keithbk

Okay, so where do you see this video faking the restoration? Do you think he intentionally broke the plastic at the top and rubbed off the orange paint so he could restore it and repaint it? At the 3:14 minute mark, did he put all that stuff inside the Atari 2600? Seriously, you all didn't even watch the video.

You can tell by the rust on the screws on the bottom that this unit was not well-maintained.

To be fair, I used to pick these things up at garage sales about 20 years ago and sometimes they were covered in muddobbers nests from sitting out in peoples garages, attics, and sheds. I've got several non-working systems (like old TI-99's) sitting in the attic above the garage and they look about like that now.

As time rolls on, fewer and fewer Atari 2600 consoles will be available... As long as video games are popular, there will be an interest in classic game systems. As time progresses, Atari systems will be cannibalized to fix non-functioning systems. Will people take the time required to upgrade these systems to work on modern TVs? Don't know... it will slowly become a lost art. There was a time you could go to garage sales and find Atari 2600 game systems by the galore... those days are past. But they are readily available on Ebay for 5-10x what you could pick them up at a garage sale. As with anything, CONDITION is everything. If you have a nice specimen, you can expect a collector to get excited.

One of my favorite YouTube restoration channels did an Atari 2600 video today:

I'm a faithful Slik Stik user. The simplicity of the design internals made this an easy one to repair and the precision is fantastic. There are always a handful available on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380680.m570.l1313&_nkw=Atari+Slik+Stik&_sacat=0

If you had an Atari and another kid had an Atari, you would BEG your parents for sleepovers so you could play each other's games. The games were pretty expensive. Early on, we never loaned them. But we did get together and play each other's games. I think a few years into the Atari, we started loaning games, but these things were like bricks of gold. When you got a new game, you wanted your friends to stay overnight. It became a ritual.

A great article!

The hardware of the ATARI 2600 is both reliable and ergonomic. How many people have trouble with the Nintendo Entertainment System flashing screens, unable to read a cartridge? How many people hate the thumb discs of the Intellivision? Or both the Intellivsion and ColecoVision's short cables for the controllers? Or the unreliability of the ColecoVision hardware after a few years? Even the newer Wii's don't last very long before their drives go defunct. Of the HUNDREDS of cartridges I own, only 1 or 2 don't work properly. That's a better ratio than just about any other game system.

For some reason, the guy turning to the screen reminded me of Impossible Mission, which I played ALL THE TIME on the C64.

I don't know how I missed this, but it's narrated by Sean Astin and has a lot of Atari and classic video game references in it. I'm sure many of you have probably already seen it (it was originally released in 2014), but since it is up on YouTube, I thought I would share it here.

All done! Thanks so much. Means a lot to our family at this time.

Down to the last hour. Thanks to everyone bidding.

Agreed; they still are sucky games, but it does make a bit more sense.

Just a heads up on the Mythicon games, the first game on all three was "Practice Mode" (as indicated by the presence of the smiley face). That's why there was no scoring and unlimited lives. Select game 2 to actually play the game (score, objectives, etc).