Diary of a "Growing Collector" [#1]
Entry posted by 2600FunTimes
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I'm not one who personally likes to "blog" on every single step he takes during the day.. ..however..
...I thought it would be interesting to document the history of my collection throughout the months, seeing as I currently have a VERY small collection of Atari games. I'll also be giving a sort-of "commentary" regarding the collection, documenting how I received each game.
First of all [to whom ever reads], I would like to say that I am GREATLY impressed with all of the collections I see around here... especially those collections which involve shrink-wrapped games that have never been opened. I could NEVER survive doing that!
...but moving on, currently there is not much to say about my general Atari collection, so I'll start off with my last finds.
Currently, I have 44 Atari games total, 13 of which are for the Atari 7800 and the other 31 belonging to the 2600 VCS. To many standards of collecting, this is probably laughable... though with as little games as I've come across in my areas of inhabitance, it's sadly.. ..pretty impressive..
..which brings me to my next request too, dear GAWD if you know of any reliable methods in the Corvallis/Albany area in Oregon, don't hesitate to lead me in the right direction... theres only so many titles you can find at Goodwill or Salvation army.
Recent additions and commentary:
2600: Ms. Pac-Man, Defender II, Frogger, Mouse Trap
I'm personally ashamed of myself for not getting the 2600 port of Frogger sooner, since it's so easy to come by and so damn enjoyable. For the most part I was too picky when it came to the label condition... like another copy I initially came across had label damage so bad, that.. ..well.. to make a long story short, there really was no label.. all I was able to make out were the letters "FRO" and part of his "
" face.
I also bit the bullet on Ms. Pac-Man, since the "ATARI 2600" portion of the label was completely torn.. I couldn't say no to the "Woman of the year", so I just did a half-assed label repair, cleaned the contacts, and she works good-as-new!
Mouse Trap.. ..was an interesting one.. I decided to get this after weeks of finding absolutely nothing.
I was going to check out Goodwill with my girlfriend that night, who was seriously annoyed. To make things a little more exciting (if you can even call it that), we invited my Dad to come along. He liked to look for old vinyl records from time to time, but their selection always stunk. Anyways, digging in game section, all I saw were the usual PS2 sports games, which I'm not very fond of.
I got excited when I reached the bottom of the barrel and found two VCS carts sitting face down on top of eachother. One of them was a COLECO, the other was plain black. I got a little less excited when I discovered that the black one was just another "Space Invaders". The COLECO cart was "Mouse Trap", a game I'd been meaning to try, but the condition was HORRIBLE.
The cart had been turned a dirty tan, the label was slightly detached with white blemishes all over it, and the silicon chip with the contacts on the inside.. ..looked like it had been SLAMMED into a bowl of dorito's several times and left for dead. I showed it to my dad who also agreed with me that it probably wouldn't work, since the contacts had been so brutally damaged. So I didn't get it, and we left.
...to make another longer story short, went back a week later, decided to buy the damn thing out of boredom.. turned out all it needed was a VERY good cleaning, and the game worked fabulously! The gameplay.. ...sooo simple and repetitive after like.. 5 or 6 levels.. with no skill increase whatsoever... but hey... it was still a nice maze game to watch, with interesting sprites even for the VCS.. so I still fell in love, and humbly added it to my collection crate.
Not really much to tell with Defender II.. I saw a good deal for a boxed [not shrinkwrapped] game on eBay, and I jumped the gun for it. Probably the best looking game in my whole collection where condition is concerned... and I'm going to keep it that way.
So thats pretty much it for this time around...
I'll post another "edition" every 2-4 months, depending on how often I get around to updating my collection... money is TIGHT, so unless I get really lucky at a couple of thrift stores, I'm pretty much stuck for the time being 
If you read, thanks for reading! And I ALWAYS appreciate the input/suggestions of my readers 
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