What game system finally made you put the Atari 2600 into th

[Jack-Ass Tramiel]

I had an Atari 2600 since around 1981 or so when I was a kid. Through the years, I would sell the unit but would wind up with another model in my hands. I never really bought too many games for it. As a kid, I think I only had about 4 or 5 games.

 

In college, I had an Atari 2600 Jr., and the guys in my dorm would gather around the dorm's TV to play Winter Games on it. There would be nightly competitions after dinner to determine who was the best. They even set up league play that would last the week. I'm really quite proud I was able to contribute to this.

 

The last games I ever bought for the system were the last (and best) that were made for it: Kung Fu Master, Commando, Skateboardin', F-14 Tomcat and so forth. (Damn, I never was able to beat Kung Fu Master since it was so tough. Has anybody ever finished it? And what happens in the end?)

 

Anyway, the games that really got me excited about the 2600 again were Pitfall II and H.E.R.O. and I bought them immediately when they came out in 1984. To this day, Pitfall II is the ultimate 2600 game in terms of design, playability and challenge. It's the type of game that I hope future homebrew 2600 game makers aspire to.

 

The game that I played the most (and still quite a bit to this day) is Phoenix. Don't know why, but there's something about it that gets my twitch reflexes going.

 

J-AT

[jstefans]

I am now happy (back then it wasn't as cool to say this) to say that I never put my atari in the closet to play another system! The only reason it eventually went into the closet was when I went to college in 1993. But since I'm out of college it's back out with avengence. Just now, I've been starting to collect other systems along with my atari!

[Malix]

I hate to say it but my atari is going to collect some serious dust in the next few months. I bought a PS2 with GT3 and man is it sweet. The atari however will not go in the closet, just wont get as much use.

[atari70s]

Well for me i missed most of the 2600 crazy but i had it for a little while then in 1987 i got the XEGS by atari . kinda got rid of the 2600. Foolish me if i knew at age 6 what i would have now 513 atari games i would have held on to it. but at that age noone knows much past hitting the power button hehe.

[Kenwood]

The Commodore 64 lead to the demise of the 2600 in my house. Because I got tons of free C-64 warez through my friends. Although 5 1/4 disks weren't cheap either back then.

[Brad2600]

Whatever happened to Bob Bytchin? Coolest username I've seen.

 

Anyway, after my dad bought a NES, the 2600 went into the closet. I'm glad it stayed there because it was all intact when I decided to look for it a few years later.

[Adrian M]

My NES.

1987.

Atari was put into long term storage once I got that.

[Big Player]

It wasn't any game that put my 2600 in the closet. It was my 800XL computer.

 

Whatever happened to Bob Bytchin? Coolest username I've seen.

 

I think Jack-Ass Tramiel is cooler.

[pinball22]

Nothing... there have been times when I've used it less, but it's never gone away.

[WildBillTX]

Our 2600 died back in the early 80's - I think the power supply died and we were just too dumb back then to know how to fix it!!

 

Commodore Vic-20 was the computer that killed my interest in the 2600 for a long time. I spent hours typing in and debugging programs from Compute and Commodore magazine and saving them on cassette. I had a Realistic (radio shack) 2-cassette dubbing deck on my stereo and found out quickly I could copy data cassettes with them. Later my dad bought a C=64 and got plenty of warez through BBS and Q-link. Luckily I live in a family that throws NOTHING away and so my cart and joystick collection survived, so when I picked up a 2600 jr for 25 bucks at a closeout sale I started playing it off and on again for fun.

[Kuddy]

My parents replaced it with the NES after Christmas 1990, and though the thought didn't always occupy my mind, I was left wondering where the heck it went for the next seven years.

[FireTiger]

Never, the only way I was allowed to get another system was to sell of my 2 2600's and couple hundred games and the 7800 and its several games...being a packrat that was not going to happen...besides the neighbor kid always had the newest game system.

[MattG/Snyper2099]

NES in 1987, then SNES in 1991. Then, in 1995 I said to myself, "These SNES games suck. They are way too polished to be fun. My mentality has changed with my age but it's safe to say that once I reclaimed my origional 30-40 2600 games I had from my youth years of playing (84-87), there was no turning back from there. I know I'm crazy but it feels weird when other people give you this look like "You have HOW MANY video games?!" Last count for me was over 2,000 including dupes. But that doesn't change anything for me. I discovered the Colecovision, Intellivision, c64, and Vectrex soon after the VCS reignited things and there is just no comparison to anything next gen systems have to offer.

[TuzenTCA]

My family has always had a HUGE entertainment console so you could fit every thing in there (I currently have 1 hundred or so games and cassettes on the top shelf, then a tape deck and a equalizer, then a 7800 and a CD burner, on the lower shelves I have a 7800A Vader system and my sears HS. On the other side of the cabinet, I have a PS2 and a VCR, then another VCR a satellite receiver and a TI-95 or something like that, then my Sony Receiver and DVD player. I also have a Sega Dream cast and NES beside my TV on the main shelf. Also above it all I have two Record Players and a build in 8-track deck.

[bcprs1]

My Atari never saw the closet, but it got a lot of equal playing time when I got my first NES. After the NES though, I havent really been able to get into any of the newer systems. I had a Genesis and Playstation I for a while, but I found myself uninterested. I think it was mainly because I bought a new computer and found myself playing games on that. Also, I just don't feel like spending $40-$50 a game. If I was still a kid, I would probably be really into X-box/game cube, etc, but when you get older you don't have as much time to play video games. I just like to pop in my Atari or NES and play something for about an hour at a time.

[Cootster]

I'd have to say it was when I got a PC and discovered Civ, SimCity, Ultima, Wolf 3D,et al. . .

 

Really, though, it took the GBA to replace it as the number 1 casual-play system . . . Anything I'd want to play is pretty much covered between it and the PC.

[homerwannabee]

I am proud to say that I still have the original Atari 2600 system I had as a kid. The system that made me play the atari 2600 a lot less was when the Sega Genesis was in it's prime. I even had the 32X to boost its power, a couple of years later my drug addict step father would steal my sega genesis and the 32x so he could get high off a couple of dime bags. Fortunetly he had no interest in stealing my atari 2600. As he knew he could not get any money for it at the time. I have never got newer system than the Sega Genesis since then. In fact the only systems I truly am interested in are pre-nintendo era systems. None though can replace the Atari 2600.

[gulag picture radio]

Mine never went in the closet either. I aquired castoff systems from my friends, and continued on as a "pusher" by bringing Ataris to parties and such. This continues to this day as I have a ridiculous number of Atari's sitting around.

 

When I got my Amiga, my game time was definitely split between the two. And then a few years ago a friend of mine gave me a Dreamcast for Christmas, and I spent a lot of time on that... but the Atari is still here for when I need a fix.

 

The new Cuttle Cart has definitely energized my gameplay as there are so many games I've never touched. I don't really like playing games via emulation, so I've never seen a lot of these games. I just figured that I'd only ever play them at conventions or something...