When and where did you get your first 7800?

[Mayhem]

I know why I bought the Atari 7800, I wanted a console to play 2600 titles on and decided, why not, get the one that can play other games too. What I can't recall is when. Would have been early 2000s probably, which is when I did most of my collecting for the system (back when availability was greater, and prices were lower). It was possibly around when the CC2 launched, as I bought one of the last copies from the initial first batch that Chad made.

[Zonie]

I had never heard of it before I saw one at a flea market around 1999. I paid $20 for it with a modified power pack. The original cord was spliced to a cord on a different power cord. I found the games in the usual used game stores and goodwill. Couldn't believe I missed this thing when it came out, but then I was using my C64 exclusively in the early 80's...

[+DrVenkman]

I remember hearing about the 7800 during the waning days of Atari, Inc. but after things imploded and Jack's Corp. emerged from the ashes, I don't recall ever seeing one in person. Fast forward to early 2001 or 2002 when I discovered eBay ... I bought my only 7800 (a fully-socked AT-84 example) along with a power supply and 2 - 3 7800 games and another 7-8 2600 games for about $50. I played with it for awhile, then got busy with life, kids, work, etc. and put it all away. I drifted out of the retrogaming/retrocomputing hobby until the last few years. I sure wish I'd grabbed up all the 7800 games cheap 15 years ago though.

[Rick Dangerous]

I remember seeing them in the Sears XMAS catalog back in the day (early 90's) when I had my NES and was always curious about them and thought they looked cool. I knew about the Atari brand from the arcades and always thought they were "retro cool" even back then. Unfortunately I was lucky to get 2-3 games a year so a whole second console was out of the question and time moved on.

 

Fast forward ten years to 2000 or so and I saw one at a garage sale in minty shape for like 20 bucks. I've had it ever since and it's been my one and only 7800 and i'll probably never sell it. It was my first Atari, now I have them all. I sent it out a few years back to be AV modded by electronic sentimentalities and he did a bang up job, besides composite, it has a true stereo mode, a switch to reduce interference, and S-Video out. It's a gem.

 

On a side note it didn't come with Pro line controllers despite being in good condition. For years I played it exclusively with 2600 joysticks. Then I got the euro pads off ebay (2) and just in the past few years did I actually track down a few Pro lines in good shape. I'd say I like the euro pads best just because they are Atari. I also have two CX 78 track ball controllers for Centipede co-op, etc. My late 50's mother in law will play Centipede with me for hours as she remembers playing it in the arcade as a teen and having rum in her coke cup at the time. She is pretty good!

 

Have really enjoyed reading about everyone's first 7800!

Edited February 22, 2017 by travistouchdown

[dodge ramman]

I got mine sometime around 1988 and still have it, the only one i have ever had, unmodded in any way and still plays every time i want to play. saw it in the sears Christmas catalog there beside the SMS. love it even more now that i got the euro pads, Gameon!

[troff]

I loved my Atari 2600 in the early eighties, but by the mid-to-late eighties had switched over to personal computers, and hadn't really kept up with console gaming, having turned up my nose at the NES. Then in high school I went over to my best friend's house and found out they had a 7800. We had a great time playing both 7800 and 2600 titles on it - particularly 2600 Circus Atari. I sort of wanted one, but the budget being limited, didn't get one then.

 

I do have one now I bought on eBay a year or so ago, it's now my "daily driver" for classic Atari gaming. I love the system!

[DracIsBack]

December 1988, Bell's Corners (Ottawa West) Ontario Kanata ... K Mart.

 

The NES was sold completely out. My Coleco Gemini had died. And on the back of the box were a bunch of computer titles I wanted to play but couldn't because we didn't own a computer.

 

The rest was history.

[+Atari_Warlord]

My memory is a little vague on my 7800 purchase as I had a lot going on in 1986. I did buy it soon after release at a store in Chattanooga that was similar to a Toys R Us called something like Kid's World or Circus World.

[+Gemintronic]

Pretty sure it was Toys R Us. No way to afford additional games so it was Pole Position 2.. Pole Position 2.. more Pole Position 2.

 

Did. not. care. it was awesome!

[Zonie]

Mine didn't come with any controllers, I just used CX40's, I eventually found prolines, but they are junk. I also didn't think the sound was an issue at all. It never did nor does bother me to this day. I have added an AV mod to it recently.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Zonie

[Justin De Lucia]

I got my 7800 on summer last year from a local retro gaming store after getting a third television into the game room- don't really have any games for it yet (sadly) since I wanted it for when the XM and a few games for it (especially Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest) launches.

I haven't bothered to scout out any carts for my 7800 otherwise, either in the official or home-brew scene. (I just don't have the on-hand money for that since I spend it on other games for the most part)

[+save2600]

My memory is a little vague on my 7800 purchase as I had a lot going on in 1986. I did buy it soon after release at a store in Chattanooga that was similar to a Toys R Us called something like Kid's World or Circus World.

Yeah, Child World and Children's Palace were the same company. I remember them well and their large kickass selection of Atari and other video gaming stuff. There was also Circus World, which was a similar kind of toy store, but run by a different outfit.

[FOX2600]

Bought mine at an Atari show

What exactly were these Atari shows of the 90's? Thanks!

[Atarikid96]

Christmas 2010. Lol my mom was confused when I started asking for systems the same age as her. She was like I thought you'd want a PS3? Nope. Atari for life.

[+slx]

What exactly were these Atari shows of the 90's? Thanks!

There used to be quite big 'Atari Messe' (= Atari Convention) events in Germany in the late 80s and early 90s. That was the time when the ST was very popular in Germany. I was at one of them which was in the main convention center in (I believe) Cologne ("Kölner Messe") across the Rhine from the Cathedral and Main Station.

 

It was two or three big halls full of Atari stuff with all software vendors, lots of shareware booths, Dave Small selling the SST and handing out buttons, etc.

 

The one I bought the 7800 was a much smaller affair in the outskirts of Cologne or Düsseldorf and must have been in 1994 or 1995. It was more like a User organised convention with some vendors selling (surplus?) equipment cheaply. It was a side trip to a business trip to Maastricht for me and I remember testing the 7800 on the hotel TV afterwards. I think I also bought my Jaguar there, so the 7800 must have been a steal

 

 

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[Downland1983]

Christmas of 1988. I don't know where my parents got it. If I had to guess, I'd say Sears, Toys R Us, or JC Penney since that where my dad did most of his holiday shopping back then. I had already seen Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda on a friend's NES, so I wasn't enthralled by the 7800 by the time we got it. We played a lot of Pole Postion II on it. But once we got the NES for Christmas of 1989, that was the effectively the end of the 7800's usage in our household.

[mbd30]

I can't remember when exactly we got an Atari 7800. It was somewhere between 1986 and 1988, around when they first came out. I was born in 1976 and we lived near Fresno, Ca. at the time.

 

We already had a big pile of Atari 2600 carts so my mom bought a 7800 primarily for its backwards compatibility after the sales person from Toys R Us told her about it. The 7800 games that we had were Ms. Pac-Man, Food Fight, Dig Dug and Pole Position II. I never got the game that I truly lusted after... Karateka. I dodged a bullet there it seems.