Atari 2600 in movies or TV shows

[vitoco]

On 5/16/2020 at 1:09 AM, Mark loves Stella said:

On 5/12/2020 at 2:33 PM, JayAre said:

 

In frame #1 I see what looks like an Atari 810 disk drive on the top shelf. 

In this frame there is an Atari 800.

[Atarian7]

On 4/27/2020 at 4:44 PM, JayAre said:

I was able to contact Scott Stilphen today regarding the console in the Three's Company episode.  His site, Atari Compendium, had originally posted the pic from this episode and had mentioned that the console was a Vader.  He had a chance to take a look at the video of the episode, and he believes the console is actually a 4-switch woody.  He had originally found a low-resolution pic of the scene, and the console looked like a Vader.  While looking at the video, he thought that the front edge of the console looks slightly lighter than the rest of the case.  Now that I look at it closely, I definitely agree with him.  But the main thing is that it would still be at least another year before the Vader's release, so it definitely seems like it's a woody.

 

Scott also pointed out something interesting about the scene.  At the 1:35 mark, what appears to be a 2600 cart mysteriously appears on the table.  It wasn't there at the beginning of the scene, then it appears, and then it disappears later on.  Looks like it might be a text-label cart, but I don't think it's possible to make out what game it is.

I find this to be very interesting.  Am I a geek, or what?   

[JayAre]

From the 1983 movie Videodrome, here we can spot a pair of 2600 joysticks, a box & cart for Air-Sea Battle, and a Combat box.  There's another cart in the last picture, but it's out of focus; I assume it's Combat.  That's James Woods, by the way.

 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

On 10/11/2020 at 2:33 PM, batari said:

In an obscure B-movie named Blind Date (1984), not the 1987 Bruce Willis Comedy by the same name, the protagonist somehow goes blind, but his vision is restored by some sort of sonar device that renders the world with a crude monochromatic representation, and the signal gets sent to his brain through electrodes on his head. OK, so the device looks more like a Walkman and the electrodes look like headphones, so some suspension of disbelief is needed.

 

At some point he apparently wants to play his Atari, so he reasons that he can plug the Atari into his head. Apparently it only sort of works, with him seeing a distorted breakout screen with some Atari-like sounds before he falls unconscious from the experience. I actually found the movie online here in four parts. Go to around 3:15 of the second part for the scene. The movie is also a mirror image which is kind of distracting.

 

 

I never watched the entire movie (the movie wasn't great) but I recall when seeing this in the 80s that there was a later scene when he talked of his experience plugging the Atari into his brain and what it did to him.

no video... or picture...

[OldPAL]

Didn't KITT in Knight Rider have Atari 2600 built in?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

5 hours ago, OldPAL said:

Didn't KITT in Knight Rider have Atari 2600 built in?

Well the joystick anyways.....?

[Big Player]

So using an Atari joystick to play Intellivision Auto Racing? KITT was quite advanced.

[zzip]

It seemed like there were a lot of shows that used the 2600 Pac-Man sound effects for scenes where they were playing a video games, even if it wasn't a 2600 or Pac-Man shown.   I can't think of specific examples right now though.

[mrkite]

Cloak & Dagger (1984) the whole plot is about secret plans hidden in a fictional atari cartridge.

 

(edit: actually, that's the 5200 box style, my memory is failing me)

Edited September 8, 2021 by mrkite
5200

[keithbk]

On 9/8/2021 at 5:40 PM, mrkite said:

Cloak & Dagger (1984) the whole plot is about secret plans hidden in a fictional atari cartridge.

 

(edit: actually, that's the 5200 box style, my memory is failing me)

Cloak and Dagger is ALWAYS worth a mention!!!

 

And you will notice those are original boxed Atari Woody's under the ColecoVisions on the upper area.

Edited September 11, 2021 by keithbk

[0078265317]

There was an Atari 2600 5 switch on tonight's Side Hustle on Nick.  Or maybe 6 switch.  Hard to see even in the show.  They were playing what I assume was a made up game EP The Excited penguin.

 

 

[RJ]

Damn guy is there anything you WONI'T watch?

 

 

 

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, 0078265317 said:

There was an Atari 2600 5 switch on tonight's Side Hustle on Nick.  Or maybe 6 switch.  Hard to see even in the show.  They were playing what I assume was a made up game EP The Excited penguin.

That would be a busted 6-switch console. A movie prop. It isn't plugged in. It is likely not functional. And the way props are thrown around on-set, no wonder a switch busted off.

[Atariboy2600]

Looking for more 2600

Edited November 22, 2021 by Atariboy2600

[Atariboy2600]

Looking for more 2600

[ZippyRedPlumber]

On 11/22/2021 at 6:05 PM, Atariboy2600 said:

Looking for more 2600

Are those kids playing Star Strike? (M Network port)

[0078265317]

On 11/22/2021 at 5:05 PM, Atariboy2600 said:

Looking for more 2600

Can't see the images.

 

[0078265317]

There are reruns of Diff'rent Strokes on Amazon Prime.  Was just watching.  Season 7 episode 7 if you fast forward to 17 minutes and 15 seconds Arnold can be seen playing a 2600.  But not sure which game he was playing.

[Skarro]

Here's one that's already in the Atari Compendium, but I grabbed a snapshot from the other side showing Wall-E with the paddle controller.  I thought it was funny how he's managed to get his score in Pong up to 7999, showing how long he's been living on his own.

 

[marss]

in Apple TV Show 'Shining Girls'

 

[Raiu]

On 2/21/2022 at 3:43 AM, Skarro said:

Here's one that's already in the Atari Compendium, but I grabbed a snapshot from the other side showing Wall-E with the paddle controller.  I thought it was funny how he's managed to get his score in Pong up to 7999, showing how long he's been living on his own.

 

What I find funny here is that is definitely an Atari 2600, but that is not an Atari 2600 game.  Looks more like a Coleco Telstar version of Pong than anything that ever appeared on the 2600.  (Pong was part of Video Olympics, but it looks nothing like that, with a green background, smaller numbers, much smaller paddles, the top line being between the score and the playfield rather than above the score, and no dotted line down the middle)

[Mockduck]

There is a dystopian future movie called Jackrabbit where the future loses power and access to power becomes a big deal, and one of the main dudes in it has a scene where he plays what appears to be a not-Atari-2600 version of Night Driver.

[keithbk]

Adding this to the thread...

An Atari 2600 appears in the opening scenes of "American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story."

 

American Underdog stars Zach Levi, Adam Baldwin, and tells the story of Kurt Warner, who went from working in a grocery store to NFL quarterback. The film was released late 2021.

 

The cartridge lying on top of the Atari looks like Barnstorming to me... right color, right length of the title...

 

Looking at the screen, they may be playing Atari Football...

 

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by keithbk

[AtariSphinx]

A-Team season 3 episode "Bounty".  In the first 2-3 minutes, the character Murdock is seen playing on a Vader model in his hospital room.  The game sounded like Yars Revenge but the zoom in shows a different game.

[Big Player]

That game looks like Advanced D&D: Cloudy Mountain for Intellivision.