Atari 2600

[Hugo Drax]

Star Raiders, wow that brings back memories. It came in that big fat orange box.

 

[Wyndru]

Cool video, brought a smile to my face. Brings me back to a simpler time.

I didn't see Enduro though.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I remember playing Pac Man on the 2600 at a friends house when it was brand new.. I laugh now.. so lame that they couldn't even make his mouth point up or down.. haha.

As bad as the Atari 2600 Pac Man was (and it was torn to shreds in reviews), it had an addicting quality to it.

I still prefer the 80s in terms of video games -- Atari, ColecoVision, Commodore. I still have my Commodore machines hooked up and need to get my Atari connected as well.

 

[crownjules]

Oh E.T. one of the worst games ever made. But my 10 year old self beat it.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Ahhh. Nostalgia. Those dragons in Adventure were so realistic that I could feel the fire coming from the Curtis Mathis TV!

Adventure is still one of my all-time favorites. I still remember hearing whispers of the secret room and a dot hidden in the catacombs which would allow you in, along with rumors of a blue dragon. Unfortunately the blue dragon was false, but the dot and the secret room crediting Warren Robinette for creating the game were true!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I still have most of those games and a wood grain Atari in my basement. The controllers and the RF converter are long gone though

You can get brand new cloned Atari controllers on eBay for $20/pair. I bought a pair to use with my Commodore.

I bought an adapter to connect an Atari to my plasma TV, but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[Wyndru]

Oh E.T. one of the worst games ever made. But my 10 year old self beat it.

Yeah, that game was painful. I didn't have many games, and unfortunately this was one of them, so I spent a lot of hours on it.

 

[soulcougher73]

Anyone else have the 5200? Was way better than 2600 Had both over the years back in the day.

 

[spacejamz]

still have this in my closet...LOL

It still works but the RF converter is bad....I can faintly see the image in the background but it is pretty much just snow on the screen but the sound works fine...

 

[spacejamz]

I loved Combat and the controllable bullets on the biplanes and tanks...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Anyone else have the 5200? Was way better than 2600 Had both over the years back in the day.

i had a 2600 (genuine, not knock-off), a 5200 and a 600 xl. the 5200 was a very good game machine in its time. the 600 xl was a gimpy computer compared to its contemporaries, and i had absolutely no support that a kid needs for that kind of thing - my skills began and ended with basic turtle stuff.

 

[spacejamz]

i had a 2600 (genuine, not knock-off), a 5200 and a 600 xl. the 5200 was a very good game machine in its time. the 600 xl was a gimpy computer compared to its contemporaries, and i had absolutely no support that a kid needs for that kind of thing - my skills began and ended with basic turtle stuff.

When we got our 2600, my group of friends would hang out at our house to play...one of them got an Intellivision console and we started hanging out at his house...I guess the Colecovision came out after that...

 

[NuclearNed]

I wasted a whole lot of my middle school years on Yars' Revenge.

 

[GoPackGo]

I also still have the keypad controller for it:

...where I used to play Star Raiders and pretend I was flying an XWing for a good portion of my childhood. I remember I pleaded with my grandma and mom to get this game specifically because it had the keypad. One day we were at KMart (the Best Buy of the day), it was in a sale bin for $19.95 and my mom bought it for me. I was fascinated with anything that had buttons on it and to have a game that USED a lot of buttons was incredible. You could push a button to raise/lower shields, to engage torpedoes, to warp to another sector...so cool

Anyway, looking back at it, the game was one of the first space flight simulators and it was pretty terrible, but it made a lasting impact.

I my opinion that is one of the greatest Atari 2600 games ever. Using both joystick and keypad for one player was the coolest.

 

[CZroe]

It wasn't an "RF Converter" back then. It was a simple switch and it wasn't even automatic.

Anyway, I remember seeing Gemini-brand clone "game switches" at convenience stores, dollar stores, and even department stores through the mid-'90s, so they should still be around. Hell, they looked identical to the originals so I wouldn't doubt it if they were the OEM supplier.

That said, Ichinisan and I first connected the Atari 2600 we found in the closet at 6 or 7 years old (late '80s) using twist-ties that were stripped and twisted together. We had no idea what we were doing, but we made it work on an ancient black and white Goldstar (Samsung) television. That was when we first figured out UHF/VHF and all that other stuff (brute forced it!). We had no help and were literally just trying everything. When we got lucky and heard the Star Wars tune on a scrambled screen, we knew we were close and tackled it with a renewed vigor.

Fun times, even though we mostly hated our games and just wanted to play our friend's brand new Nintendo.

 

[Fritzo]

As bad as the Atari 2600 Pac Man was (and it was torn to shreds in reviews), it had an addicting quality to it.

I still prefer the 80s in terms of video games -- Atari, ColecoVision, Commodore. I still have my Commodore machines hooked up and need to get my Atari connected as well.

The 2600 Pacman had "dashes" instead of dots, and you had to eat two sections of them for it to count. I remember many a time that I got cornered and died right before that second half dot was eaten.

Damn flashy blinky ghosts.

 

[tcsenter]

lol @ Atari 5200's butt plug joysticks.

 

[Fritzo]

Yeah, that game was painful. I didn't have many games, and unfortunately this was one of them, so I spent a lot of hours on it.

Same here. I used to to speed runs to see how fast I could beat the game. Getting ET to levitate out of those pits became a prized skill.

 

[CZroe]

I have an Atari 5200 too but no controllers or that weird combined power plug/RF unit thing.

 

[Sonikku]

Atari is for chumps. Everybody knows the NES is where it's at.

 

[Ichinisan]

I still have most of those games and a wood grain Atari in my basement. The controllers and the RF converter are long gone though

The RCA jack carries the same signal as a coaxial cable, so a simple adapter from Radio Shack will do. I think a Nintendo RF switch might even do the job.

 

[Geosurface]

Adventure was a big favorite of mine. The 2600 was my first console system, it was a few years old already when we got it from a friend of my parents.

I recently picked up another cartridge of Adventure (though I think the original one we had is probably still back home in an attic or something...)

that was the first one featured in the video.

 

[Ichinisan]

still have this in my closet...LOL

It still works but the RF converter is bad....I can faintly see the image in the background but it is pretty much just snow on the screen but the sound works fine...

You have the right channel selected?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The 2600 Pacman had "dashes" instead of dots, and you had to eat two sections of them for it to count. I remember many a time that I got cornered and died right before that second half dot was eaten.

Damn flashy blinky ghosts.

I remember being terribly excited about the debut of Pac-Man for the 2600, and when it came out, trying desperately to talk myself into the idea that it was good despite its actual horribleness. What a flaming pile that game was . . .

In retrospect it's remarkable to me that my parents bought me so many 2600 games. Weren't the premier titles $50, in early-80s dollars?

 

[GoPackGo]

I remember being terribly excited about the debut of Pac-Man for the 2600, and when it came out, trying desperately to talk myself into the idea that it was good despite its actual horribleness. What a flaming pile that game was . . .

In retrospect it's remarkable to me that my parents bought me so many 2600 games. Weren't the premier titles $50, in early-80s dollars?

Yep... I remember the 2600 game acquisition glory when KB toys started clearancing them out.