have you leaned away from atari since you joined atariage?

[super_dos_man]

I have moved away more to nes/tg-16 than my atari roots since i joined atariage have any of you guys sorta shifted to other classic consoles?

[bust3dstr8]

Im on a big PC Engine kick right now. I always seem to go through a 4-5 month phase where I put most of

my effort toward one console. But I'm always on the lookout for Atari stuff and almost always get in a few

games of Kaboom every day.

[RickHarrisMaine]

I'm on a big Dreamcast/Gamecube jog for the time being, but those are also the only systems not in boxes right now....

Edited March 1, 2007 by RickHarrisMaine

[Atariman]

My collecting has become more broad since I joined Atariage. I wouldn't necessarily say that I've leaned away from Atari, though - it's just easier to find other games nowadays, so I keep my eyes open for just about anything. My Genesis software/hardware collection has exploded since I joined Atariage and I've become a much bigger fan of boxed stuff, too.

 

Atariage has only fueled my addiction for collecting video games/systems of all kinds.

[Paranoid]

Nope.

 

I've got everything else, but the Atari stuff gets the most play.

[Almost Rice]

When the CC3 comes out I may get back into using the Intv

[NE146]

Sure.. I find I get interested and then not-so-interested in Atari in sort of a 6-7 year rythym.

 

It aint nothing but a thing though since there are many other consoles to goof around with, but I always eventually remember my 2600/5200 and go on an extended kick of playing them.

 

There are some consoles though that are hard to get back to.. like the SNES & Turbografx16. I like them so much but the problem is, I feel I've played every 'good' game on them about a bazillion times to death

[potatohead]

I still enjoy my atari stuff. When I'm in the mood for classic games, it's almost always the Atari stuff.

 

To be fair, I've got some personal stuff going on that gets in the way of this right now.

 

Enjoyed the programming with Batari Basic, hope to finish Ooze. (finally worked out the core game issues!)

 

I recently bought a parallax propeller chip and am currently working on programming for it. It's a lot of fun and has that retro feel, but also has relevance --or at least more relevance than the older Atari stuff has. It's also a multi-processor and that makes it very interesting, along with software video generation.

 

For what it's worth, I enjoy the varied discussion here. Classic gaming, on the 8bit machines of all kinds is a fun area of computing, generally. Might as well enjoy it while it all still runs!

[Student Driver]

I'm not as focused on Atari as I was. As far as the collecting part of the hobby goes, the emphasis on condition, label variations, etc. that has sprouted in the last few years has been kind of off-putting to me. (Reminds me too much of the comic-book-collecting subgroup that specializes in "Classic Comics/Classics Illustrated.") I mean... the data generated and discoveries made by this nitpicking are neat, but there's so much of an emphasis on purchasing-rarities-at-any-cost... bleah.

 

(Much of the appeal of collecting this stuff to me has been the idea of fulfilling a childhood dream of having lots of cool games. I put myself back into my young mindset: A bookshelf with 500 different Atari games? Cool! Unending gameplay for months! A bookshelf with 500 label variations of Combat? Ugh.)

 

Since I care less about monetary value and more about having a large library of playable games, I've shifted my primary focus to the cheap and abundant modern systems.

[Ghost Soldier]

Atariage brought the atari back for me. I started collecting everything I have come across at sales. I collect alittle of everything but the NES and 2600 have a special place and are played the most.

[Gregory DG]

I've never been a power collector, although I do have all the Atari consoles/computers. Most of my stuff has been in storage for years. I dig it out occasionally when I get on a kick. The 7800 and Jaguar are the only systems that stay hooked up, even if they don't get a lot of play. (The Dreamcast is the same way; hooked up but not much play.)

 

My DS is the system that gets the most play from me thesedays. I hope to get a new console (360 or Wii) in the near future...

[joeybastard]

I go thru cycles with various systems except for the VCS and CV. They pretty much always get steady attention from me. If anything I keep leaning further away from the last gen consoles and spending more time on the SNES.

[Lord Helmet]

It all goes in cycles with me. About a year ago I was playing classic stuff almost exclusively, especially 2600 and 5200 stuff. I got a 360 back around September and a Wii on launch day, and have been playing them more than anything else since then. Friday nights I still like to play an hour or 2 of the old atari stuff

[homerwannabee]

Right now I would have to consider myself a full fledge member of the colt that is Atari 2600. In my opinion it is the best hobby to collect for

[keilbaca]

Guitar hero addict here

[rockman_x_2002]

I don't think I've exactly moved away from it. Although I don't play games on it as much as I used to, but that's mostly due to other factors (school, for example). However, I do make "rounds" through all my consoles, usually by level of generation. For the moment, I'm in the current gen with the Wii. Prior to that, in December, I was on a huge C64 kick. So I haven't really moved away from any particular console. Instead, I just find myself having to spread my free time out among consoles (which, during my semesters of school, isn't much time to spread in the first place. ).

[NE146]

I mean you figure.. the thing's friggin been around for near 30 years now. Plenty of time to get in and out of interest and back again

[christianscott27]

I have no childhood connection to the Jag, Lynx or 8-Bit computers so its always been more of a collecting with those games. As far as the 7800, 5200 and 2600 go there are games that will always appeal to me, they're timeless. On the collecting end the 2600 was my first real passion and initially consumed my attention. It was exciting to add things to my collection and discover stuff I never even knew exisited in the 80s...Then I hit the wall, where you already have pretty much everything you can reasonably expect to find and everything else is super rare or expensive to get off ebay, that cooled me down a lot.

[candiru]

Like others, I've branched out into other systems. That's partly due to finding other things while looking for Atari stuff, plus reading the Classic Gaming General forums and wanting to try out games and systems that get discussed.

 

I played other systems as a kid through friends and relatives, but Atari will always be number one for me. Lately, I haven't played much of anything. With a new baby in the house I don't find a lot of spare time. That, and my "Man Room" now holds everything that came out of the bedroom that became the nursery. I can hardly get to anything right now.

[Paranoid]

My opinion is similar to Student Driver's. I think once I get settled in out in Ohio, I'm going to get a Colecovision Multicart and probably pick up the INTV multicart when it comes out. Then I'll play those systems more often. But I'm not into endless label variations, or the idea of having a sealed mint box that I can never open. I can't see how a real crisp, original Superman #1 is going to be more or less enjoyable than a well worn one, versus a reproduction, provided the pictures are about the same and the story remains unchanged. I feel the same way about games. People argue that playing Quadrun on emulation is not the same as playing Quadrun on a CC2 is not the same as playing a real cart on the real hardware. Maybe they're right... but I think either of the first two options gives you a pretty good feel, and costs a heckuva lot less. I'm unconvinced that the extra expense is worth it. For myself, I *know* it isn't. I want to play the games with minimum hassle.

 

I also can't get very much into the Nintendo era and later stuff outside of the console defining platformers. Mario Bros. World, Yoshi, Sonic, etc. Once you go beyond those, I didn't see a lot of interesting titles during that era, and I don't get the NES era people other than to figure that they're just simply *younger* than me and NES is *their* thing. I see the NES as the beginning of this overwhelming influx of Japanimation Anime culture. I mean, I was always a big fan of this when I was a kid... The Shogun Warriors, Speed Racer, G-Force, and all the other exports. Even when I was 11, I knew that the versions we were getting over here were watered down (both the shows and the toys). All my Japanese buddies had the authentic original toys that, you know, actually had complex parts and configurations. But, I feel like this is another area where the geek-elite went overboard.

 

Maybe that is the thing that I am resistant about. All of this stuff really is Nerd Culture, and I think Nerd Culture is great. But nerds tend to be compulsive-obsessive - God knows my wife claims that whenever I get into something, it becomes my complete focus. I suppose that is what makes us good at what we do, our passion for whatever it is that interests us. I mean, there are things you can count on. I'm willing to bet at least a couple members of this forum are obsessive about HAM radio. There are probably a few that are the same way about fish-keeping (who would talk your ears off about the different African Lake cichlids and canister versus UGF versus Wet/Dry filtration until your eyes rolled back into your head)...

 

It probably has something to do with the fact that most of us are really bright, and we love to be learning something new. I know whenever I discover some new gadget, I want to learn everything I can about it, figure out how to make it do things it shouldn't be able to. Once I get it all figured out, I get bored, I move on to the next thing.

 

For me, the *games* are about nostalgia, and equally about something simple, easy, quick and diverting. So, the Atari line just fits the bill perfect. The golden-era arcade titles and platformers that were simple, intuitive and fun. Quick plots, quick games, quick escapism.

 

With the arrival of the NES, it seems like we started to lose that. Graphics became more involved, plots became more involved, gameplay became more involved. The arriaval of the 16 bit era really just took it further that way.

 

Not that there is anything wrong with that. It just isn't my thing - and THAT keeps me coming back to the old classics.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I've been rediscovering the Sega Genesis now that I've started programming for it.

 

I finally started playing Beggar Prince again the other day and finally got past the desert pyramid. The big area after that is a multi-screen forest maze, and I got worn out before I could figure out what places I might have missed.

[Starhopper]

Atariage is responsible for the worsening of my condition, but not the sickness itself.

 

I have always been a 'game head', though not anywhere near as deep as some I've run across. I play anything I can get, but the 2600 and the early PC games have a warm spot in my heart. My collection is still under 200 carts for the 2600, as I collect to play, rather than display. I also have NES, SNES, and Sega Genny collections, though they are much smaller. I have picked up a Jag with a couple of games out of curiosity, and I'm also starting to pick on PS1. Both those systems and their contemporaries passed me by when I was in my 'Starflight' and 'Leisure Suit Larry' days.

 

As far as how much I play today; It's not nearly as often as I would like. Those marathons that ensue when we have the chance, though. . .

Edited March 1, 2007 by Starhopper

[8th lutz]

No. I play atari a little bit more due to me getting the lynx for xmas in 2005 from my younger brother. I play atari systems time to time like I have been doing since 2002 or 2003. Before then I rarely played games on my 7800 from 1992 to 2002 due to the fact I owned other game consoles like the nes, genesis, 32x, playstation 1, snes and sms. The later 2 systems I got in 2000. I owned a lot of game systems, so I can't just play atari games. I don't buy systems to collect them, I buy them to play games on them. Thanks to the lack of next generation games that interested me for the systems that I owned: the playstation 2 and the gamecube, it allowed me to buy more games for a game console that I didn't buy a game for: the atari 7800.

Edited March 2, 2007 by 8th lutz

[Video]

Actually, wiht all the awesome homebrews and hacks, Atariage has actually pulled me into Atari a little more than I was back in the 90's. Of course, that could just be because I've been more or less dissappointed in the next gen consoles (which are now last gen, but still )

[jpfalcon2003]

I haven't. But I haven't been on here lately due to long hours at work.