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When did you first become interested in Atari?


2600lover

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The 2600 was the first home console I ever owned. At the time I wasn't really aware of home video games...I remember being interested in the arcade games, and all the merchandising hoopla of the time. 'Pac-Man Fever' swept the nation, and its hapless victims proudly proclaimed their affliction on T-shirts, baseball caps and coffee mugs. Nearly everyone was caught up in the hype. My grandmother still owns a set of Pac-Man drinking glasses from this time, and every time I see them it takes me back to this happy moment in time. I received the 2600 as a Christmas present (I believe it was around '83 though Im not really sure). One thing I do remember, was the moment the system was turned on and "Combat" lit up the screen. It seems so simplistic now, but being able to control something on the television screen back then was pure magic. My brother and I were instantly Atari fans.

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Woke up Christmas Morning of 82 to the sounds and look of a Woody 4 switch and Freeway on a Sony 19-inch hooked to one of those flimsy tv carts we all had. I wanted one but could not tell you where I had seen one before then. Will never forget the feeling of seeing on OUR tv, not somebody elses. MANY holidays to come were spent testing new games for hours. The following Christmas I remember an entire morning of Jungle Hunt!

 

I started collecting games in college. At that time, I still had my 2600 in the family room but had not been hooked up in at least 10 years. In 96 I bought the N64 and could not believe how much fun Mario 64 was. At the time I had a SNES, NES and TG16. After getting the N64, I supercharged into game collecting. Got about everything I could find for the 3D0, Sega CD and even bought a modded PS1 to play the great new racing games (Gran Tourismo, R4, etc). In 2000, I went to see my Dad in New Mexico and he dug out my Vader that Mom bought me to take out there in the summertime. He still had my Star Raiders and Phoenix in boxes (those are the only two original boxes in my 2600 collection) and a few oddball loose titles that had moved from DC to TX to NM and been in storage all those years. I came home and played the daylights out of them. I had about 35 or so games at my Moms place still, so I brought that system over to my place (now living with my would-be wife). We played the heck out of them. PhillyClassic 2 really showed me they were collectible. I saw them as "all the same" before then (value and gameplay). It really opened my eyes. By the end of a two day show, there were three major events:

1. I decided I was going to ask Nicole to marry me

2. My truck did not like hauling 6 arcade machines to PA so I had best sell them cheap to make it home!

3. The 2600 WAS the system to collect for

 

Not long after 9/11 I found AA and it really helped me get through some tough times. I was fully into classic gaming before but now there was a community. I have since forsaken the other consoles and almost exclusively bought for VCS. Long live one button wonder.

 

C

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The fall of 1980. A neighbor got an atari VCS and Space Invaders. I was immediately hooked. That Xmas "Santa" brought me a VCS and Space Invaders and that's pretty much all I did for the next few years.

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When I saw a 2600 commercial on tv,it was advertising SPACE INVADERS,and I thought wow,playing space invaders in your own home!I just had to have one,and I wasnt disappointed,I thought that port was the best,and still do.

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Im 17 buy my experiences were similar, in the middle 90's a cousin was working at a department store and they found a storage room full of 2600's and blue label defenders and asteroids etc nothing rare so he got one and a copy of each game that was there for himself, me and my other cousin. I remember Defender noises scaring me ( or was i actually afraid of the game, like if i played it it would become real?) i was very young still bieng born in 88'...

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Woke up Christmas Morning of 82 to the sounds and look of a Woody 4 switch and Freeway on a Sony 19-inch hooked to one of those flimsy tv carts we all had.

 

BTW, why did Atari move the difficulty switches to the back while leaving the "TV type" switch in front? I would think people would switch difficulty (especially on games of that era) more often than television type.

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I discovered Atari back in 1980, at the age of 9, when my mom used to own a duplex that we used to prep every now and then for new tenants. I went with her one weekend to help paint one of the bedrooms.

 

I found this big empty box in the closet for an Atari 2600. At that time, I'd never known hardly anything arcade-wise except for pinball machines. I turned the box over in my hands and saw screenshots of Combat, with the tank, biplane and jet battles, all of which one could play on their own TV set!! I could not believe such a thing existed, and I held onto that box for a long time, just so I could stare longingly at those screenshots and dream of playing those games. My mom thought I was crazy.

 

I soon discovered that Fedco by our house carried the Atari 2600. I remember it being $229, which was quite a wallop for wallets back then. I begged my dad to get it for me, but he kept telling me to wait patiently for the price to go down. Sure enough, over a few months' time, it went to $199, $189, $169, and $149. I could not hold out any longer, and finally my dad got it for me when it hit $139, several months later.

 

I was so glued to my 2600 when I got it—I played Combat on a daily basis, to the point that I had that blister on my thumb and that sore in my palm from the corner of the joystick. Every Atari addict would know what I'm talking about.

Edited by Difficulty A
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Back in 1985. Around Christmas time I guess. My older brother had an Atari and I wondered what the heck all the fuss was about. Really, I had no idea. I remember playing raiders of the lost ark, adventures of tron, and tapper for hours and hours. Then a few years later the girl that was babysitting me while my parents were out of town brought 50 or so atari 2600 games over to my house. I remember thinking at the time there must be 100 Atari games. Anyway, the Atari slowly faded and I moved on to the NES all too quickly. I always remember thinking to myself there was something different about the NES. The games were much to random and very poorly put together. Even today I could argue 80-90% of the 2600 library is worth playing while it's more like 10-20% of the NES library is worth playing today. I really got back into atari when I was 18. I've been collecting video games for all systems since 1996. I think I own 16 arcades/pinballs, and 2,200 cartridges. I really can't think of anything more fun than playing the classic games. Oddly enough, it always seems the atari game you first played the most as a kid is still your favorite one today. I really don't play any atari 2600 game more than adventures of tron, for example.

Edited by MattG/Snyper2099
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BTW, why did Atari move the difficulty switches to the back while leaving the "TV type" switch in front? I would think people would switch difficulty (especially on games of that era) more often than television type.

Well, if they had moved the TV type switch in back, and left the two difficulty switches up front, then the console would have looked lopsided-- two switches on the left (power and left difficulty), and three on the right (right difficulty, select, and reset). :D

 

But seriously, I wish they'd left all of the switches up front.

 

MR

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Well, even though I think I've posted this story before, I don't mind telling it again. :)

 

About a month after I was born, my parents bought a Vader 2600 for my three older sisters (it had to have been nice to have a distraction for them while dealing with a new baby). I grew up playing Atari games - and my father began picking more up at garage sales, etc. We had a decent amount of games (I think the first time I counted we had something like 25 games) including E.T. - which I learned how to play and actually kind of liked it. It's amazing how your opinion is affected about the game when it was one of the few a person actually had..

 

Anyway, I wasn't really *interested* in Atari at the time. It was just a game system to me and what I REALLY wanted was an NES (my friends had them, but I didn't). Every so often I would dig out the manuals and catalogs for the Atari 2600 and would just look them over. I'd have to say that my interest got started when I read through the Ms. Pac-man (woman of the year!) manual that contained information about the unreleased Voice Commander module for the 5200 - I don't recall what else was in there, but the idea of having one of those things seemed awesome at the time.

 

So I didn't really have a whole lot of information about Atari or its other systems. My family really wasn't that big on video games (especially my parents), so I didn't hear much about what was happening in the video game world while I was growing up. I only knew about what my friends had - and they didn't have the 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, etc, so I didn't know much (or in some cases, anything) about them.

 

I'd say around '96 or '97, we finally got connected to the internet. I had been interested in Atari for awhile, but still didn't have any information. By this time my 2600 collection had grown to 100+ games.

 

Also, around '97 or '98, I saw the Atari Jaguar in Kaybee Toys - I had to have one. At this time I still only had the 2600 and couldn't wait to see what the Jaguar had. So I picked one up and was quite happy with my purchase... and I started reading the side of the box... there was a CD add-on! Sweeeeeeeet. I eventually picked up the add-on from goatari.com back when you could get themfor $89. And then I came across atari-history.com (now atarimuseum.com) and I started reading... and reading... and reading... I couldn't keep away from the site until I had read it all - all about the video game crash of '84 (the year I was born, to my surprise) and all of the changes that had been made to Atari.

 

By the time I was done reading the site, I was incurably hooked on Atari. I had to have all of the Atari systems and start collecting - this eventually spilled over to other systems (to some extent). And here I am - an Atari addict. :P

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My mom never let my have an Atari when I was young. I remember once my aunt offered to let me have one, but my mom said no. She didn't want me to become obsessed or something. She finally got me a N64 when they first came out. After that I never wanted a PS, GameCube, or Xbox. Then I met my friend Jeanette and she is absolutely obsessed with gaming. She's going to school to become a game programmer. Soon after that I found an old NES at Goodwill for $1.29. So I went searching for games and accessories for it. Then I met my new best friend who sells these retro systems and he gave me an Atari box. I bought the wires and stuff then I began searching for accessories and games for the Atari and eventually stumbled on to this site and then I began playing and putting my collection together. Then I became OBSESSED! This was one month ago.

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  • 9 years later...

This is probably like a sin for me on this site but I never got the chance to own any console because of my family.

 

I only really got the chance to play video games on a regular basis by the time I started middle school. The first video games I played were browser games I found on a Jimmy Neutron site which no longer exists cause I liked the show. The games were mostly remakes of retro games. I thus researched the games and arrived at Atari 2600 and NES online emulation sites. And those are the video games I grew up playing (I'm born in the 90's) despite being past the generation who grew up with the consoles.

 

To this day, Atari 2600 games are my favourite games and make up the majority of the games I play. Recently my aunt gave her Nintendo DS and Famiclone to me as gifts and since I'm already past high school, my father allowed me to play games as long as I also spend time studying. So now I have 2 consoles, and I only have them for a bit more than a month.

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I was living in England in 1980, when the VCS started showing up everywhere. Asteroids and Space Invaders were the killer apps. I wanted one very badly but my parents weren't about to splash out for a PAL system that wouldn't work when we got back home, to say nothing of the early-adopter costs. I can only imagine how stupid the games looked to a non-arcade-playing adult at the time. We eventually got a secondhand Odyssey 2 when they noticed how interested I was in the neighbors' Atari machines. The keyboard was supposed to make it more computerlike, ha ha, the joke is on my parents, because withholding this stuff when I was a kid caused me to OBSESS over it.

 

And now I'm a video game addict!

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It was a cold black day, a cold black night and there I was wondering why I was finding no joy from my wii or PS3. And there was much vexation of soul and body...mainly my controller hand. So I started a search on the Google for Homebrew games in the year of our Lord 2013 in the Month of September around the 13th of said month. I found myself pondering upon the Age of Atari. And it came to pass that I was led to a glorious site known as Atariage. I was astonished to find a glorious blaze of Homebrew creations, and I felt my rescue begin. It was called Princess Rescue, and I have been enjoying the rapture ever since.

Edited by adamchevy
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Hate to admit it, but Donkey Kong was the first REAL reason I wanted a 2600. Sure, a friend or two had Atari's and would play on their systems where more than a "few" games commanded my attention, but Donkey Kong was the one that really pushed my desire over the edge to finally want a VCS to call my own.

 

Berzerk, Bowling, Missile Command, Phoenix, Super Breakout, Vanguard, Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, Kaboom!, Keystone Kapers, River Raid, Frogger, SW: ESB & Q*Bert were some of the other earlier games that helped make me fall in love with the system. :love:

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  • 2 months later...

For me, it's been an off-on thing since I was a kid.

The fact we were poor for awhile in the 1980's post-crash and we could get our hands on Atari 2600 stuff super duper cheap back then at flea markets and thrift shops. Problem was, the actual consoles did not last that long, I vaguely recall having everything from a heavy sixer, a light sixer, then a Coleco Gemini, then a 4-switch of some kind - all died because we used them HARD - I was a baby so these are faint memories. We also accumulated a lot of games and controllers that sadly were lost to the sands of time. I vaguely recall mom buying a Weller soldering iron to repair one of the Sixers or the Coleco - I eventually used that same iron in high school to learn to rewire electric guitars and actually fix Atari 2600 and other systems myself.

​Anyway, I was about 8 years old and was at that "curious stage" where I'd snoop around the house getting into everything that seemd like I would not get in trouble doing so. One of those things was a huge Smith Corona typewriter box in our closet that was filled with - you guessed it - Atari 2600 cartridges, manuals, and controllers, but no 2600 itself. So I wanted one for Christmas and mom managed to locate a co-worker who had a woody 4-switch and a bunch of games and I got that as my first game console for X-mas 1989. After that we started snagging up everything we could get cheap at Kay Bee Toys that they were trying to close out/liquidate for the Atari 2600 as I could get new games for $1.00-5.00 a pop at that point. I played that 4-switch till it too died the next year, and it was replaced with a brand new NES and lost all the 2600 stuff.

​I returned to the 2600 in the mid 1990's when my second older sister got internet in college and what was my first Yahoo search? "Atari 2600" - I spent quite a bit of time in Netscape Navigator 2.02 going to Sidartha's 2600 page, the 2600 Connection (cute girls and Atari, haha, nice), and eventually saved my lawn mowing money to buy a 2600 Jr., Combat, and E.T. from some guy named Joseph in 97' - that's when I started over again and began collecting vintage games and eventually computer hardware and well - here I am now over 20 years later with a lot of the same stuff and caregiver to a Sears Telegames Light Sixer I've had over 15 years and got via glitched E-bay auction.

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My first contact with Atari was arcade games. Not the conversions you played at home, the proper machines in arcades.

 

I'm nearly 49. My first arcade experiences were at a holiday camp where my grandparents had a stationary caravan for holidays.

They had a small arcade. Must have been something like 1977 or so. There were lots of electro-mechanical arcade games there, from f.i. Chicago Coin but also some black-and-white arcade games. Of course not all were Atari (I clearly remember Zzzap280 (http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=6022) but also Pong clones and some other B/W games.

 

However, the very first real memory of Atari I have was that from a holiday camp which was larger and right next to "ours". They had a really large arcade with a bit more modern games. The first machine I remember linking with Atari (and it's epic logo) was Asteroids. That machine scared the shit out of me, for a couple of reasons.

First of all it was HUGE. I think Atari cabs were usually the biggest, especially here in Europe where there were also lots of Euro versions and bootleg machines which usually were a bit smaller.

Next, it had this weird sounding monitor....like it was rattling with the things that happened on screen. Only decided later I learned about vector technology and _why_ it sounded that way (it was probably a monitor on it's way out because of that sound ;))

And lastly because the game was so brutal for me as a kid. I didn't play it that much because I was dead 3 times pretty quickly. Coping with "space physics" was something completely new at that time and not easy for a kid. I also couldn't read the English texts then so I had no clue what to do or what all the buttons were for. Usually I tried looking at other players to learn.

 

My memory also tells me there was a F-1 there. This happened to be Atari's one and only electromechanical arcade game they ever made (licensed from Namco) but it was fast and furious and impressive for a kid like me: (

).

 

Anyway, of course a bit later I discovered more arcades, with more games and Atari just was one of those brands.

 

When next they came up with the 2600, that was a direct link for me that it had to be a good system. I am very very very sure that the logo helped a lot with that....images help recognize brands.

 

Also.....in the very beginning I though Atari was a Japanese company because it sounded so Japans to me. Turned out I was half right ;)

 

Our first home system was an Audio Sonic Pong clone. We had that for quite some time (and got bored of it rather quickly) then the 2600 came up. That was my dream machine but it took some first price cuts until we could afford it (or rather, my brother wanted to invest in it, and my parents and I chipped in....). My cousin had a Videopac (poor him !) and further....When the Colecovision arrived I was awed by the DK version...but then I played it on the 600XL and THAT game decided which computer I wanted. Every since I had a proper computer, consoles were a thing of the past for me (of course, I returned later)....

 

But not only that version of DK. Atari was still THE brand for me. I stuck with them until very late...somewhere in the 90's I was still using my ST as my main computer.

 

Well that's about it :D

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