What was the first Atari 2600 game you bought?

[IHATETHEBEARS]

I bought my first 2600 in 1980 when they dropped the price down to under $100, and got myself frogger. My large 25 color TV console had just blown a tube so I was playing it on a tiny 14" black & white in the bedroom. Even with the limited picture and basic sounds I thought it was just fantastic. I was in heaven ever since that monent with the simple ease and enjoyment of playing your own Atari favorites at home. I became an avid collector and eventually started my own buying/selling/trading video gaming business.

I could be mistaken. But I'm pretty sure Frogger didn't come out until a few years later.

[+DrVenkman]

I could be mistaken. But I'm pretty sure Frogger didn't come out until a few years later.

 

I also don't think the price dropped to <$100 until a year or two later at least. I've got copies of Christmas 1980 catalog ads where the VCS was on sale through Dec 27 for $144.95 ($20 off, by the way ). That was when we got ours.

Edited August 6, 2015 by DrVenkman

[+cvga]

I'm pretty sure I got my Atari for Christmas in 1978. It came with Combat and I also received Breakout as a present. My first purchase was Sears Basketball. I think it cost $16.99.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I could be mistaken. But I'm pretty sure Frogger didn't come out until a few years later.

It was 1982. I think it was under $100 when the Vader model came out.

[Age-of-Atarius]

OK guys then it was 1982 then. Sheese ruin the magic. Perhaps you can tell me what year it was when I came in 3rd in the Solar Fox contest? I won a Sony Walkman, the game, and a few other Atari things that year. I do remember when I got the second Frogger on the Starpath Super Charger which was even better. Slightly after the crash I bought 10 Atari games and got the supercharger for free. Pretty sure the games were only $5 each then.

[+DrVenkman]

OK guys then it was 1982 then. Sheese ruin the magic.

Hey, don't take it too bad. I was convinced in my head that one of the games my brother and I ran out to get right after Christmas 1980 was Asteroids but I checked and it looks like it didn't come out until later, sometime in 1981. So my memory was just faulty. It happens. Lots of water under that bridge in 35 years.

[Crazy Climber]

First game I bought with my own money was Berzerk. I won a school raffle and immediately blew it on Berzerk, a bag of cool ranch doritos, a BLACKSTAR action figure and a six pack of sodas. Was a fixed point in time that can never be changed, no matter how far we advance with time travel.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

"After" I got my 2600 I don't know for sure, but I do know that, being a big Pac-Man nut, I picked up boxed copied of Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man at a pawn shop before I had a console to play them on. After I got my first 2600, I went back to that pawn shop and bought a pile of games, but I couldn't say for sure what they were. I know at one point I actually had a list of my games arranged chronologically by when I purchased them, but that's long gone.

[+jeremiahjt]

I got a 7800 in '87 or '88. I mostly bought 7800 games or NES games from the stores. I do know I bought Basic Programming and Double Dragon for the 2600 new from a store, probably Toys 'R Us. Of course I may have bought used 2600 games before those.

 

I also bought Commando, but I think that was after those two.

Edited August 6, 2015 by jeremiahjt

[K.Michael]

I was a late comer, and got the 2600, along with a bunch of games in a bundle from ebay (some of which quickly became favourites like 'Space Invaders', 'Asteroids', and 'Pacman' (yes, I actually enjoy THAT pacman), so my 'first' game is not really an interesting answer because it was just really a bit of a lucky dip. The first game that I individually and actively sought out though, would have been 'Missile Command', or possibly 'Joust'.

[Schizophretard]

I can't recall if this memory is of a purchase, trade, or gift but either in Kindergarten or summer day care(both happened at the same school) I got a game from a kid on the playground. Something about the memory feels like a little kid's version of a drug deal going down. It was kind of like meeting the kid on the playground and he promises to deliver the "good stuff" the next day during recess without his parents knowing or something like that. It felt very sneaky whatever it was. Anyway, the "good stuff" was Video Pinball and whatever the transaction was I could tell I ripped him off when I got home because I was addicted. If he was smart then instead of just basically giving me a pinball machine that I could play all day without inserting quarters he could have invited me over then charged me a piece of Bazooka bubblegum per game. He might have even been able to go as far as getting real Coke in an ice cold glass bottle out of me.

[hookem]

It's been so long, but I think our family got our first 2600 around Christmas 1979. I believe the first games we bought were Space Invaders and Asteriods.... so it would have been one of the two.

 

I do vividly remember the Pac Man release date a couple of years later. My Mom stood in line to buy it for us during the day; what an incredible day that was, to come back from school and she'd gotten us the game! I suppose that was the first big video game release date? Certainly there have been many more since...

[p.opus]

I remember saving my allowance for "Starship". I wanted a 1st person space game soooo baad. Atari's Starship 1 was lighting up the arcade, and I had just seen Star Wars so it all made for a pretty epic "perfect storm".

 

I remember being a bit disappointed in the 2600 version of Starship (It wasn't close to the same) , but it was the only thing out there and I put my imagination to the test and killed countless bad guys with my laser cannons.

 

4 years later, Activision came out with their Star Raiders, clone and I was in heaven, Starship offically became a dust magnet.

[ave1]

My dad bought our Atari 2600 back around 1978. I think we initially got Combat and River Raid. Missile Command, Dodge 'em and Night Driver also found their way quickly into our household, thank goodness!

[bah]

1980, Combat was the pack in so I guess it was first. Dad liked the Atar for about 2 days until I figured out how to best him more often than not then it became the kids system.

 

Missile Command was #2 and Air Sea Battles was #3 although we got them the same night.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I really don't remember.. probably Asteroids, Combat , etc..

[spawnshop]

We got our Atari 2600 around '81-'82.

I remember Atari Circus and Combat being the first games we played on it after my dad hooked it up.

But I think the first game that I bought with my allowance money at the Kiddie City was either HERO or Sea Hunt. Not sure what year that was....

[The Mr. Video]

I bought an Atari 2600 jr. in 2012. The games it came with were Asteroids, Combat, Missile Command, and Space Invaders. But if my memory serves me right, the first games I bought for it were Barnstorming and Berzerk.

[AtariLeaf]

Aside from combat, which came with it, we bought Outlaw because my father and I used to love playing Boot Hill in the arcade, and also Asteroids

[Atariboy2600]

My mother got me the Atari VCS back in 77 with all the first 9 games that was sold, but my very first 2600 game I ever brought with my own money I saved up was Berzerk and to this day its still by top all time fave 2600 game ever^_^

 

I bought it at the old Woolworth store on NYC 14th street in 1982 here's that last photo before they close down the store. Man I so missed that store a lot:(

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+sramirez2008]

My mother got me the Atari VCS back in 77 with all the first 9 games that was sold, but my very first 2600 game I ever brought with my own money I saved up was Berzerk and to this day its still by top all time fave 2600 game ever^_^

 

I bought it at the old Woolworth store on NYC 14th street in 1982 here's that last photo before they close down the store. Man I so missed that store a lot:(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woolworth! Man you just took me back in time. I grew up in the Bronx and I would purchase models, and other toys at Woolworths. Did the one on 14th St. have a soda fountain in it?

 

[IHATETHEBEARS]

I bought my Adventure at Woolworth's.

[vitoco]

I can't recall the year, but our family bought a VCS at the end of our vacations to the USA (Miami/Orlando). It came with Combat and Space Invaders in the box. My sisters and I had to chose one game each: Surround, Adventure and Video Olympics. I guided them to pick the ones I wanted >:-)

[+wongojack]

Our family got a VCS for Christmas '82. I remember playing Combat first and then Asteroids, but I have a distinct memory of asking the rents to get me Chopper Command after watching the commercial.

[darthkur]

I wish I could remember. Missile Command, Asteroids, Activision's Boxing, Laser Blast and Adventure are ones I recall buying new very early on. Can't recall clearly which one of them was first though.