When did you first become interested in Atari?

[CookieHuffman]

I'm just a kid. So, when all my parents were like "Atari bro!" I never liked most modern games, and only played stuff like NES, SNES, PS1, so on. But I tried Atari, and liked it

[Keatah]

I recall my first encounter with "Atari" was with the black and white games. Pong in Pizza Hut in California. Some racing games in the first Aladdin's Castle, also in California.

 

I remember going to an Aladdin's Castle out there and playing Sprint 2 when it first came out in 1976. And the place was full of shooters and pill poppers. But it was all good. I remember them hoisting me up so I could see the screen and at least pretend to play.

 

But the best memories were bringing home The "stand-alone" Video Pinball console. I loved that and played the hell out of it. It was magic! It was also at the time I was learning about electronics and stuff. And the mystery of what went on inside the black rectangles called chips was just on the edge of my understanding. I was totally surprised about the microscopic maze of circuitry in them when I first saw the microscope photos. I still have my "Miracle Chip" book which describes all sorts of applications for ICs, but surprisingly skipped over anything and everything videogame related despite it being published in 1978 or 1979! I wonder why?

 

Once I "got whiff" that ICs were improving every year I built up a collection of them, still have most. And I immediately dreamed of a day when they'd be powerful enough have one chip do all the videogames ever made! And today we more or less have that. But this was heady thinking for a kid back in the halcyon days.

 

It was a time of discovery, reading about the Space Program, dreaming of Lunar Landers and Space Colonies, reading about astronomy and the planets, and of course Star Wars. Getting a sense of what was really out there. Pouring through the Celestron Telescope catalog. All that good stuff. And then in 1977 the VCS came out. And while I was not totally dying to get one. I did, for that Christmas. An early Christmas present, too, so I could enjoy it during my time off from school.

 

It was great, the smell of TV dinners cooking, the howling and blasting Northern snowstorms, the warmth and coziness of the basement (and my room). A stack of books on various "scientific disciplines". Burying under the covers. Making beanbag and blanket forts. Saturday morning cartoons. Man my life was set! I was in command!

 

The games from the first 3 or 4 catalogs were added to my collection as quickly as they came out and I soon built up a library. I was well on my way to "collecting". Though I didn't know it at the time. Anyhow, the first few Atari VCS catalogs showcase all my favorite games and resonate with me the best.

 

Soon my attention turned toward Intellivision and Colecovision and other systems (not discussing Apple II here), and I collected for those also. I had a real arcade at home it seemed. All the warmth and good time these systems bought be is one thing I'll never forget. Eventually I branched out into even more systems and 8 and 16 bit computers too. Soon everything got overwhelming. Soon everything was stretched too thin and I had systems and games I was never ever going to use, let alone maintain. The devil invaded the house, made me drop out of school, and cause all sorts of things to go wrong. Craziness and screaming everywhere. A cult was forming in the area and police were circling around. I eventually dropped out of school and convinced myself (by encouragement of others) that videogames were like baby games and that I should grow up and get rid of them and go to work. Besides, it was really becoming impossible to continue collecting them at the rate they came out. I dumped just about everything except for the Apple II stuff and TRS-80 Pocket Computer material. Even the arcade cabinets went. But the Apple stuff survived because I took extraordinary measures to ensure its safety.

 

--- now ---

 

Today I play them strictly through emulation on newer PC hardware. Especially the VCS. Given the chance to recollect them all again I would likely have to say no. And for an unusual reason. Not the clutter. Not the maintenance. Not the cost. Not the time. But instead the corruption and destruction of the good memories. For fear of contaminating the fragile remembrances of the past. I have discovered that oftentimes the past memory of something inanimate can be better than the real thing. And to all of a sudden to get these games back in physical form would "mess-up" the good times. They'd never be able to live up to how I remember them.

 

I remember them having near pristine image quality on our Zenith ChromaColor II crescent-shaped TV. Awesome sound family and friends of youth around and all that. That's not going to happen so easily again. Rather not in the same precise way. It will be different, it is different, but with the same aromas and flavors. Similar overtones. Different and the same. The same and different.

 

You see.. I recently discovered that emulation provides an osmotic membrane. A way to bring the past forward and integrate the good times of that past in a practical way that is compatible with life today. All the while adding a high level of convenience and reliability while filtering out the bad stuff. It offers things that I wanted since being a kid. While we don't have a single-chip solution to play every game console and arcade machine, we might as well be close enough. Today's tech is quite advanced compared to the stuff of the 70's. It's also different enough to awaken discovery while yet remaining familiar. As familiar as Combat, Basic Math, Video Pinball, and many others are to every VCS owner. Familiar to me.

 

It's great. It's better. Now. I'm like holed up in the chillout room, playing with my emulation rig, updating its software - installing a couple of new versions of MAME, Stella, Vice, or Altirra, or WinUAE something like that - the wife's cooking grilled fish, new articles about cosmology and the universe and science awaiting to be read. Damp New England mornings turning to snowstorms. The freezing Northern winds coming in. Fall but a distant glimmer of color, having faded weeks ago. Quiet enough to hear the ice cracking on the trees. A hard cold. But the warmth of discovering electronics and games and all the good stuff and wonders the universe has to offer continues right on. Everything's bigger now. Expansive. There are still mysteries to uncover - likely more now than what was available back in the 70's.

 

No. Make no mistake - I wouldn't want to go back. But instead have successfully bought the past to the future and merged them. And the sum is positively better than the parts. Much like an elegant circuit.

 

Older, more seasoned, more mellow and clear headed, retrogaming and computing still continues to offer new things to contemplate. There's the history, the design philosophy, why things happened the way they did. And of course, new material continuing to come out after all these decades!

Edited December 3, 2016 by Keatah

[Dr Manhattan]

I vividly remember seeing a display unit at my local Sears when I was a kid. I immediately thought this was the greatest thing I had ever seen in my life. My entire young world revolved around convincing my parents to get me this system. About a year later I got my wish. I would own dozens of video game consoles over the years. However I never stopped playing the Atari 2600. Even when all my friends moved on to 8 and 16 bit consoles I was still playing Atari 2600 games.

 

It's funny because MANY years later nothing has changed. Still playing Atari.

[Obviously]

My parents bought it before I was born so it was just always a part of my life. My cousins all had one too so it was something we always played together when I was a kid. It stayed hooked up even when I got the NES for my fifth birthday.

 

Combat is the first video game I remember playing.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Obviously

[0078265317]

1980 something.

[Rom Collector]

I first saw/played Pong (cocktail-table version) at the Holiday Inn in Monterey California in about 1974 or 5 at the latest. I'll never forget it.

[Brian1977]

1984 maybe 85. I was around 7 or 8 years old and I got it for christmas. The all black darth Vader version with pac-man included. I don't remember asking for one but I difenatly remember getting on Christmas morning. I'm pretty sure this was around the video game crash because any time my grandparents came over they had a new game for me. I also remember my mom buying games for me at a dollar store.

I still have it and still play it. My kids enjoy playing also

[Jinks]

Dont remember if I answered yet. But I was probably 7. At a friends house he had a sears model from the sears catolog with pac man,nexar, boxing, indy 500etc. I remember the driving paddles and racing on ice and thinking this was great. I knew these consoles were lots of money and got one 3 or 4 years later in the 49.99 jr. box. I got pole position, dig dug, cali games, and moon patrol for birthdays and Christmas. I kinda knew by that time the late 80's that the system was sucking in graphicall power compared to the nes.. But still I was amazed. at some of the games like dig dug at how I remembered the arcades and it played the same. And the NES friends still wanted to come over to play yars revenge cause there NES did not have a yars to play on and the simple graphics were fun and different especially using a stick like the arcades not a funny little rectangular pad moving just your thumb to change directions felt so wrong..

Who remembers friends lifting the joystick up to jump and pulling your console off the table? Or leaning over in a curve in pole position or almost falling off the chair changing directions in Phoenix.

I never seen kids actually get into games like that any more with 90000x the graphical power and sounds the thrills today with games are blah boring next!

[Two-in-the-Belfry]

I actually got into Atari through the Angry Video Game Nerd. I've watched his videos since I was in middle/high school, but about a year ago I became really interested in the ones where he ranted about Atari stuff. I started looking into the 2600 more, mainly by watching reviews from Lord Karnage and MetalJesusRocks, found AtariAge, saw how many people were still into it, and decided to take the plunge and get a system.

[Tangentg]

I actually got into Atari through the Angry Video Game Nerd. I've watched his videos since I was in middle/high school, but about a year ago I became really interested in the ones where he ranted about Atari stuff. I started looking into the 2600 more, mainly by watching reviews from Lord Karnage and MetalJesusRocks, found AtariAge, saw how many people were still into it, and decided to take the plunge and get a system.

For me I discovered Metal Jesus much later. When I looked up videos about the 2600 (I've posted my story above), It was AVGN first, then Lord Karnage and finally Aqualung. The latter two remain to be my favourite retro game reviewers.

[Roger Wolf]

First played it around 1986 at a friends place but wasn't impressed anymore and prefered my brothers NES.

came back to it in 2010 when I discovered by accident, that there exists a vivid homebrew scence. From this moment on I was finally impressed.

[MrMaddog]

What more could I say, to me back in the late 70's & early 80's as a kid the name "Atari" was parallel to video games. It's like now how there are lots of smartphones but only one Apple iPhone which is the flagship brand. So after first playing video games in the arcade I wanted an Atari VCS (We never called them 2600's until the Crash started). And I stuck with that brand well into high school & college using their computers during the Jack Tramiel era.

 

I have lots of good memories playing Atari games as a kid playing them for the first time, checking out other people's 2600s during the NES era, collecting carts from thrift stores just after I graduated college and even now checking out stuff I never played before through emulation or the Flashback.

[PlayDoh003]

I purchased my VCS in the Spring of '78 after saving up my allowance and doing various chores for folks in the neighborhood. Yes, at 11 years old, I bought my first console myself!!!

 

I played the heck out of that thing and took good care of it - had the boxes for everything. When I got married, I left my VCS and Sega Genesis in my kid brother's hands, and well... that's still a sore subject.

 

But anyway, I've been collecting seriously for about 15 years, and as I'm approaching my 50th Birthday next month, I decided early this year that I wanted to get both a VCS and a Genesis, not to mention try to recoup the collection of games I had for each. Luckily, I was able to meet my goal last month. Been having a blast playing, and have even picked up the Flashback collections for PS4, not to mention Tim Lepetino's Art of Atari Deluxe Edition. It's like he knew I would want a book like this!

[bugcatcher88]

I first became interested in Atari 10 years ago when I was in high school. It all started with the Atari 2600 that I saw in a local shop (the all black 'Vader' model). It came with two controllers and about 15 - 20 games (the common ones like Pac-Man, ET, Yars' Revenge, etc.). I never played (or seen for that matter) anything prior to the NES at the time, so I was very curious about it and just had to experience it for myself.

 

I ended up getting that same 2600 from that shop not too long afterwards and I was immediately hooked on the thing. I spent forever playing Galaxian, Did Dug, Pitfall, and whatever else that came with it. Since then, as the years went on, I ended up acquiring all the other Atari consoles as well. This fascination for Atari also got me interested in other non-Atari systems from the 1980's such as Intellivision (which I ended up acquiring in 2008). This year alone I've been purchasing a lot of Atari games (well... more than usual) for my various systems as a way to celebrate getting into Atari and the retro gaming hobby 10 years ago. I'm expecting Mario Bros. this month as an Xmas present to myself . Out of all the Atari systems I have, the 2600 is my favorite.

Edited December 12, 2016 by bugcatcher88

[R.O.T.S]

It would be when I got my VCS in the very early 80`s,It had such an impact on me that I have always had a thing for both the VCS and Atari since. I liked most Atari arcade games that I saw in the arcades especially Battle Zone ,Paper Boy and X-Y bots but my interest in the home 8-bit computers came much later and mostly through emulation as I did not encounter them much where I live in the UK., The ST is the only model I am not too keen on.

Edited January 2, 2017 by R.O.T.S

[sn8k]

I was 12, in the 90's. Long after it died. Was searching internet and discovered there was a Halloween game. Had to have it. Never had Atari. Our family was brought up on Sega and Nintendo. Just before i bought a 2600, I discovered then7800. Once I found out I could play both 2600/7800 on one console. I was sold.

 

Then I found the holy grail. The unreleased Missing In Action. My mind was blown. I am a massive fan of that movie and chuck Norris. I had to have it. Only problem. It was still very much unreleased and there was only 1 copy in existence. Couldn't be emulated so it needed a cuttlecart2 to work on original hardware. Just my luck they were long discontinued when I got in to Atari and wasn't going to spend 300 bucks on a cc2 at the time. So I was @$#%$ed. Couldn't have this game.

 

Until someone got it. I don't know how they got it. But they did

and released it. 18 years later after i discovered the game. I finally got to own it because of this community. I wanted this game so bad it was number 1 on my list for so many years. When I finally got it, it felt as if a life long quest came to an end. I had to have this game years before it released to the point of obsession.

 

I will never forget what it felt like finally holding it in my hands. The game is awesome. I will always remember that feeling and it cemented my love for Atari permanently from that day forward.

[0078265317]

1980 something my friend had a woody with space invaders. And I got a 5200 82-85 sometime.

[zetastrike]

I always had an interest, going back to when I was very young in the 90s. The kid who lived on the other block had a 2600, which my 6 year old self thought was the coolest thing. I remember playing Pitfall, Donkey Kong, and I think Galaxian.

 

As long as I've had the internet, I've been reading about video game history and the show Icons on G4 was always a must watch for me. Youtube really opened my eyes to consoles and games I didn't have access to. It wasn't until I was in college and finally had some disposable income that I picked up an 800XL, followed by a 2600Jr.

 

There's a simple purity to games on the Atari. The games seem so simplistic on the surface, but reveal a sort of endless depth and replayability that games on systems like the NES or SNES don't have. I have to be in a certain frame of mind to turn on the Famicom, but I can never come up with a reason not to play Ms. Pac Man or Crystal Castles or Super Breakout if I have a minute.

[Keatah]

VCS games are less scripted.

[bbwfw]

Besides wen I was a kid I recently read the book A History of All Atari Made Arari 2600 Games the I got for Christmas and that brought back my interest and is why I am on the forum to learn more about Atari maybe get some other books too.

[Syzygy1]

My mom told me about how she would play Q*bert and Kaboom and other games on the Atari at her cousins' house. I also looked up online old video games and came across Atari 2600, I liked the Strawberry Shortcake game because I was a fan of the 80s series back then.

[RJ]

Wow 10-year necrobump by tangentg! Went back thru it & cant believe I havent answered.

 

I played the big Atari "select-a-game" in Kmart & other stores. I think probably at that time it was just something to do at the store while my parents shopped.

 

Then the kid across the street got one with Pac-Man. After playing it I went home & told my dad how great it was. I guess it became sort of an obsession then, & one time I had my dad take me to JC Penney in the mall to play Atari, they had the latest 5 or 6 systems set up on the counter with a bank of TVs behind. I'm kind of embarrassed now, basically forcing him to take me, but I'm sure I thought that was a good way to push him toward buying our own Atari.

 

Eventually we rented a VCS, with Combat, Space Invaders, & Pac-Man. I know, dull titles but those were what I was familiar with. I remember seeing Activision Skiing there too. We had that about a week.

 

So sometime after that we got one for keeps- dont recall if it was a special occasion (birthday, Xmas, etc). I probably just wore my dad down by incoveniencing him, & the best way to fix that was to get one in the house permanently.

[RJ]

Oh forgot to say this was early 80s, I was 9 or 10.