One memory you'll always remember.....

[cimerians]

For some sensitive, sad reason I just have to know....what one memory that you'll always remember upon your first purchase of the Atari 2600 way back when. (1977-1984).

 

 

Here's mine: I was 11 years old when Space Invaders came out for the Atari 2600. I just bought it, Space Invaders from a local Sears store (yes I bought the Tele-games version for $30) with me pop and I just can't forget the utter excitement of having aliens march down a TV screen and thinking I just bought the best game ever, and wiping them out wave after wave. Played that game for HOURS for many weeks....ahhh sweet memories.

 

Close second is my first stint with Adventure!

[ubersaurus]

I remember breaking my atari from playing cookie monster munch so often. I busted the controller port. It'll be fixed, whenever I get the needed materials.

[Lemmi]

Opening up my 2600 on christmas day w/6 games, then calling my friend and begging his mom to unground him for just 1 day so he could come over and play atari with me, it worked but 1 day was added to his sentence

[eric_ruck]

I remember going to Bloomingdales in Owings Mills, MD (now Macy's) with a friend of mine who managed to save up something like $300 over the course of a year or so (we were 14) to buy an Atari 800. Went with his dad, he had a wad of cash.

 

20 years later, we're still friends. He and his wife were over my house last weekend with their 3-month-old baby.

 

Eric

[moycon]

I remember the time I traded half a bologna sandwich:

 

 

For the 5200 prototype Track & Field.

 

Oh wait!!.. No that never happened.

I do remember the time I packed up all my games (about 60) into a sports bag and put a small lock on the zipper. The idea was that I was going to get to my friends house and act like I lost the key....The problem was, I really couldn't find the key!! We had to cut the bag to get to the games!! Stupid kid.

[Osmeroid]

Playing invisible tank pong on Christmas Day '81 and trying to figure out how much it would cost to buy all the games in the Atari catalogue.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Christmas 82, playing Freeway and seeing the 2600 in my house for the very first time. All the other gifts were dwarfed, and it would set the holiday standard in Mom's house forever.

 

There have been other Christmas mornings, with goodies, NES, TG16, SNES, tons of others, but none could ever equal that dumb chicken getting squished on I95!

 

Cassidy

[liveinabin]

These stories are GREAT! I'm easily old enough to have had one 'back in the day' but I went the Sinclair Computers route (got my first VCS in 97 ).

I remember back in 82,typing a whole 1k's worth (the whole memory capacity) of 1's and 0's into my black and white zx81 because I'd heard about machine code and thought that a load of 1's and 0's would construct some sort of a game

I think EA work on the same idea.

[Joel D. Park]

I remember carrying games to school in my pocket to trade with other kids, I remember how excited I was when I had a new game that I'd never played, it was like christmas all over again. I would barely sleep the night before, then often times I was incredibly dissapointed when a kid would forget his game the next day.

 

I remember trading for Journey Escape, Pitfall, TRON and Stampede. Those are the ones that stick out in my mind. There is also another game I often picture in my head but the picture isn't clear enough to figure out what game it was. It was like a jumping game where I had to jump up the screen to reach the top, I always thought it was a Swordquest game, but maybe not.

[Lost Monkey]

quote:

---

Originally posted by liveinabin:

I think EA work on the same idea.

---

 

EA Sports Presents: FIFA "01100011"!

 

I remember the day I went to pick up my VCS at Kmart. I had saved up enough money from my paper route (!) to be able to afford the $369.00CDN (!!) price tag.

 

The thing that I remember most was how big that damned box was! Of course, I was a lot smaller then...and just knowing how much goodness was in that box was very daunting!

 

 

Another memory I have from those early days: I had a friend from school, the kind that you normally will only interact with at school. Well, one time we tried hanging out together outside of school and it just didn't work out....here's why:

 

He had won a copy of Stampede in a contest but didn't have a VCS. I did. I brought my VCS to his house because he wasn't allowed to bring his stuff out of the house.

 

While I was at his house, I noticed that he had the only issue of "Electronic Games" that I didn't have, so I offered to buy it from him. It was a few months old but in good condition, so I offered him the actual cover price and paid for it right then. This "transaction" happened on a Saturday.

 

On Sunday evening, our phone rang...it was the mother of the kid who I had bought the magazine from. I could hear him crying in the background!

 

She said that "George" was not allowed to sell his things, and that he had changed his mind and wanted his magazine back!

 

So, I brought the magazine to school the next morning and got my money back...

 

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: Lost Monkey ]

[PeeknPoke]

Atari:Xmas day many moons ago, borrowed a load of games for my new Atari, playing Defender and Raiders of the Lost Ark all dau..bliss

 

Other computers:Commodore64 on another xmas day, Bruce Lee and Ghostbusters lovely

 

Lee

[utamav91]

My parents had just gotten a new 27" TV, and I could only play my new Atari on it while out of school on Christmas break.

 

After that, I had to put it on my 19" black and white TV in my room...and a lot of games on the Atari don't look that good in black & white. So I found myself playing night driver, asteroids and space invaders a lot--they look the same on any TV pretty much.

 

A few months later my parents got a color TV in their bedroom and I was able to move my Atari in there. Since Dad worked out of town quite a bit, it was no problem using it back there.

 

Also that Christmas we got one of those 5-gallon tin cans of popcorn--you know, the kind with the butter, caramel and cheese inside. The first two flavors were really good and it was a non-stop game and snackfest for me and my friends for a solid week. But I can still smell that nasty cheese popcorn...am I the only one that just gags on that stuff?