What was the first game you bought?

[Ze_ro]

Besides Combat (or whatever other game your Atari happened to come with at the time), which game was the first one that you bought once you had an Atari?

 

My first is actually a tie between Donkey Kong and E.T. I was already aware of what a nasty game E.T. was, so I'd have to say that I decided on Donkey Kong first

 

--Zero

[Tempest]

I think it was Vanguard. I got my 2600 from my uncle sometime in 1983 so I already had a bunch of games and didn't go out and by more for awhile. After Vanguard it was Freeway, Reactor, and Pheonix.

 

Tempest

[rolenta]

I couldn't decide if I wanted to get an Odyssey2 or a VCS but the software choices made the decision easy. I bought Breakout and Casino with the VCS.

[Joel D. Park]

I think Pacman and Kaboom were the first games my brother and I can remember getting.. I think we got them all the same year when we got the system.

 

I don't ever remember thinking that Pac-Man was bad. Infact we played it a bunch.

 

I just feel bad now that it is so common and mom and dad must have paid like 30 bucks for it.

[Tempest]

Pac-Man wasn't bad at the time since your only other choice was to go play it at the arcade. The only reason I never played the 2600 version of Pac-Man was because I had the 400/800 version which was far superior.

 

I guess that's what ruined most of the Atari 2600 arcade traslations for me, since I had my Atari 400 first I had the superior versions of the games. Why would I want to go out and play Joust on the 2600 when I had a better version for the 400? Of course many arcade games never got to the 400 like Crystal Castles (until the XE era), Vanguard, Gravitar, Stargate, and Pheonix so the 2600 versions didn't seem so bad.

 

Tempest

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I think we have had a similar discussion on this before but here goes. Got my 4 switch woody in X-mas 80 season. My first game after combat was Defender. However, I didn't buy it since it was included in the gifts along with the VCS that year.

 

I do remember that the first actual game that I bought was most likely Frogs and Flies and at the time I really hated it. I don't feel much better about it now either...hehe.

[Mountain King]

I got my Atari for Christmas along with like 12 games. But the first one I actually bought myself was probably Gorf.

[bcprs1]

I got my atari after I broke my collarbone. Beside the pac-man and combat that came with it, we got video olympics, q-bert, atlantis, and riddle of the sphinx. The first game I bought with my own money was Jr Pac-Man (still one of my favorite games).

[NE146]

I bought my Video-Arcade model at a grungy looking electronics dept. in the basement at a Sears in the 70's... it came with Air Sea Battle. And the game I bought along with it was the brand new release: SPACE INVADERS!

 

Being a highly addicted-to-the-arcade-game-10-year-old, Space Invaders was the only reason I wanted an "Atari".

[smf_4ever]

I think the first game I bought myself (after saving for weeks of allowance) was Pac-man new.. with that really ugly tan t-shirt you got for free with it.

[+Cafeman]

I got the 2600 after it had been out for a few years, so I actually missed the earlier games like Asteroids, Space Invaders, and even Adventure. I think the first game I bought for the system (well, parents bought it) was Haunted House. Either that or Defender. Whichever one was released the earliest of these two, that's the first I bought.

[jahfish]

the first game i bought from my own money was the ghost manor/ spike's peak doubleender.

 

i was so proud, hehe ...

 

and i've played it so many times until the end ...

[ATARIPITBULL]

When my mom bought me my first system, which came with combat of course, she bought me two games, They were Raiders of the lost Ark, and Adventure.

[Nateo]

My Atari 2600 came with Asteroids, but other than that, I ordered Joust, Donkey Kong Jr., Space Invaders, Berzerk, and there was one more, but I can't remember what it was.

[khryssun]

I think the first one I bought with my own money was Pac man

[StanJr]

Frogger and Donkey Kong

[AtariDude]

I don't remember the first game that I bought (As a kid I don't think I ever did since I didn't have that kind of money) but I do remember the first game that I ever received.

 

I had an Atari 2600 system that my parents had purchased for myself and my sister (but I was the one that used it most) and often I would borrow games from some of my other friends who had the Atari 2600. I remember Christmas time and receiving different kinds of gifts but none that really excited me too much. I was beginning to feel like I was not going to get anything fun to play with until my parents pulled out a small book size package.

 

I opened it up and inside was Activision's Tennis. Immediately I ran to my Atari 2600 system and started playing with it and did not stop for hours.

 

I played that game a lot and I hope to have it back in my collection someday. Now if only some local goodwill shops here locally would carry some Atari stuff

[MikeMika]

It was the Christmas a year or two after Atari VCS's debut, and I had NO CLUE what an Atari was. I was probably six years old, and I was still playing our Sears PONG game on a small black and white TV that served as the portal to the world of PONG and a transmission device for the Professor on Gilligan's Island to send an episode a day to my retinas. I opened a rather large gift and observed the weird packaging, then my father took over with a kind of zeal I had only witnessed on a few other occasions, such as when he purchased the new family Pinto station wagon. I remember my Mom telling him that the gift was "for the boys, not him." regardless, when he got it hooked up, I couldn't help but notice it shared the same cool woodgrain panelling that we had on our family wagon. But what was it? Well, along with the Atari came Combat, a given, and one other cool game I immediately recognized as the game I played at the drive-in that stood next to Carnival. It was Space Invaders. When that switch went up, it was like Han Solo making a failed attempt into hyperspace. Nothing happened. Aha! It was because we were on the wrong channel. The second time, BAM! Space Invaders, and it was in COLOR (We hooked it up to the family room Zenith, the "top of the line", with nice clicking knobs and a fine tuner wheel set behind the UHF dial). Of course, I could "emulate" what it was like to play on my dingy Gilligan box by switching the Color/BW switch.

 

So to make a long story longer, it was Space Invaders, and thanks guys for letting me relive a memory for a bit.

 

Best,

Mike

[DEBRO]

My birthday is in November and I begged my parents for a VCS. They agreed to get me one for Christmas which was soooo cool. So for my birthday I got Missile Command, Asteroids, and I used my birthday money gifts to buy Space Invaders. I would sit and hold the boxes, reading the instructions over and over again just waiting for Christmas.

 

You know this was the same thing that happened when I got my Atari 600XL. It was promised to me for Christmas so for my birthday I got an Atari Program Recorder.

[Ze_ro]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tempest:

Why would I want to go out and play Joust on the 2600 when I had a better version for the 400?

---

 

I've always felt that the 2600 version of Joust took a lot of heat that it didn't really deserve. Now, that's not to say that the 400 version wasn't better (I haven't played it, but since the 400 is more powerful...), but I think it was actually done quite well on the 2600 considering it's limitations (I'm surprised they did it at all really)

 

--Zero

[ROCKINGROLL]

The first game I bought with my own money was Fishing Derby just about 20 years ago. I actually hated the game back then so I exchanged it for Space Invaders!

[Inky]

saved my money from my paper route to purchase Missle Command. It was the first time I was introduced to the concept of "sales tax".

[Devo]

Back in 1983 i think. I was 10 years old. I didn't even have the 2600 yet but it was December and I knew id be recieving it for Christmas off my mum. We were down the basement of Grace Brothers in Sydney and I remember the only titles they had that were affordable were The Parker Brothers ones which were better than the Atari originals anyway because they were versions of the games at the arcade. So I bought Super Cobra.

 

 

When we got home my mum saw the anticipation in me so she gave me the atari there and then. It came with space invaders. I was hooked and the only problem then was sleep and school. Good thing that all my mates were hooked on it too. We all had ataris and we swapped the games.

 

This site is magic guys. Keep it up...

[VectorGamer]

Space Invaders: it was the reason we bought the VCS in the first place

[Gabriel]

I guess somebody's got to necro these threads. They aren't going to rise up all zombie-like on their own.

 

Assuming the original thread was about games actually purchased as opposed to received as gifts, the first video game I ever purchased on my own was Night Driver. It was $24.95, and was the absolute cheapest 2600 game available at the time. I have to admit that I was extremely disappointed with my purchase, and felt like I hadn't gotten much of anything for my money.