Did anyone here grow up with the Atari 2600?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Man, I love that sexy Atari beast... There's something about its games, graphics, sound effects and overall experience that's just hypnotic, almost as if it wielded simplicity as a weapon.

Very few games can make me so happy with so little and that's to its complete merit.

But its reign was over way before my time, so I never even knew anyone who owned it (at least not before it became a "retro item", a sort of "holy grail" commanding outrageous prices and heavily sought-after by collectors).

So, please tell me... Were you one of the lucky ones who grew up pushing that red button and steering that arcade-y joystick around? Or maybe you picked one up later in life? I want to hear about that, too.

 

[JustLooking123]

Yup! Me!
It was the first console i played as a kid (i guess i was like 3?)
But still clearly remember it!
I especially loved M*A*S*H and the part where we should take out the bullet out of injured person and save their life!

The other game that i remember was River Raid!

Playing it as long as possible, aiming for record!

There were a lot of games... and later i played most of Atari 2600 games through emulation again!
But just these two remained in my memory from my childhood!

 

[Dr.Kisaragi Dr.Kisaragi]

Well I didn't grew up on Atari console but I did play Atari games on clone Atari console so I experience games like

Breakout
Dig Dug
Space Invaders
Defender
Adventure

It maybe few I love this games my favorite is Breakout.

 

[TinRattler]

I sure did I loved Pitfall and River Raid

 

[Zerpina]

I want to say I was about 12, maybe 11, going to turn 12 soon. Not the point....

I remember my brother bringing one of these junkers home, with centipede and I don’t remember if he bought Space Invaders or not. I think, if I recall right, he said he gave a guy 5 bucks for it the controllers and the two games.

Keep in mind, this was before the NES came into my life.
Remember we were a fairly poor family when I was a kid, but that's not the point.
I know my brother played it all for about 5 times before he just let me have it. He told me years later he bought it so I could play with it. My brother's always been awesome like that.

But I digress. Those were the only two games I ever had on it, but I kind of technically grew up with it.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Eww! Old people alert! ;D!

I love all those memories you are sharing, guys. That M*A*S*H game looks extremely ambitious for the time.

 

[Isegrim]

Yep.

I remember when the draw of the 2600 was being able to switch the games on the fly just by buying a new cartridge. This was novel since there were a lot of dedicated consoles that only had one game on it and it was usually pong or labelled TV Tennis. (We had a Pong console before getting the Atari 2600)
It was also novel because there were arcade games with Sprint 2, Night Driver and Stunt Cycle in the local pizza parlor (Shakey's) and as kids, we were very excited when we ate out for pizza...but they were in B&W.

Arcade No color Night Driver. The car in front was a screen sticker in the original if I remember correctly.

Has color, trees, cars and houses that remind me strangely of Pizza Hut

On the Atari 2600, equivalent games came out but in color. This was in the early days of the 2600. Eventually, the arcade games grew in complexity until they completely outshined the 2600 ports like Donkey Kong and Pac man.

My favorite games were Superman and Adventure. Superman because we had been collecting Silver Age Superman comics and watching New Adventures of Superman by Filmation when we were very young and Adventure due to our growing interest in fantasy thanks to Dungeons and Dragons as well as getting into Tolkien.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I didn’t , but I binged some games recently and this is my favorite thus far , was quite addicting

 

[RageBurner]

I have vague memories of it... I was very very young (before you ask, I don't age, I get awesomer over time), but I remember enjoying H.E.R.O, Keystone Kapers (doing the K thing before Mortal Kombat!), River Raid and Pitfall a fair bit, maybe another game or two.

The Atari had the (dubious) distinction of having the vast majority of its games either being A) Too ambitious for the system to actually realize or B) Incredibly simplistic and samey.

 

[skramz]

my birth year does not start with 1

 

[Zacek]

Born in 1979, so yes, I loved my console. I fondly remember that action game, where you have to rescue some POW or something like that, and you have a jetpack and a laser eye beam!

 

[EWolter]

Born in 1979, so yes, I loved my console. I fondly remember that action game, where you have to rescue some POW or something like that, and you have a jetpack and a laser eye beam!

H.E.R.O. Legendary game.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

The mighty 2600 was actually my 3rd system.

I had the Telstar (1977) and

The Fairchild Channel F (1976) first.

Christ, I am old...

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

View attachment 142277
The mighty 2600 was actually my 3rd system.

View attachment 142273
I had the Telstar (1977) and

View attachment 142274
The Fairchild Channel F (1976) first.

View attachment 142278 Christ, I am old...

 

[Badseed Badseed]

 

[pHOENIX5687]

I came to existence in 1956....I have extremely fond memories of the Atari 2600. My wife and I played marathon sessions with Atlantis, a shooter game by Imagic...yes marathon, we got so good at it we were getting scores in the multi-millions. So it was a very fresh and vitalizing technology for us. Back then we had the huge square crts, vcrs, and no mobile phones. Ahhh!! how ever did we make it? Today I am still an avid gamer; emulation or otherwise. Currently playing Diabo Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edtion. Quite a quantum leap of technology! Nice post topic!

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

Can't say I have. I did eventually end up owning one back in the mid nineties when shopping at a garage sale- but I didn't have any games to play on it lol. I do appreciate Atari 2600 machine though.

 

[calebthegnome]

My family got one when I was ~4, but I don't remember it. My older siblings didn't like it, and so my parents took it back and got the NES action bundle, and that's what I remember playing growing up (until my older brother got a Sega Genesis). I had some exposure to it later, but didn't really sit down with many of these games until getting a Gamestation Go recently. I had never heard of Circus Atari before but it's surprisingly addictive with an actual spinner control.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

The 2600 was my very first console. I was of the age where Sesame Street Cookie Monster Munch was one of the games my parents thought I would enjoy. But I do remember playing it and enjoying it lol. I think a year later my parents got me Defender 2 which I also enjoyed. But I recall it being kind of scary and intense for me.
There was something always a little eerie and almost haunting about playing games on that system. I think it was the lack of music in most games and perhaps the simple graphics that sometimes had a very abstract look and sound to them, which barely resembled what they were attempting to convey.

One thing I strongly remember, even though it was my first console and I didn't really have anything else to reference it to, I thought the joystick controls were generally terrible and always working against me. For those who never got to use it, that joystick was incredibly stiff. I would say half the difficulty in playing Defender 2 was trying to steer your ship around with that joystick.

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

I did too, and my brother and I played a lot to MotoRodeo and Road Runner!

 

[DanCalibur]

Around 2001, my mother was taking care of her sick brother, after cleaning his garage, she found an old black and white CRT and an Atari 2600. It must have been stored for more than 20 years but still working flawlessly. The CRT was a huge Colorado model with a wooden frame, I remember it taking two minutes for the old valves to warm up and the image to show, it was so heavy that it took two strong adults to bring it in my room and it had to stay on the ground cuz no furniture was strong enough. Me and my brother played a lot of Seaquest, Frankenstein's Monster, Freeway and Moon Patrol. The Atari was a model with non detachable controllers and connected to the tv using one of those antena flat cables. In the end I gave it to a cousin.

 

[NeonKnights]

Yes, but only as an unwilling downgrade from the NES back in the 80s.
It started with only the NES and eventually we had both an NES and a used Atari 5200. I remember
Winter Games was one of the better games we had for the 5200. A game I eschewed playing in favor of TMNT on NES. At some point the second NES was packed away or was sold idk which. Eventually we moved in with extended family who's only consoles were the 2600 and the 7800. Going from the NES to these 70s games felt like a hated downgrade at the time. I remember having dreams about playing the Gameboy I didn't yet own if that gives some idea of my childhood opinion of these consoles. There were a few 2600 and even fewer 7800 games I liked for these consoles. As that was the proportion of games I had access to. Most of these were arcade type games, though for someone who's first games were arcade games like Star Wars and Tron, they weren't anything to write home about. Joust was one of the better 2600 games I remember playing. Many of these weren't the well known titles but the shovelware of yesteryear. Now I know about many of the better games for these consoles. However I didn't have access to those at the time. No Adventure or Yars' Revenge. I did get to play E.T. though. I think this experience made the Sega Genesis we got a few years later even more mind blowing at that time. Now the only Atari consoles I own are a 2600 Jr. and the 5200 I got for free. I can appreciate them a lot more as well.

 

[PhaseJump]

I only cared about this thing, which I still have nearby, desperately needing to be opened up and repaired.