First Atari memories....

[elviticus]

Ah, the warm glow of nostalgia!

 

I remember playing my electronic "Digital Derby" (anyone remember that?) and my brother came home from a friend's house and ridiculed my mechanical video game! He described this great game he had been playing (Grand Prix) on his friend's Atari.

 

When Christmas rolled around that year, I got my Atari. I remember setting it up on a black and white 12 inch TV (pretty ghetto, I know, but my parent's didn't see the value of color TV!) and playing Defender for weeks on end!!

 

What are your first Atari 2600 memories?

[taxman]

I remember not getting an Atari for Christmas of 1981, but then getting one as a late present in January 1982. Pac-man and Asteroids were our first two games. I was hooked as well as the whole neighborhood. I would have to say the most memorable thing with Atari is us kids getting together to play decathlon. The looks on people's faces as they're trying to move that joystick back and forth made for some great laughs. My sister-in-law says she still remembers that and she doesn't even play Atari.

[hanglyman]

My first Atari memories are of rushing to the display at sears every chance I got to play target fun, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen

 

it was'nt until space invaders came out that I got one though

[kyle]

I was 7 years old in 1988 and my older cousin had just gotten a sega master system and my folks were to poor to buy me the NES i wanted. So my cousin gave me his old 2600 and his games about 20 in all. Well it didn't matter to me that it wasn't a NES all i knew is i had video games to play!! I played pittfall and miss-pac-man day and night! About 6 months later it broke But it was around christmas 1988 so mom and dad (santa) got me a 2600jr and a bunch of games! So my first real atari memories were when most people were geting out of atari. BTW I did end up geting a NES in 1990.

[jeff_a]

My first Atari memory is my first video game memory. I was at my grandparents house, and my uncles were in the downstairs family room playing M*A*S*H, and they let me try. I must have been like 3 or 4 at the time, but it stuck with me.

[chad5200]

I remember Digital Derby! Still have it.

 

The funny thing is, there was nothing digital about it at all.

 

Anyone remember that pong style handheld game called "Blip"? That was another mechanical device.

[lhfreak]

I used to have Blip! I still have Hit and Missile which used the same technology, although the collision detection doesnt work anymore. They just pass right on through.......

[ATARIPITBULL]

One day my mother asked me if I would like a Atari 2600 and took me to a K-mart and bought me it and two extra games, ( Adventure & Pitfall ) My friends and I played them every night till my parents said it was time to turn it off, then all my friends got one and we would buy and share games all the time.

 

[tantone56]

Thats the coolest feeling when your like the first kid in town to get the system. People were coming over my house for weeks to play xbox

[bentheking]

Holy Blip! I don't really remember the game, but I remember the idiotic sing-songy TV commerical: "blip, blip, blip, blip, blip....oh, blip, blip, blip!" (etc., ad nauseum).

 

From about the same period (c. 1978), does anyone remember Merlin? Unlike Blip and Digital Derby, I guess this handheld "game" really was "digital" ("digital" in the sense that a pocket calculator is digital; "game" in the sense that punching numbers into a calculator then holding it upside-down to form words is a fun game -- e.g., 0.1134 = "hEll0" -- try it, it's really... ).

 

Did I say "game" -- I meant "game system" because (if I remember the TV jingle correctly) Merlin contained several amusing diversions. There was tic-tac-toe for a warmup (hint: you had a huge advantage if you went first), then you could try your skill at "Blackjack 13" (21 would have taken too much memory, I guess), and there was even something called "Magic Square" (Mom's favorite, according to the commercial).

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the magic of Merlin -- fill me in if I've forgotten any games (and, for god's sake, don't get me started on "Simon)!

[BassGuitari]

My first Atari memory is walking through Sears with my parents sometime in 1991 (I was 6 years old), seeing silvery boxes with "Atari" in big red letters stacked in a triangular shape next to the aisle in the electronics section. Then I proceeded to the NES kiosk...young, dumb, and stupid

[The MilkMan]

From about the same period (c. 1978), does anyone remember Merlin? Unlike Blip and Digital Derby, I guess this handheld "game" really was "digital" ("digital" in the sense that a pocket calculator is digital; "game" in the sense that punching numbers into a calculator then holding it upside-down to form words is a fun game -- e.g., 0.1134 = "hEll0" -- try it, it's really... ).

 

Yeah! I had a Merlin. Tic Tac Toe, I played that the most. Don't really remember much else about it

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the magic of Merlin -- fill me in if I've forgotten any games (and, for god's sake, don't get me started on "Simon)!

 

Don't get you started eh? Ok, how about this little bit 'o Simon info! HA!!

[Fellow Atari Man]

From about the same period (c. 1978), does anyone remember Merlin?  

 

Wow, holy crap! Simon I've always remembered, and it's hard to believe I forgot about Digital Derby and Hit and Missile (the missile part disappeared on mine, although you could still see the outline of that little box that would physically move up and down, but then eventually the missile would go through everything, just like someone described on here), but I'd totally forgotten about the unique red game(s!) known as Merlin.

 

and there was even something called "Magic Square" (Mom's favorite, according to the commercial).

 

Oh yeah, I remember that too, what the deal was, when you started the game, most, or possibly all, of the lights were lit, and you had to press buttons in order to make certain lights to either go out or change places with their neighbor lights until you formed a square (i. e. the outer numbers around the square pad).

 

Anyway, can't really say I have a very first Atari memory of playing at it Sears, a friend's, or anything really...strange. You'd think I would remember what it was! Oh well...

[The Hat]

I have a blip. (actually I think it's really my sisters)

[rockman_x_2002]

I also have a Blip game that belonged to my older brother. I have his Digital Derby game and some other type of shooter game... I think "Seek and Destroy"?

 

Anyway, the Blip game succumbed to battery acid some years ago. But as far as I can tell, the other two games still work like they should. Of course, I've never seen a new one out of the box so I don't know if their performance is 100% as they should be, but they're playable anyhow.

[ussexplorer]

I was standing at a yard sale looking down at a box of a used atari 6 switcher system with wood grain. Came with both joysticks, manuals, games, paddles, driving paddles, and a price tag of 30.00. I talked them down. I should really think about the price. I might have talked them down to 30.00 from 50.00. Can't remeber the date right off the top. It is in another one of my posts. I did a little research to try to remeber the year and the price.

 

The secound time was in sears drolling at the 2600 with one joystick and the 7800. For some reason I didn't think ball blazer was that hot. Pole Possition II on the other hand. Vrooommm.

 

Laters.

[Bivotar]

I recall playing the Atari VCS at JC Penney's store displays, and also at a now defunct department store called Woolco. It was shortly after it came out in the late 70's. I was about 12-13 at the time.

 

I had saved up enough money I had earned doing odd jobs to buy an Atari. I think that was when they dropped to under $200. My mom intervened though and bought it for me and my brother. That left me able to use the money to buy some games!

 

Besides Combat, our first games were Air-Sea Battle and Adventure. We played the crap out of those games. The whole family would play, including my Grandma (I'd let her win some Air-Sea Battle games so she would play with me).

 

Ahhhh.... those were the days. We didn't have many games, but that forced us to play the games more and explore the variations, etc.

[foxglove9]

Before I had a 2600 I had 2 coleco Telstar machines, the Atari Stuntcycle, and Tomy's Atomic Pinball machine. That was around 76-78 I estimate. Then when 2600 came out my dad got it for me for xmas, I remember it being a 6 switch machine, so I was about 4 or 5 at the time. Then the 2600 broke because I played it too much and when we returned it I got the 4 switcher instead.

[bentheking]

This is why I don't post too often -- I'd rather sit back and listen to the experts. Props to the Milk Man for rescuing that article on the Simon championships at Studio 54 -- I now know that this popular non-video game has (or had) sold "over several million" units, that you can beat it by remembering 31 tones, and that tuition at Columbia Medical School apparently was a damn sight cheaper in 1979.

 

Thanks also to Fellow Atari Man for jogging my memory about "Magic Square" (although I think I'll stick to spelling words on my calculator ), and to The Hat for reminding former Blip competitors that the game ain't over till the egg timer goes "ding!"

[Fellow Atari Man]

Thanks also to Fellow Atari Man for jogging my memory about "Magic Square"

 

Hey, thank YOU and to everyone else who jogged *my* memory by mentioning Merlin, I'd totally forgotten about that!

 

Anyway, about the earliest memory I have of at least getting my own Atari (my mother had just decided to buy one [for some reason] for me and my sister one day) was playing Space Invaders and Combat, which took my mind off the fact that I was trying to get used to new contact lenses as well. (Didn't really work; I couldn't wear those (*#! things)

[adams_ale]

My earliest memories of atari(I was born in 1978) were of my middle brother playing ghost manor/spike's peak, pitfall, pacman, jawbreaker and Star Wars Death Star Battle. He didn't like to relinquish the controls so I watched most of the time instead of playing. My favorite game among the many that we had was Spike's Peak(double ender) and Star Wars Death Star. I remember thinking the graphics were amazing on both of those games and I played these two games up until the nintendo came along and I sadly put down the atari only to come back to it many years later.

[Sanriostar]

My first Atari memories are of rushing to the display at sears every chance I got to play target fun, it was the coolest thing I had ever seen  

 

Same here. the Sears in the Flagstaff Mall in AZ. There was a line to play it, and not everyone was kids!

[geosteve]

never mind Simon, I used to have one of those Atari "Touch-Me" games way back then (late 70s) which is based on the arcade game of the same name- that was designed a couple years before Simon.

 

 

I remember they used to have a display center of the Atari 400 and 800 computers at Sears back then too.

[Adrian M]

I'll never forget Christmas day 1982...that was the day when I received my Atari 2600 (Vader model) and a copy of my beloved Pac-Man (technically, the Atari was to be shared by me and my sister, but I played it the most!).

 

I can still remember it...watching my dad open the box, the smell of new electronic components, attaching everything to the TV, and firing up Combat for the first time! But it was Pac-man that held my attention for what seemed like months! Yes, the conversion was bad but keep in mind that even as children growing up in 80's, we knew there were technical limitations inherent with home consoles. Perhaps we were less jaded back then, but I was in heaven! My own copy of Pac-man...to play at home whenever I wanted! What a concept!

 

Also, my Dad bought himself a copy of Pele's Soccer. For whatever reason, I always referred to it as PEE-LEE's Soccer. Who the hell knows why, but it was pretty funny back then.

[rockman_x_2002]

I also have a Blip game that belonged to my older brother.  I have his Digital Derby game and some other type of shooter game... I think "Seek and Destroy"?

 

I have a correction to make on my post there. The name of the game was not "Seek and Destroy." It was "Hit and Missile." I wanted to make sure about the correct titles, so I went to dig it out of the closet. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to find.