Atari's 50th Anniversary: What are your favorite memories?

[+swlovinist]

In honor of tomorrow's anniversary, I did a video today on my channel celebrating Atari and choosing 10 games across 9 platforms(Arcade to VCS) that were some of my personal favorites.   What are your favorite memories of playing Atari games?    

 

 

[tripled79]

Joust on 2600 was a big one for me. Then maybe California Games on Lynx. And Tempest 2000 on Jaguar.

[+swlovinist]

11 hours ago, tripled79 said:

Joust on 2600 was a big one for me. Then maybe California Games on Lynx. And Tempest 2000 on Jaguar.

All great picks.   I was really impressed with Joust on the 2600 back in the day.   I had a lot of fun with that one playing with my friends.  

[AAA177]

I remember having a lot of fun with Warlords; I recall thinking the after-image ghost of the warlord was cool. Also, Raiders of the Lost Ark fascinated me. Still does. Also enjoyed Asteroids and Human Cannonball. Looking forward to the video...

Edited June 27, 2022 by AAA177

[zzip]

One of my favorite memories was the summer my friends and I worked to solve the Raiders of the Lost Ark game.   Everyday we'd make a little more progress figuring out what things do.   I remember the day I stumbled upon the entrance to the black market it was a huge deal.   We could finally complete the game.

[Mockduck]

Multiplayer Warlords as an adult for sure, and Space Invaders as a kid. 

[+swlovinist]

20 minutes ago, Mockduck said:

Multiplayer Warlords as an adult for sure, and Space Invaders as a kid. 

OMG Warlords was excellent.   I played that a  lot with my cousins when I was young.    Pending on who was fighting that day, that was the person we all teamed up to take out first haha.  

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Great video! I see a few of us YouTubers doing a similar thing; My video celebration looks at every single arcade release from Pong to Rush 2049 plus some honorable mentions:

 

 

[+LS650]

For me there are a few standouts:  

- Playing Combat on a VCS in a Sears display back in late 1977.  As a kid it amazed me.

- Night Driver and Starship, both arcade.  My brothers and I discovered some arcade machines while we were on a trip to Disneyland in December 1979.  The bigger kids were hogging the more popular machines, so brothers and I were 'stuck' playing older games like Pong, and the above.  Good times.

- Playing I, Robot in the arcade BITD.  The 3D graphics blew my mind!

- Star Raiders on the 8-bit computers.  I could fire that up now and play it for a good hour.  Great game.

 

Last night I was playing the arcade version of Night Driver on my Evercade.  It's a simple game but I still find it entertaining.

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by ls650

[+jgkspsx]

I’ve been an Atari gamer for more than half my life - I just didn’t start until 1997!

 

When I was a kid, we had zero Atari games. My dad had had a 2600, or at least was making copies of 2600 games, but it was all gone by the time I was old enough to start using it. We had a fleet of Color Computers with some Atari game clones - Centipede is really the only one I remember playing.

The first I remember of knowing what Atari was outside of seeing the name in Rainbow magazine was when my dad got an Atari 520ST. We still had no Atari games. As far as legitimate commercial software went, we had had Joust (the only game published by Atari we owned), we had Psygnosis’s Barbarian, and we had some Atari educational software. We had a bunch of copied games. But I still thought of Atari more as a computer company than anything else for the many years I used the ST. I loved that computer.

 

I was aware of the Lynx and the Jaguar, and did want both of them, but I didn’t get either as a kid. We went Sega instead through the release of the PSX.

 

What actually got me into Atari games was, perversely, the Sony PlayStation. I was hugely into Williams arcade games, so when Williams Arcade Classics came out I was all over it. When the Atari sequels came out, I got them too, and played the heck out of them.

Later on, the Activision Classics disk, and later the GBA version. Actually I think I had Activision Classics on the PC first.
 

Then I started hanging out in the classic gaming newsgroups. Then I got a couple 2600s at garage sales and fell in love with the games, especially the Activision ones. Then I got an Odyssey 2000(?) and an Atari Pong and a Channel F. Then I got a cheap Atari Lynx and a bunch of games online. Then I ordered SIMIS and Remnant: Planar Wars for the Lynx - new games for old hardware!! Then I got a Vectrex.
 

I was away from the classic gaming community for a while, but I kept aware of most major things going on, and I never stopped playing the classics. I always had at least my 2600 heavy sixer, the Vectrex, and the Lynx ready to play (albeit the first two at my parents’ house for a while). With the pandemic and cleaning my attic I got a lot of stuff out of storage and set it up again. And here I am

[bradhig1]

Adventure ,Space Invaders, and Pacman

[Mockduck]

Having actual fun with my ten year old playing Atari games last night for the 50th might actually end up on this list. 

[OBLIVION23]

I must have been 6 when i was first introduced to Atari, so, 1996, when i went to a friend's house for a sleepover and we stayed up all night playing Atari 7800 and Jaguar.  I remember vividly playing Mean 18 Ultimate Golf for some reason, but i know we played Food Fight, Cybermorph, and a few other titles. So long ago and i was so young, it's hard to remember it all!

 

Later when i was 11 or 12 i found an Atari 2600 at a thrift store with a ton of games and used my allowance to buy it.  It was pretty amazing to me, i played the hell out of it. 

[Atariboy2600]

On 6/26/2022 at 9:57 PM, swlovinist said:

In honor of tomorrow's anniversary, I did a video today on my channel celebrating Atari and choosing 10 games across 9 platforms(Arcade to VCS) that were some of my personal favorites.   What are your favorite memories of playing Atari games?    

 

I was born in 1972 same year Atari came out and my first home console was The Atari Super Pong in 1976 at age 4, got the VCS for my birthday in 77 at age 5, got the 5200 in 82 at age 10, got the 7800 both in 84 and 86. Got the Atari Jaguar in 93. Yes I been getting so much Atari games in store one of the owner stated to call me ATARIBOY and that the nick name I use to this day. Still don't have the NEW VCS yet but maybe someday.

 

 

[NIKON]

Star Raiders

[RJ]

Most of my personal Atari-related stories/memories can be heard on Ferg's Atari 2600 Game By Game podcast, scattered amid the 1st 50 or so episodes, also some episodes of the Atari 7800 & Jaguar GBG podcasts.

Edited June 30, 2022 by RJ

[zzip]

My earliest memories of Atari were when arcade machines started showing up in the mall.   I was in the crib when the Pong craze happened, so I missed that,  but sometime in the mid-late 70s I remember our local mall added a single arcade machine near the entrance.   I think it was Canyon Bomber, although I only recall that you had to drop bombs and there aren't many other games from that era that feature that.   Soon there was a whole row of arcade machines, and I distinctly remember playing Lunar Lander (badly).   After that, this mall built a 'store' to house all these games and that was my first arcade.

Around that time, the department stores started showing off Space Invaders running on 2600s, and soon everybody started getting them and Atari became all the rage.

[+sramirez2008]

My earliest memory of Atari was seeing Lunar Lander in a local arcade.  Loved the look of the game as well as, that deep bass when you used the thruster.  That controller was so cool BITD (actually still pretty cool in my eyes).  My earliest VCS memory was seeing my cousins Sears heavy sixer.  Other than commercials/stores, their VCS was the first that I actually laid eyes on and played.  I used to spend a lot of time with them and was there when they purchased Space Invaders, Asteroids and Missile Command.  Those were the days baby...those were the days.

[ColecoGamer]

The inclusion of some of the Jaguar’s better game titles has me excited. Plus, the implementation of a new Jaguar emulator has me excited and my hopes high for smooth performance when playing those games. I plan on buying this on my VCS.

 

Any idea how much this will cost on launch? I was thinking (hoping actually) that it will sell between $30-$40.

[+SabertoothRetro]

26 minutes ago, ColecoGamer said:

The inclusion of some of the Jaguar’s better game titles has me excited. Plus, the implementation of a new Jaguar emulator has me excited and my hopes high for smooth performance when playing those games. I plan on buying this on my VCS.

 

Any idea how much this will cost on launch? I was thinking (hoping actually) that it will sell between $30-$40.

$39.99

[Billy Beans]

I have several favorite Atari memories:

 

1. Finally buying my 2600 after a summer of babysitting my younger brother.

2. Buying my first games, which were Space Invaders and Asteroids.

3. My first time putting games like Centipede, Missile Command, and Ms. Pac-Man in my 2600.

4. Getting a dozen or more great 2600 games on the same day because pre-internet, pawn shop owners had no idea of the value of games. So in my town, they sold games for $1 and took trades one-for-one. What better way to get rid of Sneak and Peek and some other bad games.

[MrMaddog]

My favorite memories?

 

1. Seeing older kids play Pong on their TV's and the towering arcade games as a little kid, wishing I was old enough to play them.

2. Getting that first 2600 on Christmas morning where my mom made me open the little box before the big box.  Once I saw it was a Donkey Kong game I tore that big box open real fast!

3. Finally getting that Atari 8-bit computer I've always wanted on my 13th birthday. It was a 130XE with much more memory than the expensive 800 at a fraction of the cost.  Power without Price indeed...

4. Receiving a 1040STe when I graduated high school which got me through the first years of college.  It was my first "serious" computer I used for term papers and going online (School's VAX machine, local BBSs & the first ever dial-up ISPs).  Was great until PC compatibilty became a must.

5. Playing awesome versions of Tempest 2000 and Gauntlet Legends in the 90's. (Sorry but the Hasbro Interactive remakes were too cutesy for my tastes.)

6. Blasting through the latest Unreal Tournament games that had Atari branding on the loading splash screens, it was the last great moment of PC gaming IMHO.

7. Receiving Atari Flashbacks (and other consoles) from family memebers during my birthday or holidays, it was like reliving my earlier Christmas memories.

8. Currently cataloging classic Atari computer & video games as a middle-age hobby, also enjoying the Recharge series on Steam.

 

Yep, Atari has been a huge influence on my whole life including getting me into a computer career.  Here's to another 50 more years!

 

And to all the 'retrogamers' that constantly judge Atari only on it's lowest moments...

 

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward towards success.”

― C.S. Lewis

[Keatah]

Enjoying the magic of a cartridge-based system. No longer did I have to purchase and swap between the hockey/pong/tennis/racing/targetshoot consoles to play a different game. Now it was insert a cartridge! Parents loved the idea and were happy get the VCS for me on release day at Venture/TurnStyle back in the day.

 

I remember bringing it home on a cool overcast early fall day. The sun wasn't screaming mad and the whole afternoon and evening was downtempo fun and exploration. It was especially exciting to learn what was inside the cartridges. And then subsequently learn what was in the rectangular black things other than a small drawing of a maze.

 

But little did I know I'd be playing these games 50 years later!

[Cobra Kai]

-Receiving a 2600 Jr for Christmas in 1986. Had Battlezone, Vanguard and Jungle Hunt as my first 3 carts. Everyone else was getting NES, but I was still ecstatic about my Atari.

 

-Being able to play the Atari 5200 at my cousin's once in awhile. It was like another level of video gaming at the time, I was so envious.

 

-Riding my BMX bike to various thrift shops and Goodwill, picking up loose Atari 2600 carts here and there. The first loose 2600 cart I found 'in the wild' like this was Casino for $1. I didn't know at the time that this would become a life long 'thing' I did, and it would blossom into a 300+ cart collection. I have since sold that collection, but it was a great 30 year joyride.

 

-Bought my first 7800 brand new at Montgomery Ward when it was in the same case as Genesis and Turbo Grafx-16. It cost me $80, and the games were cheap too. I can't remember what games I bought at first, but I was able to get quite a few cheap at Toy's R Us as well as Montgomery Ward. Back when TRU had those tags you had to take to the counter for them to fetch your game.

 

-A friend and I rode our PUCH mopeds for an hour each direction to get to the nearest Toy's R Us so we could buy our Atari LYNX II systems. Further trips on the mopeds would happen to buy games for it. I was probably 15 years old at the time.  Slime World, Warbirds and Checkered Flag were among the first games we bought to play multiplayer.

 

-I pre-ordered my first Atari Jaguar from a local game store called Mega Games. To this day, it's the only game system that I pre-ordered. It came with Cybermorph, and I bought Trevor McFur which was also available when I went to pick up my system. I loved Cybermorph, I thought I was finally playing a game on par with the PC's some of my friends had. It wasn't really that long after, I was able to get Raiden, then Tempest 2000, and then Alien vs. Predator. To me, the Jaguar was the greatest console out there, but then Sony happened. Doesn't matter, the Jag is still my all time favorite and that will never change! 

 

For the record, all my friends I ever showed the Jaguar too thought it was amazing.

 

[Classic Pac]

This game doesn't come out to November and I am already drooling. There was just way too many great games in this collection, the interviews I know I will be watching.