82-T/A

Hahah... sorry, that was both a serious and sarcastic response at the same time. Really... I'd only replace a label if it's really trashed. But I can't imagine that anyone would be upset (or that you shoudl be concerned) if you're replacing it with a nice quality replacement. I've become like you, as a collector. I do still have all those games in the picture above (and they're still wrapped), but I intend to take them out and actually just enjoy the games. I'm not concerned with "collecting" anymore. I sold off a lot of the stuff I have, and now just keep the things I think I'll actually play. But to each their own, and I'm not judging... it's just for me, my priorities changed and I just don't have the space. But my 2600 games, I'll never get rid of. That's my childhood!

Oh man... you do not know what you're asking. Here goes... For one... what is your goal in collecting them? I think most game hoarders collectors have a fantasy of opening a game museum in the future. Some do, some die of heart disease and most of their games find their way to a dumpster after the estate sale, and others eventually realize it's not what they want and blow them out on eBay. I came to at least one of those conclusions many years ago... but not after I individually wrapped every single one of my Atari 2600 games in a special plastic bag, and then placed them in two large Tupperware bins. At least I did that in the top one. Eventually it occurred to me that if I wanted to actually play all... 220 games? I'd have to take them out of the plastic bags. So clearly... what you need to do here is... buy duplicates of everything, and keep the nice one wrapped, and the shitty one to play. No! Sorry... scratch that. Figure out what your goal is... do you want to play these games... or are you just collecting them / so you can look at them fondly? If you want to play them, and the labels are already trashed, you're only making it better by replacing them (my opinion).

With the old Atari, if it wasn't great... you'd still get some magic on the screen, haha... lines, all kinds of crazy stuff. I think in this case, we don't get it with the 2600+, so maybe there's less feedback. Atari should sell a "cleaning kit." Have them do a little research and see what some of the best cleaning products and kits are out there, and then Atari brand it... and sell it on their website. I'd buy one.

Hi, sorry, that was abbreviated English. I should have said, "I have to remind myself that these kids probably have no idea what Atari is any more than they know who Aerosmith or Led Zepplin is..."

Hey, I love my CARIUMA Atari shoes, they are bad-ass... and I look awesome as shit in them, and people make comments too. I'm about the size of Reacher, but wearing specially ordered size 13 Cariuma Atari shoes. I think the 80s is really back in style right now. I really wonder what the "style" of this decade will be, because outside of the 1990s... once the 2000 hit, it seems like the last 20 years have all been pretty much the same. Only big change is pleated pants are lame, and cargo shorts are out. But when I drop my daughter off at high school, and occasionally pick her up from sports, there are a lot of people wearing 80s stuff. Mostly (to be fair), 1980s rock bands. Not a damned one of them know who Motley Crue or Metallica are, probably... but I do see Atari shirts, and I get really excited, but then have to remind myself that these kids probably have no idea what Atari is any more than Aerosmith or Led Zepplin... and they certainly don't need compliments from a 46 year old man. So I keep to myself.

I've had some of these issues as well, but I haven't thought much about it because I recognize that there's kind of a difference here. Correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't want to speak out of my knowledge base here... but the reason why the original Atari plays these games with less error than the Atari 2600+ is... because the way the 2600 works is more analog compared to the 2600+. Point is, the original 2600 will still continue to play these cartridges even if they can make even minimum contact to get the chip to respond. With a dumper type system, it has to perfectly download the ROM with a perfect CRC check or it fails... correct? So in this case, it's imperative that the carts be cleaned!

How am I just hearing about this NOW?! I am blown away!!!

That's a broad question. I think if we're talking about systems that were the most successful, and that everyone had one, the Atari 2600 is of course right there. It was the most popular video game system for the greater half of a decade. From your list above, I do not consider the Dreamcast in that list. It totally failed in the United States, and globally... even though it was an amazing system, and I have one. I'd possibly put the Atari Lynx in there, because it was so groundbreaking at the time, but it just didn't have the distribution that other systems had. So I guess I would say, I'd need to understand really how you'd refine "best that ever existed."

That game is awesome... is that on the VCS? I have to look, I'll totally buy that.

That's a really good point... ok, I just asked her. First thing she adamantly said is that "I do play it!" ... which I know is not true, because she hasn't even turned it on in two months. So I told her... "I'm not mad, just looking for some perspective... no right or wrong answer." And then she said... the games that are on there are usually all like $100 bucks, and not worth it. I think this too is probably not entirely correct, so I dug in a little further. What I basically got from her is that the reason why she doesn't play them, is because the games that are really popular right now, are NOT available from the MetaQuest. I asked her... I said, so Genshin Impact isn't on MetaQuest? And she lit up... and said... "Oh my God, that would be so awesome if it was." And then I said... what about Fortnite, that's not on there either? And she said it's not. The one game she used to play on there was Roblox. There was a Roblox VR version that allowed you to play some of the games in first person (or whatever it was). She said that the "client is so slow" ... but that she "really enjoyed it, just doesn't play Roblox very much anymore," which makes sense because she's 15 now. To play Roblox VR, she had to hook it up to her computer via USB, and do some kind of weird sync thing in order to get it to work. But what was cool is that someone else could then use the phone to watch what she was playing on her computer via the VR headset. At her age (15), she has a lot... I mean a LOT going on. She plays two instruments through the entire year, plays three sports over the span of the school year, has her school work, she's in like two clubs, and she runs a YouTube channel doing this (which I'm very proud of, so shameless plug here): So, she has so little time, that when she's done with all her school work, and actually gets done with her various responsibilities and after school things, she wants to quickly sit down, play a game, and not have to hassle with stuff. Seems to me also, like maybe the MetaQuest just doesn't have the distribution it should, and possibly, there needs to be a VR standard that all games can support, and that all VR helmets should also support. That doesn't seem to exist from what I can tell. It was clear to me in the first second I mentioned it... that if something like Ghenshin Impact was on there, she would be all over it.

My daughter is 15, and several of her friends have one, but none of them use it. It seemed to be a novelty for them when I bought it last year (when she was sill 13), and she used it constantly, and after like 2 months, didn't use it again. She plays games, don't get me wrong, just not on the VR headset. Her and all her friends play Genshin Impact and Fortnite all the time, like... literally every night, and they chat on Discord while doing it. My daughter has whatever was the top of the line about 2 years ago. It's a 128 gig version... ok, just had to look it up. We have the Meta Quest 2 also.

Well, I don't really see that as a huge difference, any more than saying the new ones support 4k resolution versus the old ones that only support mid-level SVGA resolution. The thing just seems to be that no one is really using them... for anything. Lots of people still gaming... almost all of them on their phones, with a declining console market. Kind of an odd place we're in... but I just don't know that VR will ever be the thing we think it would have been, like in Ready Player One. Everyone thinks it's cool, but then no one does it.

This is an area that really interests me, and I just don't get why it hasn't really taken off. Probably a good thing... but maybe it has to do with the barrier to entry (cost to buy a VR headset). I don't want to lose perspective, I could afford one, but not everyone necessarily would. VR headsets have been around since the early 1990s... and they honestly have not been much different. They're just wireless now, and have better screen resolution. But even games like System Shock (the original one that came out in what, 1991?) has support for a 800x640 VR headset with full axis support (controls the mouse with your head). The new Apple one (and I guess the new Meta one), focus on "augmented" reality... basically super-imposing things onto what you already see in the real world. It's possible that VR just never really becomes a thing, and that instead... we end up doing this (see movie below). It's actually a pretty good "short" if you've never seen it. I want to say it's probably over a decade old already... but basically... it's all done through contact lenses.

I'd definitely be interested in some kind of jelly-bean gate... just not the scenario I presented. We could leave the prophylactics out of it. I'll just take the jelly beans.

I love how the fact that something happened at the Watergate Hotel in downtown Washington D.C., has led to the de-facto name standardization for all quasi-conspiratorial / controversial events occurring in the world. Even when so and so controversial event happens in like... India, or Egypt, or Laos... it'll be like... <insert foreign language here>gate. I love it... hahah. So what exactly is Driver Gate? Someone crash through a gate with condoms filled with jelly beans?

Did the Atari 400 already get released? I am committed to buying it, but won't be pre-ordering it out of protest since the last few things I pre-ordered, I got way after everyone else who didn't. But I definitely want to get one.

Interesting. I wonder if there was a cabinet / drawer that went with them?

Thanks guys! I didn't get a chance to play it last night... my wife was monopolizing the TV with the Wii / Rock Band. I noticed it has a little picture of him, I didn't realize he was no longer part of Atari at that point. I guess this is when he sold Atari to Time Warner?

Grand Prix was one of my all-time favorite games growing up. I don't know why or what prompted my mom to buy it... probably because my dad liked Formula-1 when I was a little kid... but man, I played that game almost more than any other. That game, Pole Position, Battle Zone, Maze Craze, and Solaris were my go-to games...

I was driving around checking out thrift stores with my wife, and found a shop that sold classic video games. They did not go for cheap... I paid $25 for all three, but I felt it was kind of worth it because I'd never seen them before, and ... at least based on the label, they seemed pretty cool. I'll check them out tonight and see if they play on the 2600+. I figure they're probably mostly just "uncommon," but still cool.

When I was really little, my parents had an 8-track player and I used to shove the Atari cartridges into the 8-track slot of their stereo system to see what it would do. I apparently broke the 8-track, which they ended up replacing anyway with cassettes.

I have totally not seen this in the store! And I just bought a bunch of games last month. That's crazy... I'll search for it tonight. I love these kinds of games!

Is this already on the VCS? How did I miss this? I didn't see it last time I logged in. I absolutely NEED this...

Definitely worth buying @NeuroPsyche, I have one and actually play it more than my 2600+ or my VCS (which I love).

Yeah, the "hate" for flat-screen monitors is a bit much. I think generally, if you're restoring an arcade machine, you should probably use a CRT if you can. But if you're building a generic multi-game cabinet from something that's basically already trashed, then there's no reason why anyone should care if you're using a flat screen display. For my Super PacMan... I bought it as a multi-cade. Everything had been completely stripped from it. The coin door had NOTHING installed on the inside. It was missing the coin tray, and all the guts. It didn't have the graphics on it, or anything else. It was just configured as a generic. I bought all the parts and re-assembled it, and then bought new Super PacMan graphics and installed them. But still... it already had a flat screen, so it was no big deal. Honestly... it's way better than a CRT anyway.