What got you back into Atari? Lets here your stories.

[MidnightSun]

My stories has a couple of points. I grew up an 80's child and have always had a passion for retro things. I was in Best buy and saw the 80 game Atari pack and thought all my favs are not there. So I started on my hunt. So far I have found one single cartriage in my town. Ebay wouldn't be as fun as the thrill of hunting it down or meeting with folks that have them. I want games that challenge me not just graphics. Make mine ATARI !!!!!!!

[joeybastard]

I never got out of it, just drifted a little. I got my first 2600 in 1980 and have had some form of Atari in my home ever since. Sometimes it was a Colecovision with an Atari adapter rather then a real VCS but there's always been something. In between I've had the NES, SNES, etc. I got heavily into collecting about 3 years ago because I finally had enough spare cash to buy some of the things back that I had(or wanted) as a kid.

[Adrian M]

Originally, the NES in 1987 got me out of Atari gaming for a while. I then began to buy other systems (Genesis, Saturn, DC, XBOX, etc) as they were introduced.

 

What got me BACK into Atari gaming as of late? I'd have to say that my disappointment with 95% of what constitutes games on modern systems today. There really isn't a lot that I like or feel the need to play on the newer systems.

 

The Atari 2600 constantly amazes and entertains me. There's the classic library, plus all those great homebrews coming out. Part of what makes the 2600 so appealing to me is the fact that developers have to work hard to make their games work on such a difficult and limited hardware base! And gameplay is the ultimate feature, not silly cinemas and SGI-rendered sprites!

[Lemmi]

The Atari 2600 constantly amazes and entertains me.  There's the classic library, plus all those great homebrews coming out.  Part of what makes the 2600 so appealing to me is the fact that developers have to work hard to make their games work on such a difficult and limited hardware base!  And gameplay is the ultimate feature, not silly cinemas and SGI-rendered sprites!  

 

AMEN

[Megamaniac]

eBay. I hadn't had a working 2600 in over 13 years, and missed my last opportunity to find one in Toyd R Us when the Atari 2600 Jr was phasing out at $30. All those carts sat in a closet collecting dust. Once I realized through eBay I could buy one, I was back in the game. Meanwhile, I had gone down the road of Atari 400, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Atari Jaguar, Dreamcast & Playstation 2. All those systems are still working too. I'll never grow up!

 

While eBay got me back into playing the 2600, this website, though, has made it interesting to collect more and truly get back into it. I wish there was such a site for the NES!

[Voch]

A friend of a friend gave me his Atari 2600, Atari 800, and around 30 games about three years ago. I had worked on the properties file for the Stella Atari 2600 emulator but finally got back into the real hardware and was enjoying it much more than adding every little hack to the Stella profile.

 

Eight systems (Atari 2600/5200/7800, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Odyssey2, Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64) and 409 carts later I'm still collecting.

[NE146]

I've never 'gotten out' of it

 

Oh sure the 2600/5200 were stored away several times for years at a time (usually when new consoles hit). But I always knew where they were in a jiff.

[maibock]

I finally dragged the 2600 out after we bought our house about 10 years ago. T'was in storage since college.

[hepcat]

My interest was rekindled back in 1999 entirely by accident. I was reading a computer magazine which had an article claiming you could find virtually anything for sale on a mysterious website called "Ebay."

 

I decided to check it out, plugging in some random items I'd owned as a kid into the search engine. Eventually I typed in "Atari 2600" and, to my amazement, thousands of items appeared. It was this discovery that led me to start bidding. My budget was much tighter then, so it took me about a month to win a system with two joysticks, a pair of paddles, and Defender. Next I went after a few of my favorites as a kid, Ms. Pac-man, Yars' Revenge, and Eggomania.

 

Almost five years and 434 cartridges later, my collection continues to grow.

 

--Jason

[candiru]

My 2600 usually got dug out of the basement every couple of years throughout my childhood and teens, but I never had any other games besides the few I'd grown up with.

 

Then during college I was going around junk stores looking for interesting things to turn into "found-object sculptures" for an art class and happened upon a box of carts all marked at $1 apiece. I bought the dozen or so that I didn't have, and went home for my old Atari the next weekend. It was pretty cool, with the old hand-me-down furniture and TV my buddy and I had in that apartment you'd have thought you stepped back into 1979.

 

It wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I really got the Atari sickness and friends and relatives really started to worry about me.

 

Sometimes I still stop by that junk store when I happen to be passing through my old college town, but the sister of the old lady that used to run it bought her out and now they charge $6 for a 2600 game.

[+SpiceWare]

I ported the Atari Emulator Stella to OS/2. Playing Kaboom with the mouse just didn't cut it

[Room 34]

I also never really "got out" of Atari. Atari 2600 was the only console I had ever owned (until 1997). I took my Atari with me to college and then to California after I graduated and got married. In 1997 I bought a 7800 new-old-stock from Telegames, and that fired up the collector spirit in me a little bit.

 

I got REALLY serious when I joined AtariAge in May 2002.

[moycon]

Nope I can say I never packed up my Atari for good.

It was always out somewhere. Maybe not hooked up, even for months, but never boxed up and stuck in the shed...or garage. Usually I keep it hooked to a TV with the Atari itself in a drawer or Entertainment center cabinet.

[cimerians]

I played my Atari and Colecovision up until around the NES became big (87' or 88'). But I continued playing with the C64 up until 1991 or 92'. Thats when I abandoned the C64 to the way better graphics of the SNES and Genesis and of course the PS1 later.

 

Then the internet at right around 1995 or 96 cropped up, I saw a bunch of early emulators and websites for Atari, Coleco and Commodore. I thought, why not unbox a bunch of stuff and hook them up and see if they still work?

 

I've had them hooked up ever since.

 

[Goochman]

Scoreboards got me to dust off my old systems - glad I did since they are alot of fun

[Redcurrie]

For me, it was totally by accident. I was searching for something else (if I had to guess, I'd guess Muppets' stuff) on e-bay and lo and behold, something Atari popped up. I had my Atari up until graduating from college when during a "cleaning out because I'm adult now" phase, I gave it to Goodwill. Seeing the auction, I remembered all the good times I had playing Atari so I bid and won. Once I found this website, the collecting phase began which is what I'm now doing. I currently have many more games than I can play but I'm trying to devote some of my free time to playing everything at least once!

 

Laura

[chairmonkey4406]

I just got into atari in 2000. I had an Intellivision and NES my whole life, and I knew how much more fun they were than the newer systems. It's not until my discovery of a little place on the internet called EBAY, and not until I got good at bidding that I won my 2600. Been hooked up ever since.

[brendan]

I, like some others of you, "never got out" of my 2600. I still have the heavy sixer Dad bought in 1979 and all of the cartridges. I've almost always had it hooked up to the biggest TV in the house just for the quick round of Demon Attack. Over time, I've slowly picked up cartridges here and there, and within the last several years, the thing that really got me going to pick up more cartridges at pawn shops and Goodwills was inheiriting my uncle's collection (he was having problems with _his_ heavy sixer, which turned out to simply be an easily fixable broken solder joint on one of the momentary switches). As an aside, to keep my uncle from "getting out" of Atari, I set him up first with a PC emulator and then one for the Dreamcast.

[Rob Mitchell]

My Family bought the Sears Video Arcade in fall 1977. Eventually we owned 20 carts and all the controllers at the time. Sold for $300 in 1983.

 

In 1997 I was listening to a redneck AM radio station which has call in sales every morning at 10 AM .. called "Swap 'N' Shop" .. one kid called in and said he had an Atari video game with 40 cartridges and he would take $20 for it. I quickly scribbled down his phone number .. thought about it for about five minutes .. called and arranged to meet some hours from then

 

He had not 40 but 55 carts (some duplicates), some controllers and a 4 switch console with a frayed RF cable end. That took me about 5 minutes to turn the cable around and solder to the RF box inside the console.

 

Instant Collection! Within 9 months I had 225 unique titles found exclusively at thrift stores across the country.

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[sku_u]

One day at my Father-in-Law's house, my father-in-Law brought two Atari 5200s and a ton of games out of the attic, asking if we wanted them. I was reluctant at first, but once I turned the system on and played some Frogger with my wife I was hooked.

[SS]

Mid-90s (I dunno, ’95 or ’96 ???) a friend started picking up carts at local flea markets while hunting for records. He hooked a 2600 up in his store and we all played around on it for a couple of hours one Saturday afternoon. This motivated me to find the dark corner of my mother's house that my old one was packed up in. It’s all been downhill since then …

[keyngs]

My cousin had got his Atari when they first came out. But he wouldnt let me play it. My Grandfather overheard the fighting and bought me one of my own. It came with Pac-Man. Maybe some of you can figure out what year that was cause i dont know. so as time went on i always had a hang house, with as many systems hooked up as i could at one time. Atari was almost always there. When i got married, i had to start a game room.But I never had a spot for all those cartridges.But now, with this crazy table i have, and of course,Atariage, My love for Atari has been rekindled.I got a Atari jacket,Atari wallet,and a Atari table! Down the street they have a store called "Groovy" and they have all kinds of Atari stuff 2600,5200,etc. I never owned a 5200. dont know why. But thats my story.

[Brad2600]

I wish there was such a site for the NES!

 

www.playnintendo.com

 

I had a similar thing. I've always had 2600 stuff hidden away but I didn't really start pulling it out until last year. I've got over 200 games and counting so far.

[Room 34]

I wish there was such a site for the NES!

 

www.playnintendo.com

 

Someday...

[Cootster]

Eh, I've had mine and played it for almost 21 years now . . . Sure, I had a NES once, but it was never special to me, and in fact I am clueless as to what happened to it . . . Still have a non-working 5200 (heck, the SOB worked for a week once in '88 and that was it . . . But the old 2600 is still good . . .

 

How many functional PS2s will there be in 2023? Not many . . .

 

And yeah, it's the gameplay. And the controllers. Do not neglect the simple, yet highly functional design which, for some reason, has never even been imitated for another system . . . And is still the best control system anybody's ever seen . . .

 

Homebrews rock . . . If there are Sony HBs in 2023 and then the level of improvement over the original run is the same as a lot of these titles are . . . I'll finally buy a system with more than 8 bits.