Why did you buy the 2600+?

[Varanis Ridari]

For me it was an xmas gift

[Major Havoc 2049]

Nostalgia, new Atari hardware, HDMI support and I already had a decent amount of 2600 and 7800 games that I hadn't really played much in the last 20 years and bought back in the mid-late 90's.  With the release of the 2600+, it got me back to playing my 2600 and 7800 collection and buying new games.  It's awesome that Atari is re-releasing some of the rare 7800 games! 

 

I first got a 2600 in late 1982.  Pitfall! was all the rage and I convinced my parents to get me a 2600 with Combat as the pack-in game, along with a copy of Pitfall!. I read a bunch of video game magazines back then, so I avoided all the garbage games and my first group of games that I got over the next several months were Vanguard, Ms. Pac-Man, River Raid and Raiders of the Lost Ark. '83 was a great year for releases.  As a gamer, I didn't feel the crash till 1984, as a bunch of companies went under in late 1983 and releases started to dry up. The crash was cool at first, because you could amass a large collection for dirt cheap.  But by 1986, I wanted all those cool computer games I saw in the magazines and played at my friend's houses and sold my 2600 and Colecovision at a garage sale and bought a Commodore 64C.

[jfdav]

The 2600 was my first console as a kid. I received it for Christmas one year and remember playing Combat against my dad on our old console TV next to the tree. Years later it somehow broke and we replaced it with a 7800 so we could keep the carts and controllers. Just over this past Christmas break I mentioned that I had pre-ordered the 2600+, and my sister admitted that way back then she had dropped the 2600 down the stairs to the basement and was too scared to tell us about it, hence the 7800 replacement.

 

I've been enjoying playing Atari games on my PC via Stella, but I've always wanted just that extra dopamine hit of nostalgia without going down the route of maintaining original hardware. I thought I had that needle pinned with using original joysticks via USB adapters and scanline filters. But I wanted something physical that looked like the Atari. I built a RazPi setup in a little 3D printed Atari case, but that was stupid and I went back to PC. One summer I found our old 7800 in the attic and grabbed that with its small collection of cartridges and controllers, but I had no easy way to connect it to my TV. I researched console video mods but never pulled the trigger.

 

I pre-ordered this thing just for the way it looks, and for the fact that I can slam my carts into it. It's modeled after the same wood 4-swtich version that my sis yeeted down the basement stairs so it was a must purchase. My buddy gave me his old box of carts from his basement over Christmas break, so now I have maybe around 40? His collection included H.E.R.O. so I was elated. I have since bought a few on eBay, but I have most of the games already that I'm nostalgic for. Math Grand Prix doesn't get played much.

 

 

[2LTIME6100]

9 hours ago, Plumbob said:

HDMI output. Bright colorful games. Ease of setup to modern TVs. Tactile feel of holding a physical game and pushing it into the slot.  I remember the first time I bought a game on Steam, not getting a cardboard box to open, or a CD or whatever to hold, it felt like my money kind of vanished into thin air.  I’ve had various computer systems and games over the years but I’ve always known in the back of my head that most Atari games really are still fun to play (But not Stampede, sorry!) Also, I’m feeling really turned off with the modern gaming industry: passwords, monthly fees, needing to be online to authorize/confirm I own a game, two factor authentication, ads, micro transactions, having to link my Xbox account to my Minecraft account or whatever that was all about, forgetting my passwords and then forgetting which email and password the recovery  code went to.   I mean, yes modern games are cool, but is anybody truly enjoying where we are at with all of this nonsense?  But then the 2600+ comes along and you just push the game in and power it on. That’s it; you’re in. You can start playing! I don’t even mind waiting 10 seconds for it to load.   Now I’m obviously not going to sit and play Mrs Pac-Man for 4 hours nonstop like I might with Minecraft, but there is nothing wrong with short bursts of fun.   I don’t know how to explain it, but there is something about modern graphics that doesn’t give me joy anymore.  I want to go back to being a kid again with bright fun colorful friendly simple graphics and great game play. Sometimes I just want to escape from the responsibilities of being an adult. 

I hope the 2600+ becomes an “evergreen” type product that exists along side modern games rather than needing to compete with them. 

I’m looking forward to the possibility of new games like mr run and jump and homebrew.  

I believe that there is still more potential to squeeze out of the 2600, 2600+, and 7800 platforms and in future years there very well could be some amazing new games that we can’t even imagine right now. 

I feel the same way.
A current Gran Turismo is certainly a graphically impressive masterpiece. But somehow I no longer enjoy today's gaming world. I've been there from the Pong Clone (which I got instead of the Atari Woody I wanted so much for Christmas) to the C64, PC and various console systems up to the PS3. Then the time came when it was all about online, updates, digital content and the visual content also overwhelmed me, an aging casual gamer.

 

I often thought back to my wonderful childhood, when not everything was immediately available, when you looked forward to a game long before Christmas and appreciated it when you got it. Ride your bike to a friend's house and spend the afternoon playing on the console together. They were games that were easy to understand and enjoyed without any complications. Games that were complete once you spent your money on them.
 

I like the simple, clear graphics of the Atari 2600 to be very pleasant to play today. For example, I like the look of the 2600 Dig Dug better than the versions on the more powerful systems.
 

In the end, it's nostalgia for an era that I loved as a child (born in 1970) and a little break from the often somewhat overwhelming life of today. I also hope that the 2600+ is successful and will be supported by the manufacturer and a loyal community for a long time to come.

 

My personal wish… get Pitfall 2 running. It's almost like waiting for Christmas in the 80s 😊

[DEANJIMMY]

17 hours ago, karri said:

At the time they announced 2600+ I only had a PAL 7800 with a RF output. So my desire was to have a 7800 that could play NTSC titles. It was also a backup for my PAL 7800 in case my video modding would have gone wrong.

 

Now I have a good 7800 PAL unit with good quality video output. I am using that unit most of the time as I want my Otaku flash cart to work on the real hardware.

 

But of course the huge number of 2600+ units sold makes it very interesting to develop games that would be compatible with the 2600+ also. Not the financial side as I don't really sell stuff. But it gives some satisfaction to publish games that others may like playing.

 

Oh, I also have a Dragonfly that is a real life saver. But the NTSC games don't always run on my PAL 7800 so I am happy to have the 2600+ and Dragonfly as my NTSC 7800 machine.

For me it was quite similar:

 

The 2600+ runs 7800 carts! No matter if PAL or NTSC.

It runs PAL and NTSC 2600 carts.

The Hdmi output was a nice to have.

That my old consoles might break and I get tired of repairing them, comes last.

 

I have a PAL 7800 and 2600 Jr with AV mod ready to go in the living room, connected to a Retrotink5x, they will stay. A 2600 NTSC Jr is ready for plug and play in a box.

 

In the guest room I a had a 6er 2600 P via Philipps TV tuner ready to play.

It got replaced by the 2600+ and is now for sale. I did not want to mod it but keep it original... for others who still have CRT TVs.

My FRG and GDR Pong in same room got moded, so the tuner is boxed.

 

I keep my PAL 7800 RF as spare console in a box.

Retrieved two PAL 2600 4er Vader and Woody from a box in the shed and the plan is to mod the better and keep it as spare in a box and sell the other for little money like it is (noisy picture but sound).

 

I like to have a spare which could go to an event without worries.

At Dr. Pong parties we e.g. let young people play Atari on big screen next to a dance floor or in a pub. So you have to take in acount, it could be killed buy some beer😉

 

So, I am happy the 2600+ plays NTSC as well, having the choice to get the best version of a game. If you run PAL and NTSC cart right after each other on the 2600+ you see the difference of speed. Some games like Discs of Tron are Boring with 20% less speed!

Also, sometimes you do not get PAL versions at all, like some homebrews.

 

The 2600+ is and will be my main console, as I am getting old and want to play my games rather then repairing and modding.

I don want to f@#$%^& care anymore about PAL and NTSC and use any TV anywhere😊

 

My focus is on the 7800 anyway (see my current played games, even I've got more 2600 carts) and the next improvements with better palette and video performance will make the 2600+ a perfect console for my use case🤙

 

[ChopperCommando]

I like old-school games, played on actual consoles, but I don't trust buying 30-50 year old equipment.  If Nintendo or Sega released "new" versions of their old consoles, I'd probably buy those, too.

[Video]

Yeah, at least third parties were commonly making clones of Sega and Nintendo since the early 2k era, so while not Nintendo or Sega directly, we still had options.

 

I to agree that sometimes, well a lot of time, in my adult, time constrained life, A few minutes of gaming is all I want, need, or can manage. Lets do a quickie pacman or asteroids.

 

And no, I'm not happy with the current state of gaming. (Sarcasm) I love getting home, having a half hour or so to unwind, turning on whatever system, and getting the "gotta download more meaningless updates, shouldn't take more than half an hour" um...oh, so I do something else(/sarcasm) I've lived to much of my life without access to acceptable internet, it was only about two years ago I got it (there seems to be some common misconception that those of us with shit internet are making a choice to have shit internet, probably to be cheap, no, that's false) I didn't "want" fast internet, I wanted that slow 1-3 meg shit. I didn't want a lot of data, I wanted that 50 gig a month cap, and I didn't want a reasonable price, I wanted it to cost over $100 a month. Those of us with shit internet, had it, because that's what was available. How many times someone smarted off with "just get better internet" and I legit thought about saying "sure, you pay the hundred or so grand to have a one off line run to my house, and ill get better internet" but I try not to be an ass, regardless of how people act towards me. Modern gaming is in such a bad state, its getting hard to get anything new that doesn't require the internet "it allows us to release broken shit" hell, even things like evercade, and even 2600+ use internet. At least their intact enough to not actually require it though.

 

I don't see me ever going back to download land, its not worth the agrivation, I'm to old to deal with that garbage, and am more than happy to stick to older stuff, and remakes like evercade and Atari, as long as someone makes functional physical, someone will be getting my money.

[GcMcM]

On 2/14/2024 at 1:52 PM, NicodemusLegend said:

• Nostalgia for the 2600 system
• Ability to play actual cartridges
• Ability to easily connect to modern TVs without MacGyver-style tactics

Same reasons for me.  I'm really hoping the 2600+ gains full Harmony cartridge compatibility so I can more easily play homebrew games!

[Prince Manic]

Here's why I got the 2600+

 

My dad owns a six switcher Atari 2600 and had games he used to play on his, so I thought if I buy one...he could relive those days but he won't anymore so I invested in it to go back in time of what would be like to play on the iconic console today and enjoy the line of 2600 games of what it offered, and play 7800 games too (my dad never owned the 7800, which I got into that to enjoy).

 

This was supposed to relive his days of Atari but never wish to relive it, I just love to enjoy the days of how gaming was before we had the NES or The Sega Master System when the Video Crash had happened.

Edited February 15 by Prince Manic

[Alex_813]

My dear wife wanted me to tell her what I wanted for Xmas, and I was drawing a blank until I saw a couple of 2600+ review videos pop up. I have a perfectly working 4 switch hooked up to a CRT in my game room, but the HDMI option was appealing, so I sent her an Amazon link, and got to open a 2600+ on Xmas day.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

I've gone into my limited history with Atari before.  But I'm at the tail end of Gen X, a yung'n.  I never had a VCS.  Some cousins had one back when, and later I remember a teacher bringing one to a Jr. High class and letting us earn time on it as a reward.  I remember Pitfall at my cousins' house and Combat at school.  We had a TI-99/4A back in the early 80s.  Sharper graphics, if not performance, but essentially the same style of gaming from that era, and my earliest impression of video games.  Never went to arcades or played coin-ops much until I was older, although Pac-Man was always at the pizza joint.  But I loved the video games and video game characters from that time.  I lived through Pac-Man Fever, Donkey Kong, Saturday Supercade and other cartoon series, video game themed breakfast cereals, toys and merch, Happy Meal and cereal box prizes and stickers, the big stinkin' deal that was E.T. and the much-hyped new game (that I never played, lol).  What times we had.

 

But we were middling-poor, so I never had any other gaming system after that until about a decade later, getting an early Game Boy of my own, borrowing a cousin's unwanted NES for extended periods, and eventually a much-loved brand new SNES of our own by the early-mid 90s.  After that my younger siblings had a string of Nintendo and other consoles and while I enjoyed N64 some I pretty much moved on to PC gaming, early 3D graphics, and stayed there until Xbox 360 maybe.  I never thought much about Atari after the early 90s, except as a generic memory of the good old days of early primitive pixelated gaming and those stiff unwieldy joysticks, before it was really called retro.  The 2600 probably didn't rise back to my notice until the Atari Flashback 2 came out.  I had one but didn't play it much, being a bit surprised that the graphics were somehow "blocky-er" than even I remembered, lol.  But I'd say in the past decade I have really developed a sharp appreciation for Atari and the Atari 2600 in gaming history, as I've learned more and more about it.  Now I do like retro 8/16-bit gaming in general, but Atari has become pretty special to me. The history, the artwork, the classic design, the nostalgia for the era, and just a less complicated time of simpler fun.

 

So the 2600+ was just an easy instant buy for me.  I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Flashbacks and digital collections and emulation, and they all provide a pretty good experience overall.  I'm not much for running original hardware myself, although I do have a pristine white PC Engine among my mini consoles.  But the 2600+ was just so special and felt like Atari was doing something special for the first time in decades.  The build quality is a total cut above in every way.  Honestly at first I wasn't sure how I'd feel about needing physical carts, but as soon as I heard my 2600+ was shipping back in November I just started buying and haven't looked back - it's been so much fun and no regrets at all.  This is my favorite way by far to play these games, and I don't think I will ever stop playing them now. 

 

Sometimes something happens that I find almost impossible to describe.  I'll be playing one of these classic old games, maybe even for the first time.  And I feel a weird nostalgia for it, even though me playing it back in the day literally never actually happened.  It just feels right, like I could have and would have and should have experienced this back in 1980-whatever.  Maybe I did in some alternate timeline, or will, or who knows what I mean, but I feel it.  Some of it was real for me way back when, just not enough, so now I'm making up for it maybe.  And of course I never had a 7800 or knew much about it all, but I find some of the ports delightful.  I especially like it for the serviceable DK games, but there are many homebrews and other games that are great to play on that platform as well, so it's a whole new retro world to explore for me and I look forward to a new future for that platform as well.

 

Anyway I think, or hope, the 2600+ has staying power as a product, maybe even with occasional minor revisions, refinements or special editions (Tele-Games?  Vader?  lol), new accessories and new game releases and re-releases.  I know Atari the company has and will continue to expand and diversify, and they have to, but this is where it all comes home for them.  This platform makes Atari... Atari.  More than anything else.  This is almost the most retro of the retro on a platform that had great success and left an impression and is fondly remembered by many.  And here we are 4 months in with the 2600+ after all the naysayers claiming we'd get bored of these "old games" after 2 weeks or a month and people are still excited about it, about collecting for it and about the future possibilities.  I don't think my love of this platform will ever go away.  To me always having "an Atari" in the home just to unwind or relax with or to occasionally share with others for a bit of multi-player fun or to let children experience it, that's just going to be a thing from now on.  Here's to the next 45+ years of Atari 2600(+).

[spacecadet]

I *kind of* grew up with the original Atari VCS, though the first console I owned was an Intellivision. But my cousins had a VCS and I actually played that before my Intellivision, and most of my friends had VCS's too. So whenever a popular new game would come out, I'd be over at their house playing it.

 

Once I got older, the first console I ever "retrobought" was a Sears Video Arcade, a heavy sixer that's listed in the database here but that I've since sold during a purge. At one point, I somehow had ended up with like five different VCS/2600 variants, so I whittled that down to just my standard four switch Atari VCS. It's not the most interesting model but it is the one I most remember from my childhood, and mine is mostly complete in the box whereas most of the others I had were not. Most of my friends had four switch systems, although my cousins had a six switch.

 

I've also bought a couple more modern VCS recreations over the years... I bought the original Atari Flashback, which I thought was super cool at that time because that wasn't yet a common thing. Then later I bought the AtGames handheld that I actually thought was great but I guess the sound was off, which I didn't even notice. But I remember Ben Heck or whatever making a prototype handheld VCS a couple years before and it was this giant, unwieldy thing, and then here comes this Nintendo DS-sized handheld that takes SD cards. It was a portable 2600! I was happy with it at the time. Again, it was the first time we'd seen something like that.

 

So I guess I gravitate towards VCS/2600 stuff that's new or different in some way. The thing about the 2600+ is that it plays real carts with real controllers with HDMI output, but it also looks like a real VCS/2600, just smaller (but not "mini"). I've always wanted a way to play 2600 stuff through HDMI but I don't want to mod my original system or play something where I'm having to download games and put them on an SD card... I feel like that's been done many times now. It's the fact that it looks and feels authentic but is just updated... that feels "new" to me in terms of the design of the product, in that it's not trying to be *totally* modern, but it is only in the ways that matter to someone like me.

 

I really have to say that the way it looks and feels, while a reason I bought it in the first place, are even better in real life than what I thought I'd get from the pictures. I actually leave that little dust cover thing that came on it in the box on top of it all the time because I want to protect it. I think it is just so, so cool looking. They did a fantastic job with it and just making it look like and feel like a slightly shrunken down VCS. It looks like it could have really come out in the 70's, which is actually a new thing for the 2020's. It seems really hard for a lot of these companies making retro hardware to really embrace the retro, down to small details like the actual texture of the plastic or the pattern on the woodgrain. (Most "mini" consoles are missing these details, or just get them wrong.) I don't want the exact same thing as the original hardware, but there's a balance and a fine line and the 2600+ is just perfectly straddling that line for me. I guess I could sum that up by saying it feels like a real console, not like a glorified emulation machine. (I know that's really what it is, but it feels like more.)

Edited February 16 by spacecadet

[lroby74]

Bought it on offer with 90 euro shipping included instead of 120 euro.
Ability to play my original 7800 PAL and NTSC cartridges games on a CRT 21" via HDMI>Svideo adapter (i have a RF 7800 PAL real console that it's unplayable today for low and poor video quality)
Ability to play my 2600 cartridges too but i am able to do that on my Retron 77 too (connected on same way of 2600+) because some games like those with Arm 70Mhz CPU (ie Draconian) are playable only here.

I am a collector (i have almost all mini consoles and Amiga and C64 computers included other than TheC64 Maxi)

I love use original DB9 paddles and joysticks.
I am an Atari 8 bit consoles lover since i was very very young, love games like Battlezone and many others

Edited February 19 by lroby74

[BassGuitari]

A new cartridge-compatible 2600 system from Atari (that doesn't require modding) is something I'd been dreaming about since the Flashback 1. I also wanted a 2600 system that doesn't look like garbage on my big HD living room TV. And, understanding that it's an emulation box, I still wanted to support it in the hope that if it sold well enough, improved non-emulation versions might be released in the future (FPGA or SOC).

 

I like that it's essentially an Atari 7800 (albeit emulated) in a 4-switch 2600 case the size of a 2600jr. that outputs through HDMI. 🙂 Its ability to play PAL carts is a nice bonus for me here in NTSC Land.

 

Besides, my collection contains at least one example of almost every console and variation Atari ever released, not counting Flashbacks; I figured I had to get a 2600+ regardless. 😜

[Gamma Ray]

One of the primary reasons I bought the 2600+ was because it plays 7800 games. It was a little rough at first, but the firmware updates have largely fixed that.

 

The other reason is for paddle support on modern displays. I'm still waiting for that one to get fully fixed up.

[Lord-Chaos]

I sold both my ATARI 2600 Vader and my ATARI 7800 for a few bucks a few years ago and now consoles are expensive on eBay so I got the 2600+. Thank god I didn't sell my 800 XL and disks, because there are Tons of routines and homebrew programs on these disks. Hope to show something soon, may also convert XL stuff to the 7800.

 

THIMO

[5200Fanatic]

I simply wanted to support retro ventures when I can. I already have plenty of consoles, but this looked pretty neat.

[+sramirez2008]

3 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

Besides, my collection contains at least one example of almost every console and variation Atari ever released, not counting Flashbacks; I figured I had to get a 2600+ regardless. 😜

You too! 😉 I had a C64 and later a C128, but I played Atari at my cousins. They had a Sears heavy 6r and I loved that console. Today I have Atari and Sears variants in my collection too. I wasn’t going to add 2600+, but the simple HDMI connection, 7800 compatibility and the fact that someone finally made one that looks like an Atari won me over.

[2600player]

I've been a fan of the Atari VCS since I was 14 and received it for Christmas in 1981.  It sparked my interest in computers and programing which evolved into a 35+ career in IT.  In the early 90's I let my sister borrow my Atari and never saw it again.  I still feel the loss.  Over the years I still played the games.  First using an emulator on the computer but that wasn't the same as playing on a TV.  I purchased a used console and some games, but the picture quality was poor.  I then purchased one of the Flashback machines which gave me HDMI but was missing the tactile feel of the cartridges.  I always said they just need to make a new console to play the old games and when they did, I jumped on board.  I pre order the unit and received just after Thanksgiving.  It was fun hunting down cartridges at the used video game stores.  With in a month, I had a nice collection of cartridges.  I evicted the DVD player and the 2600+ took its place in the entertainment center.  I play a couple of times a week which helps me relax after a stressful day.  It brings back fond childhood memories.  

[SpareHead3]

2600 (light sixer) was my first console. My parents donated it (without telling me) in the 90s. Acquired a 4-switch woody (around the FB2 time) and a Sears light sixer (courtesy of my son) and started collecting carts with a vengeance. Have gone on to get a 5200 (4 port) and 7800, among other systems.

When I heard about the 2600+, I loved the concept and ran to preorder. I mostly play on my light sixer since it is always connected to a small CRT on my desk (and the family typically is using the flat screen). I love that the new Atari commissioned the 2600+ and that my carts will still be playable when my OG systems ultimately die. 

[John Stamos Mullet]

I bought my 2600+ because my real 7800 w/ UAV mod going S-Video to a retro rink mini can be finicky sometimes, and it’s not going to last forever. I wanted a new console to replace it, but that plus the cost of the UAV and it’s almost the same price as the 2600+.

 

Also, I love the fact that it’s like a real 7800 in that you have to use real carts. The physical cart changing is nostalgic like playing vinyl records. 
 

And lastly, it s a real, Genuine Atari product that isn’t a shameless cash grab, but a labor of love. So I want to see it succeed in good hands. 
 

Plus I love to tinker and play guinea pig for new systems that are a WIP. Biggest reason I come to this site is because there are so many open WIP games that devs here share with the community. 
 

Taking care of these elderly classic consoles with their fuzzy output no matter how good the video mod is getting a bit tired. 

Edited February 20 by John Stamos Mullet

[ABA180]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:22 PM, Video said:

Yeah, at least third parties were commonly making clones of Sega and Nintendo since the early 2k era, so while not Nintendo or Sega directly, we still had options.

 

I to agree that sometimes, well a lot of time, in my adult, time constrained life, A few minutes of gaming is all I want, need, or can manage. Lets do a quickie pacman or asteroids.

 

And no, I'm not happy with the current state of gaming. (Sarcasm) I love getting home, having a half hour or so to unwind, turning on whatever system, and getting the "gotta download more meaningless updates, shouldn't take more than half an hour" um...oh, so I do something else(/sarcasm) I've lived to much of my life without access to acceptable internet, it was only about two years ago I got it (there seems to be some common misconception that those of us with shit internet are making a choice to have shit internet, probably to be cheap, no, that's false) I didn't "want" fast internet, I wanted that slow 1-3 meg shit. I didn't want a lot of data, I wanted that 50 gig a month cap, and I didn't want a reasonable price, I wanted it to cost over $100 a month. Those of us with shit internet, had it, because that's what was available. How many times someone smarted off with "just get better internet" and I legit thought about saying "sure, you pay the hundred or so grand to have a one off line run to my house, and ill get better internet" but I try not to be an ass, regardless of how people act towards me. Modern gaming is in such a bad state, its getting hard to get anything new that doesn't require the internet "it allows us to release broken shit" hell, even things like evercade, and even 2600+ use internet. At least their intact enough to not actually require it though.

 

I don't see me ever going back to download land, its not worth the agrivation, I'm to old to deal with that garbage, and am more than happy to stick to older stuff, and remakes like evercade and Atari, as long as someone makes functional physical, someone will be getting my money.

Relatable, my newest system is PS3 and from things I hear about gaming since then I have no desire to go onward in time there.  Not just the updates but the dearth of physical media on the newer stuff. 

 

FWIW I would have politely said the same thing you thought about re the better net reply, it ain't always that simple folks.  I did upgrade my Net 4 yrs ago from DSL when I started working from home but only had one viable option as fiber optic isn't here yet.  

 

Another thing, my gaming time is sporadic at best.  I might sit down and play for 3 hours one night then not for another 3 months.  Until recently I had a second job for the better part of 18 yrs on top of my career...left that particular position but toying with the idea of doing something like my partner and I did until 2020 when the world got screwed up.  Having several elderly family members to watch over doesn't help.  Much as I love gaming, it's a lot more feasible to play the style of games that were out in the 80s versus more long term commitment stuff.

On 2/16/2024 at 5:23 AM, spacecadet said:

I *kind of* grew up with the original Atari VCS, though the first console I owned was an Intellivision. But my cousins had a VCS and I actually played that before my Intellivision, and most of my friends had VCS's too. So whenever a popular new game would come out, I'd be over at their house playing it.

 

Once I got older, the first console I ever "retrobought" was a Sears Video Arcade, a heavy sixer that's listed in the database here but that I've since sold during a purge. At one point, I somehow had ended up with like five different VCS/2600 variants, so I whittled that down to just my standard four switch Atari VCS. It's not the most interesting model but it is the one I most remember from my childhood, and mine is mostly complete in the box whereas most of the others I had were not. Most of my friends had four switch systems, although my cousins had a six switch.

 

I've also bought a couple more modern VCS recreations over the years... I bought the original Atari Flashback, which I thought was super cool at that time because that wasn't yet a common thing. Then later I bought the AtGames handheld that I actually thought was great but I guess the sound was off, which I didn't even notice. But I remember Ben Heck or whatever making a prototype handheld VCS a couple years before and it was this giant, unwieldy thing, and then here comes this Nintendo DS-sized handheld that takes SD cards. It was a portable 2600! I was happy with it at the time. Again, it was the first time we'd seen something like that.

 

So I guess I gravitate towards VCS/2600 stuff that's new or different in some way. The thing about the 2600+ is that it plays real carts with real controllers with HDMI output, but it also looks like a real VCS/2600, just smaller (but not "mini"). I've always wanted a way to play 2600 stuff through HDMI but I don't want to mod my original system or play something where I'm having to download games and put them on an SD card... I feel like that's been done many times now. It's the fact that it looks and feels authentic but is just updated... that feels "new" to me in terms of the design of the product, in that it's not trying to be *totally* modern, but it is only in the ways that matter to someone like me.

 

I really have to say that the way it looks and feels, while a reason I bought it in the first place, are even better in real life than what I thought I'd get from the pictures. I actually leave that little dust cover thing that came on it in the box on top of it all the time because I want to protect it. I think it is just so, so cool looking. They did a fantastic job with it and just making it look like and feel like a slightly shrunken down VCS. It looks like it could have really come out in the 70's, which is actually a new thing for the 2020's. It seems really hard for a lot of these companies making retro hardware to really embrace the retro, down to small details like the actual texture of the plastic or the pattern on the woodgrain. (Most "mini" consoles are missing these details, or just get them wrong.) I don't want the exact same thing as the original hardware, but there's a balance and a fine line and the 2600+ is just perfectly straddling that line for me. I guess I could sum that up by saying it feels like a real console, not like a glorified emulation machine. (I know that's really what it is, but it feels like more.)

 

Like you I had a Pong console and then Intellivision when I was 7, my folks preferred the educational stuff it had.  Loved the system and my next door neighbour had Atari so it worked well.  I thought about the Flashbacks but never got one.  Most of the games on there that I liked I already owned for a Playstation system, and they didn't have some of the stuff I wanted like Berzerk, the 2600 Defender, the like.  

 

I forget who said it here but I relate to the sister thing.  My original Intellivision broke and several years later I found a secondhand II.  I was nice (dumb) enough to let her play it with me once and she got mad, punted it off the stand and it never worked again.

[+MattelAquarius]

I've enjoyed reading through everyone's story.

 

I bought two of the 2600+.  One is for use, the other is to be preserved.

 

For me, it's:

 

1) Nostalgia, of course.  2600 was my first console (I now have about 30 vintage 2600's in various forms)

2) HDMI  (Though, my vintage 7800 with GameDrive and Rad2x is my daily driver for now.)  If there are new releases that are cart only, I'll end up breaking out the 2600+, because my 7800 (sans GameDrive) only has      RF output. 

3) A "tech refresh" for my old 7800 hardware, which will fail one day.

4) Love of Atari, and to support the new Atari's retro ambitions

5) I gave up on modern games, for the most part, after the original Xbox.

 

This is one of the best times to be an Atari fan since 1996.

 

[scifidude79]

I bought mine to finally live my dream of playing 7800 cartridges on a modern TV with crisp clear graphics. Honestly, if it had only played 2600 games, I might have passed on it as I have a Retron77. However, there's an equally strong possibility that curiosity would have gotten to me and I still would have gotten one, especially since the 2600+ has better compatibility than the Retron77. (I own a few cartridges that I thought maybe didn't work because they never worked on the Retron77, but they fired right up on the 2600+) But, it was that 7800 support that really made it a no brainer for me. I grew up with the 5200 and the 7800 and I love 7800 games. I've seen all of the love that the 2600 and Atari's arcade games have gotten over the years, with the re-releases of arcade and 2600 games in collections and on retro devices, and I've been waiting for it to be the 7800's turn. Well, its turn has finally come and I couldn't be happier. I don't mind at all that it looks like a 2600, it was always a beautiful console. And, of course being able to not only play my beloved 7800 games, but my favorites from the awesome 2600 library as well on one device is just convenient.

 

  

On 2/15/2024 at 4:16 PM, ChopperCommando said:

I like old-school games, played on actual consoles, but I don't trust buying 30-50 year old equipment.  If Nintendo or Sega released "new" versions of their old consoles, I'd probably buy those, too.

I also don't trust equipment that old and I'm not skillful enough to fix them if the break. If Sega or Nintendo did this, I'd preorder them. I have lots of NES, SNES and Genesis cartridges, along with some Master System cartridges. I could see Sega partnering with a hardware manufacturer and doing it before Nintendo, though, since Sega isn't making new hardware these days. Nintendo seems to prefer to sell nostalgia on the Switch with the online service. That's a guaranteed renewable revenue source for them without having to make extra hardware.

Edited February 20 by scifidude79

[Pac-Man Senior]

To be honest, first I was a bit angry about Plaion because they obviously forgot us european PAL guys. I wanted a modern backup to play my few cartridges from the 80ies on a modern TV. But 50hz on a 60hz system is really bad for my eyes. It's not the same experience as I remember from the 80ies on my 4-switch-woody. So I decided to buy an old 2600 Jr for 35 EUR and to use it daily while my good old woody stands in a display cabinet. I thought, even when they achieve to output 50hz on the 2600+ the paddle experience and latency aspects will never be the same as on original hardware. So that won't be a bad investment. And I added a 20 year old crt second hand but never used. I'm now playing my carts and I'm watching Bonanza on it. It's like having a flux capacitor. But I still followed the discussion in this forum and read about the one beta firmware that had 50hz output for PAL games. The version failed due to some display issues but I thought I should support the project. I'm sure that one day the 2600+ will officially have 50hz output for 50hz carts. So I decided to buy it. It surely sounds a bit crazy but one detail I like most about this mini woody: the irrationality to include a black/white switch. For me this is the dot of the i in this wonderful and authentic rebuild of an iconic design. Concerning the 7800 abilities: in my 80ies or 90ies I never noticed that the 7800 existed. But today it would be nice to explore some 7800 games on the 2600+. Fatal Run for example is already on my watch list for may 2024. Seems to be a good year to be old-fashioned.