Weather & time while playing games?

[Keatah]

What was the weather like when you played your Atari-2600? And what time was it? Morning afternoon night??

 

I particularily liked a weekday (off from school) when it had that all-day-rain out, with puddles gathering in the yard, especially when your ma or pa would turn on the furnace 'to-get-the-dampness-out' because it was cool/cold, but not too windy. The pitter-patter of rain sporadically going back and forth between real precipication and a misty drizzle. The overcast grey sky(with cloud definition) seemed to somehow make the colorful screen somewhat brighter and happier. Especially when you'd cozy-up with blankets and beanbags and junkfood. ..ma & pa working on paperwork and house projects.. And me thinking about flying the Estes model rocket I finished building earlier. Knowing a Disneyland trip and ELO show would be coming up in a few days. A new Activision cart that gramma just bought over.. Perfect. Couldn't be better times!

[Stan]

I tend to play in the evening after I've finished all my homework. I usually do other things during the day and relax with my games after I finish all my chores and such. Rainy days, however, are awesome game days. I have lots of fond memories of playing various systems while it was raining, for some reason. This may be part of the reason why I love rain so much. Not because I can't do anything else, but because of the memories associated with it. Weird.

[Mirage]

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Is this a self-parody of your "what were you eating" question...?

 

Either way, I remember playing in the mornings at the neighbor's house before school every morning (we both had VCS's), and after school I'd go to friends' houses or they'd come over. One friend and I teamed up to beat Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was a blast.

 

I don't recall the weather, but it was Minnesota, so it was pretty snowy in winter.

Edited February 9, 2009 by Mirage1972

[Keatah]

I suppose so, but not intentional. Weather really sets the mood for my gameplaying. The gloomier and stormier, the better.

[+Ransom]

My best-remembered VCS playing time was winter in the S.F. Bay Area, so we're talking cloudy and rain with maybe 40 to 50 degrees F -- certainly not snow or temps below 30! I'd usually play some VCS games after school but before dinner (after dinner was TV time for my parents, and homework time for me).

 

But I also remember spending a lot of time playing video games in the summer. In particular, I remember the July I loaned my VCS and the 40 or 50 games I had to a friend for his Intellivision and the 20 or 30 games he had for it. For that month, we each got to see how the other half lived. It was then that I really developed an appreciation for the Intellivision. In particular, for AD&D, Tron Deadly Disks, and Utopia. The other games were fun, but those really stood out. And after I got my VCS back, I missed those Inty games.

 

Then the ColecoVision came out, and the 5200, and the 1200XL, and on and on. It wasn't until 20 years later that I finally bought my own Intellivision. I still enjoy so many of the games for that system!

 

And when I play it, I'll always remember the hot days of July, when I sat inside enjoying the air conditioning in the new family room my father had added onto the house, playing AD&D and nearly jumping out of my skin when the silent demons would suddenly appear onscreen, lunging at my character...

Edited February 9, 2009 by Ransom

[maibock]

Snow Day!

 

I recall one fine winter's morning, walking up to the bus stop. Snow was coming down pretty good, with a good 3-4 inches already on the ground. The roads was drivable, but getting worse. A snowball fight broke out with the other kids, as my mom came frantically driving up in our station wagon. She was fish-tailing all over the place.

 

Mom announced that school had been closed, loaded everyone up in the wagon and we went home. After a good day of sledding, we came in to warm up. There we sat in the carpeted basement wet from snow, taking turns playing Atari and sitting in front of the electric heater drinking tea and hot chocolate. The Cars were on the turn table - Skiing, Adventure, Football and Kaboom were the games of the day..

 

Whenever it snows now, I think back to that day.. great times!

Edited February 9, 2009 by maibock

[The MilkMan]

The Cars were on the turn table - Skiing, Adventure, Football and Kaboom were the games of the day..

I would place my hot wheels or matchbox Cars on the turntable. Hold em, turn it on, and let the endless road roll beneath them!

 

Yea, cloudy rainy days always reminds me of spending the day inside to play Atari. Good stuff!

[Keatah]

hey that's pretty cool. I used to use my 2600 as a pull-toy by using the rf cable. I don't know how many times I had to replace the cable. I even put wheels on it like a pull-luggage thingy.. And my baby sister would always ride on it. Still have that sixer to this day. A testamount to how well they were put together!!

[shadow460]

Any time I felt like it and wasn't either sleeping, eating, or in school.

 

Weather? Well, I guess pretty much any weather, since it changes so fast here.

[ATARIPITBULL]

As a kid I did not care what time of the day, or what the weather was like, if I or my friends had a new game to play, one of us would have the 2600 fired up and we all would play it untill some ones parents would kick us out of their house.

 

[jboypacman]

Weather never really matter we would just go to each others houses and play the 2600 all day if the mood hit us right and we would play all day too.

 

I lack the focus or energy for anything like that anymore lol.

[Trinity]

I have a fond memory of spending the night at a friends house and staying up all night long playing starship and asteroids. And we kept getting yelled at for haveing the volume up to loud. This was before I got my own atari. Man I did not want to come home...lol Ruffles and Coke all night long!

[Cassidy Nolen]

I remember clearly one Saturday afternoon playing Mega Force. Just got it at Best Company (I am sure it was post crash and 99 cents) and I had been playing with an Erector set building something or other. Opened the back door and it was cool and rainy. Maybe a spring day but definately eary April at best. Played that game and can still feel that cool air from the back door.

 

I can recall playing in the evenings at my friends house. They were twins and always had the latest games. Would have been almost dark, as I had to go home when the sun went down.

 

No snowed in memories, few too-hot-for-anything-else days in Texas playing Phoenix on my Vader. I think back so fondly on those memories. I think how gaming today is so different. I did it then for fun, not to beat the game. How few things we get to do anymore just for fun.

 

Neat topic, thanks for the memories (in my own head ).

 

CN

[IHATETHEBEARS]

Whatever was happening outside was Atari time.

 

Whatever the clock read was Atari time.

[Ian Primus]

I think one of my favorite memories of playing the 2600 was about four years ago. You see, it was winter, and we had this wicked storm - and it knocked out the power. We wound up being without power for three or four days. And at the time, I wasn't working, so I had really nothing to do. So, what better way to spend a blackout than to play Atari?

 

What's that you say? You nead power to play Atari? Not always...

 

You see, I know that the Atari uses a 7805 voltage regulator to regulate the 9vDC from the wall wart down to five volts to run the console. The 7805 will accept a huge variety of input voltage - anywhere from 8 volts to 35 volts. So, I went down to my workshop and grabbed an 1/8" headphone plug, some telephone wire, and some duct tape.

 

I duct taped 7 D cells end to end, and connected wire to each end. I attached the telephone wire to the headphone plug the best I could (no soldering iron - no power). I hooked the Atari up to my little black and white portable TV set (runs on C cells), and viola! Video games!

 

I spent most of the next couple days, wrapped in a blanket (only heat was the fireplace, thank goodness we have a gas fireplace!), playing Atari and eating junk food. Occasionally talking on the phone to friends - phones still work with no power. But, I got a LOT of gaming in, and I really had fun. Almost disappointing when the power came back on.

 

-Ian

[Keatah]

Yeh when the power goes out it's sort of like you're on a space mission of some sort. Experiencing a different reality than the rest of the world. And something out of the ordinary. I absolutely love it when the storms knock out power. Or we get snowed in.

[tremoloman2006]

Anywhere, anyplace, anytime!

 

I'd have to say back in the 80s when I was a kid, a bunch of us neighborhood kids would setup a tent in a backyard, string out an electrical cord, hook up a small 13" TV, and bring out our trustworthy Atari and have video game competitions all night long. Those were the days.

 

We were such geeks that we would even setup brackets and crown a champion like the NCAA.

[Keatah]

We'd do something similar, with setting up championship structure and what not. But, we'd build a tent inside the stairwell in the basement area sort of like going down into a top secret war-room area. And we'd have food service via some rope and the laundry chute. We had walkie-talkies for communication with the surface. I still have the very same ones till this day, and they *still* smell of 1970's electronics with all the components and old solder flux and whatnot. The parts are all on individual leads/wires and through-the-hole mounting on single-sided boards. The resistors are colorful and organic shaped(!) and the capacitors are sky-blue cylinders or green or red chicklet-gum style packages. The transformers still have the original beeswax on them to help seal the windings.. We also had a red spray-painted phone for emergencies and whatever was urgent.

 

Ohh well, the setup was the most coziest and warm place you could get, with the wood panelling and carpet 3 inches thick. The warm glow of incandescent lighting. Everything all 70's brown color. a 50 pound vcr and tv that would take all of us to move..! Cool. Like the commander's quarters in norad's mountain, or so we would imagine it as such.