When and where did you get your first 7800?

[kyle]

I always wanted a 7800 as a kid we grew up kind of poor and my parents couldn't afford to get me a NES until 1990. I knew the Atari 7800 was cheaper so I asked for that but never got one. I ended up getting an Atari 2600 Junior for my birthday in 1988 and I was happy with that it was certainly better than nothing and I was able to get a lot of cheap games . I finally got an Atari 7800 in 1993 from my sisters boyfriend at the time. He had a 7800 and I saw it sitting in a crate with some 7800 and 2600 games. Now by this time I had a Sega genesis plus my NES but I still wanted that 7800! I asked him if he would sell it and the games and he said yes and sold it to me for $15.00! It broke in the early 2000's I purchased a replacement and switched out the insides and I'm still using my original 7800 casing to this day.

Edited January 13, 2017 by kyle

[Ransom]

I got my first one at a flea market in 1991. Came with a few games and the box, but no packing material.

 

It worked fine, but I didn't play it much. Those were the years I was aggressively buying classic consoles and computers at flea markets, Goodwills, and at surplus warehouses around Silicon Valley (plus getting stuff from Best and B&C). I didn't play any of them very much, other than the 2600 and the A8. By the mid-90s, I'd sold off everything but the A8 stuff (which I still have to this day). Of course, 10 years later I started re-acquiring. And now I've been in divest mode again for a few years. Sheesh! Maybe I have it right this time, and will end up keeping the right amount of stuff. We'll see!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Received mine on my birthday in 1988 I believe it was? I only played on it for a little over a year because then my mother and I pitched in and bought my first computer. A 286 monster, 16mhz, 1mb ram, paradise VGA add in, with a huge 20mb MFM hard drive! It rocked! for about 2 years... until Wing Commander 1 and 2 finally came out and required me to dump everything off the HDD to make room for those two games in expanded install form. LOL

 

Anyway, the point is that once I had my first computer, I abandoned console gaming for the next 10 years. Didn't get back into until I discovered emulators for the Genesis, CV, and VCS back in '99 I believe it was. Went home to visit my mom, picked up my old 7800 now stored in the garage for some time, brought it home, cleaned it up and started playing games on it again. I still have it but don't actively use it since I have a slightly newer model 7800 that is fully modded as my primary VCS and 7800 gaming console.

[spacecadet]

Didn't get mine until really late... 2005. Doesn't even seem that long ago - I think it was the last "new" (to me) vintage system I ever bought. I've since sold a few other systems and then bought some of those back, but those are systems I had before. The 7800 was the last system I bought that I'd never played before. That means I haven't bought another new vintage game console in 12 years. (Though I did buy a C64 pretty recently.)

 

Got mine on Ebay for $43 with the box and a few games. Pretty happy with that deal. Mine's definitely in above average condition.

 

I went through a brief period a few years ago of divesting myself of consoles that were either redundant or that I just never played or bought anything for, but the 7800's pretty safe in my collection because of its backward compatibility. If I were forced to go down to only one 2600, it'd probably be the 7800 that I'd keep.

[+slx]

Bought mine at an Atari show I attended as a side trip on duty travel in late 1994 or early '95. Tried it out in the hotel and then put it back in the box for 20 years. Currently it waits for desk space together with a French SCART model I got on EBay.

[toiletunes]

I didn't know about 7800 until I came here. I don't remember when I got it (from EBay) but I know I had it in late 2003.

I bought a few sealed games for $2 from some online guy, he had them stored in some Missouri cave iirc- DK, Winter Games, Jinks, Tower Toppler- I was buying blind, didn't know what would be good or not.

Eventually replaced the electric-taped-together power supply through atariguide online, got more games through atari2600.com and Best, but couldn't find Midnight Mutants anywhere (until I started buying here).

Eventually I got sick of the power button not working and traded/upgraded with the.golden.axe

So many good memories. 7800 is my favorite system.

[+save2600]

Even though I sold them at Montgomery Ward in 1990, didn't purchase one until about '95-'96. And that was only because I found it dirt cheap at a flea market or thrift store. Was just the console and a few games only, with no power supply or 7800 controllers. And seeing how it has that proprietary power input jack, ended up soldering the leads of a 3rd party adapter directly to the solder pads so it would work.

[+groundtrooper]

I like the OP wanted to upgrade my 2600 to a 7800. But I couldn't "sell" my parents on it. I don't think that I realized then that it was 2600 compatible, that might have helped my cause a little bit. I am sure they saw it as another money suck from their tiny income. They already did the 2600 and I had decent library of games. So the 5200 and the 7800 eluded me in my childhood.

 

Flashforward 20ish years (Oh man that sounds weird). I kinda got sucked back into Atari. About 4-5 years ago when I was home visiting I found my old light sixer and my childhood carts in the basement. I brought them home. I didn't really do anything with them at the time I just wanted to have them. Shortly there after I figured out that people were doing AV mods to make it easier to use on modern T.V.s I found a guy selling a modded Vader for $49.99. I jumped on it. I still didn't really play with it a whole lot. Not flash forward again this time to September 2016. Something lit that fire in me again. I don't know what it was. I found Atari Age and jumped into the forums with both feet. I got up to speed real quick on the latest in 2600 and then I realized that the 7800 was now a possibility.

 

I bought my first one from a ZIA Records store here in Phoenix. I quickly figured out what I had missed out on with the 7800. Better arcade ports. So I set out to track down all of the great arcade ports. I found some game stores here that actually had some CIB 7800 titles and I started picking some up here and there. I decided that I wanted to A/V mod this 7800. So I bought a Longhorn kit and had a friend who is a soldering master install it for me. I then saw another 7800 on the evil bay that had been bid up to around $40. Knowing that it would probably go for closer to $80ish I decided to try and snag it for around $65. It had a few games and I never thought I would win it. Well I did. I call that my accidental ebay 7800.

 

About a week later mid Oct 2016 I was looking in the AA market place. A member by the name of eightbit was selling a BOXED (CIB) 7800 System with some 78 and 26 games. It was the early "Purple Title Font Box. Kinda what I thought might be my holy grail. I wanted to have a boxed 7800. I had already just purchased 2 7800 consoles and a bunch of games. I sent a pm telling him I was interested but really couldn't justify it at the time. He really needed to unload it for space, so he made me an offer. I told him if no one else bit on it in a couple of days I would consider it. Well he he asked me what my it would take to take it off of his hands. He accepted. So I checked that one off of my list.

 

So in a matter of 60ish days I went from not owning a 7800 to all of a sudden having 3 of them. I love them. I have since bought a Supreme 78: All-Play 4/8 from Edladdin, I love it. I has really helped my scores the little bit I have used it.

I am not going for a complete collection. I just want the games that interest me. I also have a Mateo's 16 in 1 flash cart to play some hacks and home brews or 7800 games that are out of my budget. I also plan a picking up a Concerto once it is ready for action. I did get a Harmony Encore for my 2600 so I wouldn't have to chase down a bunch of carts to be able to try games on "real hardware".

 

Thanks for the topic. Sorry for my wordy all over the place response! I love my 2600's and my 7800's!! Long live Atari.

[+H454]

By chance, just his week!

Was reminded by the video the "the 8-bit guy" made:

 

Best Vintage Game Console for Classic Arcade Games?

 

He vids are great.

 

Bought a lot of "broken" consoles just for two 7800(of course one case broke during shipping) a sears arcade ll. Then got a boat load Sega genesis with them. And a Tele games pinball.

I'm waiting for boards to the longhorn mod.

 

Anyone have any recommendations for good games to get? I have pole position ll and galaga.

 

Still can't get use to the controller - I was raised on D-pads!

 

 

I always wanted a 7800 as a kid we grew up kind of poor and my parents couldn't afford to get me a NES until 1990. I knew the Atari 7800 was cheaper so I asked for that but never got one. I ended up getting an Atari 2600 Junior for my birthday in 1988 and I was happy with that it was certainly better than nothing and I was able to get a lot of cheap games .

 

When you got the 2600jr, what did you think?

Like since the case was different from the original so that it was better. - Like when kids have have weird options based on conjecture.

I know when I was 10 and had an NES(like '92), a friend telling me about his 5200 just led disdain. - I couldn't even play 2600 games!

[Shawn]

Got my first 7800 in the early 2000's from a friend cause he couldn't find a power supply and wasn't handy enough to replace the jack or order a new one.

[crtfreak]

KB Toy's in the early 90 or 91 they had a bundle with 12 loose carts taped to the back then all shrink wrapped up. I don't remember the price but my mom got it for me as a Bday gift sine I remember tossing a fit in the store wanting it haha.. KIDS

[matthew954]

I got mine from ShopGoodwill about roughly six months ago. Got it in a lot that included four 2600 sticks, and four 2600 paddles as well as Video Checkers and Xonox Chuck Norris Double Ender. And thanks to being a member here at AtariAge, I got the Revenge controller adapter to use my Genesis game pad. Every time I hit the local game shop, Im always checking for new arrivals for 7800 carts. So far my collection is at ten carts. Lately Atari has been fighting Nintendo as far as console time they get lol.

[+Cafeman]

It didn't seem worth the $$$ back in the day, to me. I think somewhere around 2010 I found a great deal on a 7800 at Groovy, Southside East Carson Street, Pittsburgh. I was walking around at lunch and stopped in. I wasn't sure if I really wanted one, but it was a good deal with several games. I was kind of excited to play Food Fight! I quickly found out about the 7800's craptacular sound on some games like DK an DKjr. But the 7800 homebrews , and its ability to play 2600 games, has kept it plugged into my gaming TV even now.

[Dauber]

My first -- and so far only -- 7800 came from Breakpac right here on AA a little over ten years ago.

[Trebor]

Anyone have any recommendations for good games to get? I have pole position ll and galaga.

 

As far as homebrew/hacks, you practically cannot go wrong with anything in the AtariAge store; of course much depends on your game preference(s). Best sellers list currently shows: Pac-Man Collection, b*nQ, Astro Blaster, Beef Drop VE, Frenzy, K.C. Munchkin, Jr. Pac-Man, Scramble, Asteroids Deluxe, Space Invaders.

 

Regarding the original retail line, this page and this video may be of assistance.

 

Still can't get use to the controller - I was raised on D-pads!

Grips03's adapter and Edladdin's adapter allows a Sega Genesis compatible gamepad (or joystick) to be used on the 7800, provisioning two independent fire buttons.

 

First 7800: When? Winter Season '86-'87. Where? Child World Toy Store.

[PacManPlus]

I remember seeing it back in the day (in NY), could have sworn it was '84 because it was before I got my Apple IIc in '85... But I'm most likely wrong, as I know didn't actually come out until '86. I remember thinking Ms. Pac-Man looked a lot like the 5200 version (which I already had) judging by the picture on the box... But I wanted one anyway.

 

Never did get one until the early 2000s when I began by hacking games...

Edited February 15, 2017 by PacManPlus

[Turbo-Torch]

Bought mine brand new in 1990, bundled with 5 arcade games at Big Lots for $29.99. They also had most of the 7800 titles for $1.00 each. Hardly worth it even at that price. I've been an Atari fan since 1975, yet the only reason I keep that one single abortion from Atari is for collection completeness. It sits on the display shelf and I don't think I've used it once in the last 20 years.

[+save2600]

Bought mine brand new in 1990, bundled with 5 arcade games at Big Lots for $29.99. They also had most of the 7800 titles for $1.00 each. Hardly worth it even at that price. I've been an Atari fan since 1975, yet the only reason I keep that one single abortion from Atari is for collection completeness. It sits on the display shelf and I don't think I've used it once in the last 20 years.

 

 

What, what WHAT?!

 

Boy, you must *really* hate the 5200, XEGS and Jaguar then.

[Turbo-Torch]

Boy, you must *really* hate the 5200, XEGS and Jaguar then.

 

Love the 5200. It's one of my favorite systems of all time across all brands. XEGS is great...personally, I have a large 130XE setup and Atari 8 bit games were always top notch.

I don't have much love for the Jaguar either but it had at least a few impressive games going for it, usable controllers and the hardware itself wasn't generations behind when it was released. It was well worth the $25 I paid for it on clearance.

 

Then there was the Lynx. It was like alien technology in your hands, and imo, didn't get dethroned until decades later by the GBA.

[+H454]

 

As far as homebrew/hacks, you practically cannot go wrong with anything in the AtariAge store; of course much depends on your game preference(s). Best sellers list currently shows: Pac-Man Collection, b*nQ, Astro Blaster, Beef Drop VE, Frenzy, K.C. Munchkin, Jr. Pac-Man, Scramble, Asteroids Deluxe, Space Invaders.

 

Regarding the original retail line, this page and this video may be of assistance.

 

Grips03's adapter and Edladdin's adapter allows a Sega Genesis compatible gamepad (or joystick) to be used on the 7800, provisioning two independent fire buttons.

 

First 7800: When? Winter Season '86-'87. Where? Child World Toy Store.

 

Thanks!

[Dan Iacovelli]

christmas of 87 basically I got my atari systems when they were released at around christmas. love the system now I I got seagull adapters and pair of genis controllers to play games much better then the old cramp controllers

[20ohm20]

The one I used to have was purchased from a thrift store in 2002 or 2003. It came with a working CX-24 and a few 7800 cartridges (I forgot which ones), but no power supply. After sourcing a power supply, I found that the 7800 didn't work anyways. I never got around to fixing it and ended up selling it for next to nothing "for parts" a couple years later.

Edited February 15, 2017 by 20ohm20

[BillLoguidice]

I got mine at a comic shop that traded in used electronics at some point in the early 90s. The joysticks frustrated me and I was of course less-than-impressed with the audio. In any case, since that time, I got another unit with a good AV mod and different controllers/controller adapters.

[Stevaside]

Christmas 1988..I thought some of the games in the 7800 commercial on TV at the time seemed cool, and a nice step up from the 2600...I knew the NES blew it away though & it was what I really wanted..& wanted badly...Instead I wound up getting a 7800..and was one hysterically upset kid after playing the NES at cousins later that day for the 1st time & not getting one lol..I learned to love my 7800 though & although I only had a few games for it, I have many fond memories of playing it with my sister in the late 80's. The next year my Grandfather returned it I believe (He was notorious for exchanging & returning items to stores WAY past the deadline, talking years or even over a decade old in some cases, never knew how he did it lol) & we finally got the NES

 

Fast forward to 1997 & my new retrogame collecting hobby is born..mainly fueled by going online in the earlier days & learning about the mindblowing amount of games I never knew existed

It started with the 2600. and soon I found a website called O'Shea's limited that had about 30 7800 games NIB + a bunch of 2600 for..I can't believe I'm even saying this now...88 CENTS A PIECE! It was ON from then on..I ordered a new 7800 from Best Electronics.... and on and off again within the past 20 years I have picked up all original NTSC games aside from Tank Command + the Super Pacman homebrew, and I'm currently using my 3rd 7800, a composite modded unit I also bought from Best since the coax out on my 2nd one looked like crap on my HDTV

[+jeremiahjt]

I got mine from Kay Bee Toys in February of 1987 or 1988. Bought Asteroids at the same time. My sister and the salesman/clerk were pushing me towards the NES to no avail. Sometime in the early or mid '90s my ac adapter stopped working and I could not find a replacement. Finally around 2006 I found Atariguide and bought one of their adapters. Eventually the buttons stopped working and I replaced them with a set from Best Electronics without using a soldering iron.

 

Now I have every original release except for Tank Command. The only non-original releases I have are Sirius and Plutos, but I will get more eventually. Love the system. The sound never bothered me. In fact I do not remember one time noticing the NES has better sound, I really do not notice stuff like that very much.

 

It's funny, I meant to start a thread on here in 2006 about finally being able to play my ProSystem again, but I never got around to it. If I did I could have linked it for a trip down memory lane.

 

P.S. If anybody has a Tank Command or the manual for the 32-in-1 cart they want to get rid of let me know.