where did you see/touch your first piece of Atari computer/games hardware

[shadow460]

Sears @ Shepherd Mall in OKC. My brother and I played Tank-Plus for a few minutes and were hopelessly hooked. This was in 1981 or 1982.

 

Before that, we had both played Asteroids and Tempest in the arcade a couple of times. Later, at Chirstmas of 1982, we got our first Atari with Asteroids, Combat, Codebreaker, and Missile Command.

[RJ]

I saw/played 2600 Missile Command at a friend's house in 3rd grade. & I'm pretty sure I handn't seen one before then.

 

Later on a kid across the street (we were friends on & off) got a 2600. After wearing out my welcome over there, I got my dad to rent one. I'd also had him take me to JCPenney where they had 5-6 systems out to play. Im sure he thought just buying one was better than driving to the mall.

 

The rest is history!

[Recycled]

At my uncle's apartment in Columbus, Ohio in 79 or early 80.

[tcv]

Sears at Clearview Mall in Metairie, LA. Probably shortly after the TeleGames system was released, but it's hard to recall exactly.

[mos6507]

I was 10 years old and walked into a neighbor's house to see the kid playing Space Invaders on one of those big console TVs. THUMP THUMP THUMP. I had a Pong unit before that but was never excited about it. Seeing that game in vibrant color with the sound effects was amazing. If a game like Combat or Slot Racer had been what I saw, it wouldn't have made as much of an impact. Space Invaders really gave the 2600 a new lease on life and everything that came before it was automatically seen as of an earlier primitive era.

[phuzzed]

i was young... 4 or 5 years old, and we were at my aunt's house for a family get-to-gether and all of my cousins were packed into a room playing this thing called "Atari". Both myself and my older brother became hooked. I remember my cousin went out to Wal-mart and came back with Asteroids. My life would never be the same from that point on.

 

shortly after, my brother and I were with my parents at Wal-mart, and there was a huge pile of Atari 2600's out in the middle of the electronics section. My brother told me to go beg my Mom and Dad for an Atari, because coming from the youngest one in the family, it carries more weight. I didn't hardly have to beg at all, my parents immediately threw it into the shopping cart, along with a copy of Pac-Man.

 

At that point, I hadn't played the Arcade version of Pac-Man, so I didn't know how horrible of a game it was compared to the real thing. But we all played the crap out of it.

 

Shortly after, my dad came home with Asteroids, and Video Pinball, Wico controllers, etc. I think My dad was hooked worse than we were. I remember when we got Ms. Pac-Man, he was on a mission to break 100,000 on 4 ghosts. Good times...