Was there a game...

[ClassicBoy]

Way back when, was there a game that you bought the Atari 2600 specifically to play?

 

Space Invaders was the game that really made me take notice of the 2600. An actual arcade game at home!!

 

However, it was Asteroids that made me decide that I needed a 2600 even if I needed to sell my Grandma. I had a paper route and had saved enough money for a game but not the system. I bought a copy of Asteroids and then waited until I could afford the actual system. It was kind of a goofy move looking back...I just wanted to make sure I had Asteroids when I could afford the whole system. Otherwise, my Dad (as Dad's are known to do) might have said, "Look it comes with a tank game. That's enough for now." Several weeks later I was finally able to put my then useless Asteroids cartridge to work when I finally had enough $$$ to pick up a system.

 

Ahh, good times.

 

How about you?

[Lord Helmet]

I played the crap out of space invaders at a friends house until I could get my own Atari. My brother and I saved allowances all summer to get one of our own. I REALLY wanted Defender! I had no idea that the game would play nothing like the arcade game.

 

I remember finally getting to go buy the system with my brother and my mom. When we got there, I asked the salesperson for a Defender cart to go with my shiny new Atari (and Combat cart). The guy behind the counter told me that my dad had just been by to get Defender for me! He had also left enough cash to get 5 more games! I remember getting Berzerk (the guy working there told me it was the newest game) and also Demons to Diamonds, Adventure, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. My dad was so cool!

[+Random Terrain]

I wanted an Atari 2600 for years, but it took a Woolco charge card, my birthday coming up, and the soon-to-be-released Pac-Man to create enough fire under my mother and step-father to get it. Had the Atari 2600 for about a week before the Woolco in our area received our pre-ordered game. What a disappointment Pac-Man was. At least we got other games over time that didn't suck as much.

[NE146]

Of course. I told the story many a time... but it's Space Invaders.

 

Being all of 8 or 9, I was obsessed with the arcade Space Invaders (as I am to this day ). I had heard playground rumors of a miniature Space Invaders you could take home. I went all over the place for months.. maybe a year looking for any Space Invaders for the home. The only thing I could find at first was an EM version of the game.. This hardly satisfied and was NOT what I was expecting...

 

 

Then of course later the Bandai electronic versions such as Missile Invader came out (then later Super Missile Invader). These still sucked.

 

Then I traveled to the states on our annual vacation and thought that I would surely find a Space Invaders for the home there. Sure enough in Sears we asked in the Stereo department "Do you sell Space Invaders?" and the guy led us to the 2600 display where these kids were all playing it on a tv. The salesman pushed them aside (since I was obviously with my paying mom) and made me try it out. It wasn't perfect.. (even my 9 year old mind could tell it pretty far from the arcade version I knew) but you know what.. it was so much closer than anything I had seen to date, and it was exciting too! We bought the Telegames that day and I spent the next 2 weeks waiting to get home and take it off the plane to play it. That's about it.

 

Oh.. I also bought Entex Space Invader that trip as well. I still believe it is the best handheld version of Space Invaders from that time

[Red 5]

Great story.

 

My mother would drag me along shopping with her for groceries.

Hated it until the Walbaum's foodmart got a Space Invaders.

Once that happened, I begged my mom to take me shopping with her.

First video game I ever played.

The rest is history.

[yuppicide]

My Dad actually bought the system for $199 when it first came out. So, I had no chance to want to buy it because of something. We already had it soon as it came out.

 

My Uncle actually worked for Atari in some way, so he got a lot of games free. I remember he had the most games out of everyone I knew. If I was a thief/dick I'd have loved to steal his games. He actually wasn't my Uncle, so that makes a little better, lol. My Aunt was dating his Brother for the longest time.. so he kind of was like family.

 

I remember him having a ton of games upstairs.. they had like a party-type room where everyone would smoke pot. I do remember he had Gopher from US Games before it came out on the market.

[yuppicide]

My Dad actually bought the system for $199 when it first came out. So, I had no chance to want to buy it because of something. We already had it soon as it came out.

 

My Uncle actually worked for Atari in some way, so he got a lot of games free. I remember he had the most games out of everyone I knew. If I was a thief/dick I'd have loved to steal his games. He actually wasn't my Uncle, so that makes a little better, lol. My Aunt was dating his Brother for the longest time.. so he kind of was like family.

 

I remember him having a ton of games upstairs.. they had like a party-type room where everyone would smoke pot. I do remember he had Gopher from US Games before it came out on the market.

[yuppicide]

Sorry for double post.. AtariAge wasn't responding, so I clicked again and it posted twice.

[Room 34]

Sadly, it was Pac-Man for us. But I had never heard of Atari (and never played Pac-Man... I was only 7 and my parents wouldn't let me go into the arcade at the mall), so I was delighted with it. (Plus, we also got 6 other games the same day... one of which was Asteroids, which definitely got the most attention overall.)

[Room 34]

In case you were wondering (I know you were... and I still remember that evening vividly), the other games were:

 

Combat (of course)

Home Run (I loved it!)

Bowling (WIT-WIT-WIT-WIT-WIT-WIT-WEEOO!)

Breakout (had to have something for the paddles!)

 

OK, I guess it was just 6 games total.

[Big Player]

Space Invaders is the game that made me want the VCS. Ironically, I never got the cartridge until 1986 or so when my cousins got rid of their VCS. The ony games they had that I wanted were Space Invaders and Pole Position.

 

I was unimpressed with the VCS when it came out in 1977. I didn't think the early games were worth the price. When the Space Invaders cart came out in 1980, I had to have the system. But I didn't get a VCS until Christmas 1981 and by that time I was sick of Space Invaders.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Asteroids!

 

I saw the 2600 for the first time at the Berlin "Funkausstellung" in 1980 and spend most of my time trying to play Asteroids. It was love at first sight.

[chubsta]

pacman

 

sure, now everyone says how rubbish it is, but back in 1980, there was nothing close to it!

 

i had played games since the first pongs came out here in the UK, and each new advance in the technology had an impact, but to be able to run around those mazes......

 

this was the first game to ever give me a blister. i understand now (especially as we have all those analogue joypads) that a gentle touch on the joystick has the same effect, but there was a primevil part of me that JUST KNEW that if i pulled the joystick harder then pacman would go faster! the same part that knew that if i threw the joystick against the wall that it would learn a lesson and help me out next game - this was extended to throwing a computer (poor old spectrum, i hardly knew thee) if the game used keyboard controls.

it was a technique that i would use to great effect in so many games at that time.....

[foxglove9]

I also received it as a Xmas gift when it first came out, but my favorite childhood game was always PacMan. I was excited to get that game, then very angry at how different it was from the arcade. It was I think the only 2600 game I owned that I hated with a passion..but I got over it, especially after playing Ms PacMan several years later which was very good.

[joeybastard]

I wanted it for Indy 500, Maze Craze and SI. Before I got the VCS, I played those constantly at my friend's house downb the street.

 

BTW, I had the Entex SI too. I loved it back in the day.

[Lord Helmet]

Yea, I had the Entex SI too. Played the crap out of it in the car. Also had the Coleco tabletop PacMan. That thing is loud and anoying to listen to, but it sure was cool to play.

[The MilkMan]

I got my 2600 for Christams in '78. And I don't remember wanting any one title. (I got Basketball with mine) But I do remember the time I couldn't wait for a certain game. My friend had Adventure. It simply kicked ass, I couldn't wait to have my own copy.

[n8littlefield]

Mine was Pacman as well. I realize that the original version isn't great, but when it's all you got, it seems awesome!

[Stingray]

Adventure. Still my number one favorite video game of all time.

 

-S

[+FujiSkunk]

I can't say that there was a single game that made me want an Atari. After getting to play a friend's Atari for a while (ironically, this friend was an adult, more a friend of my mother's), I just knew I wanted one, and as many games as I could get for it. Thus started my collector's days...

 

Video Pinball was the very first game I played on the 2600, so if there was any game that started the ball rolling (no pun intended), it was that one.