Which VCS game invokes the most nostalgia in you?

[maibock]

For me it is Asteroids. I got my 2600 in July 1982. It came with Combat. Around that time there was a promotional deal in the newspaper. If you sent away your proof of purchase of the 2600 you got Asteroids for free.

 

The next month we were on holiday in a caravan at the seaside (north coast of Ireland) when it arrived. My aunt and uncle drove up the night before we were due to come home (they would drive us home the next day) and brought the package with them. Caravans in the 80s had no electricity so I had to sit and look at the cartridge and read the manual all that night! The journey home the next day took forever but I got home and went to my other uncle's house who had borrowed the 2600 while I was away as it intrigued him. He had introduced me to video games by buying a pong console several years earlier so he had an interest.

 

We were both blown away by Asteroids. For its time it was a pretty solid port and my uncle absolutely loved it. He kept turning up at our house to play the following week and when he made up his mind to get his own 2600 the promo deal had ended and that put him off (£30 back in '82 was a lot of money on top of £100 for the console).

 

My brother and I played Asteroids every day for at least a year (game 39) and when our cousins visited it was one of the favourites too. When we were pushed off the main TV by my parents we played on an ancient second hand black and white TV we had in our bedroom. Many , many happy hours. No other video game has had quite the same effect on me.

 

My uncle died quite young (at 49) and I always associate the great summer of '82 with the game but also have a tinge of sadness when I think of his death which was around 6 years later. It's a bitter-sweet memory which is stoked with nostalgia. The 2600 lit the spark in me which ended up with me making my living in IT , and my uncle gave me a little nugget of advice about next steps in my education to pursue that - so you can imagine what that little game means to me.

 

It's a pity that I can't really invest much time in playing it now - I don't feel it has aged too well though maybe it is simply because I played it so much that I was done with it. The 7800 version is my new favourite home version - even prefer it to the emulated ports on PC and 360.

ahh man - nice story..

[maibock]

Mine are definitely Basketball, Skiing, Superman, and go ahead an put me down for Target Fun, since we were a Sears family growing up as well.

[maibock]

Kaboom - If the paddles were plugged in I would play this game for weeks out of total and complete lazyness of not swapping controllers out

 

 

haha we were like this as well, but with Circus Atari

[tep392]

Combat & Outlaw - These were the very first 2600 games that I played when I discovered the system at my cousins house.

 

Adventure & Missile Command - I played both of these a ton. When I was bored, I would pop in Adventure and do silly stuff like drag every object into the secret room, including the dead dragons (using the bat). That room would flicker like crazy.

[Tempest]

Probably Asteroids, Missile Command, and Pressure Cooker. Three of my favorites growing up.

[sloth-machine]

I forgot to mention Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Many endless hours of taking down mammoth AT-AT Walkers with my brother. Pure fun.

[AtariLeaf]

Most nostalgia would be games that either my cousins or I owned when we got our VCS's

 

Adventure

Missile Command

Space Invaders

Asteroids

Outlaw

Combat

Air/Sea Battle

Night Driver

Superman

Video Pinball

[schuwalker]

I would have to say Target Fun for me circa '78 or '79.

 

My family was HUGE Sears' shoppers back then, reminds of a couple things: Late 70's, Sears was still relevant, and the 2600.

 

I miss those days!!!!!!

[Atarian7]

Kaboom! The reason for the 2600 returning to my home.

 

Several years ago I discovered 2600 emulation where the joystick games could be somewhat reasonably be played with a gamepad, Kaboom! remained elusive with its need for paddles. I went from emulation, to a Jr. (planning to buy Kaboom! and the paddles separately), to a 4-switch (in a lot with Kaboom!), to a S-video modded 6-switch and a Harmony cart. While it's great to be able to play everything I did (and wanted to but never did) first and foremost was and still is Kaboom!.

 

*Sigh* Someday I'll probably get a CRT and bean bag chair to complete the return to my youth of 30+ years ago.

What's your high score on Kaboom! ?

[Gribble101]

Wizard of Wor, I played that game a lot as a kid. There's just something about it, sitting in a dark room playing it; there's nothing better than that.

[lingyi]

What's your high score on Kaboom! ?

Don't know what it was back then, but definitely not high enough to get an Activision patch!. But I tried!!!

 

Now, I struggle to get more than a few levels in, but I still keep trying! I'm blaming on the paddle (the first set I got when I returned to the 2600 was sticky and laggy and I've swapped them out for another set), but the truth is that 20+ years later these old hands and eyes ain't as quick as they used to be.

[R.O.T.S]

Raiders Of The Lost Ark ,Chopper Command,Haunted House,Space Invaders,Asteroids,Pacman,Pele`s Soccer and Pitfall! , past and present friends from school and a time when life was far less complicated...Amen.

[Atariboy2600]

Well heres my top ten 2600 games that alway bring me nostalgia every time I played them^_^

 

There are:

 

Asteroids.

Berzerk.

Yars Revenge.

Centipede.

Ms.Pac-Man.

Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Mario Bros.

Pitfall.

Star Wars: The Empires Strikes Back.

Star Trek: SOS.

[Dr Manhattan]

Adventure. I was truly amazed by it. It just felt so epic and mysterious to my young mind.

 

Honorable mentions for Space Invaders, Asteroids, Combat and Raiders of the Lost Ark. All of these games are special to me.

[ledzep]

Surround - I remember the bland color scheme and that echoey sound when you crashed.

 

Target Fun - We had the Sears Tele-Games console so that was a first game for us.

 

Adventure - After playing the game to the point of memorization we would challenge ourselves to win the game by ending up with everything (including the bat and possibly the dead dragons) locked in the yellow castle. Either by pushing in the key or by dragging in the key to see inside the castle with everything in there. With everything inside the colors would cycle around like crazy.

[Mot]

I would like to open it up a bit and not talk about a game or games, sorry.

 

So my dad had 6 kids (me included) and more than a full time job managing a Woolco (kinda like a Target) (4040 N Oracle Rd Tucson, AZ) in the 80’s. So he didn’t have a lot of time with me individually and so when he brought home an Atari (six switch model) and I think I got the most joy playing that thing and I felt like a big shot going behind the counter at Woolco where the Atari games where because my dad was store manager! That is why Atari in general to me really gives a nostalgic connection with my dad (now passed). This is probably why I collect and visit Atari Age still!

 

The games that the whole family played together were Combat and Air Sea Battle and then Space Invaders and my mom would even play it and I would come home and find her playing by herself! Adventure was one that I spent sooo many hours playing that “Created by Warren Robinett” is a thing of worship!

 

But it was not just the games, I would drool over the manual and catalogs and cartoons that came in the box because the TV was not always available for Atari. The manual always made the very rudimentary graphics more palatable because you would know what it is (oh the arrow is a sword).

[Mot]

Adventure - After playing the game to the point of memorization we would challenge ourselves to win the game by ending up with everything (including the bat and possibly the dead dragons) locked in the yellow castle. Either by pushing in the key or by dragging in the key to see inside the castle with everything in there. With everything inside the colors would cycle around like crazy.

 

So did you ever try to win by being on top of the yellow castle? If you took the magnet and put it above the gate then take the bridge in to the hallway below the castle and go off the bottom of the screen with the chalice and then drop it and it will float to the gate and you will win with the square at the top. A slight variation: magnet above the open gate and the chalice in the path of the gate (I can’t remember how to have the magnet not attract the chalice) but then have the key with you as you fall off the bottom of the hallway to the top of the yellow castle and then drop the key and the key would start closing the gate and then it would touch the chalice and then you would win. (Or maybe it was have the gate closed and the magnet above and the chalice below it and then when you dropped the key it would open the gate and touch the chalice and win.)

Edited March 21, 2015 by Mot

[ledzep]

 

So did you ever try to win by being on top of the yellow castle? If you took the magnet and put it above the gate then take the bridge in to the hallway below the castle and go off the bottom of the screen with the chalice and then drop it and it will float to the gate and you will win with the square at the top. A slight variation: magnet above the open gate and the chalice in the path of the gate (I can’t remember how to have the magnet not attract the chalice) but then have the key with you as you fall off the bottom of the hallway to the top of the yellow castle and then drop the key and the key would start closing the gate and then it would touch the chalice and then you would win. (Or maybe it was have the gate closed and the magnet above and the chalice below it and then when you dropped the key it would open the gate and touch the chalice and win.)

 

Man, I don't know if we ever tried that (using the magnet to transport something as part of the win). Sound interesting.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Combat, Pac Man, Space Invaders, Centipede, E.T., Missle Command, and Kaboom always have a place in my heart and were the first games I remembered playing for the 2600.

[+DrVenkman]

For me it's a three-way tie between Combat, Space Invaders and Yars' Revenge. The first two were the games we got when we got our Light Sixer for Christmas 1980. The latter one was the last game I specifically saved up personal money to buy over the course of a month or two of lawn mowing and allowance, then bought with my own funds before my attention and focus shifted to the Atari 400 I decided I wanted to buy. Playing any of those three now and it's just like being 12 - 14 again ...

[bigfriendly]

Pitfall, Adventure and Dragon Stomper. I remember my mother put Pitfall on layaway at Gaylords Department store. It was one of those games that everybody wanted to come over to see and play. Dragon Stomper was just so cool for the time. I remember having to insert the bulky Super Charger into the 2600 and connecting it to the tape recorder. It was really cool:)

Edited April 29, 2015 by bigfriendly

[jaholmes]

Air/Sea Battle, without a doubt. I can remember the sleepovers with friends spent sitting in a dark room, lit only by the TV, playing this game until a parent yelled at us to turn it off and go to sleep.

 

Outlaw and Warlords probably tie for second.

Edited May 4, 2015 by jaholmes

[Keatah]

Gotta love that! We'd do the same thing, and when the call came up we'd turn down the volume. That worked for a little while till they discovered the flickering light seeping under the door.

 

When that happened we took to reading astronomy books and learning about the planets and space shuttles.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Tough call. I bought my first Atari in 2012, so I have little "nostalgia" for it as in childhood memories, etc, but some of the games are still very fun. I'm probably most "nostalgic" for the AA homebrew releases I have aquired as opposed to vintage games. I hope this makes sense.

[Joe Stella]

makes sense.