Where Did You Get Your First Atari 2600 and What Type Was it?

[G-type]

I got my first 2600 from my cousin around '87/'88 along with a box of games and manuals including: Frogger, E.T. Combat, Demon Attack, Jungle Hunt, Donkey Kong, StarMaster, Pac-Man, Berzerk, Superman, and Missile Command (I am not sure what happened to it)

[R.Cade]

It had to have been Christmas 1980. We got a 4 switch Woody, so Atari must have put 'em out in time for the holidays. I remember for a fact that around Labor Day 1982 I got a Smokey and the Bandit slot car set for my birthday, so I would have gotten the Tyco slot car set for Christmas of 1981. That means the 2600 was in 1980. The unit was CIB up until sometime around 1989 or so.

 

Anyway, we got Missile Command, Asteroids, Codebreaker, and Combat with it. I remember going into the mall not too long before and my brother and I played Combat at a kiosk. We had an absolute blast with the thing. That probably sealed my parents' decision to buy us a 2600. My uncle was in town that Christmas. I guess he'd gotten a load to haul through Oklahoma City, so he stopped off at the house for a while and enjoyed Christmas with us.

I remember while he and my Dad were playing games, I asked my Dad where "the rest of the games" were. Dad told me that they were all there, to which I replied, "You mean there's only one in each box? But these boxes are big enough for at least two. Why don't they fill 'em up?"

 

If it means anything to your memory of the dates involved, Asteroids and Missile Command were not released until 1981, not 1980.

[R.Cade]

First saw one at my neighbors house w/ Pac-Man & told my dad how impressive this thing was. Soon we rented one for a week from Discount Video along w/ Combat, Space Invaders & Pac-Man. That had to have been summer of 1981.

 

So I probably got mine that Xmas of '81, a 4 switch.

 

Pac-Man wasn't released until first part of 1982, so likely memories are off by one year. It is hard to remember... the same thing happens to me when trying to figure out when I did things back then.

Edited January 12, 2017 by R.Cade

[R.Cade]

I only "played Atari" at friends houses, and at my grandparents when they would let me - they were always watching Love Boat or something when we visited.

We didn't have the money for it back then.

 

However, in 1983 or so, I received a VIC-20 as a gift when they were being blown out for $59 or $99. I had no way to save data (no cassette drive until the next year) but I played with it non-stop trying to program games like the Atari had. I learned BASIC and made a pretty good clone of Adventure that I had to completely type in each time, so the game (and my programming) was always improving. I seem to recall eventually I made the game "play itself" (or at least tried) after seeing War Games. I can't even imagine the time spent doing this over and over.

[Rom Collector]

My parents gave me my first Atari about 1978. Dont know where it came from. I bought my 2nd, an Atari JR, from The Federated Group at Plaza West Covina, in about 1984 or 85.

[MeatWithGravy]

In 1979 or 1980 my kid brother and I became obsessed with the idea of having an Atari. Our closest neighbor a quarter-mile down the road had one and my brother and I spent the heat of many Florida summer afternoons in their well-air-conditioned house playing their Atari -- our folks were stingier with the thermostat and we had no Atari. I was eleven or twelve then, my brother six or seven, and I can't remember what model they had. So anyway, come Christmastime the thing we wanted above all else was an Atari -- they were called simply, "an Atari" in those days.

 

Well, what we got -- probably because our parents did all of our Christmas shopping, I suspect, at Radio Shack -- was a Magnavox Odyssey 2. Now, I won't bust on that system. We had years of fun on it, and I'm sure there are those who still collect for it. But! As far as we were concerned, it was not an Atari. It was an alternative to an Atari. It was not "the thing." We wanted "the thing." So, while my brother and I put on our happiest, most grateful Christmas faces, we were secretly a little crestfallen about it.

 

Some years later, once I was on my own, the NES was the thing and I bought myself one of those. Some years after that, the SNES. And then gaming on a PC, followed by many years away from gaming, then a PS3, then another long break.

 

So, it was just this past November via eBay that I healed that thirty-six-year-old Atari-less wound by buying myself a beautiful NM condition Atari Light Sixer with all the stock peripherals and seventeen carts: Centipede, Circus Atari, Combat (with manual), Cruise Missile, Defender, Kaboom, Laser Blast, M*A*S*H, Night Driver, Pac-Man, Pitfall, Space War, Spiderdroid, Street Racer, Sword Quest, Video Olympics, and Video Pinball.

 

I'm already up to eighty-nine unique game cartridges and counting. So you can see I wasted little time.

 

[Eltigro]

The original one that I/my family owned was probably purchased around 79 or 80. I have no idea where we got it, but I played it for about five or six years until it was destroyed in a house fire when I was in middle school. Pretty sure it was a four switch as I seem to remember switching the difficulty with the little switches in the back.

 

I remember my dad winning one (and five games) as a door prize during the grand opening of a local grocery store. However, since we already had one, he wouldn't let us open it or play it and he put it up in a closet. He did let me pick one of the games to keep, though. I picked Yars Revenge. Never knew what happened to that system...

 

My current one is a four switch model that I got just last Christmas and that I just got working today!

[MeatWithGravy]

I remember my dad winning one (and five games) as a door prize during the grand opening of a local grocery store. However, since we already had one, he wouldn't let us open it or play it and he put it up in a closet. He did let me pick one of the games to keep, though. I picked Yars Revenge. Never knew what happened to that system...

 

OMG. Your dad may still have a NIB VCS in his closet?!

[zzip]

Mine was a Christmas present, so from the North Pole

 

It was the four-switch model with woodgrain.

[Morinphen]

My parents owned it before we were even born so I literally grew up with a joystick in my hand. I want to say it was the 4 switch woody.

[Svmarco]

My Parents got me mine when I was about 7 or 8, for the life of me I cannot remember if it was the Vader console or wood grain....it's crazy when I go looking for the games i used to have as the list seems to be much bigger than I thought...considering what games cost for the system proportionately at the time my poor parents must have spent a fortune! And being the spoiled brat i was, i was still jealous of my cousins with their Coleco vision...Just because i didn't have it too...LOL

[Pioneer4x4]

My first was a light 6er, I'm guessing 1982/83, I don't remember where I got it from, I think it was used. I bought a 7800 and a 2600Jr new later on.

[Tickled_Pink]

No idea where mine came from. I got it for Christmas '82. A 6-switch woody. Still have it, I think ... I never got rid of it but I have three Woodies in the house and I'm pretty sure one of them is my original but not sure which one.

 

Remember where I got my first game from, though. Went with mother and grandmother to Woolworth's in Holyhead either Christmas Eve or the 23rd in '82 to buy Berzerk. Opened it in the car on the way home.

[Flojomojo]

Yard sale, summer 1984, two dollars. 4-switcher just like my friends had. Broken with no sound but a school friend was able to fix it (though I don't know how).

 

I was 14 and the perfect age to scrounge crash-era cartridges. I had an Odyssey 2 (secondhand, never saw it at retail), and a close out Intellivision. It was fun to have the hit-focused Atari in my bedroom, hooked up to an old black and white 13" television. I particularly enjoyed the Sega ports of Star Trek and Buck Rogers in this format.

 

I would use the same TV to watch rebroadcast Star Trek over the antenna when our local PBS would run three in a row back to back, good high quality prints, without commercials.

[Corby]

around '82 '83. Xmas present. light sixer

[+Spriggy]

1982. Perth, Western Australia. 10 years old. I remember seeing the TV ads for the new Atari 2600 Vader for, I think, $199 and either 3 or 5 "Free" games. You chose them from a selection of games in store. I'm guessing the brother and I nagged the parents until they gave in!

 

Every Thursday Night we would venture into the Perth CBD to pick-up Mum from work, stuff our faces at the food-hall and walk around the shops. I recall the oldies taking us to the electrical store 'Retravision', near the Cnr of William St and Hay St, Perth.... where we snagged a Vader and the aforementioned "free" games. I recall picking Asteroids and Space Invaders but not sure of the others initially. Hooked up to a small Black and White spare TV, having to use the RF adapter with screw connections.

 

Amazing the things you recall. I couldn't even fricken remember if I let the cat out this morning before nicking off to work!!!

Edited February 27, 2017 by spriggamortis

[namedjughead]

I got a 2600 JR for Christmas in 1986. I asked my mother for a NES, but she wasn't able to find one. She said the store clerk told her I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the 2600 and NES, since I was only 5 years old at the time. They were wrong and I remember being a little disappointed, but I remember that I didn't show it. She also got me Ghostbusters for the system since I was a fan of the movie, and cartoon. That being my first game didn't really help my opinion of the 2600 at that time. I didn't give up on getting the NES, and eventually got one for Christmas of 1987. Since then my opinion of the 2600 has improved, and I purchased a "new" 2600 JR. It now holds a prized place in my collection next to my 2 port 5200.

[troff]

I got my 4 switch woody for Christmas in either 1980 or 1981, I'm not sure which. I still own it, and it still works for the most part. I probably should try cleaning it. I can tell you which games I ended up with by the late eighties, but I don't specifically remember which games I got when. Combat was definitely the pack in, and I'm pretty sure Air Sea Battle was one of my initial games, but I don't remember anything else for sure.

 

In 1994 I moved several states away so I sold most of everything in a yard sale. I had the Atari out, but the console didn't sell. Most of the carts did. So I tucked the console, Combat, and a few other carts (again, I forget the specifics) in the car when I headed off, and they are with me to this day. I'm now really glad the console didn't sell. I've re-acquired all the carts I sold plus many, many more. And more consoles. The 10 year old me would be so jealous...

[AtariDude]

I can remember it was around Christmas time either 1978 or 1979. My sister and I asked our parents to buy us an Atari 2600 from a Toy store that was located at a corner of a street block. We wanted them to buy the system with 1 or 2 games and they managed to scrape enough money together to be able to buy it for us. We kept it for several years and played a lot of games. We eventually gave the model and all the games that we had at the time to a family who had just moved to the US with very little money who had a boy and girl who were about 7 or 8 years old each. We showed them how to use the system and we pointed out that it was important to turn off the system first and then they could put a new game so that the system would not get damaged. We lost touch with that family but I would like to hope that the kids got good use of the system that we used to own.

[bpatte02]

My folks got my siblings one a year before I was born (somewhere between 86-87), so I grew up on the Atari until about 1995. It was a 4 switch woodgrain model. I remember a lot of good times with jungle hunt, the empire strikes back, Pac-man, sleek n peek, and a lot of frustrating times with E.T., still have no idea how to properly play that game.

[Allen Schweitzer]

I'll be late to my own funeral. It's fun reading about how everybody got theirs back in the 80's and from where. I have always appreciated the Atari 2600, but I got my first Atari 2600, a 4 switch woody, at a Retro Gaming store in Topeka, Kansas in AUGUST OF 2016. My first system was a Bally Astrocade (wish I had it back), then a 5200, and then a Nintendo. After that, nothing for a lot of years. So, I'm probably the only person on here who's had one for less than a year!

[+sramirez2008]

...So, I'm probably the only person on here who's had one for less than a year!

 

Its never too late!

[+DrVenkman]

If I'm remembering correctly, my step-brother and I got our Light Sixer for Christmas 1980 along with Space Invaders. In fairly short order, I remember we got Activision Skiing, Outlaw, Night Driver, Indy 500, Adventure ... Although I no longer have that system. my love for all things Atari hasn't faded with time.

[Zonie]

If Superman was released in 1979, then my recollection also seems a year off, as I got it with my console which is a heavy with CX40's... Maybe my folks found a refurbished unit! They were cheapskates.

[Kapikui]

Mine was a 4 switch woodgrain. I got it Christmas (it was a family gift) 1981 ±1. I don't remember the exact year, but It was right about then. I know I'd had it quite a while by 84. We got it at ZCMI at the (fairly new at the time) Pine Ridge Mall. The mall had recently replaced a drive in theater.

 

It came with Combat, and we got Space Invaders for it. That collection grew.

 

I still have it, I still play it, I'm keeping it as original as possible (though I need to recap it, and make some other minor repairs). I recently acquired a second 2600, woodgrain again. I'm going to mod it out as much as I can think of, just for fun.