2600 in the NES era? 2600 jr users in the 80s?

[+Sauron]

My family was rather poor while growing up, so the only "current gen" system we had was the 2600, which I got for Christmas of '82. I never had a NES during its day, but I had plenty of friends who did, as well as one who had a Sega Master System, so I got to play most of the great NES games that everyone had, and even a few good SMS games. Still though, I never stopped playing the 2600 except for a short interlude in the late 80s when our 2600 stopped working, and my parents wouldn't get a new one because I had an Atari 130XE, which played all of the XEGS games. We ended up getting a replacement 2600 from either a garage sale or a family at our church (don't remember exactly) sometime around 1990 or 1991, and I picked right back up with playing the 2600. I didn't stop again until I graduated high school in 1994 and had joined the military.

 

All of that doesn't mean I didn't want a NES or another system, though. I actually wanted a 7800, but never got one until well after its day. Having said that, the 2600 gave me lots of fun throughout the years, even well after it had become obsolete.

[AlecRob]

2 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

You had a Europad BITD? Tell us that story, please!

didn't you see my original post?  i mentioned my age. i'm too young to  have had any 2600 stuff when it was new.  that is my recreation of what a late-era 2600 setup may have looked like, including secret quest cartridge

[BassGuitari]

8 hours ago, AlecRob said:

didn't you see my original post?  i mentioned my age. i'm too young to  have had any 2600 stuff when it was new.  that is my recreation of what a late-era 2600 setup may have looked like, including secret quest cartridge

 

 

Didn't you see that I liked your original post? ?

 

I skimmed the thread and didn't realize you were the OP when I was replying. My bad.

 

And you weren't clear when you said "My late 1980s atari 2600 setup" that you didn't actually have any of it in the late 1980s. ?

[high voltage]

On 3/27/2020 at 7:48 AM, high voltage said:

It was good, the 'red box' range came out, featuring some awesome games which allowed for some new gaming experience.

Nevertheless, I still purchased a SMS and NES to play some great games on those systems.

Of course, almost at the same time the Commodore Amiga took UK by storm, I got one of those (Batman pack) and 16-bit gaming buried NES/SMS straight away.

[schuwalker]

Think I said my gaming history before...

 

Got the Sears Telegames unit sometime in '78. Dad bought a Colecovision in '82. Sometime thereafter we purchased the 2600 expansion module for the Colecovision rendering the 2600 to be boxed up. I got my NES in the early part of '86 after my parents did some sleuthing to finally find one. After this purchase, Colecovision was boxed up. I just wanna back up and mention again how dark the gaming (console-wise) era was in '85. I resorted to friending a neighbor kid who had a C64 playing a ton of Bruce Lee - not that was a bad thing. I definitely was a Nintendo kid and still have a lot of nostalgia for the black box series. Eventually got the Master System sometime in '87 after seeing Space Harrier at Montgomery Wards. Got the Genesis a week after launch at Kmart and the Super Nintendo around the time Street Fighter was announced. was playing tons of Dos games too around the 8 and 16 bit era. I noticed a in the mid '90s, I was losing my desire to play the *new* 3d games coming down the pipeline. When PS1 and N64 was launched, I didn't have that gotta go buy it right away feeling as I did with the predecessor systems I own. I really got bit by the retro bug when Mame and other emulators were being born in the latter half of the '90s.

 

When I was really heavy into the Genesis scene around that '89 era; Toys R Us was my go to for most of my purchases. I do remember seeing those Atari red box games there as well.

[R.Cade]

On 3/27/2020 at 3:23 AM, CapitanClassic said:

The NES came to the USA in 1983, but I don't remember it being a big deal until 1985. At that point, everyone wanted one.

 

 

You are 3 years early. It was released in NY in 1985, but not across the whole USA until later in 1986.

Edited March 29, 2020 by R.Cade

[Keatah]

I never really had full appreciation for the VCS when it was in its prime in 1978-1984. Didn't develop it till 2012'ish or later by reading about how it worked and all the limitations imposed and tricks available. Mostly learned about it by watching Emulator Stella development.

 

Like I said earlier, my parents and grandparents thought it was a baby game. For babies. Whatever. And in the 90's I never developed any interest in the N64 or PS1. Nothing much beyond experiencing the jealousy of the "rich" kids and grown-ups having walls of cartridges for it. I wasn't interested in cutesy games or sports games. And anything "Mario" was at the bottom of my list.

 

Anyways, it didn't matter. PC was coming out with 3D cards and ever faster processors and a variety of simulation style games and stuff. Eventually PC would do an end-runaround all the early consoles I couldn't afford; both by native software and emulation. And content I was!

[0078265317]

On 3/27/2020 at 2:23 AM, CapitanClassic said:

The NES came to the USA in 1983, but I don't remember it being a big deal until 1985. At that point, everyone wanted one.

Famicom was 1983 in japan.  NES did not come to USA untill 1986.  1985 was test market in NYC.  There was no NES in 1983 in USA.

[Keatah]

3 hours ago, schuwalker said:

Think I said my gaming history before...

 

Got the Sears Telegames unit sometime in '78. Dad bought a Colecovision in '82. Sometime thereafter we purchased the 2600 expansion module for the Colecovision rendering the 2600 to be boxed up. I got my NES in the early part of '86 after my parents did some sleuthing to finally find one. After this purchase, Colecovision was boxed up. I just wanna back up and mention again how dark the gaming (console-wise) era was in '85.

And dark it was indeed. Things like C64 and Atari 400/800 began to mean nothing to me. Absolutely nothing.

 

I was an idiot-sucker at the time and got into the Amiga. 1985 - 1993 maybe. Having grandiose visions of computer animation stuffed into my head by advertising. Constantly, fervently, searching for the right software that would let me do what I saw in the ads. But fail. Fail after fail.

 

At length I discovered I would need much more than a stock A500 to do anything. Thousands of dollars would need to be spent. Eventually I gave up on that eco-sphere and thankfully the PC was there to "rescue" me away from mediocrity & frustration.

 

When I got Microsoft Arcade and Activision's ActionPacks I knew I had the right platform. The $2300 I spent on a (1992-1993) 486 machine was suddenly worth it. And coincidentally the ActionPacks focused on the VCS! That was really nostalgic. Playing games from my 1977 cartridge-based system on a modern-day business computer! How fantastic and cool was that! And it was all generic hardware seemingly being sold everywhere.

 

The 486 was just barely fast enough to crudely emulate the VCS - no doubt many liberties were taken to get the speed up. But it worked and I was blasted back in time. It was even MORE amazing that I found some rom images that weren't in the ActionPacks. Maybe even right from here at AtariAge! By renaming the files I recall getting things like Combat and Flag Capture and Video Pinball to work.

 

But that was just the beginning of what would become 3 decade long renaissance.

 

3 hours ago, schuwalker said:

I resorted to friending a neighbor kid who had a C64 playing a ton of Bruce Lee - not that was a bad thing. I definitely was a Nintendo kid and still have a lot of nostalgia for the black box series. Eventually got the Master System sometime in '87 after seeing Space Harrier at Montgomery Wards. Got the Genesis a week after launch at Kmart and the Super Nintendo around the time Street Fighter was announced. was playing tons of Dos games too around the 8 and 16 bit era. I noticed a in the mid '90s, I was losing my desire to play the *new* 3d games coming down the pipeline. When PS1 and N64 was launched, I didn't have that gotta go buy it right away feeling as I did with the predecessor systems I own. I really got bit by the retro bug when Mame and other emulators were being born in the latter half of the '90s.

 

I think I also had an SMS around 1987-1988. I tried getting into it out of a desire to build up a 2nd "collection" of console games. The cost was utterly prohibitive and being the completist I was, utterly hopeless too. Would have spent thousands upon thousands.

 

My SMS never amounted to much more than a handful of carts and cards. I never understood why they had both a card slot and a cartridge slot..?

 

As far as MAME goes, it was a 2nd renaissance! This time it was for arcade machines and games I hadn't played in 15 years were slowly but surely becoming available. And not all too soon. I was getting bored of the arcades. My local hangout was sliding downhill and nothing good happened there after 11pm or so. Besides it was getting expensive to be spending $5 a week on tokens for games increasingly falling into disrepair. And those fighting games, ugh!

[mutterminder]

The 2600 Jr was in Toy R Us and Kay Bee toys in the late 80's and early 90's with the Red Box games, which were pretty good.  Towards the end they were shipping re-releases of some of their more popular titles in black and white boxes.  They also had the 7800 for a while but I seem to remember that the 2600 Jr, held out for the longest.

[MrMaddog]

My personal experiences from playing 2600 games in the NES era?  After my parent's divorce and move to another place, the power supply to my 2600 died and I was unable to get a replacement anywhere since stores stop selling Atari stuff.  So I had to sell off my entire collection at a yard sale, which was where many people got 2600 carts after the Crash. 

 

I did move on to home computers of course in the mid 80's and eventually the NES but I never had "closure" with the 2600 platform.  In fact when I visited my cousins or my mom's old friend who still had a 2600 hooked up to an old TV, I got to play I've always wanted to check out (like Yars' Revenge) or never experience before.  That's why I still enjoyed the 2600 even though the NES was so much better at games & graphics.

 

The 2600jr sold was mainly a budget system so people can play the cheap carts they picked up at yard sales.  The red box games like Solaris however were much better than the pre-Crash titles however...  But Atari's main focus was the 7800 to compete against the NES along with the "high end" XEGS which was expanable to be a home computer.

 

(In addition to the NES for "current" stuff, I had a 130XE which was my "retro gaming" system that played carts like Donkey Kong & Pac-Man)

 

 

 

 

[Cynicaster]

The 2600 was the gaming platform in our home between '82 and '87, when it was replaced by the 7800, which in turn was replaced by NES in '89.  

 

Everybody old enough to have been actively gaming at that time is going to have their own personal experiences and recollections of the era, but I won't mince words here: I distinctly remember the 2600Jr being generally viewed by the school yard jury as being the epitome of "lame."  For a short time, there was definitely a surge of kids getting the 2600Jr.  Most of them I remember being kids who weren't really into the video game craze in the earlier years.  Presumably, their parents saw the low price of the Jr. and jumped on it without realizing how outdated it was. 

 

I don't remember a single one of these kids being thrilled to have a 2600 when everybody else was playing (or wanting to play) NES.  We always used to use the word "cheap" to describe "uncool" things of perceived lesser value or status, and in fact, the name "Atari" started to become synonymous with the word "cheap" thanks in large part to the anachronism that was the 2600Jr.  What can I say... we were kids.       

 

I clearly remember the 2600 Jr. marketing campaign and that ridiculous "under 50 bucks" song that I can still recite by memory to this day, because we spent so much time making fun of it at school.

 

But here I am 30+ years later and I actually enjoy the 2600 more than the NES, SMS, or 7800.  Weird how that works.  I guess that due to the passage of so much time, the differences between those systems are kind of "compressed" and insignificant, whereas they were thrown into sharp relief in the late 80s when the likes of NES and SMS were state of the art, and the marketing departments at Nintendo and Sega had us in their crosshairs.  

 

 

  

 

[Keatah]

Regardless of what my loser parents thought about "baby games", I got blindsided by the computer revolution.

 

It started as early as the Apple II. But didn't go anywhere seriously till the PC came out. I saw cartridge systems as being extremely limited, even though they usually surpassed any action game on the Apple II and even early PC.

[zzip]

On 3/27/2020 at 2:12 AM, AlecRob said:

What was it like to be a 2600 owner in the late 80s when NES was all the rage?  Were new games easy to find still or were people mainly buying them at yard sales, flea markets, etc? i got to thinking about this because i recently acquired a 2600 jr, which seems to be an odd beast of a console... clunky 70’s tech in a very sleek compact almost high tech modern 80s package.   I’m a younger atari fan (24 years old) so i’m very interested to hear older folks perspectives on this.  In the mid to late 80s, was the 2600 seen as outdated junk or was it still a respectable console?

 

 Were any of you faithfully sticking with the 2600 even when faced with the likes of the NES, Master System, 7800, or even the PC Engine?  Secret Quest came out in 1989... Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 were coming out in the US that year too!  I find it amazing that the 2600 was supported for so long..

I remember seeing stacks of new 2600 games at Kay Bee in the late 80s, being surprised they were still making them

[mbd30]

During most of the 80s I had an Atari 2600 and then a 7800. I didn't get a NES until 1989.

 

I missed out on the more advanced 7800 games such as Commando and Ball Blazer that were closer to NES quality. I only had Dig Dug, Food Fight, Ms. Pac-Man and Pole Position II along with a huge pile of 2600 carts. So the 7800 barely seemed like a step up from the 2600.

 

[Tempest]

I had both in the late 80's.  My four port that we inherited from my uncle died so my parents got me a jr to replace it.  I think that was around 1990/91.  I didn't get a NES until 1989 because my parents said that I had an Atari 400 and I didn't need another game system (to be fair we got that 400 in 83 so it wasn't all that old).  Trying to explain to my parents that the NES is nothing like the Atari 400 was an exercise in futility. 

 

I used both the 2600 jr and the NES.  The NES got more gameplay for sure, but I liked the quick and simplistic games on the 2600 as well.

[Agamon]

Got a 2600 for Christmas in '80, after going bananas over my uncles' machine during a visit to my grandparents' farm that summer. Got an NES, also for Christmas, in '87, and the 2600 was boxed up and shelved in the cellar. I was more about the new technology whenever the newer consoles came out, plus I basically inherited the family 286 PC when I was pretty much the only person to use it. So I never really noticed Atari stuff in the late 80s/early 90s, and didn't play the games again until discovering emulators in the late 90's.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 3/28/2020 at 2:09 PM, jeremiahjt said:

I had a 7800 from 1986 or 1987 (got an NES a year after) and still bought 2600 games new along with 7800 and NES games. I definitely remember buying Double Dragon new and the Atari Corp. rerelease of Basic Programming and I think Swordquest: Fireworld. All my new game purchases probably came from Toys 'R Us or KayBee Toys.

Forgot about Commando. I am pretty sure I got that one from KayBee Toys.

[Pete5125]

I still find it amazing new games were being produced in 89 same year as Sega genesis.

 

As stated earlier they were the poor man's system, hills/toys r us/Kay bee had new games most were 20 bucks or less, majority 12 buck range.  Yard sales and flea mkts always had old loose games for a couple bucks,  by 86/87 most people were nes families.

 

Everyone seemed to have an old one in their basement so if you told your uncle you played atari he'd just hand you a dusty box with old games random cords and controllers.  The wii is the only recent example I can think of as a system everyone had, and now everyone has laying around.

[Crazy Climber]

On 3/27/2020 at 2:23 AM, CapitanClassic said:

but I don't remember it being a big deal until 1985. At that point, everyone wanted one.

Around my area it was more 87ish that suddenly everyone wanted it. I know some areas got them much sooner though...

On 3/27/2020 at 2:52 PM, 4ever2600 said:

Here is my answer. Anyone who grew up during this may remember...

 

Only 50 bucks.  50 bucks?  Isnt that nice, oh yes sir ee, the fun is back from A TAR EE...

Can still remember waiting for my friends to pick me up to go to school and seeing that commercial. One of them had some Double Dragon gameplay IIRC, I just remember thinking WTF Double Dragon on the atari??

On 3/27/2020 at 3:44 PM, Keatah said:

Eventually I was thrown out of the basement.

 

Been there before!

On 4/1/2020 at 11:39 AM, Tempest said:

I had both in the late 80's. 

 

I used both the 2600 jr and the NES.  The NES got more gameplay for sure

This is kind of what happened to me until I eventually put the atari in a box/bin and forgot about it. It was "hooked up" for awhile but the NES got nearly all my attention. I think once the RPG's really started hitting I never looked back... Growing up with D&D games like Dragon warrior, Final Fantasy, etc really hooked me and my choice in video games changed for awhile...suddenly they needed a lot more depth.

 

I remember a place that bought/sold atari games (called games to go) here in MN had a sign up offering 25 to 50 cents each for atari 2600 games. I figured I could trade them all for a new NES game. I brought them in and the guy said "no way, we have waaaaay too many" but as I was picking up my box he pointed at my smurfs save the day cartridge and said "I'll give you 50 cents for that one" I said I'd rather sell all or nothing...would have been a smart move if I would have saved it, but alas a few years later it was gone...

[Tempest]

1 hour ago, Crazy Climber said:

This is kind of what happened to me until I eventually put the atari in a box/bin and forgot about it. It was "hooked up" for awhile but the NES got nearly all my attention. I think once the RPG's really started hitting I never looked back... Growing up with D&D games like Dragon warrior, Final Fantasy, etc really hooked me and my choice in video games changed for awhile...suddenly they needed a lot more depth.

Yeah once I got into Japanese RPGs (vs the American ones I played on my Apple II) it was all over for the 2600 for the most part.  I did play around with a copy of FireWorld I acquired from somewhere though thinking it must be an RPG of some sort (I didn't have the manual or the comic).  Boy was I wrong...

[Leonard Smith]

I was a die-hard Atari fan ever since my family got the 2600 in early 1983.  We kept up with hit for a solid 2 years and sort of lost interest during the dark period of the mid 1980s', as people have already noted in this thread.

 

We kind of played it off and on, but honestly didn't keep up with any new game developments until around late 1986.  Remember this was during the era of no internet and limited info, so I didn't even know what a 7800 was even though I saw it referenced on games and accessories.  The only reason I knew the 2600 still had games coming out was due to the small sections of the holiday Sears Wishbook...aside from that we didn't really bother checking Toys R Us or Kay Bee for Atari stuff -- it was all about the NES at that time.

When I first saw the NES in a display cabinet in 1987, I had to have one.  That and Super Mario Bros were things I had to have.  I did get a Deluxe Set in late 1987 and pretty much played that exclusively.  The 2600 went unused except for when we bought a few newer games like Commando during the 80s as curiosities, but the NES and Genesis captured my interest and gaming dollars during that era.  The 2600 was still around, but only played occasionally.

 

[BetwixtThieves]

I played my Atari 2600 through the NES era and ended up getting a NES too after a few years. I had them both hooked up and would swap out the coaxial hookup again and again and again. 
 

My dad was never home so I think he ended up getting my brother and I an Atari 2600 because he thought that would somehow make up for his absence. He had lost his business and we lost our house and it had been marked down so cheap that he could afford one for us after the video game crash. I remember those bins at the entrance of Kaybees just filled with $1 games. 
 

i would sit and play the 2600 all day unless Magnum PI or Hollywood Squares was on.

 

The NES was a lot fun once I got one, but you could get so many more games for the 2600 and it had all of the arcade hits - which to me were the best games to play. It wasn’t until I played Baseball Stars on the NES that I truly understood what a more powerful system could do with battery backup cartridges where you could store leagues, standings, stats, etc… 

Edited January 18, 2022 by BetwixtThieves

[+discotronic]

The thing the NES had that Atari did not was Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl. We had a couple video rental stores that you could rent an older NES release for $1. A new release was $3 for a weekend. The NES was the only game system in town really. Until the 16bits showed up. 

 

For my friends and I, any games that were played, were on the NES. The 2600 collected dust. The 5200 was a system I played at a friends house a couple times and loved but never owned. The ColecoVision was another that I loved but never had BITD. The 2600 jr and 7800 were being sold for cheap at Big Lots. I honestly would have loved to have gotten another one then but no money is no money. 

[Crazy Climber]

1 hour ago, Tempest said:

Yeah once I got into Japanese RPGs (vs the American ones I played on my Apple II) it was all over for the 2600 for the most part.  I did play around with a copy of FireWorld I acquired from somewhere though thinking it must be an RPG of some sort (I didn't have the manual or the comic).  Boy was I wrong...

Same, although the only RPG on the apple II I played (at the time) was Kings Quest, not a bad game or anything but NO Dragon warrior (I'll post a screen shot for the youngsters in thread)

 

 

I think the NES kind of killed paper/dice D&D for me too. I only had one friend really into it so we always struggled to get a full party anyways (at least that would take it seriously and not just show up for the "sacred herbs" haha) JRPG's were a lot easier for us to play with 2 people I guess...