Starting Small

[MittyOz]

Long time Lurker, first time poster :). I'm turning 51 soon and so things from the long distant past are starting to mean more and thoughts of the past bring comfort and joy.  My family first had a 2600 in 1982.  We had much fun with that console.  Sadly somewhere along the line as I grew up and left things behind, it got sold off in a garage sale or something.  This week I've rectified that situation by purchasing my new Pride and Joy.  This comes courtesy of an obvious enthusiast on Ebay, not completely authentic as it's RF modded.  More importantly the case is in extremely good condition (there were many other cheaper consoles I could have purchased which had various nicks/chips/pieces missing).  The joystick obviously isn't original but I've got some other Joytsticks on the way (and a few more games).  Flicking those switches when I turned it on for the first time was one of the most satisfying things I've done in some time.  For me it's as much a work of art as it is a game.  I'd been using Emulation for ages, but there's nothing like the real thing.  My new goal is to just play it for a little while every day... even just a few minutes.  Not sure how big this collection will grow but it's going to be fun!  My other love was a Spectravideo 328 and later 728 computer, sadly these are much rare than the 2600 and much more expensive when they do appear, so I may have to be happy with this.

[Rastan88]

Fantastic.  To be honest if I had to start all over I'd probably just collect for the Atari 2600.  My friend had one in the very early 80's, and We Played it all the time (Joust, and Krull were our favorites).

 

[Keatah]

I've found that no more than 2-3 system is rightsized for myself and many many others.

 

Anything less, you want more. Anything more and you're bogged down with distractions. Spend more time maintaining and organizing than simply enjoying the stuff.