My atari 2600 Gaming memories

[dinoboy38]

I was introduced to the Atari 2600, back when my parents divorced back in the mid 1970's. Dad had the Atari in his upstaris apartment, and it was a whole new world for me. He only had a few games to start out with, but there was a store nearby that sold more games. Unfortunately, my dad was kicked out of his apartment, since me and my sister made way too much noise, and it constantly disturbed the lanlord. My dad moved to a bottom floor apartment in an apartment complex. We saw him on weekends, or he would send us to his mother's house for that weekend. Grandma didn't have Atari, bummer. Anyway, the 2600 was hooked up to the color tv set, which was in the living room. Getting to play the 2600 was a privelage, since my dad would want to watch a game, or my sister would want to watch her favorite Saturday Morning cartoons. Besides that, we also fought on who gets to play the Atari next. Within future games, you had to plug in new controllers to play certain games, like Street Racer. Breakout, etc which was a pain in the butt. It seemed that my dad was always getting angry at me, since I always wanted to play Atari when he wanted to watch the game. So here's what he did. One day, he took the little black and white tv set, put it on a little rotating multi shelf cart, hooked up the Atari and gave me earplugs to keep down the sound and my father then says "There, now you can play Atari all you want, whenever you want, and not bother me alright." It was a blast, but eventually you got bored with the games, and I wanted newer games to play.

Then one day, my sister and I were talking to my dad at his apartment and he told me that some of his friends are coming to visit latter today, and they are bringing a new Atari game to show me. "Oh Boy, I can't wait to see it and play it." I said excitedly. "Whoa Whoa, this Atari game is for adults only, your way to young to play this game. Said my dad . "Besides, we're going to play the game late at night when you both are in bed sleeping." How can I be to young to play An Atari 2600 game, and I didn't even know what the name of the game was, since dad didn't tell me. During the day, I was very curios and wondered about the new Atari game that was for adults only. So late at night, I was sleeping and then suddenly woke up to the sound of cheering and lauging in the livingroom. Half asleep, I snuck into the living room to see what the excitement was about and what the new game was. I really don't know if they saw me or not, but in the dark room, I remember seeing some action on the screen that involved a man on top of a wall and three blocky graphics of women on the bottom of the screen running back and forth.

I didn't know what was happening, but many years latter when I was in my late 20's to early 30's ,I found out from the internet that it was an X-rated game called Bachelor's Party. Atari made x-rated games?! Turns out that the game was designed by someone who was drunk at the time. The man on top of the wall was naked and was pulling his penis up and down, and he then released little white flashing dots that fell and were to be caught in the open mouths of the naked women that ran across the bottom of the screen. WHAT?! How could a game like that be created and then sold on the market for adults only? As if some of todays games are not already geared for adults. Anyway, when my father moved into a home and got re-married, he had the Atari 2600 in his little den. Now sometimes upon my sister and I staying at my dad's house for a weekend, I would wake up early and just toy around with the Atari, since dad said I could. The time just flew, and then suddenly the door to the den opened up and it was my sister who told me "You've been playing Atari since 6:00 this morning, and it's now 8:00, and it's my turn. We didn't wake up dad, but at times it came sooo close. Now I always borrowed some of my dad's 2600 games, since I had an Atari as well, but I soon came up with a whole large stack of games, since I would normally beat the game within 10 minutes or so, and at the time we only saw Dad once a month.

Dad would then blow his top seeing me with soo many games and wondered what I was going to do during the summer, sit home all day and play Atari? I was going through an emotional time and since I had no money or anyplace to go, being home just seemed safer to me, than being accused of loitering or tresspassing and having the threat of the police being called into it.

I never got along to well with my dad, but I didn't have all the answers to what I was going to do with my life, and I had some problems that I was dealing with. It seemed that playing video games at home just made me feel safer, but it was tough back then, really tough. I don't see my dad much these days, but I gotta tell you that I've gotten alot of help with my life and I still enjoy playing video games, and I'm also into computers as well. But even today, my older sister sometimes beats me score wise in some of today's games (Tetris and Dr. Mario). And if she ever found out I lost against the computer, she would laugh me off of the face of the earth. That's my true story. And even today, I surf the internet to find out some miscellaneous info on homebrew atari2600 games and games I never even knew existed.

[Lord Thag]

I'll be looking forward to reading your second novel

 

We kind of like Atari here too. One of the fun things qabout collecting is that you are always finding something new. It's one of the reasons io stay away from emulators. I want it to be a surprise when i find a new cart, you know?

 

Those X-Rated games are hilarious. I picked that one you mentioned up awhile back. Man, talk about your bad taste!

 

Ok, that was bad.

[kencrisis]

Thanks for your story. These memories posts are invaluable to my Atari experience, as they inevitably bring up new memories of my own.

 

Now I remember a trip a friend took me on with his family and another couple's family to a cabin in Cresline, CA. After a long first day of hiking and sledding, we played a few hours of Missile Command (I was SO impressed that this family had a 2600 in their cabin!). We had bunkbeds, I was on top. Late one night I fell out of the bed and screamed holy hell. One of the mothers took me to the kitchen and rocked me to sleep. When I got drowsy, I remember one of the fathers coming in and asking if I was "out." I was drowsily faking sleep, so they determined they could resume whatever they were doing.

 

As I was carried back to bed, I got a peek at what they were doing. It was definitely a session of Custer's on the 2600. I was so horrified and in my little-kid mind equated these people with swinging, porn, and all things evil.

 

Very scared of them, I became pretty quiet the rest of trip -- determined to quietly ride it out and get home safely. I pretty much dropped my friend after that, seeing him and his whole family as being just a shade shy of antichrist.

 

Which of course is too bad. They were just normal '70s folks having a barely randy good time.

[swandy]

When my kids were small (daughter is now 27 and son is 22) I convinced my wife that we should get an Intellivision (yeah - I know) because of its selection of educational stuff. So I got permission (we did not have lots of money in the late 70's) to take about $200.00 and get one with a few carts. Going to my local electronic store, I was facinated with the Intellivision but FELL IN LOVE with the VCS. Upon marching back into the apartment with my new purchase, my wife looked at me and said, "Intellivision, huh???".

That was the beginning of a long relationship with Atari products. (Really wish I had hung onto my old systems and cartridges, now I have to start rebuiding my 2600 collection again and keep looking at the 7800's on Ebay.)

[dinoboy38]

My error, the X-rated Atari 2600 game I mentioned was not Bachelor's Party, but it was Beat'em and Eat'em. Anyway, my memories continued, for the fact that my father really got mad and ticked off with my desire for videogames. I remember when he and his father took me and my sister to Downey Park in Florida. We were all walking together down a path, when I saw a large building and wondered what it was, as soon as I discovered that it was a video arcade, I flipped and wanted to go there. Immediately, my father yanked me back and told me "No, you play those video games way to much, besides we didn't just come here just to play video games." Then his father said "He's right you know, you had better listen to him." Man all I wanted to do was go to that arcade, but I didn't.

Now how was anyone when they were younger, and their parents took you to their friend's house, and suddenly you noticed that they had and Atari2600. Were you able to control yourself? Well it was pretty much similar, when my dad took me and my sister to one of his friends house. It was almost like he was just sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper drinking coffee, waiting for me to crack and ask to play their Atari, and have a fight with my sister on who gets to play the next game . Seemed like my dad was just waiting for me to crack, so he could just come in a give me a good slap. Well, off the topic, my dad got the Ti99/4a computer during the late 1970's, and at the time, he met up with someone that had every game, program, expansion modules, add ons etc for that pc. Well when my dad took us one day, he had to stop at the guy's house, and immediately, told me that I don't want you to ask if you can play any of his games, etc understand me. Mostly that's where he got those hint books for the adventure games and other software cartridges for his pc.

Back to the Atari2600. I was always jealous whenever my sister had the opportunity to play new games at her friend's house before me. She made it sound like the games she played were sooo coool. She even told me that when her friend went to her grandmother's house, she had the atari and every single game that was ever produced. Now that made me envious. As the years wore on, dad got games that were memorable, challenging, and strange. For some reason, I had a hard time with Riddle of the Spinx, since you tossed dots to destroy your enemies, avoided touching the scorpion, or something, gather treasures etc. Now with Pac-Man coming out, the game was popular, but the graphics stunk! I somehow remember seeing it being sold in a store for about $79.99, since Pac-man was very popular at the time. I remember getting the sequels for myself, but enjoyed Jr. Pac-Man better for it's screen scrolling action.

But the one and only Activision, had produced better graphical games for that 2600 system. My personal favs were Pitfall 2, Pitfall, Megamania, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers. I do have the Activision's Atari2600 classics for my pc, and can play those games with optional mother saying "That Sound is Driving Me Crazy." "Come in and eat dinner now!" "What are you glued to the chair." "It's enough already." "Next time leave the door open." "Don't you have homework to do?" The only downside is that you have to change the video display to 256 colors, otherwise the game won't play

A very reminisant time when your parents had to drag you away from the game. More memories to come.

[Lord Thag]

Yeah, my parents were pretty anti-game too. Now that I'm thirty, they've pretty much given up on getting me to stop Last Christmas, they even bought me a Vectrex. Imagine that.

 

I'll share my first 2600 memories too. The first time I ever saw one was Christmas of '82. My cousin got one, and my grandfather was hooking it up for him. It was the last time I would ever see him. When he died two weeks later, (he raised my cousin), my cousin and I played the system for days while my folks dealt with the funeral. It was a very strange, sad, and fun time for me. I was absolutely mesmerised by the thing. I remember thinking 'why would anyone want to WATCH tv when they can PLAY it'? At length, we left my cousin's house and went back to nor cal. No more grandpa, no more atari. I missed both.

 

One year later, on christmas, my brother and I were done unwrapping the last of our GI-JOE and transformer toys. My folks were fairly poor at the time, and we were thinking we had made out like bandits. My mom, with a knowing smirk, told us to go check by the TV. My brother and I ran over, and promptly crapped our pants. There, sitting in front of our sad little 19 inch b/w TV was an atari2600..... and over 15 games. FIFTEEN games.

 

My mom, you see, had chanced upon a fire sale over at thrifty and got the entire stack for $100. I have never had such a wonderful shock. Overnight, my house became the envy of the neigborhood. Even the rich kid didn't have 15 games. It was awesome. We played the thing every chance we got, and recieved a game on our birthdays, and on christmas, for about the next three years.

 

I still have every one.

[atarilovesyou]

I agree with every last one of you!...I don't know why parents didn't like their kids playing video games, and it's funny how when you get older you can appreciate those days even more.

 

I still remember seeing Chopper Command for the first time. I could have crapped my pants! Yep, my poor cousins knew that when I came over, it took all of about 3 seconds for me to start "hinting" about the Atari...but usually, it was the parents who stopped us from playing. Like anything else, we had to "get it out of our system"...which was why it was the kid who never had a system of his own who was the biggest "freak out when at your friends place gamer".

 

Then I got a Coleco and the tables turned!...it was I who was to say, "...nah, fellas, let's just go ride bikes or something..."...ha!...those were the days!

 

Now that I have no real desire to play modern games, the games on the Atari I loved to bash on during the NES heyday are the ones I love to play...very few NES titles make me want to play them over and over. It's the simplicity and short attention span and sheer competitiveness of those games that is the hook.

 

I still remember laughing out loud at the thought of playing Atari in the late 80's when you could play Metroid, a game with an acutal point!....and who cares about how many points you could score in Chopper Command, anyway?...how things change. I can't wait till Christmas to bring over the new Flashback and have a great time playing those old great games...