Animedude360

It's going to all depend on how technically skilled you are. As more and more systems break, there will be less people willing or able to try and fix the problem. But the skilled collectors will be able to take two broken systems and make one working one. Even this will have a shelf-life, but they will be in the game longer than most. The line between collector and DIY-er blurs more and more the older the thing you collect. Just look at car collecting.

As most of us are coming to find out, Time is a cruel mistress. The Atari 2600 is one of the oldest video game systems that exist, and as such is one of the hardest to get connected to modern televisions. While I DO plan to get a CRT TV eventually (no classic gaming room is complete without one), I simply do not have the room for one at the moment. What (if any) are some of the feeisble options for playing atari 2600 on newer TVs. I've looked around, and the Atari 2600 seems to have an odd lack of third party clone consoles like the Retron or SuperBit machines.There are the Atari Flashbacks, but they are built-in games only, and it would mean ignoring my (growing) Atari 2600 cart collection. I enjoy collecting for the Atari (and other older systems), and have over 100 Atari carts. I have an Atari Flashback 2 I found at a garage sale, and I've heard it can be modded to play carts, but I can't find very detailed instructions on how to do the mod. I fear it might be beyond my skill level. Is the only option an old TV for an old system, or have people found other solutions or work-arounds?

Oh yeah, I heard double dragon was terrible, but I actually already have a Kung Fu Master. I know it's not the best port, but its one of the games I had as a kid, so I had to find a copy again. Besides, I have Kung FU on NES and Vigilante on SMS too. And yeah, alot of the library IS junk. thats why the crash happened.

I think I'd have a hard time tracking down a TV that old.

it was Karate something. Maybe just "Karate." Oh man, Chase the Chuckwagon. How much is that pile worth now anyway?

Any suggestions on games I should AVOID? I know Kareteka is pretty bad.

Aww, I don't want to get a Centipede in the box!

Oh, right. Well I live in the US. The Atari 2600 is region-locked, right?

for transparancy's sake, here is my list of Activision and Atari Brand games. I'm pretty sure this is a completely list of both, so I've been checking them off as I get them. Hence the stars. Activison Games: *Barnstorming Beamrider * Boxing Bridge Checkers *Chopper Command Crackpots Dolphin *Dragster *Enduro Fishing Derby *Freeway * Grand Prix H.E.R.O. (rare) * Ice Hockey *Kaboom! Keystone Kaper * Laser Blast *Megamania Oink! * Pitfall Pitfall II (uncommon) plaque attack Pressure Cooker Private Eye (rare) * River Raid River Raid II (rare) Robot Tank Seaquest *Skiing *Sky Jinks Space Shuttle Spider Fighter *Stampede * Star Master *Tennis Thwocker Atari Picture label games: 3D Tic-Tac-Toe Adventure *Air-Sea Battle *Asteroids Backgammon *Basketball *Berzerk *Bowling *Breakout *Canyon Bomber *Casino *Circus Atari *Combat *Defender *Demons to Diamonds *Dodge 'Em Football Fun with Numbers *Golf *Hangman *Haunted House *Home Run Human Cannonball Math Grand Prix *Maze Craze *Missle Command *Night Driver *Othello *Outlaw *Pac-Man Pele's Soccer Sky Diver *Slot Racer *Space Invaders *Space War *Star Raiders *Street Racer *Super Breakout Superman Surround *Video Checkers Video Chess *Video Olympics *Video Pinball *Warlords *Yar's Revenge Slot Machine (Text only) Star Ship (text only) Minature Golf (text only) Flag Capture (picture label rare) Steeplechase (Sears only, text only) Stellar Track (Sears Only) Submarine Commander (Sears Only) (uncommon) *Indy 500 (race controler) Basic Programming (keypad controller) Brain Games (keypad controller) Code Breaker (keypad controller) Game of Concentration (keypad controller)

Yep! It's on my activision list, there's a bunch of games I still need to find from them, though. Checkers, Fising Derby and Keystone Kapers are some of my highest priority ones. Which reminds me, does this site have a trading/selling board?

No way! I've always been a big Ghostbuster's fan. I still have to get find the Ghostbusters game for the Sega Genesis that's becoming rare AND I have to import a NEW Ghostbusters II from Japan for the NES. Because both those games are way better than this game. Maybe after all that, I'll look for an Atari one, but since it plays pretty similarly to the SMS and NES version, It will be low on my priorities.

Isn't Klax a prototype that never got released? And I have Ghostbusters on NES AND Master System already. There's only so much bustin' a guy can take, even if Bustin' makes me feel good. Same with Track and Field, and Obelix looks pretty rare. Crossbow and Wizard of Wor sound neat though, and I can't beleive I forgot to add Road Runner! Added.

I've already got both Yars Revenge and River Raid. River Raid is actually one of my favorite Atari games. I'm thinking about getting a box copy and trying to get the original creator to autograph it. Did you know River Raid was the first video game created by a lady? Oh! See this is so confusing. I'll add that to my list. So as far as I can tell, The games I HAVE to get text labels or are slot machine, star ship, minature golf, steeplechase and possible Flag Caputre since the picture label variant is so uncommon.

Yeah, I might check out that book. But I only collect Atari 2600 (and 7800, I guess) games from that era. Because I have other retro systems I collect for (NES, Genesis etc) If I started looking for Coleco or Intellevision games, I'd probably go nuts! But yeah, there's so many label varients that I decided early on to focus on one type. So I chose atari brand Picture labels (since I don't collect boxes). The text labels might come in handy for knowing the games, but I just found them so boring. The picture labels are much more like other consoles games like NES, and the artwork is ridiculous. Like who knew Super Breakout was about an Astronaut in space? I love it. But given that, I've found a couple games that don't fit. There's the three Sears only games you mentioned, (thank you for clearing up which are text and which are picture labels!) And then there are two Text-Only Atari brand games too: Slot Machine and Star Ship. Plus there is "Flag Capture" which is super common as a text game, but has an uncommon picture varient, and is the only sticking point in my all picture label goal. Who knew game collecting would be so complicated. Atleast I don't have to bother with Activision blue labels... I hate those. I like the picture with the programers name. It speaks of what Activison was trying to do as a company. I plan to get all the "stardard Activision" label games too, plus most of their other games excluding a few. Like Double Dragon. Holy Hell that's a bad port. But now I'm rambling....

Oh, are there 3 sears only games? Do they come with picture labels? I might add them to my list.