's there was flea market vender that gave my younger brother and I a free Atari shirt. I wish I know what happened to it. The vendor know my younger brother and I at the time because we bought a lot of Atari 2600 games at the time from there.

Edited November 26, 2012 by 8th lutz

[toiletunes]

A friend of a friend, someone I had never met, saw "some atari stuff" at a garage sale. He called our mutual friend, who called me- turned out to be a 7800 console and a couple dozen assorted games. Mostly commons, but a few R5 goodies- I think the guy wanted like $20, but I talked him up to $25.

[Dauber]

I honestly don't remember if anybody involved knew at the time, but in either 2004 or 2005, one of my coworkers bought one of those plug-n-play TV games (the one with Pac-Man) for everybody in the department, which I thought was ultra-cool of her! I'm guessing because we were all pretty close in age she had an idea of what we'd all get a kick out of.

 

Then I actually PLAYED the thing...yuck. It wasn't an emulated thing but reprogrammed, and the sounds didn't sound anything like the arcade versions, and the joystick response sucked, but hey, I still thought it was way cool of her.

[plyboult]

Where can I get that T Shirt?

[S1500]

Where can I get that T Shirt?

 

Target sells them for $11. With the low price, many people were wearing them at Midwest Gaming Classic.

[Zwackery]

Target sells them for $11. With the low price, many people were wearing them at Midwest Gaming Classic.

 

$9.99 at my local Target. Occasionally you find them cheaper due to a sale.

 

I also acquired this version - http://www.80stees.com/products/Atari-Entertainment-Shirt.asp - from Meijer for about $6 a pop during one of their sales.

[Unbeliever]

No gifts from anyone, but I was up at a Town Clerk's office and the town manager looked at me and said, "You're that video game guy". Totally caught me by surprise. Not sure how he knew that or who he talked to to get that information. Guess my reputation preceded me.

[AtariLeaf]

Both I and ColecoHitman have recently been mentioned in a Kijiji ad - seller was selling a copy of SpiderMaze - he's another local collector we both know. It was just funny seeing my online handle used in a classified ad.

 

Also a few weeks ago, I was in one of the local gamestores and the employee was behind the counter with his laptop when I suddenly hear the familiar song I use for the opening of my videos. Apparently the employees watch my channel on a regular basis

Edited December 8, 2012 by AtariLeaf

[godzillajoe]

I got an Odyssey 2 and a bunch of games because my friend just wanted to get rid of it. Nothing since then though. I'm the "atari / godzilla / wrestling" guy. Still doing what I did 30 years ago as a kid. We're gonna have to start a seniors HSC soon. I would assume everyone here is late 30's, early 40's or older.

[The Usotsuki]

Early 30s here, but I don't have any Atari stuff...yet

 

(ETA: my video game stuff is pretty much everything you see in my new avatar... just a SNES, Genesis and a couple carts. Not much to write about.)

Edited December 8, 2012 by The Usotsuki

[bombidragon]

Mid twenties here, we aren't all old!

[Unbeliever]

Mid 40's now (46) and still feeling like a kid every time I play an old Atari 2600 game. Brings me back to my PJ's and being in front of the old television. Sighhh...nostalgia!

[Dauber]

Not really Atari-specific, but...there's a place here in Chicago called Logan Hardware, which isn't actually a hardware store but a record store, and in the back they have a small retro arcade. To get admission to the arcade, you have to buy something from the record store. (They have records, CDs, DVDs, accessories, etc.)

 

The first two times I was there, it was about a six-month interval. I went there for the third time last week, and the guy at the checkout recognized me from a Facebook post from a month or two ago in which I asked if they can register scores with Aurcade.com. Wow...

Edited December 8, 2012 by Dauber

[shadow460]

37 here. Really I grew up in the Nintendo era, but my dad wasn't about to buy a whole 'nother round of video games when he'd purchased so many Atari games. He was right, too. Some of the stuff we had rivaled the NES in terms of quality AND graphics. I think one really has to dip into obscurity to find 2600 games that really show what the system can do. Our collection was diverse enough that we had some of the hidden gems. In fact, it was so diverse that replacing all those games that were in it has proven quite difficult--and expensive!

 

I was 9 years old when the NES was released over here. Though I never played it a whole lot, the few games I enjoyed on that system also have a nostalgia factor for me. Wouldn't you know it, the small stack of NES carts I own includes copies of every single game my dad bought for me in 1991.

 

LOL, my stack of 2600 carts absolutely towers over the NES stack.

 

Oh, yeah, a couple of weeks back I purchased a small tack of 5200 games and the fellow I bought from was actually relieved to hear that they worked. I tried telling him that the risk of dead carts is just part of the hobby.