Atari 2600 - Original gamers / New gamers

[JacobZu7zu7]

Well, one interesting fact I have found is, many new generation gamers

have really taken an interest in old video games, like Atari 2600 for example.

Some on this forum are teens, young kids etc...

Why do I find this interesting? Well for one reason, some of the "original",

Atari gamers have upgraded over the years, and don't look back.

They sometimes actually make fun of older games and mention how unlucky they were as a child to be stuck with Atari, look at those hideous graphics Atari had, and that Asteroids and Pitfall were the ONLY 2600 games worth playing etc... Sooo... if you think that kids nowadays don't care or know of retro games, well... its not so true,

thanks to new tools like internet, anything is possible!

[sandmountainslim]

I think it would be nice to see a poll determining who here is "Original Atari Gamer from The Day" and who is "Modern Retro Fan" or whatnot.

I believe the old original Atari gamers (such as myself) would win the poll.

WP

[Madcap]

Being an "Original" gamer, I wouldn't want to limit myself to playing 2600, NES, ect.

Allthough I love playing those today I still have upgraded along the way, right up to running around to get Wii on lanuch day.

I find myself getting in debates almost on a daily basis about the values of Atari gaming.

I hope there are a few younger people out there wanting to keep the spirit alive but as time goes by the number of people who laugh at the fact I still play these games is growing much to fast.

[fire!fire!]

I don't want to play the new games and systems. I am really not a gamer I guess. I still have my first system (and have acquired a few others...) and I still have my original games, and some that I didn't have way back when. Before I found the Atari Age site I just kept playing the same 20 games that I had on hand. I just really like playing them and when I see the ads on TV for the new games I am not interested at all! Now I like to buy homebrews and a few times a year I will splurge on that, especially at the end of the year when I know the Holiday Cart is coming out. I guess I am trolling ebay right now waiting for the Holiday Cart. I don't know what to do with myself!

Also I just bought the Haunted Adventure Trilogy because it looks really really cool. Otherwise I just want to play my old games...

The poll would be interesting! But I also think the original Atari owners would win out.

[Dragnerok X]

Whoops, double post. Sorry...

 

Edited December 10, 2006 by Dragnerok X

[Dragnerok X]

I think it would be nice to see a poll determining who here is "Original Atari Gamer from The Day"

 

I second that.

[boek]

Eh. I'm under 20 and I still have our old Atari.. don't really care for the new stuff.

[sandmountainslim]

some of the "original",

Atari gamers have upgraded over the years, and don't look back.

They sometimes actually make fun of older games and mention how unlucky they were as a child to be stuck with Atari, look at those hideous graphics Atari had, and that Asteroids and Pitfall were the ONLY 2600 games worth playing etc...

 

Those people are buffoons and rogues!

The graphics of Space Invaders and Adventure were just as mindblowing and "Fly" to us back then as the PS3 "Super Rad Skate Boy" or whatever the youngsters are playing today are to todays kids.

I still enjoy playing new homebrews on old Stella and prefer it to those new Headache In a Box consoles.

WP

[Paul Humbug]

Eh. I'm under 20 and I still have our old Atari.. don't really care for the new stuff.

 

 

Well, I started with the whole computer thing in 1986 ordering an Atari 2600 jr. at the age of 12.

 

I liked it but I knew there are much "better" things outside I haven´t had the money for. The 2600 followed a Commodore C16, an used Atari 800 Xl and it wasn´t until the days of an Amiga 500 in 1991 that I always thought I am "outdated" with the hardware I owned.

 

Nowadays I admit I didn´t value what I had back then but I guess that´s normal and human.

 

Today I download all the games I haven´t had back then and play them on the emulator and say: "If I only had own this or that cartridge"....

 

Now I am looking forward for some straight pure Atari fun with my FB2 arriving soon.....

[+atari2600land]

I'm in my mid-20's and started playing the Atari 2600 last year. But as a kid, the big thing was the NES and SNES. And I played that mostly as a kid.

[+HatNJ]

I originally started playing with a Sears PONG home system and my cousins VCS in 77 didnt own one til 1980 got the original Atari 800 in 1979 1st (the ol 800 still kicin good today)

 

So I guess Im an original gamer

and do like some modern NO XBOX or 360 got PS2, Gamecube, DS lite

will get a Wii later next year no interest in PS3 or 360

[jboypacman]

Am a Original gamer who was around when the 2600 ruled.I moved on to other more "modern"games but i have come full circle and have returned to my roots and am loving it.I love my 2600 and other "classic"game systems and i dont think i will be getting a PS3,X-Box 360,or Wii anytime soon.

[thund3r]

im 21 and a student who studies media and some of my friends at uni think its strange that i play old games rather than 360. But i guess ive always been one who stood out and liked to try something different. I think thats why i collect for systems i used to play when i was younger because most of the time alot of the older games are better and i have fond memories of them.. and somewhere along the like i just became fascinated with the 'retroism' of atari and got caught up in the nostalgia of it. So now i have a big Master system, 2600 and 7800 collection even though i do still play xbox, gc and DS.

[tcv]

I'm definitely an original gamer. I started in the late 1970s with Combat and Target Fun.

 

To me, the games of Back Then were different from the games of today. The only games that even get close to the type of feeling are some puzzlers. Really, though, I don't think you can capture the feeling today without playing the old games on those old consoles.

[Recycled]

Yea, my uncle who played the shit out of the 2600 back then, now claims "it was because there was nothing better at the time." My brother "just can't play games were you do the "same thing over and over."" Well, I'm just as close minded.....almost ALL new games bore the living shit out of me.

[Rom Hunter]

I played the original Pong in a restaurant with a schoolfriend back in the seventies.

 

I still remember my amazement: I was controlling something on television!

 

[Paranoid]

I've been playing since the start, more or less.

 

I'm not a super big fan of the younger kids being into the retro scene. I think it is cool in the one sense, that they're interested, but I think they bring a lot of their own Gen XYZ nonsense with them to these platforms. I run into my difficulty with 20-somethings doing trades, and with their sense of idealism and absolutism. They also tend to stir the pot on some of the "sacred issues" of VCS and 5200 era gaming... like the Pac Man issue... without realizing that they don't have the historical context of actually *being* there when the title was originally released. I'm also just getting older in the sense that a lot of time most of the things I hear come out of the mouth of a guy between say, 15 and 25 makes me go, "What a dumbass". But that is obviously just a personal issue with getting old and cranky (and the fact that most things guys between 15 and 25 have to say are dumbassed things).

[Chris-in-NJ]

debe ser "para los gusanos"...

[Paranoid]

Siempre tengo problemas con "por y para". Gracias.

[murfj]

I was born in the late 70's so I was a really young kid when Atari was still "hot", however since we couldn't afford the NES right away when that was getting big, I bought a used VCS and some games from my friend and played the crap out of that through the mid and late 80's. I then got an NES in 1989 and didn't look back until much later, however I had kept both of those systems to this day, and both have a sense of nostalgia tied to them, I have gone out and collected games I wanted but couldn't afford back then and though my wife chuckles, I am happy to play them instead of the new systems most of the time.

 

One exception I have is with sports games- those are the only types of games I enjoy playing on the new systems simply because of the realism.

[fire!fire!]

I was born in the early 70's and I have fond memories of going roller skating, loving ELO, and playing Centipede on the arcade games at the roller rink when they played all the Couples Songs to skate to. Ewww. Also during Limbo I was back at the arcade games. Then I got my Atari in the very wee 80's. It was more of a priviledge back then to have personal time with the T.V. when Mom and Dad weren't on it. And we appreciated the technology back then. I know the games are fun for everyone and I am glad the teenagers and 20-somethings of today enjoy them. I just feel, as someone else said a few posts ago, that the feeling runs deeper with those of us over 28-30 and the younger set can't argue that. *fondly looks over at her Atari*

[Paranoid]

Yeah, I can completely relate to the early 70s perspective (I was born 1970). I was a speed skater on the team, so I always had a girl for the double skates and had to do the "shoot the duck", too, just because I could get almost as low as the figure skaters. Heh, God the 70s were lame). But whenever I got the chance, and had some quarters, I was on the games, too.

 

Actually, thinking back to that time always makes me feel kind of nauseous in retrospect. It is like seeing pictures of yourself wearing those plaid bellbottom pants and a cordoury vest. *gak*. The arrival of the VCS was definetly a trend towards an improving society.

 

I do still like ELO, though.

[goodwill_gamer]

i'm an original gamer. i grew up playing the 2600. funny though, i never even knew what an intellivision or colecovision was until recent years. i thought atari was the only thing out, until nintendo.

[kyle]

Im an original gamer. I played the 2600 for the first time when i was 5 or so at the babysitters house. My older cousin then gave me his halfway working 2600 when he got a sega master system for chritsmas in 1987. I played that thing and the 6 games that he gave me with it until it broke for good in the summer of 1989. Then i got a new 2600jr for my birthday in oct of 1989. I'm only 26 but i would say for sure that i'm an OG baby!

Edited December 12, 2006 by kyle

[shadow460]

Original 2600 person here. I've pretty much abandoned the VCS in favor of higher tech consoles like the 7800, although I do have a robust VCS collection and it gets played on a regular basis.