what made you start collecting VCS stuff

[Guest]

what started you in collecting VCS games?????what was your first ever game?

[Bob Bytchin]

Not counting the pack-in of Combat, my first 2600 purchase was Missile Command and Yar's Revenge. Just those two games alone kept me busy for the longest time. The next game I bought was Video Pinball. In '81/'82 that was just about as good as it got.

[Mountain King]

When I first got my Atari it was a huge thing. So my family started me off with about 12 games for Christmas. I was somewhat organized when I was 11 and I still have some of them numbered with a lable.

 

1. Kangaroo

2. Ms Pac-Man

3. Blue Print

4. No Escape

5. Demon Attack

6. Demons to Diamonds

7. Circus Atari

8. Raft Rider

9. M.A.S.H.

10. Combat

11. Entombed

12. Gorf (bought with Christmas Money)

[Wntermute]

I've started collecting to rebuild the collection I had when I was younger. I had about 100 carts (plus the big honking Gameline modem cart) and loaned the whole shebang (along with my INTV2 w/ 20 carts and a Genesis w/ modem switch and 5 games) to my nephew. His dad took all three systems to park & swap while my nephew was visiting my parents.

 

That and it's getting harder to find Star Wars toys for a decent price that I don't have.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Wow..another good topic!!!

 

Okay well what got me started in aquiring vintage games and systems again is emulation itself. I used to make it a point in my life when I was a kid to play my Atari VCS at least for 2 hours a day. I still went outside and played...etc...but I had to have my Atari time as well.

 

When I was 11 I had to actually have a ganglion cyst removed from my right wrist which was contributed to my Atari playing. It didn't stop me of course.

 

But when I discovered PCs I shelved my Ataris and all the carts...and didn't come back until about 2 years ago. When I discovered emulation I at first found it a novelty as it allowed me to see how other consoles played that I myself had never owned. Of all the emus out there...the Genesis one's really got me into the whole consolitis syndrome again. I purchased my first Sega Genesis about 2 months later and some games. I was hooked again and then immediately saved my 7800 and the games I could find (about 50 or so) and brought them home to clean them all up and hook them up.

 

So that is my story. I use emulation as the means to playtest the games...and then decide from there if I want to pursue them to add to the collection.

 

As for the second part of this topic...

My first game was the pack-in combat, however my parents also bought me one other game which was a very wise choice...Defender.

[Tempest]

I didn't start collecting 2600 games until it's come back in the late 80's. I had an Atari 400 up till then and when my uncle gave me his 2600 in 86 I started gathering up as many games as I could (of course all the really cool thrid party ones were gone by then). I guess it really wasn't collecting at that point, it was more buying up cheap games.

 

I didn't really start collecting for the 2600 until around 95. I had just graduated from highschool (yes I'm only 23) and had started college. Remember that it ws around this time that the internet was becoming popular and my college actually had access to it (something my highschool did not). Once I logged onto the net and realized that I wasn't the only one who still liked the old games I decided to start collecting. Then ebay came around in 96 which really helped the collection a bit (of course no one wanted to use it at first). Remember the days of newsgroup auctions? When you really had a good chance of getting a good deal? Those were the days...

 

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. My first game I got for the 2600 (not including the 15 or so my uncle gave me) was Vanguard. But my first game I ever bought (which was for the Atari 400) was Donkey Kong.

 

Tempest

[Joel D. Park]

After selling my Atari around 1990 I became obsessed around 1995 to get back all the games I had back in the day. Except for Frankensteins monster and Star Trek, it wasn't long before I had every game from my original system, also a bunch more.

 

I just kept picking up games until I became hooked. I'm thinking that Missile command was the first game I started with, I'm not sure why I think that, but it seems right.

 

I had a huge buy out of Boxed games at the Mile High flea market in Denver, around 250 boxed games for 150 bucks. Which I split with a friend of mine. I still sell some on my web page but most have been traded away... That seriously kicked off my collection.

 

Oddly enough, all my rarest games I got in the last 6 months. They were Waterworld, Crazy Climber and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all from trades or private sellers, No Ebay.

www.atari2600.net

 

Later,

Joel D. Park

[videotwit]

Spite for my Mom, and the kindness of a stranger got me started.

 

Here's the story: My Dad is a HUGE Video Game fan, so Christmas of '79 (IIRC) He HAD to get a VCS for my big gift. We wound up amassing a pretty good stockpile of games - probably 45 or 50 different titles, and my Dad and I would play very regularly. It was a great time!

 

Then in 1988 I went away to college. The Atari had been in the closet for a couple of years because the NES had become king. Well, my Mom decided it was yard sale time. No, not buying at yard sales... Selling all MY stuff at one! There went my whole 2600 setup, AND all my Star Wars toys (including a complete Sears Cantina set. My only consolation now is reminding her how valuable this stuff she sold has become). And I didn't even get any of the profit she made from it!

 

Now back on topic... I was hanging out with a friend of mine a couple years after my college graduation. It was sometime in summer of 93, and out of boredom we decided to hit some yard sales. At one place, sitting right next to the curb, was a VCS and about 20 common games.

 

"HA!" I said (to myself). And I asked how much it was. Well, I must have looked downtrodden or something, but the woman holding the sale said I could have it FOR FREE!

 

So, my friend and I went back to my house and set it up. That's when it all happened. Nostalgia struck! The next weekend we hit the garage sales again, and a few months later we started looking for thrift and junk stores. From there it's history.

 

I don't remember what the games were in that batch, actually. I just remembered having a great time with them, and wanting more. I never realized that I would get into "collecting" or that 8 years later I'd have a collection of 560+ games, but it was all because my Mom sold my original console and several years later some nice woman gave me a setup for free.

 

~Scott

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Okay Twit has the best story so far...

 

He wins...

[Ze_ro]

To be honest, when I was younger, I was actually a ColecoVision kid. Never had a VCS, and never much cared for it at the time. I had a collection of CV games that ended up with my dad. Along the years, I ended up getting a Gameboy, and later a Jaguar.

 

Anyways, to get to the point, about a year ago I started to have problems sleeping. I used to read stuff while in bed since I usually just gave up and stopped trying to sleep. Then I though "Hey! It would be really cool if I could get an Atari set up here, and I could play it whenever I couldn't get to sleep" (Though the chances of it helping me to get to sleep are slim) I've always been a fan of the classics, and regardless of my CV heritage, I knew that the Atari was where it was at. So, I started looking around the town for an Atari, without much luck. However, one day while at the local Value Village (they sell second-hand stuff for charity), I was looking through their electronics stuff, confident that I wouldn't be finding an Atari any time soon. Then I noticed something black with silver switches, and it didn't click in my head immediately that it was an Atari (After all, it had been a while since I'd seen one up close). Within a few minutes, I'd paid the $4 they were asking, and also bought the only two Atari games they had there for $0.50 each... E.T. and Donkey Kong (What a bad pair of games to start off with... at least I knew what good what already available).

 

Here I am now, about a year later with about 60 games that I've picked up from various sources... I've got some nasty cables running all across the room so that I can play the Atari while lying in bed without having to get up (I even have the TV/Game switch right next to the unit... got lucky with the cables). I don't usually play it at night, since I realize it just keeps me awake, but the convenience of having it right there is simply awesome.

 

I didn't realize this would put me in the mindset to start collecting, but since buying that, I've also added to my collection: A NES, SNES, Genesis, IntelliVision, and a Dreamcast. Though I still haven't found a CV around that works Oh well, someday. The best part is, I can still play any of my systems while lying in bed... I have all the connections easily accessible for when I have to chance consoles (Which is rare... it's always the Atari that's plugged in)

 

--Zero

[Ian Primus]

I never had a 2600 when I was young. Our family had an Atari 130XE computer. It was fully loaded with switchable OS ROM's, two 5 1/2 floppy drives, color monitior, dot matrix printer, 300 baud modem, and a big box of "freeware" game disks. I spent hours playing Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Mr. Robot, Clowns and Balloons, and many others. I really wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System, but my parents used the "We already have a computer, play games on that" approach. When my dad got a PC (386 - wow!), the Atari migrated to my room, doubleing as a TV set with an old VCR as a tuner. Eventually, the Atari wound up in a box, and I got the 386. I finally got a game console when I saved my lawn mowing money and bought a Nintendo 64 with the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire game. I played the heck out of the Nintendo 64, and soon found out that once I beat Star Wars, it was really boring. One day, I found a box of Atari 2600 carts in a Salvation Army. It had like 30 carts and 10 joysticks. I bought it for $5, and set out to find a machine to play them. Later, I was at a flea market and I found a neglected Atari 2600 (Darth Vader model). It had a broken chunk in the corner, but it looked like it should work. I paid $10 and got a set of paddles, two joysticks, the Atari, and NO power supply or cart. I went home, looked up the power supply voltages on the 'net (thanks Atari 2600 Nexus / AtariAge) and went to the local Radio Shlock er.. Shack. I found the power supply I needed, and shelled out $15 for it. I hooked up the Atari and had a blast. It's a few years later and I have 4 Atari's, a Coleco Gemini (2600 clone), about 130 carts (lots of duplicates, I am going to catalog them soon), and a drawer of joysticks. I will be getting my driver's licence soon(I'm 16) and when that happens, I am going to be hitting the flea markets and thrift stores every weekend.

 

Ian Primus

[email protected]

[VectorGamer]

what started you in collecting VCS games?????what was your first ever game?

 

My first VCS was purchased around 1980 and besides Combat the first game my parents purchased for me was Space Invaders. I remember adding games like Defender, Asteroids, Adventure, Missile Command, Cosmic Swarm and Commando Raid to my collection. Eventually my collection was sold in a garage sale sometime in the mid 80s.

 

I returned to the hobby in 2009 and I received a VCS and games for my birthday. Since then I've grown my collection to over 300 games.

[moycon]

Wow talk about a blast from the past! 2001?

 

Anyways. I started buying up old Atari games around the time this thread was started. I was always a HUGE video game fan, and Atari was the king in my eyes. I still had a few video game magazines from when I was a kid, and I realized that thanks the the internet and this strange new site called eBay I could check out all the games I ever wanted, for a price of course.

I don't know if I would have gotten into it as much as I had, if I'd of found out about emulation sooner. When I bought my first house I sold off my "new" collection. I think I had 268 unique games including many rare games. I started buying up cart lots again a few years after buying the house, but mostly cheap lots off eBay and newer homebrew titles.

 

My first game ever besides the Combat packin was Breakout.

[NE146]

What got me started was it was the only way to get video games to play at HOME on your TV and it had SPACE INVADERS. 'But the initial slight disappointment of it not being exactly like the arcade game made way for the niftiness of it all and I haven't looked back since.

 

Oh and I probably stopped buying 2600 games when I got the newer 5200, aaaaaand here we are today!

[Rik]

Simple, after 1st plugging that Space Invaders cartridge into my reconditioned VCS back in the early 80's, i was HOOKED. I still have that VCS, still works like new too!!

[high voltage]

What got me started really was playing River Raid at work (way back working for the US Army in Germany). An American co-worker brought his VCS to work one day and we had RR tournaments (yes during working hours, those were the good old days). Great fun.

 

Another American friend also had a VCS and me and my then wife used to visit him and his wife for BBQs. He had Pac-Man. I loved that game, I played Pac-Man for hours and hours. Didn't know arcade games, so for me Pac-Man was excellent.

 

After that I knew that I had to venture out and buy my own VCS, which was the Darth Vader/Phoenix version. With this I purchased Super Cobra, Enduro and Ms. Pac-Man, because the sales person informed me that Ms. Pac-Man is way better than Pac-Man.

 

From that point on I started collecting cib VCS games, until I had approx. 250 titles. Along the way I managed some good stuff, a cib grey Hangman for free, a cib Boing! for $2, A X-Man from mail-order; and of course, most games were bought new from local shops.

 

I sold that collection in 2004 (I kept X-Man for some reason), which I still regret (At the time I didn't know the value and rarity of grey Hangman).

 

In 2007 I restarted collecting VCS, first getting the Xonox games, but I have to admit it is getting very difficult (or shall I say expensive)....

Edited August 15, 2013 by high voltage

[jttheninja]

I was born a bit too late to get into Atari initially (same year as the 7800's launch), and most of my childhood video game consoles were just too expensive (there was an NES at the daycare, but that's about it). So the first console I actually got was the PS2, back in 1998. So much of my life's video game experience was watching the commercials and wishing I could have them.

 

I've always had a fondness for retro stuff, so I counted myself fortunate to win an Atari VCS on eBay for about $30, which came with a standard controller, paddle controllers, power supply, a coaxial adapter, and about 7 games. And I just really fell in love with the system. It was like I finally felt that I was playing what I always thought of as "video games."

 

So yeah...I got into it late, but better late than never I suppose.

 

Peace,

JT

[bomberpunk]

i've been an Atari 2600 / VCS nut since the age of 3. some of the ones we owned initially were Frogger, Pitfall, Donkey Kong, Kangaroo, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Video Pinball, Night Driver, Adventure, and Asteroids. i remember picking up Joust from a merchant in the French Quarter, and also buying Armored Ambush brand new from a place called Zairs (or Zares, Zayres?). the rest of my loot i got from thrift stores. this was before eBay. i'm in my early 30s and this post makes me feel old. shit.

[pis]

Digging up a 12 year old post! Well done!

 

Well.....

 

I grew up with an mostly unenploid singel mother and an older and younger brother, videogames and technical new inovations wasen´t something i was use to playing with.

I´m born 76 so i´m really to young to have been part of of the first video-game era.

But luckely my older brothers friend allways had the latest technical stuff (video-games, comoputers etc.). His familly was well of and he gave me his VCS i guess around 84-85, when he coulden´t bother whith that old crap anymore.

That made me cool in school for about a second, until kids around started to get the absolutelly amazing c-64.

I played my atari to bits all the way untill around 90-91 (my woodgrain died in 88 and i then got a JR.) when finally bought a c-64. Then the cool thing was the amiga.

 

I think i now collect what was i considered luxury to me back then: Videogames (not only atari) and VHS tapes (my mother got a VCR as late as 2006) .

 

 

When it come´s to the case of the VCS i guess it´s beocuse i was teased alot about having "some old shit console" in my childhood, and the fact that what ever they said i absolutely loved it. Especially the later games like californaiagames and tom-cat.

 

I got a lot of love for the 2600!

 

Cheers.

Edited August 15, 2013 by pis

[high voltage]

Wow, I recently trashed 100 Porno VHS tapes.....

[toymailman]

It was the Flashback 2 that rekindled my enjoyment of the 2600. That would be in early 2006 which if you flip the numbers around can be made to be 2600!!

[+slx]

I made the mistake to wish for an Odyssey2 for Christmas when I was 13 or 14 because I liked a certain space shooter I knew from a friend, just to find out that the VCS my best friend got the same year was the better system. I moved on to an Atari 800 and ST and only got a VCS jr when they were sold off cheaply in the early nineties. I bought some of the games I knew from my teenage days and some that had good reviews on AA and mainly by VGC as well as occasional bargains crossing my way but I'm not striving for a complete collection. I'm in this for the Fun of playing good old games, to show early gaming to my kids, and because I wanted one each of every Atari console generation (I do have a 7800, a Jag and Lynx I/II as well - no PAL 5200) My all-time VCS favourite is Space Invaders.

[BassGuitari]

So the first console I actually got was the PS2, back in 1998.

 

Not in 1998, it wasn't. Do you mean PS1?

 

Being born in '85, I was an NES/Genesis/SNES kid growing up, but occasionally I'd go to friends' houses and discover that an older brother or somebody had "Atari." I didn't know what it meant, but I was instantly fascinated by it as well as any and all games predating the Nintendo. I remember thinking for quite a while that the "Atari" (I didn't know there was more than one) only had black-and-white graphics, because that's what some kid at school told me in 2nd or 3rd grade.

 

What really got me started on collecting, or at least wanting to collect, was an article on retro consoles in the Feb. 1997 issue of EGM. It hooked me, and I had to have an Atari 2600. And on the way to getting an Atari 2600, I got my Odyssey 2 and Intellivision.

 

Today I'm up to ~540 games (including label variations), and at least one of every Atari/Sears/Coleco 2600 console except the Atari Heavy Sixer, Sears Light Sixer, Atari 2800, and Columbia Home Arcade...not counting prototypes, of course.

 

Overall, my collection includeds over a hundred platforms and probably a few thousand titles.

[jttheninja]

Wow I can't do math...it was 2001...I don't know why I kept thinking 1998....sorry about that. []

[sqoon]

Mine began Christmas of 1981 when I got my Sears 4 switcher. I think the pack in game was Target Fun. Quickly started buying about a game a month. DK, Kaboom!, Lock 'n Chase, Seaquest and Frostbite were some of the first ones to come along. This many years later, my mom never sold it at a yard sale, though I stupidly sold some of my early games to a coworker of my mom's. Thankfully, I bought them back many years later.