what made you start collecting VCS stuff

[Jess Ragan]

That's 2600. (ahem)

 

Anyway, I started collecting Atari games back in 1984, after my mother remarried. The 2600 wasn't my first video game system... that dubious honor goes to the Odyssey2. However, when my brother and I moved after the marriage, my stepfather's son left an Atari 2600 in the basement, and I went hogwild playing all the games he left behind. They were all common titles, like the universally reviled Pac-Man, and Star Castle abstraction Yar's Revenge, but I spent hours with them anyway.

 

When I eventually grew tired of these games, I went out looking for more, and usually found them at Meijer, a department store in the midwest that's like a less evil Wal-Mart. Atari 2600 games at Meijer were insanely cheap, ranging from $20 to a dumbfounding $2, so I picked up everything I could afford. I spent a lot of time at garage sales too, snapping up software whenever I could find it. Say what you will about the mid and late 1980s... clearly those years were lacking many of the modern luxuries we've come to take for granted. Nevertheless, there was no better time to start an Atari collection. People were dumping their systems and games at trivial prices, and there were plenty of sources for them. I don't think there's ever been another moment in the history of the hobby where you could walk into a dollar store, find a dozen different titles still sealed in the box, and walk out with an armful of games- genuinely GOOD games like Midnight Magic and Solaris- for ten bucks.

 

I think the unification of classic gamers led by Digital Press, and the rise of the internet a few years later, put an end to that gold rush. The more we learned about the Atari 2600, the less of it there was to find in the wild. Personally, I've reached a point where the software is completely gone from yard sales, and only pops up in pawn shops at, uh, optimistic prices. I'm even starting to notice this happening with NES and even Super NES titles. The yard sales are all glutted with Xbox, Playstation, and GameCube games, while the pre-21st century stuff is completely absent. I imagine the cycle will repeat well into the next century, until people abandon physical media entirely for a Steam-filled future.

[Serious]

I used to obsessively read Electronic Games magazine all the time when I was in school (which is part of what earned me the nickname "Tron" in sixth grade), and there were all these great ads for stuff that weren't available in stores, like the CommaVid games, the Starplex controller, Ultravision Condor Attack.. Lots of really cool and interesting looking stuff that I wasn't really in a position to send-away for, and which none of my friends had.. So part of what I enjoy about collecting is acquiring all the cool stuff I thought I'd never have as a kid.

 

That, plus the desire to rectify my terrible mistake in 1990 when I gave away my entire VCS and Colecovision collection, which wasn't worth much at the time (and I couldn't find anyone to buy it), and my mind was on Amiga, college, BBSes, and the future, not retro-gaming.

 

I started rebuilding my collection in 1999, when I discovered eBay. I had re-acquired a few things from people I met on Usenet newsgroups before that, where I also used for record collecting, but that was alot more time-intensive and spotty than eBay. When eBay came about, it was like massive amounts of this lost stuff that had been sitting in people's basements got unearthed and made available again. I mostly bought big lots of loose carts, but also started discovering the NOS that was available (the Atari silver and Red box commons, Telegames, etc), and started searching via Metacrawler for what I could find, and managed to acquire a few nice things that way.

[Mad-Mike]

My interest started as a baby. Our family would buy used Atari 2600 games and consoles at mall closeouts, flea markets, and garage sales. We usually went through one a year...oh what I'd give to have every Atari we ever had.

 

Mine started in the mid-90's when my sisters went to college and got an internet connection. I spent countless hours at their place researching the Atari 2600 through web searches. That whet my interest for 2600 and games again so I bought a 2600 Jr. with a small rainbow and Combat + E.T. from a fellow named Joseph Petlitri online (my first ever time buying something online.....no paypal, no e-bay, no forms....just good old-fashioned Electronic Mail).

 

Man how far I've come.....now I have tons of controllers, 137 cartridges (just scored Pitfall II this past weekend....one of my "holy grails"), and have one Light Sixer Sears console that I"ve rebuilt/fixed umpteen times.

[Atari2600Lives]

Wanting one for my birthday in early 80s and finally getting it started a lifelong hobby .

 

Besides the pack in combat my first game was adventure !

[JadeETC]

Found a light sixer at corner store called 4Jays in CA and fell in love with it. Came with Combat, but I also got Pac-Man.

[+Gemintronic]

I never actually collected Atari 2600 stuff until Albert put out a call for carts a few years back. I bought out the stock from a local video game shop. After selling the duplicates to AA I started actively snatching up carts and thinning out my wallet. No good deed goes unpunished as they say

[+Ransom]

The ghost of Nolan Bushnell appeared to me and commanded me to go forth and begin collecting VCS carts.

 

Weirdest thing is, Bushnell's not dead.

[JadeETC]

The ghost of Nolan Bushnell appeared to me and commanded me to go forth and begin collecting VCS carts.

 

Weirdest thing is, Bushnell's not dead.

Even weirder, I don't think Bushnell had anything to do with the VCS.

[+Ransom]

Even weirder, I don't think Bushnell had anything to do with the VCS.

 

Launching the VCS is what drove him to seek outside financing (selling Atari to Warner).

[JadeETC]

 

Launching the VCS is what drove him to seek outside financing (selling Atari to Warner).

The ghost of the programmer of Exocet told me to go but a VCS. But not to get any if his games because they all SUCKED.

[RetroFiends]

I had a friend who was also into retro games as a kid. That was maybe 2002? He had two Atari 2600's and I don't remember what I traded him for it now, but it didn't cost me much. This was before ebay fever was in full bloom and you could find this stuff everywhere offline.

 

Anyway, I had that VCS and maybe 10 games and I fell in love. I even had an older TV with the screws to go with it so I didn't need an adapter. (That TV eventually died, sad days) I didn't ever really go crazy with collecting for it. I'd pick up a stray game here and there every year or so, since emulation was so convenient (and free). Because the 2600 is so "arcade", for lack of a better term, a majority of the games are so replayable that I still don't get bored of the games I had back then.

 

Fast forward to earlier this month, I started programming a 2600 homebrew, and I decided to pick up a 7800 for testing and general use. I won an auction for a working 7800 lot for a nice price... and now I have something like a hundred cartridges all working except for a Spider Fighter cart. And now My Atari Collection is beginning to rival my steam collection... I think I just got hooked.

 

God help this poor soul when my harmony cart arrives.

[toiletunes]

I started collecting a few years ago, right around the time I decided (yet again) to quit smoking. Obsessively thinking about different games, companies, and label variations actually helped keep my mind off the cigs better than anything else. I've been tobacco free ever since, thank you Atari.