Was the Atari 2600 your first video game system?

[Rhindle The Red]

The Atari 2600. The face of classic gaming.

 

It's where the love of video games began for many of us. Was that true for you? Did you start with the 2600 during the classic era or were you an INTV, ColecoVision or (heaven porfend!) an Odyssey2 gamer?

 

Did you come to the system later, after getting an NES or a PlayStation?

 

Have you *still* not got one?

[Robert M]

My family had a dedicated Atari video pinball/breakout console with 7 games in it before we bought the 2600. I am not sure which option I should pick from the list. We got the 2600 right when it came out, but it wasn't our first console. IT was our first cartridge based console

[atari_aaron]

There doesn't seem to be an option for those of use who had a pong system before the 2600 became available.

[128bytes]

I had a Magnavox Odyssey 300 before I had an Atari 2600 -- I'm not sure how I should vote.

[+Random Terrain]

Is the Odyssey 400, that played a few variations of Pong, considered a video game system? I was given one of those years before I got an Atari 2600. It was not too fun if you didn't have a second person to play with. If I had an Atari 2600 a few years earlier, life would have been more fun.

[kickinwing]

got my 2600 as my first system when i was 3 years old, in 1981. Damn you 2600, starting my gaming collection/addiction.

[Raiu]

There should definitely be a "No, my first console was even older" option. Because that's what I'd pick. A Coleco Telstar Ranger (still have it, still works! Lost the gun, though)

 

-DS-

[+FujiSkunk]

I too had one of the Odyssey systems before I got a 2600. At least, I think I did. It was in the same house as me, and my mother (the only other one living there) wasn't much of a game player. It's hard to remember, considering I was 3 or 4 at the time.

 

So, I voted "No, I had a different system back in the day."

 

The 2600 was my second game system.

Edited July 11, 2005 by skunkworx

[Rhindle The Red]

I would consider any system (cartridge or dedicated) from the Odyssey to the crash to be "a different system back in the day".

 

But that's just me.

[glitch]

We had the original Odyssey back when it first came out but I was fairly young then and I don't remember us having it very long. I consider my first system to be the Bally Astrocade which I still have. My friends had the 2600 and I remember trying to duplicate many of the games in Bally Basic (didn't get too far ) I didn't actually get a 2600 until around 99-00 (don't remember exactly). Adventure was my all time favorite game back then and was the main reason I picked it up when I saw it at a thrift shop. Since then I have had about 10 units float through my house (I have 4 that I keep) and about 150 games.

[128bytes]

I would consider any system (cartridge or dedicated) from the Odyssey to the crash to be "a different system back in the day". 

 

But that's just me.

889722[/snapback]

 

That's true, but I also wanted to be able to vote "Yes, I got my 2600 back in the day", because I did, and it will always and forever be my favorite game system - I view my old Odyssey Magnavox 300 as an interesting historical footnote from before "back in the day" applied to the VCS.

[mapman1071]

I had a heavy sixer Since Dad Brought it home at xmas 1977. But I had to sell it and my 7800 with combined 325 games and 20 controllers in 1999 to pay the rent after I Lost my job.

[Lord Helmet]

Saved my allowance for a 2600 in 1979. Seems like it took my brother and I forever to save all that change!

[Foxsolo2000]

I got my first Atari for christmas in 1981 when it cost £150. I added Intellivisions, Colecovisions etc afterwards but the humble 2600 was my first games system and still much loved today

[AtariAger]

My 1st system was the INTV...after playing hours and hours on our friends 2600's, my brother and I convinced our parents to shell out for an Atari... !

 

 

[bones]

As a kid my parents were of the belief that "videogames are evil" so I couldn't have a 2600 back in the day. ALL of my friends had them, so I'd just go to their houses to get my fix. A few years later the folks must have changed their mind on all this evil because they bought me a NES.

 

Sometime later in college I traded for a 2600 to relive my youth, and get back at those crazy parents

[Osbo]

we were considering a coleco, but my grandma gave us the 2600 in 1985 x-mas

[yuppicide]

I had it when it first came out. I don't remember many games we had in the beginning except for Space Invaders. I remember the day we went to pick up Indy 500 with the controllers. I remember we had Laser Blast, Deadly Duck, Kaboom, Stampede, Freeway, etc.

 

My Grandmother had Bowling, Enduro, Demon Attack, Megamania, etc.

 

One of my Aunt's was dating this guy FOREVER so we called him Uncle. His Brother worked for some place that had to do with the 2600 in some way so he always got new games. He must have had 50 or 60 games back then. I remember Wabbit or something. I don't speak to that side of the family anymore unfortunately. I'd like to and then I could ask him if he'd like to sell me all the games. Who knows he might have some protos.

[Laner]

I got a hand-me-down Radio Shack TV Scoreboard from my aunt, but it didn't last very long - once I got the 2600 for Christmas '81, the pong game found it's way to the dump (I assume - I don't remember what happened to it)

[keilbaca]

My first system was the aph-m1000. I wish I still had that...

[Big Player]

I had one of those Magnavox pong things first but I played it for about two weeks, put it in a closet and never saw it again. To this day, I don't miss it at all. Until Space Invaders came out, I thought pinball ruled over video games in every way.

 

So I voted 2600 as my first system because it was the first system I wanted and loved.

[Room 34]

One option that's missing is that you DID have a 2600 back in the day but you had something else BEFORE it.

 

That was the case with my family... we had a Unisonic Tournament 2000 (Pong clone). But I was a little too young to really get into that. I played it a few times when my parents would get it out when they had parties (boy, that really dates it, doesn't it?)... but then it was packed away in a closet for about 10 years until I started getting a little bored with the Atari around '85-'86.

 

Anyway, the 2600 was the first system that was MINE and that I really got into. We picked it up in May of 1982.

 

Incidentally... about a year ago I picked up a like-new, in-the-box Unisonic Tournament 2000 on eBay to replace the one my parents had long since thrown away (i.e. sold for $1.50 at a garage sale).

Edited July 12, 2005 by Room 34

[spongebue]

When I was born, the Atari Age (the age of the Atari, not the website) was just ending, and that's what I would play when I could actually play games. We also had a pong unit that didn't get much attention. One day I decided that I wanted a better system, so I decided that if I changed the switch on that box plugged into the wall my dad said gave power to it (that is, the adapter) I may have the sega genesis I wanted. (more power=better games, right?) It fried it

[+cvga]

I got my Atari for Christmas in 1980. My best friend/neighbor got an Intellivision that same Christmas. A year or two later, I got a VIC 20. I was at Kmart with my mother and while I was drooling over it, some guy said that he was a teacher at our high school and talked my mom into buying it for me. We later traded up for a commodore 64 and I sold a bunch of my atari games to buy a disk drive. Along with everyone else, I abandoned my cartridge based system in favor of computer games. In fact, several years later my brother was an early purchaser of the NES and I remember making fun of him at the time and stating that it would never sell. I later bought his NES so that he could get the rest of the money he needed for a Turbo Grafx. I liked his Turbo so much I bought one soon after. About that same time I bought a ton (more like 250) of Atari games for less than $1 each and an Intellivision with 40-50 games for $25 and have been seriously collecting ever since.

[jesusc]

I was too young to have the atari when it was current.

However, the first system in our house was a friends old Super Pong.

My brother got an Intellivision for Christmas in '82 or '83.

However, MY first system was the Master System in '86/87.

The first time I owned a 2600, I was 15 ('91). I bought it and about 25 games at a garage sale for $10.

Since then I've bought and sold many different versions of the unit and currently do not own one, but have the 2600 expansion for the Coleco.