A younger gamer's thoughts on the 7800...

[IceCold]

If it wasn't known already, I'm a relatively young Atari gamer. I just turned 20, so that puts me a good 18-30 years younger than quite a few people here.

 

What's unique about me, though, is that I discovered the 2600 before any other system(no nes, SMS, etc.). When I was young, we had a 2600.(my parents didn't have a whole lot of extra money at the time, and(as any smart young parents would) felt that spending a couple hundred on a nes or a master system was not a good idea). Not only that, but my grandma has always had a 2600 with 30-40 games in her basement. So I was able to appreciate the 2600 before anything else was introduced. This is probably a big part of why I've been a big Atari fan for the last 10 years or so(didn't join Atariage until early '02 but I was interested in Atari before that). In my mind when I played a lot of other games, even as a pretty young kid I thought "well it sure looks nice, but the gameplay isn't there. I'd be having more fun playing some Atari"

 

ANYWAYS, this thread is not really about me, but about the 7800. Since I got a 7800 quite a few years back, I've always been a fan. I wasn't around to see it in its heyday, which I think may ruin the 7800 for some people. When I play it, I see that there are pretty accurate arcade ports(mind you they're ports of relatively old arcade games at that point, ms pacman, donkey kong, etc. but IMO are much nicer than the 5200/atari 8 bit computer ports) and as a plus it runs my 2600 games. That way on the main TV in the living room I just have 1 console. I like the 7800 to the point where I started buidling a bartop arcade system around it. I had the sides cut, tv in place and controls built. Didn't get far enough as to relocate the cart slot, but I wasn't far off(and I was probably in middle school at the time lol. MAYBE early high school. I was using genuine wico balltop arcade joysticks though, and even the MDF was bought on money I had earned myself. The sticks weren't leaf sticks, but cut me some slack I was like 14 years old lol )

 

I guess I will always be biased, though, as I'm a huge fan of the 5200 too.(probably even much moreso than the 7800). I've always had soldering skills so when I got the 5200 it was like 'I hear the controllers suck, better whip up one of those adapters that let you use pc controllers instead'. So i've usually been able to overcome the main issues with any classic console I've gotten.

 

I wanted to start this thread because I just feel like when you're looking at a console 15-25 years later you see things differently. This may have been better placed in 'classic gaming' but I really did start it with intentions of just talking about the 7800. I think when looking at it unbiased we see it was a pretty decent system. Wasn't really a NES beater, but it's a great system to play 2600 games on, and occasionally pop in the 7800 game. I do wish it originally had a pokey, though, there are quite a few games where the sound is just atrocious.

[IceCold]

This is extremely off topic, but I wanted to add this - I have never had my game collection financed by anybody else, girlfriends, parents, etc. There's been an influx of some younger new members and I get the feeling many have gotten their collections handed to them by wealthy parents, and don't appreciate it as much as many of us do. Yes, I had a decent game collection as a youngster. But I did it myself, whether by cutting grass and whatnot, to doing computer repair work and selling it(eBay wouldn't have appreciated that a 13 year old was selling repaired laptops on their site, but I have never sold anything that hadn't been fixed properly...).

 

And I have been hit by the economic downturn lately and have had to cut back. This makes me appreciate classic gaming even more..

[carmel_andrews]

Icecold, here's something i snagged from comp.sys atari8

 

'keep the faith and keep atari hummy'

 

not forgetting ofcourse to 'spread the word' to the 20 somethings (and younger) of AA

[shadow460]

We held on to our 2600 for many many years and that's what we played when our friends had NES and SMS, and later, SNES and Genesis. We had a couple of 5200 consoles lying about.

 

I got into the 7800 recently. It's a good system, but my roots lie in the 2600. I didn't get into the SMS proper until a couple of years ago, and I played NES sporadically throughout the years. But for me, for classic gaming, it's 2600 or death, and the 7800 runs those games just fine when the mood strikes me. I can appreciate its arcade ports, as they are a nice addition to an already solid library of [2600] games. If you're not particular abot the hardware, you can't go wrong with a 7800.

[Chickybaby]

Lack of space and the versatility and convenience of the 7800 playing 2600 games is what did it for me as well as the controller variety. I actually mostly play 2600 games and homebrews on the 7800.

Bean's Godfather programming 7800 games and hacks was a sweet bonus but I liked the system before then. Keeping that tradition, while I'll definitely soon be branching out into 2600, 7800 carts are also the first ones I've made and will probably continue to make in one way or another.

[Gemeni]

This is extremely off topic, but I wanted to add this - I have never had my game collection financed by anybody else, girlfriends, parents, etc. There's been an influx of some younger new members and I get the feeling many have gotten their collections handed to them by wealthy parents, and don't appreciate it as much as many of us do. Yes, I had a decent game collection as a youngster. But I did it myself, whether by cutting grass and whatnot, to doing computer repair work and selling it(eBay wouldn't have appreciated that a 13 year old was selling repaired laptops on their site, but I have never sold anything that hadn't been fixed properly...).

 

And I have been hit by the economic downturn lately and have had to cut back. This makes me appreciate classic gaming even more..

 

I never asked for anything from my parents exept for maby a game or two on my birthday and christmas other then that I have a part time job I use to buy games for my collection but I can't ever decide on wether I like the 2600 5200 or 7800 I guese I like them all equally.

[guyjin]

There's been an influx of some younger new members and I get the feeling many have gotten their collections handed to them by wealthy parents,

 

Never underestimate the ability of nerds to put stuff ahead of bills/rent/food/etc.

[IceCold]

There's been an influx of some younger new members and I get the feeling many have gotten their collections handed to them by wealthy parents,

 

Never underestimate the ability of nerds to put stuff ahead of bills/rent/food/etc.

Lol when I say 'younger new members' I'm referring to all the 13-15 year olds that seem to have signed up as of late. So no rent/bills/etc.

 

I'm not saying that goes for all young people on the site, but you have to wonder when a 13 year old posts pictures of their newer computer, 20 consoles, HDTV, etc. etc....

[+Sauron]

Having been a huge Atari fan since the heyday of the 2600, I never actually owned a 7800 until around 2002. I always wanted one back in the day, but my parents never saw the point of getting one when we already have a bazillion games for the 2600, plus my Atari 8bit and then later ST computers. When I was finally able to get one, I was instantly hooked. My 7800 has probably gotten more play time than most of my other systems combined within the last few years. Unfortunatley it's in storage back in Texas right now.

[oky2000]

Nice original post, and similarly my first proper gaming machine (computer or games console) was the 2600. I had to finance that myself at the princely age of 9 or 10 etc saving ALL my pocket money for over half a year just to buy the machine with the bundled game of Combat. In the UK luckily a new story opened up which discounted £20 off the 2600 and so I ended up getting it in Autumn not Xmas time...which gave me time to save 50% of the cost of Space Invaders which my dad topped up.

 

That did two things for me really-

 

1. It really let me appreciate the value of money and so each game was played to the maximum (got a high score printed for Vanguard in C+VG!)

2. And the 2600 being my first console as a child would have lasting fond memories of the brand.

 

The reason I didn't get a 7800 at launch is simply because cartridge games were expensive and by that time I had 3 different home computers (ST/Amiga/C64) and could purchase games for less so the appeal of it was diminished for me. Doesn't matter how cheap the console is it's the price per game that would get me I figured.

 

Still got one a decade later though