Back in the day, were you an Atari snob?

[Gregory DG]

Just wondering... Back when Atari was still #1, did you ever look down on people who owned other systems?

 

I remember looking down on some northern family members who had the Sears Video Arcade, because it wasn't a genuine Atari! That Sears game must be a knockoff or a generic video game! Even the game titles sounded lame (even though many were the same as Ataris.) Boy, was I a dummy at 12!

 

And even later, I remember being snobby towards a friend who had an Atari 2600 Jr. when the rest of the world was on fire for the NES.

[bedouin]

Kind of, but not for Atari. I was a Commodore snob and turned my nose down at Atari computer users, though not in a severe enough way to not recognize the cool things the systems had to offer. TRS-80 users were also on my lamer list. I also had a secret Apple fetish and would have forsaken my c64 for an Apple ][c at any time, despite any technical inferiority.

 

I too viewed the Sears Telegames as a kind of lame knock-off. My first console was an Intellivision though so the whole console snobbery thing never meant much to me. The NES was the first machine that made me want to own a console and a computer; up until then the c64 was superior to any other console out there gaming wise as far as I was concerned.

 

Now I'm a Mac snob since about 2002. I can't help it; the few Macs I've owned have been virtually problem-free and made me enjoy computing again just like in the 80s. Of course, OS X is a big (huge) part of that.

[the 5th ghost]

I liked it all!

 

We had the Atari 2600 (Sears version! ) and the Commodore 64. One neighbor had the 5200, another had an Intellevision, another had the TI-99 4/a, another had the Apple computer, then of course many got those NES's when they came out.

 

We had a blast!

[godzillajoe]

I always thought INTV owners were idiots.

 

Who cares about sports games, the arcade games sucked and the controllers were terrible

 

Then I was given one by a friend who was sick of his and it wasn't THAT bad of a system.

 

I rather liked playing Dracula.

 

So yeah, I was kind of a snob

 

I turned my back on Atari when I got a C= 64, I thought getting an Atari computer was a bad idea.

 

Man the Commie scene was hot back then. Games games and more games.

[ATARIPITBULL]

I always thought that the other systems were trash and never going to be as good as Atari, I just wished that Atari had by passed the 5200 & came straight out with the 7800, that way the could have done a whole lot better against the Coleco system.

 

[Crazy Climber]

I always thought the Intellivision sucked balls

[Lord Thag]

I always thought the Intellivision sucked balls

 

Fie upon you! Only a TRUE gaming afficianado could appreciate the sublime experience that is the Intellivision!

 

j/k

 

Can you tell I'm an Intellivision snob?

 

Actually, I liked everything back in the day. If it was a video game, I probably liked and/or played it if it was good, regardless of console.

 

Hmm. Not much has changed

[Lord Helmet]

I had 1 freind that owned an intelly. I would only play astrosmash and burgertime when I would spend the night at his house.

 

I also had a freind that had an Odyssey2...we never played games at his house...

 

Most of us had the 2600...we would stay up all night trying to see who could beat Raiders of the Lost ark the fastest

Edited July 20, 2006 by Lord Helmet

[Collector]

i was to young to snob around, plus nobody else i knew had anything else until nintendo came out, then i got snobbed at for not having an nes until i got one.

[Rik]

Just wondering... Back when Atari was still #1, did you ever look down on people who owned other systems?

 

I remember looking down on some northern family members who had the Sears Video Arcade, because it wasn't a genuine Atari! That Sears game must be a knockoff or a generic video game! Even the game titles sounded lame (even though many were the same as Ataris.) Boy, was I a dummy at 12!

 

And even later, I remember being snobby towards a friend who had an Atari 2600 Jr. when the rest of the world was on fire for the NES.

No,people looked down on ME for still playing a 2600,didnt care though,i always knew the 2600 was THE BEST,the proof is pretty obvious now.I remember salespeople in the stores touting the odyssey 2 as miles better than the 2600,which i just laughed at,now all my buddies who owned these other systems come over and ask to play my 2600 games!!!!!

Edited July 20, 2006 by Rik

[Gabriel]

Oh yes indeedy I was an Atari snob. I was a total fanboy.

 

I remember, I felt ashamed that my Pac-Man cartridge was a Sears Tele-Games. Sure, I was happy when my aunt bought it, but later I began to feel like it wasn't a REAL Atari game. For some strange reason, I felt that official Atari games were somehow better than third party games. (Although, that didn't prevent me from getting third party games. But I did worry that they were damaging my system like the Atari propaganda said.)

 

I bashed the other consoles religiously. (Except for the O2, which I had a secret love for) I drank up the company propaganda. I was just as bad as the Nintendo fanboys I so loathe today.

 

Oh, and I HATED people who said the Colecovision was better than the Atari 5200. Gah, what a little weener I was.

[Atari Joe]

I'd like to think that I still am. I look down my big honker at everyone else who owns an intellivision or odyssey or whatever else without also owning a 2600 or expansion port. I mean seriously comeon if youre going to collect classic video games you have to have a 2600 somehow. It's nice when you can have more than one system but the 2600 is the scene to be at.

[NE146]

No. If anything I WANTED the other systems and looked with jealousy on those who had them I would have liked to have an Intellivision but I knew it'd be too much to ask my parents for one.

 

Additionally when I got the 5200, I also wanted the Colecovision but asking for another console was too crazy

 

I think that was the key trigger in my life that led me to get pretty much every console release after that when I was old enough. e.g. In college I bought an SMS AND and NES. And later on of course I bought all three 16 bit systems: the Genesis, the TG-16, and later the SNES. The trend continues to this day

[Shawn]

I was kinda the other way around. As soon as NES came out I dropped Atari like a bad habbit and didn't come back to it for almost ten years. I guess it took me almost ten years to figure out that Atari really is where it was always at

[Vic George 2K3]

I thought all the game systems of that particular day and age were interesting enough to merit my attention, with their particular strengths and weaknesses. Of course, I have never seen an Astrocade, a Channel F, or an Arcadia 2001 in living breathing action on any TV screen anywhere.

 

It's too bad my Intellivision II ended up malfunctioning about half a year after I bought it in 1984. It was a good system that could be carried in a backpack going back and forth between my home in Westfield, MA and being in St. Vincent's Home in Fall River. What really galled me was that I got the Intellivoice module and Tron Solar Sailor as Christmas presents from my former stepmother.

Edited July 20, 2006 by Vic George 2K3

[Foxsolo2000]

I never knew anyone who owned a system other than a 2600 until after the crash when at school a friend of mine bought a Vectrex for £50 brand new. I didn't get an Intellivision until after I left school and by then people were just giving them away. So in answer to the question, no I wasn't an Atari snob for I wanted to try the other systems but never got the chance until much later in life.

[shadow460]

I got snobbed on a little when the NES came out, but Phaser Patrol put a fast end to that. I also did some snobbing here and there.

 

We owned three systems and an Apple clone. I never had any problem whatsoever playing Sears games, either.

Then again, if we got snobbed a little too much and didn't feel like digging out the Supercharger, we'd just load up Star Chess or Space Attack on the Arcadia 2001 and let those games rip for a while.

I, of course, have a small collection of 2600 titles nowdays, and I've got a NES with a few games, but I'll still once in a great while load up Cat Trax, Space Attack, or maybe Tanks A Lot via emulation.

Edited July 22, 2006 by shadow460

[Vic George 2K3]

Of course, I did admittedly get defensive over the Atari 7800 when the NES came out, since it was basically spelling out the end of Atari's reign of dominance in the home videogaming realm.