Atari in the UK!

[pocketmego]

Please, excuse the title intentional music pun.

 

I've noticed we have quite a few UK Atari fans on these forums. I've seen the commercials from there, so i know the system was sold in the UK and seems to have been successful.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ02T9w8bLc...pace%20Invaders

 

However, I was lead to believe from various gaming history web sites and books that people in that part of the world mostly came into video games by way of Home computers like the ZX, Beeb, Amstrad, and the C-64. Versus consoles which is where most Americans were intorduced to video games.

 

How big was Atari, especially the 2600, in the UK?

 

I'm very curious.

 

-Ray

[Atariboy2600]

Please, excuse the title intentional music pun.

 

I've noticed we have quite a few UK Atari fans on these forums. I've seen the commercials from there, so i know the system was sold in the UK and seems to have been successful.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ02T9w8bLc...pace%20Invaders

 

However, I was lead to believe from various gaming history web sites and books that people in that part of the world mostly came into video games by way of Home computers like the ZX, Beeb, Amstrad, and the C-64. Versus consoles which is where most Americans were intorduced to video games.

 

How big was Atari, especially the 2600, in the UK?

 

I'm very curious.

 

-Ray

 

 

Next to the US the Atari in UK was very big

[Rik]

Please, excuse the title intentional music pun.

 

I've noticed we have quite a few UK Atari fans on these forums. I've seen the commercials from there, so i know the system was sold in the UK and seems to have been successful.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ02T9w8bLc...pace%20Invaders

 

However, I was lead to believe from various gaming history web sites and books that people in that part of the world mostly came into video games by way of Home computers like the ZX, Beeb, Amstrad, and the C-64. Versus consoles which is where most Americans were intorduced to video games.

 

How big was Atari, especially the 2600, in the UK?

 

I'm very curious.

 

-Ray

I dont live in the U.K,but,ive noticed ALOT of VERY cool Atari 2600 stuff on E-bay,from the U.K,alot of stuff you cant even find here in Canada anyway,not to mention CV stuff as well,i think theres a couple of neat colecovision parts suppliers in the U.K?Plus,ive seen alot of British rockstars wearing vintage atari and CV t-shirts,as well as naming their bands after a classic gaming object,so classic gaming must have played a big part in their lives growing up.

Edited August 3, 2006 by Rik

[Foxsolo2000]

Please, excuse the title intentional music pun.

 

I've noticed we have quite a few UK Atari fans on these forums. I've seen the commercials from there, so i know the system was sold in the UK and seems to have been successful.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ02T9w8bLc...pace%20Invaders

 

However, I was lead to believe from various gaming history web sites and books that people in that part of the world mostly came into video games by way of Home computers like the ZX, Beeb, Amstrad, and the C-64. Versus consoles which is where most Americans were intorduced to video games.

 

How big was Atari, especially the 2600, in the UK?

 

I'm very curious.

 

-Ray

 

In a word, massive. During the 80's everyone I knew owned a 2600. We were second only to the USA

[bloodreptile]

Well round about 1979 to 85 was the biggest years for the 2600. You could get pretty much any title you wished... so when I say Spider fighter was big, it was.

The zx spectrum, was huge as well but colour clash was its problem. The Amstrad series were just too expensive to become really mass market and were always third behind commodore and speccy. Will add more later as I need to get to work.

[Spirantho]

I knew three people with Ataris - one 6 switcher in the early 80's (I still have a slightly funny feeling when faced with a text label cart as it reminds of me of then - particularly basketball), one 4 switcher in the mid 80's and a junior in the late 80's.

 

Myself though I grew up from Tandy TRS-80 model I (unusual in this country) -> Sinclair ZX81-> Sinclair Spectrum-> Commodore Amiga. I got my first console about 6 years ago and my first Atari was a CV with an expansion module.

 

Atari was quite big but nothing like as big as the home computers from what I remember. I rarely saw any Atari games (though of course I wasn't really looking) and saw truck loads of cassettes for the home computers, which were cheaper and more plentiful.

 

The UK always was a much more computer-oriented than console-oriented society - at least until the PC started taking over and people started needing consoles because PCs were so expensive to keep up to date and not terribly good when they were new. In the olden days it wasn't a problem - you bought your Amiga or ST or whatever and it played games out of the box brilliantly and lasted years. Now we don't have that the console has become king.

 

If PCs were designed the way the old machines were, consoles would still be much more minority in the UK as we're a nation of tinkerers, but because they've been dumbed down to the lowest common "what's a mouse?" denominator, no longer do kids cut their teeth on programming and enjoying computers, the only choice they have is whether to play a game on a console or play a game on a PC.

 

Maybe I'm just getting old. It were all different when I were a lad....

[Mayhem]

The 2600 was somewhat popular around my way. It certainly was head and above anything else especially the Intellivision and Coleco. I never knew anyone who owned either of them at the time. I knew a few other people with 2600s. You could rent the games from video shops for starters, the only format that was available there. In conclusion, the 2600 is really the only console that did anything in the UK pre-crash.

 

But I always believe gaming in the UK never really took off massively until the release of the Spectrum. I think it was the cost of the software that had a large factor to play, games here for the 2600 were often 30 GBP new iirc (or around US$50) and games for the Spectrum sold for between 2-5 GBP initially ($3-.

 

With the hardware retailing for roughly the same price, it wasn't a difficult decision to choose which way to go. The C64 was also massively popular but Commodore shot themselves in the foot with the pricing here which was insane to say the least until around 1987/88.

 

There was also the piracy factor to consider, which is one reason imo why the Playstation gained popularity over the N64. Very easy to duplicate tape based games

 

(not that I did btw, but I knew lots of kids that did)

[carmel_andrews]

Atari was popular in the UK, although their biggest market as far as computers were concerned was (west) germany as they sold more ST's there then anywhere else in europe including the UK

 

The atari 8bit systems (4/800 xl/e) were fairly popular and it's peak was the mid/late 80's with the launch of the XEGS, unfortunately they suffered from a lack for 3rd party software support as very little UK made software was ever produced compared to the C64, Speccy and Amstrads, Hey even MSX was better supported in the UK then Atari's 8bit systems were

 

Atari's ST series was initially very popular in the UK only because it was cheaper then the commodore equivalent, the Amiga and until the start of the 90's, ther ST was the main games software platform after the speccy/c64, though once the ST and amiga were at the same price point, the Amiga started taking the lead, this was also because of the supposed compatibility problems with the initial STE launch, and that since software companies had already been writing base ST software for years, they didn't see the point in doing specific STE versions or dual ST/STE versions, which didn't really help Atari in pushing the STE, the TT and Falcon suffered pretty much the same fate as the STE (namely not very popular as a gaming platform)

 

I didn't follow atari's gaming platforms much, although in saying that i did own a lynx (orig. and smaller version) and a jaguar, however the lynx and jaguar as well as the 2600 suffered from the same problems as the A8 systems did and mainly put up with very little UK made software and basically had PAL versions of already available US titles

[Malc74]

Bloody hell! That Space Invaders ad. brings back memories! I've been looking everywhere for that, and it finally dispels the lingering belief that Bernard Cribbins was in it. Oh well.

 

Speaking from personal memories, Atari was huge in my hometown (I grew up in Scotland) in the early part of the 80's, with many of my friends in primary school owning one, but then the Speccy came along and that was the end of that. Atari did release the 2600jr in the UK earlier than they did in the USA (I think I got mine for Christmas '85, but I can't be quite sure) and I could still find games for it up to and including 1990, so it lingered on for a long time, but it always played a minor role compared to the home computers.

[pocketmego]

I knew three people with Ataris - one 6 switcher in the early 80's (I still have a slightly funny feeling when faced with a text label cart as it reminds of me of then - particularly basketball), one 4 switcher in the mid 80's and a junior in the late 80's.

 

Myself though I grew up from Tandy TRS-80 model I (unusual in this country) -> Sinclair ZX81-> Sinclair Spectrum-> Commodore Amiga. I got my first console about 6 years ago and my first Atari was a CV with an expansion module.

 

Atari was quite big but nothing like as big as the home computers from what I remember. I rarely saw any Atari games (though of course I wasn't really looking) and saw truck loads of cassettes for the home computers, which were cheaper and more plentiful.

 

The UK always was a much more computer-oriented than console-oriented society - at least until the PC started taking over and people started needing consoles because PCs were so expensive to keep up to date and not terribly good when they were new. In the olden days it wasn't a problem - you bought your Amiga or ST or whatever and it played games out of the box brilliantly and lasted years. Now we don't have that the console has become king.

 

If PCs were designed the way the old machines were, consoles would still be much more minority in the UK as we're a nation of tinkerers, but because they've been dumbed down to the lowest common "what's a mouse?" denominator, no longer do kids cut their teeth on programming and enjoying computers, the only choice they have is whether to play a game on a console or play a game on a PC.

 

Maybe I'm just getting old. It were all different when I were a lad....

 

Amen to that BROTHER, AMEN to that!

 

I will be the firs to stand tall and say that had it not been for the brilliance of MANY fine British creators that the Commodore 64 would have been long dead before it had taken off properly. Every truly memorable and great game, with few exceptions, is programmed by a Brit.

 

I would LOVE to have seen what the Palace software guys could do with the 2600. I still say Cauldren 1 and 2 are MUSTS for homebrewers.

 

 

As for the topic, near as I can tell the 2600 was eaither really available and popular in some areas and in others later home computers opened the door. However, regardless of popularity or not the system gave way to the Spectrum when it came from Sir Uncle Clives dreams into reality.

 

I find the paralell's absolutely fascinating. For years I never even knew there had been a video game crash in the states because I got a Commodore 64 early on and I just made the jump straight to it. I was playing Pitfall 2 and Ghostbusters on my C64 never even dreaming they had made versions of them for the 2600. When the Tramiel era Atari stuff started I never even knew it was a new company with an old name. I just assumed that Atari was the same as ever.

 

Apparently, I followed the pattern set by many British and UK children who made a natural progression from the 2600 into Micros.

 

So what makes those of you who didn't really grow up with the 2600, part of this new generation of retor collectors and enthusiasts?

 

What brought you into it?

 

-Ray

Edited August 4, 2006 by pocketmego

[bloodreptile]

I was always more into Atari that Spectrum even though I had both....

[lynjon]

I'm a female in my 40's from England and me and my husband bought an Atari 2600 in the early years of our marraige in the 80's. We played many a game - vividly remember staying up till the early hours trying to progress with Pitfall II and H.E.R.O. Before that, in the 70's some people had the really old ping pong type tennis games that just went backwards and forwards, and my husband spent a LOT of money one when he was a teenager in the 70's where you had to stick plastic over the tv screen to get the right effect-think we've still got it in the loft somewhere. I would never had thought that all these years later a new generation would be enjoying those old games, what with PC's and Playstations etc.!!

[pocketmego]

I'm a female in my 40's from England and me and my husband bought an Atari 2600 in the early years of our marraige in the 80's. We played many a game - vividly remember staying up till the early hours trying to progress with Pitfall II and H.E.R.O. Before that, in the 70's some people had the really old ping pong type tennis games that just went backwards and forwards, and my husband spent a LOT of money one when he was a teenager in the 70's where you had to stick plastic over the tv screen to get the right effect-think we've still got it in the loft somewhere. I would never had thought that all these years later a new generation would be enjoying those old games, what with PC's and Playstations etc.!!

 

First of all, WELCOME to the forums.

 

I'm 32 myself and I am here largely to re-live many of the wonderful memories of my youth. A friend and I were just having this very conversation. The fact is that I was on the cusp of buying an X-Box 360 and more and more it began to feel very wrong to me. All said and done a 360 would have cost me 800 Dollars and I was already loosing a lot of interest in modern 3-D games. The life and fun seems to have been sucked out of this industry and I thinka BIG part of that is the loss of single programmers from the old days VS modern games programmed by multiple teams.

 

So, I bought a new computer instead of an X-Box and went totally into retro gaming. I have been becvoming increasingly more interested in the British and European Retro side of things due to the Magazine Retro Gamer and leaqrning that many of the games I loved growing up were born in the UK.

 

-Ray