What happened to your Original Atari as a kid in 70-80's?

[rockman_x_2002]

The first Atari 2600 I ever played is currently in my "video games graveyard"... that is to say, my storage closet here in my room. Nothing too serious wrong with it. Just needs a new joystick port and a new power supply.

 

Although this 2600, a four-switcher, was not really mine. It belonged to my brother. My first Atari system was the first 7800 system I owned. It too suffers from a burned-out power supply or something, but I think this one might be beyond repair. So it's also "buried."

 

Hopefully someday soon I'll be lucky enough to have my own very first Atari 2600! What a great day that'll be for me!

[ntavio]

My first Atari was the VCS bought Xmas 1980. My mother threw it out along with about 100+ carts including a couple of Atari Age exclusives (CC & Quadrun) cleaning.

 

I packed away the 4 port 5200 I got in 1983 and play it to this day (but with different joysticks).

[Bushie2600]

My mother threw it out along with about 100+ carts including a couple of Atari Age exclusives (CC & Quadrun) cleaning.

 

[NE146]

What happened to it? I still play it

 

Actually that's inaccurate. My first Atari, a six switch Sears model I let my cousin have it once I won a NEW Atari in a 2600 Pacman contest (True story). That one I still have. The Sears model I gave to my cousin.. who knows what happened to it, they probably threw it away by now

[Susuwatari]

I still have my Sears heavy system but the right difficulity switch has broken off long ago. Still sitting somewhere waiting for a replacement switch.

[Kroko]

I had to sell it, because I needed money for this brand new C64

[Mr Oni]

Although I have tons of commodores and some ataris none of it is originally purchased by me except my 7800. I remember vaguley the joystick port breaking on our first 2600A and it ending up in my toybox I think I took it apart and pulled the rf cable out. It was replaced by a coleco gemini which lasted a couple of years. and then a 2600jr until 89-90 when I bought a 7800 new but on clearance.

 

Mr Oni

[geosteve]

I had a 4-switch system that I sold through the classifieds in '82 to buy a 5200 with the money.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Still have my six-switch woody.

 

I was broken all those years, but some nice AA member fixed it recently.

[Heavy Sixer]

Still have it! My first Atari, a Darth Vader model, was the first game console I ever owned. I got it in June of '85, so I'm right around the 19th anniversary of that day . It's presently in storage with the majority of my other 2600s, but it still works (had to reflow the solder around the power jack pins a few years ago). I own a number of the black units, so I doubt I'd be able to identify which one is the original, but at least I know that it's still there.

 

HEAVY***6***er

[Albert]

Several months after I got my new Nintendo system' date=' my mom GAVE my entire Atari collection to my cousin - just cause she found it in the closet. [/quote']

 

Funny, my mother gave my 2600 system and games to a cousin as well, because she felt I was "no longer using the system and they could put it to better use"!

 

..Al

[uosipa llamxew]

When I was younger, I shared a very small bedroom with my older brother. Whenever I wanted to unclutter the room, I would box up all of my old games (whatever wasn't being played heavily) and put them into storage. When I felt the urge to play again, I would unpack the system and games and leave them out till I found they weren't being played often; then the process would repeat.

 

One day I decided I felt like playing Utopia on my Intellivision and went to to the storage room for my box. I was horrified when I couldn't find it. I must have searched for hours. When I confronted my mother, she couldn't provide any reason for it being gone other than it might have been donated to the Salvation Army by accident. I have searched the storage room up and down a hundred times since. There was well over 50 games for each of my Atari and Intv systems, as well as the ECS attachment and many other accessories. :-( This is exactly the same thing that happened to all of my NES game boxes and manuals!

 

Similarly, one day I came home to find my Garbage Pail Kid collection missing. Except this time it was purely intentional on my mother's part. Boy was I ever pissed!

[Lauren Tyler]

My 2600 is one my dad got after he divorced from my mother back in 1984, so that I could play my games when I went to visit him on the weekends. He had it untill 1997 when he moved to where my grandmother used to live, at which point he brought it to my house. It's had some trouble with the power cord connector, and I think it just needs to be opened up and looked at. Just about all of my games, though, still work fine!

 

The first one my parents had was a Sears Tele-Games system, which died when I was little.

[Adrian M]

I still have my original system (Black Vader model), sadly, it does not work.

 

Also, the box and original controllers are long gone too. The original AC Adapter had to be replaced sometime in 1986 or so as well.

[Rob Mitchell]

The first fall 1977 Sears Telegames system we had broadcast on Channel 3 only and received interference from the local TV CH3 station. So when Sears received CH4 units we exchanged ours after 2 weeks.

 

It served me well until 1983 when I decided that we had too much money in the Atari and 20 carts with controllers ($600). So I sold the lot for $300 just before the crash! Purely economic you see!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Mike OC]

My original was a Sears lite sixer that Santa brought my sis and I in 1979. We accumulated about 30 games in the next four or five years. The system worked beautifully and we played a lot. We had the Sears game center too. Sometime in 1985 or 1986, Mom decided that we didn't play it enough to warrant having it in the living room any more. It was boxed and taken to the basement. Nintendo was popular and my little brother got it for Christmas that year. The Atari was all but forgotten until my youngest brother discovered it in the basement and began playing it. He used it for a while but then Sega Genesis became all the rage and once again it was boxed up. Mom thinks she sold the Sears and the game center plus all the games at a garage sale in 1994 or 1996. She doesn't remember what she got for it. It worked perfectly all those years, and I miss it.

[Mr Oni]

everybody has such sad stories waaaaaaah I'm crying poor little ataris.

 

 

Mr Oni

[Brad2600]

I still have the original 4 switcher that my father bought in the early 80s. It just doesn't work now. I want to replace the RF cable since it needs to be replaced anyway. It *might* work if I do so.

 

I have at least 4 more 2600 systems scattered around.

[bcostin]

I also still have mine, an original 6-switcher my dad got us for Christmas 1978. The switches were starting to get gummy when it went into the attic, and it stopped working a few months after I pulled it back out again a couple years later. I still have it in a box down the basement, hoping that someday the blessed Atari Fairy will flutter by and repair it for me.

[Vic George 2K3]

Mine wasn't a "sad story" at all. Me and my brother just wanted a better system and also one that played 2600 games. Just never actually owned a 6-switcher Atari 2600 until recently from an eBay auction. (The one my mother sold was a 4-switcher.)

[Stingray]

Still have my original Sears heavy sixer, but sadly it no longer functions. I bought another one revcently from a member here. That one worked for about a week and now it doesn't work either. I give up. I guess I'm not meant to have a working Sears heavy sixer. I play my 2600 games on my 7800 now.

 

-S

[Red 5]

Nobody has any idea where my original went.

Many of my items mysterioiusly vanished when I went to college.

Somewhere in a magic abyss reside my original atari with about 100 carts and a few thousand baseball cards from the 70's.

 

And while we're at it, where the hell is my Speak N Spell !

[candiru]

I still have my original Vader and old games we got for Christmas of '83. It was the only console I ever had as a kid. It spent a few years in the basement until I took it with me to college. A few months back I finally repaired the B/W switch that got broken when we loaned it to a cousin years ago. It's nice to have it all complete again. Currently it's boxed up in a closet due to space limitations so I just have my 7800 hooked up.

[Danno]

I had - a Coleco Gemini because Donkey Kong was a much better pack-in game than the awful 2600 Pac-Man. Unfortunately, the soldering on the controller ports to the circuit board went after several years of abuse, and we chucked it.

 

I then got a 7800 in 1986, and most of the games for it. I loved that system. I had about 150 games between 7800's and 2600's.

 

Then, In 1987, my priorities changed and I started playing guitar instead of Atari.

 

By 1991, I had been in several bands and was now in a punk band. We smashed the 7800 and the cartridges (a-la The Clash) in the parking lot of the Rehersal studio where we practiced one night in a drunken Punk Rock stupor.

 

Now I run a recording studio, and am an avid Atari PC Emulation fan.

 

Certain members of the band who smashed my 7800 with me went on to fame and fortune.

[Keir]

Never had my own as a kid, but the one I use now is my wife's from when she was a kid. Found it in her parents' attic a couple years ago and it still works perfectly.