Hi! I'm new here and to the Atari 2600. :)

[The Matrix]

Hello. I guess I should tell you that my interest in videogames began with the NES in 1988. Before that I was basically oblivious to any older videogame systems. I joined in on the joy long after the videogame crash. All this, but I was born in 1977. The reason was that my parents weren't that well off anyway. My first videogame experience was a Ms. Pac-Man arcade game at a place in Warsaw, MO (this was before 1988. 1985 I think) called the Family Fun Center (I'm not sure if it's still there, though). My next experience was at a cousin's house when me and my mom went to visit some relatives in South Dakota. I think it was either an Atari 5200 or the 7800 (I know the graphics were better than the 2600). The next one was at a laundromat in Minneapolis, MN when we were in the process of moving up to MN in 1986-87. It was Ms. Pac-Man again. I didn't get a NES until the second year of living in our house in Lakeland, MN (1988 I think). My parents were reluctant to buy me an NES, but like any 11 or 12 year old I bugged them constantly until my birthday when I came home from school to find that my dad was waiting in the livingroom with a big box wrapped in gift wrap (my mom was still at work at the city hall bringing home the bacon. Actually both parents worked ). At first I thought it would be something else, like a big Transformers toy (yes, I was still into Transformers). For most of my childhood I haven't really received any big ticket birthday gifts from my parents and I knew why so I usually didn't bug them about it. Usually what I'd get for my birthday was a $4.99 action figure or some art supplies (mostly stuff that more well off children would get with their weekly allowance and their grandparents). Since I didn't have any grandparents (the closest to that was a grandmother who was in the nursing home and an aunt who would send me money for Easter, Valentines Day, my birthday, Halloween and Christmas) I usually didn't expect much as toys were concerned. I thanked them for the NES over and over for the next several months, then I sat down and stared blankly in the TV screen while shouting profanities at the controller and asking why it didn't work . I next asked them for a SNES, but they drew the line there. The SNES was too expensive and if I were to get a SNES, then I'd have to pay for it myself. Which was the thing, since I wasn't given an allowance in the first place. But I was 14 and the city was hiring kids to work at the beach over the summer. So I got a job thinking I would make enough money before my best friend with his SNES collected more games than me. Too late. With him and his wealthy (and I mean wealthy) grandparents, he got all the money he needed to buy a lot of games and then some. I wasn't playing my NES anymore (the games I had were kind of weird choices to begin with and I only had 6 games) so I sold it and bought myself a SNES with the packing game Super Mario World. Before that I'd been going to Funcoland just to play the different games they had on the display SNES they had (the games my friend didn't have or wasn't willing to let me play. He was kinda mean ). Anyway, for a long time I didn't have any other game besides SMW. And with school starting again, I couldn't afford new games. But I did finally make enough money from birthdays and a second summer at the beach to buy Secret Of Mana. Sweet ass game at the time. My friend was envious . And then the games started trickling in when my dad got a good job at a lawn sculpture factory designing and sculpting clay molds. Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country, and that's about it. I also bought a cheap Game Boy along the way (the original white brick one) with several cheap games that I got my dad to buy for me . At this point I figured out how to get cool things from my parents. Keep the purchase cheap and keep it within close driving range of the house (this was before we got internet or a computer). then in 1992 or 1993 we got a Macintosh IIsi ($5000). I only got a few games for that and a few desktop publishing applications (DP was the buzzword back then and my mom wanted to get into that). I kept the SNES for a while. I finally had enough money to then buy a N64, but I sold it when barely any games were coming out for it and bought a PSX. I had to sell my SNES to buy the PSX (didn't have enough money once again). And to this day I still have the PSX. I now have a G3 Power Macintosh for computer design and learning how to program on it. I want to get A+ Certified so I can get a job at a local computer repair and sales shop. I recently got the urge to collect all the 80s stuff that I missed when I was a kid. Movies, cartoons, games, toys, comics, etc. And it's been happening at a slow but progressive pace. I recently got my hands on an old Atari 2600 from a guy that just passed away. His daughter said I could have it. Just like that. And I got a few games for it, but I'm planning on collecting more. I'm not going to be a completist though. I'm going to collect the games that were popular. the ones I might like. I just went out to Goodwill to buy a few games they have in their bins (99¢ apiece). Right now I have:

 

Asteroids

Frogger

Ice Hockey

Ms. Pac-Man

Pac-Man

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back

Tennis

Video Pinball

 

They all work and are all fun. Even in today's 3D high tech, G4 Power Mac/AMD, GeForce 3/Radeon driven games industry, it's nice to know that the older 80s games can still entertain new users. In my opinion, it's about the fun factor, not the graphics. The graphics and the other extras are just frosting on that cake.

 

[ 08-04-2001: Message edited by: The Matrix ]

[khryssun]

Welcome !

[h.e.r.o]

That's quite a story!

Want to hear my video game life? No? Well, here goes anyway...

 

I was the youngest of three brothers so my oldest had an Atari 2600 since the beginning but soon turned to the NES.

 

My two older brothers bought a NES right away and kept hogging until I got a chance to play. My favorite game was Gunsmoke, especially when used with the NES advantage.

 

In 1991, I was dreaming about getting a SNES for my birthday until I finally got one for my birthday. VERY cool games. In the meantime, I bought the old (not old then) Gameboy and a Sega Genesis as a bride for an A+ on a multiplication quiz at school. I never played the Genesis much, though.

 

The last console my parents bought was the Playstation. They drew the line there. I have never owned a Nintendo 64, PS2, Dreamcast, Game Gear (which I wanted badly), or any others since.

 

Right now I'm rotating between consoles as I'm soaking up the last of sweet summer freedom.

[atari70s]

hey matrix so what is your goal in collecting

[Eduardo]

Matrix:

 

Welcome to the coolest hobbie in the world: Atari collecting.

 

I agree with you: Is all about Gameplay, Eyecandy is just frosting in the cake.

 

I see that you already have some great games like MsPacman, Asteroids and Tennis. Some of the 'must-have' games in every decent 2600 collection that I think you might want to look for are:

 

* Defender

* Pitfall 1 & 2

* Missile Command

* Centipede

* Pole Position

* Battlezone

* Joust

* Galaxian

* Space Invaders

* Dig Dug

* Super Breakout (paddles)

* Kaboom (paddles)

* Warlords (paddles)

* Cosmic Ark

* Berzerk

* Turmoil

 

Most of those games are common and easy to find at a very low price and they have great Gameplay.

 

The VCS will give you endless hours of fun without paying top buck for it, if you want to get Rare carts, well that's another story, but most of those carts I mentioned before are very common these days and you can get them at dirt cheap prices if you spend a few hours looking in the right places like thrifts, flea markets, internet trading etc.

[Osbo]

good history, I guess we all started in the same way. you might want to hit the thrift stores in your area. A week ago I found nintendo games for a dollar, I brought 'em all (30 carts) and last week I found a SNES that needs repairs and a Sega Genesis CD.

eBay it's a good way to get stuff too (the most common) specially carts.

Bye!

 

Gustavo

[videotwit]

Hello and welcome, Matrix!

 

It's nice to see so many Minnesotans here lately (at least 3 AFAIK - Matrix, Nukey Shay and Myself) Anyhow, have fun - this is a good group of people we have hanging out here.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Welcome Matrix!

 

As Twit already stated you really couldn't have found a nicer place or group of people on the web anywhere to discuss Atari with.

 

Enjoy!

[The Matrix]

quote:

---

Originally posted by atari70s:

hey matrix so what is your goal in collecting

---

 

To collect the popular games I missed out on as a kid. Unlike a lot of 3 year olds I didn't have things like an Atari or a Colecovision. I played with a few B&W LCD Tiger games and maybe I think I played with a Vectrex standalone, but mostly I wasn't into videogames until I was well into my early to mid-teens. And it's only now that I realized what all I missed as a kid. Growing up I didn't have an Atari 2600 in the back of my closet like so many other people have. Even my sister wasn't into old videogames (she mostly just remembers playing videogames at friends' houses).

 

For me, I'll play any game that's fun. Even old Atari games.

[Mindfield]

For me, it started when I was a kid and struck a rather remarkable interest in computers and video games. I wanted a PET 'cos we used them in school back in the late 70s, and I had a friend who had one back in grade 4 I think. (At the time those things cost $2,000) 'Course, those things were far beyond the means of my parents. I'd been to arcades at the time and enjoyed playing them when I was able to. It wasn't until around 1983 that I got my first system: A colecovision, bought second hand from mutual friends. At the time it cost my dad $300, but it came with 3 games and the driving controller, so I was happy. I collected a couple more games for it over the next year or so, but then got a 2600 - actually, a Coleco Gemini, as I'd become bored with the CV. For the longest time I only had the one game for the Gemini: Donkey Kong, the pack-in game. Still, I played it endlessly, and eventually got about three other games for it. (Mousetrap, a Spike's Peak/Ghost Manor Xonox double-ender, and one other I can't remember.)

 

Then we moved. We'd packed up everything in boxes and, when we ran out of boxes, green garbage bags. Unfortunately, one bag in particular, that which contained my Gemini and Colecovision, got confused with some actual garbage and was tossed out. I was quite distraught about it. However, for my birthday, our new neighbours -- friends of ours and the people we shared a townhouse with -- gave me a rather remarkable gift separated into three rather sizeable boxes. In the first, the largest, was a complete heavy sixer -- wonderful woodgrain and all. In the remaining two boxes were two plastic cartrige holders, each of which held 16 cartriges (two columns of 8 carts), and each of which was full. Packed with games, from the boring (Golf, Football, Video Poker) to the wierd (Beanie Bopper, Lost Luggage) to the bad (Pac Man) to the wonderful (Pitfall, Pitfall II -- too numerous to mention, in fact). They were all loose -- no boxes or manuals -- but I didn't care. I loved 'em all. Shortly after that I'd discovered Toys "R" Us, and made it a weekly ritual to take the $10 a week in allowance I recieved from my dad and go and buy a game. I did this for about a year, amassing over 80 carts. I missed out on many simply because they were out of my budget, but I got loads of the cheap ones. I even bought all three of the famed and greatly reviled Mythicon games. (Firefly, Sorcerer and Firefox) Eventually I sold it all when I moved on to Atari computers ... I sort of regret that, now, since I wasn't selling it all off to get anything new. I just didn't want it anymore.

 

Now I want it back. :-)

[Mindfield]

Yeah, they used to sell all kinds of stuff. Game consoles -- NES, SMS, 2600, 5200, XEGS, even those old Tomy robots. They also had software for Atari 8-bit, C64, 2600/5200, etc. They had a sort of unique way of preventing theft, I recall; all game boxes were in rows on an aisle partition, each row encased in plastic, each box in its own place. Below each box was fastened a metal ring that hung below holes cut out of the plastic casing, and on the ring was a pad of tickets that identified the game it was attached to. You'd take a ticket to the checkout, pay for it, then go over to a special section sealed off much like Fort Knox, hand the guy behind the counter your ticket, then he'd go and hunt down the game and slip it under the tiny bank-teller slit in the window. (Items that were too large, too bulky, or too numerous to slip under were usually handed to you at the side entrance to the booth)

 

I haven't been in a Toys "R" us since those days, so I don't know how they do such things, if they even still handle video games.

 

Oh, and Radio Shack in Canada doesn't have Atari stuff at all...

[Rhindle The Red]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mindfield:

[QB]I haven't been in a Toys "R" us since those days, so I don't know how they do such things, if they even still handle video games.

QB]

---

 

That's basically how they did it until just about a year ago. They started installing the 'R' Zone sections: sections of the store devoted to games. (I don't know if Tiger sued over the 'R' Zone name.) These sections are blocked off from the rest of the store with security gates, and, of course, every game has a security tag on it, so you can't get out without the alarm going off. This allows them to put the stuff on the shelves just like everything else, now.

 

As a side note, the very last time I bought a 2600 game new in a real chain store was at a big going-out-of-business sale at one of Toys 'R' Us' biggest competitors: Child World. I got Atari Donkey Kong Jr. and Summer Games for $2.00 each. (This was around 1990.) My sister went nuts playing 'hackey sack' on SG. While I bitterly wept at what they had done to Jr.

 

It was a special farewell for me to that store, where I had worked just a few years earlier, trying (fruitlessly) to convince people to buy an Atari Lynx and not that goofy little Game Boy.

[atari70s]

Hey MIND,

 

i dont know howd id take it if my atari collection got tossed out by accident. ( actully i do id flip out totally). but that was nice of the peoepl to buy you a new looking one complete. hmmm toys'r'us sold atari games?? i must write tehm about this ( i know its been 10 or 15 years but radio shack still has atari in the inventory. so how you goign about toi start ur atari 2600 for the 3rd time?

[Mindfield]

Heh... the effectiveness of those little security tags is only as effective as the security system, and where I work, they're almost not worth a damn. On CDs, they just remove them or, more commonly, just slit open the plastic and steal the CD inside. Ditto for DVDs. Video games -- well, I still haven't figured those out 'cos we not only use security stickers on the game boxes, but also encase every game in a plastic security case that can only be opened with a special "counter key" at the checkout. The cases also contain security tags internally, usually inside the lid, but I usually put one or two elsewhere. Despite such measures, we still lose an awful lot. But these are usually by pros -- we lost 13 copies of Office XP a few days after its launch. I'm still puzzling over how they got those huge, hermetically sealed cases out the door...

 

Nevertheless I'm surprised they'd been doing that until only a year ago. I suppose maintenance of such a system, coupled with the inability to actually examine the product in your hands (for whatever reason, even if all sides of a box is displayed, customers still feel the need to actually hold it) became a deterrent.