Your First Atari Memory

[sterling1989]

What is everyone's first Atari memory? I'm primarily thinking of the 2600.

 

Mine was Christmas 1980.... All the presents, Santa's and Mom and Dad's, had been opened and my brother and I were playing with our latest Star Wars figures. My brother had Lando Calrissian in his hand (who would some years later be cut in half by a lawn mower in an "accident" when my brother learned to cut the grass). My Dad said "What is that under the TV? (We had a Zenith 25" console TV). My brother tossed Lando aside and we pulled from under the TV a glorious Atari 2600 light sixer. We received 3 games to go with the pack in Combat. Circus Atari, Defender and Missile Command.

 

My brother's favorite was Defender and mine was Missile Command. We played the whole day, fighting on who's turn it was to play. I remember it was bitter cold outside and we were in our pajamas all day. It was toasty warm inside and as the sun went down the only light in the house was from the Christmas tree that had been on all day. My Mom was on the sofa next to us napping. My Dad, having to go to work mid day on Christmas, calling on our Harvest Gold rotary phone to check on us. Telling us we had to share and to follow "10 minutes for you and 10 minutes for your brother" system. Also telling us "Let your mom sleep and keep the noise down."

 

That memory is so vivid in my mind to this day. Just hearing the name Atari brings back such happy memories and I wanted to share.

Edited October 2, 2023 by sterling1989

[Teleprompter]

This topic is right up my alley .  My first Atari memory started with the Atari 800 computer on Christmas 1982.  I remember my dad surprising me by having us come down to the basement in our entertainment room.  He had the Atari 800 and 410 connected to the Quasar television (remember that name?).  We only had the games Pac-Man and Galaxian on cart and I think Protector on cassette at the time but we did have BASIC plus some ANTIC magazines.  That began my typing skills which lead to many opportunities as an adult.  I can still recall the smell of the new system and the sight of the boxes everywhere.  

 

A couple years later I started my BBS and drew the attached picture.  Don't judge my artwork because I was only 13 at the time, haha.  Sad that I have zero photographs of anything Atari as a kid.  Only my memories and the funny pencil image below. 

 

Atari had such a profound effect on me that I started to collect them again in 1999/2000 and just recently put my collection on my YT channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@VintageGamingMemories (current collection shown below)

 

When someone asks, "Have you played Atari today?", 95% of the time I can answer Yes.

 

Thanks for starting this topic.  Looking forward to reading others.

[zzip]

Probably seeing Space Invaders running on 2600 at JC Penney

 

I saw a few arcade games before that, including possibly Canyon Bomber, but I don't recall Atari's name or Logo (I was young then)

[magnusfalkirk]

My first Atari system was the Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade, That I bought in 1980 in Panama City, Fl while stationed at Tyndall AFB. In September of that year I transferred to George AFB, in Vistorville, Ca.  Eventually bought and Apple II+ and gave the Sears Video Arcade to my fiance's parents, which of course I now regret doing. Fast forward to a couple month ago and I got another Sear Video Arcade off of eBay. 

 

It needed some work, so I took it to -^Crossbow^- to add s-video/composite video output. Finally had the chance to go pick it up this last weekend and am loving the video output. Bought a new power supply from Console 5, since there was a little interference visible on the screen from the current power supply.

 

So I've come full circle after 43 years.

[classicgamesnut]

     My first experience was in 1979 at a military BX.  I was six years old, and no stranger to arcade video games...I'd played Super Bug, Space Invaders, and numerous Pong clones at pizza parlors etc, but this was the first time I'd seen video games played on a home TV set.  What a magical experience.  The display had just been turned on with the Combat cartridge, and before long every kid in the store was crowded around it.

     I wanted to stay and watch while my folks looked elsewhere in the huge store, so they told me "OK, stay right here and don't run off."

     I did as I was told.

[Impaler_26]

My first Atari memory is playing Sir Lancelot on my cousin's 2600. I remember that i sucked at the game and my cousin kept yelling at me that i should try harder. 😄

That must have been around 1985, about a year before i got my own 2600 Junior.

 

 

 

[Zonie]

1977, 10 years old. Summer Day Camp. Sears Telegames with Target Fun.

[davyK]

Demo machine set up in an electrical goods shop among the TVs. It had Combat. My brother, 2 cousins and I played it until we were chucked out of the shop. 

 

 

I just had to have one. Was a year or so before that happened but it was worth the wait.

Edited October 3, 2023 by davyK

[+bent_pin]

Sitting on my mom's lap, playing frogger and centipede, her cigarette smoke hanging in the air.

[Dionoid]

Early 2018, 47 years old. I'd never seen or played an Atari 2600 before that.

When I was young, all my friends had either a Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum or Philips Videopac G7000 (=Magnavox Odyssey2); apparently Atari wasn't very popular in the Netherlands.

 

I got intrigued by the Atari 2600 after reading the book "Racing the Beam", which was recommended by Michał Taszycki (the guy from the C64 video tutorial website 64bites.com) during an episode where he covered 6502 instruction cycle counting.

After that I bought my first Atari 2600 and fell in love right away.

 

 

[JetSetIlly]

9 minutes ago, Dionoid said:

Early 2018, 47 years old. I'd never seen or played an Atari 2600 before that.

When I was young, all my friends had either a Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum or Philips Videopac G7000 (=Magnavox Odyssey2); apparently Atari wasn't very popular in the Netherlands.

 

I got intrigued by the Atari 2600 after reading the book "Racing the Beam", which was recommended by Michał Taszycki (the guy from the C64 video tutorial website 64bites.com) during an episode where he covered 6502 instruction cycle counting.

After that I bought my first Atari 2600 and fell in love right away.

I'm glad you said that because that's almost exactly my story. I read Racing the Beam (in 2017 I think) and thought it was a very interesting sounding piece of hardware. Never seen or thought about the 2600 before that.

[351cougar]

sometime in 78. Dad went to Sunnyvale quite often and found a electronic place that dumpster dived all over the city. He brought back couple sacs of PCBs , cables , controllers etc. We had to put stuff together and fix some things . Rf modulator smashed with hammer , innerds of joystick incorrectly assembled, etc. Unit sat on floor with switch board loose. we had no case for it. Almost all carts were loose as well. very few had labels. Did have several jsticks, 4 paddles and indy controllers. We had a magnavox a few years earlier and coming from that and the progression of pong sets , in just a few short years..... this thing was like magic. 

[sterling1989]

On 10/2/2023 at 4:33 PM, Teleprompter said:

This topic is right up my alley .  My first Atari memory started with the Atari 800 computer on Christmas 1982.  I remember my dad surprising me by having us come down to the basement in our entertainment room.  He had the Atari 800 and 410 connected to the Quasar television (remember that name?).  We only had the games Pac-Man and Galaxian on cart and I think Protector on cassette at the time but we did have BASIC plus some ANTIC magazines.  That began my typing skills which lead to many opportunities as an adult.  I can still recall the smell of the new system and the sight of the boxes everywhere.  

 

A couple years later I started my BBS and drew the attached picture.  Don't judge my artwork because I was only 13 at the time, haha.  Sad that I have zero photographs of anything Atari as a kid.  Only my memories and the funny pencil image below. 

 

Atari had such a profound effect on me that I started to collect them again in 1999/2000 and just recently put my collection on my YT channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@VintageGamingMemories (current collection shown below)

 

When someone asks, "Have you played Atari today?", 95% of the time I can answer Yes.

 

Thanks for starting this topic.  Looking forward to reading others.

Quasar!!! 

 

Our first VCR was a top loading Quasar! ❤️

[0078265317]

First memory, space invaders.

[juansolo]

Showing my age here but my first console wasn't an Atari, it was a Binatone Pong TV Game. That got some serious use by me and my older brother. The noise it made used to drive my dad mad so he got us a black and white portable television to get us off the front room TV. The Atari VCS (as it was known then) came next. For the longest time the only games we had were Space Invaders, Combat, Golf and Street Racer. We played the crap out of them, even Golf and Street Racer...

[Lord Mushroom]

Playing Donkey Kong on the 2600 my mom had brought home. I was 5 years old, so it was either in 1987 or 1988. I didn´t even know consoles existed before that, so it was a lot of fun.

[jhd]

 

It must have been late-Spring 1982. A friend and classmate of mine was celebrating his birthday, and several of us came to his home. I distinctly remember playing Pac-Man and Empire Strike's back on a small B&W TV.

 

A few months later, I received a system of my own. 

 

I was aware of the 2600 before this, and I had played arcade games starting in 1981, but it was my first experience playing with a home console. 

 

 

[4ever2600]

Christmas 1977.  Got our heavy sixer with combat of course, surround and star ship.  My sister and I used to play a TON of combat.  Our library climbed from there. Most of the gatefold box titles to start.  

[tkarner]

Playing Air Sea Battle on a kiosk at Sears while parents shopped. Although since it was at Sears, it wasn't Air Sea Battle but Target Fun.

[magnusfalkirk]

On 10/3/2023 at 7:05 PM, sterling1989 said:

Quasar!!! 

(By Motorola)

Our first VCR was a top loading Quasar! ❤️

 

I just had to. Couldn't help myself. Anybody else remember those old tv commercials for Quasar?

 

[Zonie]

On 10/3/2023 at 4:51 PM, 351cougar said:

sometime in 78. Dad went to Sunnyvale quite often and found a electronic place that dumpster dived all over the city. He brought back couple sacs of PCBs , cables , controllers etc. We had to put stuff together and fix some things . Rf modulator smashed with hammer , innerds of joystick incorrectly assembled, etc. Unit sat on floor with switch board loose. we had no case for it. Almost all carts were loose as well. very few had labels. Did have several jsticks, 4 paddles and indy controllers. We had a magnavox a few years earlier and coming from that and the progression of pong sets , in just a few short years..... this thing was like magic. 

Was the place called "Wierd Stuff"?

 

[351cougar]

he didn't remember the location in the city, or the name. it was 45 years ago, so I wasnt that surprised. 

[LatchKeyKid]

My first memory is my only memory until a couple years ago when I rediscovered the scene after watching some youtube videos.   I played video olympics in my uncle's kitchen on a tiny B&W tv and that game formed the entirety of my opinion of Atari for decades.  It was only decades later that I saw what programmers late in the console's life cycle could ring out of the venerable hardware and even more so homebrew programmers working with modern development tools.

[+davidcalgary29]

My parents had a Super Pong in the '70s, and I somehow ended up with it, and played it a bit. That was it for me for Atari until I saw my 800 in '83 at the age of eleven, and then it was love at first sight. I hated the 2600 at that point, and didn't even pick one up until some point after EdTris started being sold.

[Zonie]

1977

Summer Day Camp

My "Classes" were:

• Rocketry, I still fly rockets today, albiet much larger ones.
• Photography, we made pinhole cameras, developed our own film, really cool stuff.
• Puppetry, yeah, that was kinda meh
• Swimming, well it WAS summer and Arizona
• Electronic Games- We had a Coleco Combat and a Sears Telegames with Target Fun

It's also the first place I had a regular non home-cooked hamburger, Plus a coke, fries, and a bomb pop. Every Day!

 

Tons of good memories that and the following summers.