What has your 2600 gone through?

[nesfanboy86]

mine has been dropped and immersed in water and it still works.

[Adrian M]

Aside from heavy use, my original Vader was stored in a closet for many years after I bought my NES.

When I rediscovered the 2600 a few years ago I found my VCS, plugged it in and found that it somehow "died" while in storage. It has served its purpose for many years.

 

I plan to get it repaired someday, but in the meantime, I got a heavy sixer and have been using that!

[Csonicgo]

My atari, after '93, it was but in a box and stored in the basement. I dug it out in '98 because I felt sorry for it.

[bjk7382]

Well some are in storage and one gets played every day. I bought all three of mine in seperate auctions off ebay so I don't know what they went thru before that. I know I haven't done what nesfanboy86 did. Mine are all pretty mint condition so they didn't go thru much.

 

The six switch (lite) gets used evey day. My Heavy sixer is in storage along with my 4 switch woodgrain.

[Buck]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...4705&highlight=

 

My story is in this thread. Bring a gas mask!!

 

 

Buck

[sku_u]

My original system spent about a decade in the attic before I rescued it.

[maibock]

My first one broke sometime before I went to college in '84. In '85 I bought an Atari Jr in a drug store with a few games RS Boxing comes to mind. I then brought all my old games down from home. What a blast that was. I recall it getting hit with an errant football and beer spilled on it. It survived college and went away for about 5 years. Marriage and 2 children later, I dragged it back out and it has endured plenty of fun filled abuse from the kids and their friends. It's still hooked up to the basement TV today

[SS]

My original 4 switcher died a horrible death while taking a tumble down the basement steps. {sob!} She was so young too!

[vb_master]

let's see... my 6 switcher survived a mod and an unmoddion 2 minutes after i finished the mod, my other survived a switch post replacement. I made my own switch post on a laythe (or whatever)

[highinfidelity]

mine has been dropped and immersed in water and it still works.

Always said that: built like a tank, and conceived to last forever...

[Mord]

My original 6 switcher back in the 80's stopped working mysteriously and vanished overnight. They said it left home to go to college but knowing them they probably took it out back and shot it.

 

The jr model I had in the early 90's ended up being put in storage, and

when I was away to college, got thrown out complete with the games....

 

Last year I rescued a 4 switcher from a yard sale down the street shortly

after moving to town for 3 bucks CDN (along with it's 8 games). It was

-filthy- It took a lot of tissue and the like to get the grime off the poor thing

and I STILL don't know if it actually works or not (Or my Gemini which

I got later in the summer for about 5 bucks) because I haven't got a TV

suitable to hook it up to!

 

I plan on fixing that later on this month tho, one way or another.

[nesfanboy86]

*cries hysterically* my 2600 just stopped working i think the cord that goes to the tv is loose. but untill i fix it i have to use my colecovison expansion module#1

[candiru]

My vader's most traumatic experience was probably when we loaned it to my cousins for a couple weeks and it came back with the B/W switch snapped off. Turns out one of them had stepped on it. I stuck a screwdriver in the slot and popped the switch back into the color position and it was that way for a good 18 years until a few months ago. I finally got around to cannibalizing a suitably decrepit console for its parts and finally made my baby whole again.

 

It's still my main Atari and has a sharper more colorful signal than any others I have.

 

My original joysticks have some family history too since the rubber boots bear a few slight teething marks from my younger sister.

[Video]

My poor original 2600 has had switches broken. Upon opening to replace, I found the years of soda's and food being spilled on it had really taken their toll, and lots of it was pretty rusty and nasty looking inside.

 

It's had soda's spilled on it, spaghetti droped on it, and the grill on top allows the stuff to fall right in on the circut board. It got dragged everywhere including to parties where it wasn't old enough to legaly be, but it got played (and by played, I mean badly mangled for 8 hours a day) for several years streight. It's sat on and under everything, had carts yanked and inserted while it's on, had the power supply broken off, the joysticks yanked (and due to the ports being on the back, caused it to be pulled off of shelves)

 

Over all, I think it's been through a real hell. But I love it and now I take a lot better care of it. I even took it apart and finely washed all the crap out of it so it's not so nasty looking inside.

 

BTW, why are there vents in the top of the thing? I know Atari planned on putting speakers in the original system, but this is a four switch system.

[ATARIPITBULL]

My first 2600 system was given away, by my mother, to a cousin of mine who she thought would like to play it because it had been a while since I had, but the asshole threw it in the trash after about 2 weeks because he wanted a Coleco system. Now I have 8 2600 systems ( One of them is a PAL type) and they are treated with love and care in my collection.

 

[+Random Terrain]

Try doing this and see if your Atari 2600 still works:

 

http://home.alltel.net/jc92033/

 

Then super-glue a bunch of Atari cartridges to your clothes and see if you are bullet-proof and if you are still alive, roll down the side of a mountain and see how that goes. Be sure to wear a helmet with cartridges glued to it too.

[Susuwatari]

I got my first 2600 as Christmas gift. it was a heavy Sears. A few years later, it developed a repeative tick with the paddle controller, not the random jitter with the dirty paddle. The system was sent to Sears for repair, it was a bad cap that caused the problem. It end3ed up getting put away in the storeage for several years until latge 80's when I decided to play them. I still have the oruiginal heavy Sears with the original box. I do have a pair of original joysticks somewhere but they have long since lost their boots.

[trnsfrguy]

My original heavy sixer didn't last 5 minutes after my mother bought it for us way back when... My sister who was about 5 or 6 broke both joysticks..

My mom took it back and got another one, which my brother sold soon after.

I finally bought another one and that one has never left my side!!!