Have YOU played Atari today?

[Blademaster]

I ask this because I, my friends, have played Atari today. I recently got ripped off on bought a vintage, mint-condition Atari 2600 straight from the company, and it just today arrived in the mail.

Upon opening my new toy, I discovered it came with two paddle controllers, two joystick controllers, the complete system with adapter, and a library of 30 - count 'em, THIRTY - classic Atari game cartridges, with games ranging from such classics as Space Invaders to ever-popular series' like Pac-Man to bizarre and off-the-wall games like Demons to Diamonds.

Well, what can I say? It's Atari. It's classic. It's hard as a bitch to hook up to a Sony flatscreen. And overall, it's just plain awesome.

I've already tried out 8 of my favorite classic games on the system, and while each game only lasted a few minutes or so before I wanted to try a new one, they all kicked ass. Super Breakout was a bit of a letdown since the controller didn't work for it for some reason... Maybe I needed the paddle controller for that game...

Anyway, I digress. The system rules, the games are great, and yadayadayada.

Now, why make a topic about this? Well, quite simply, TPM came into the world a bit too late after Atari left, much like I did. So, I'm curious...

Who here in TPM has been a gamer since the very beginning, when Atari and Intelivision were to the world what Wi-Fi and the Wii are to it now? Has anyone else ever enjoyed classic Atari? Or maybe suffered it, as was the case of the infamous Atari 5200 and the surprisingly abundant numbers of X-rated Atari games?

Share your stories and thoughts!

[PNT510]

The first system I had in my house was an NES so I didn't get to play Atari games in it's heyday. Although thanks to Gametap I've been able to try out a good number of games from that era, including Intelivision, C64, and SG-2000

[AdventureSerum]

I have a working Atari! My friend found it plus about thirty games at a garage sale for about $15! It was awesome! It worked well for a while, but now the single red button STOPPED WORKING! You have to help me, what should I do?!

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

The first console I owned was the Atari 2600. It was loads of fun back then, times I wouldn't want to miss. The system is still working today but to be quite honest, none of the games except good old Pac Man now and then can still lure me to play it once every blue moon. In my opinion it doesn't have any real classics like the NES or SNES which are all time greats. I'm just not up for playing games for a "high score" anymore.

[Master Rudy]

Good lord Blade.....you just brought back horrible memories of E.T.
You son of a bitch......

[Blademaster]

Does that mean you actually played that atrocity masquerading as a game?

YOU PHAIL AT GAMING. :no:

XD

[Phoenixsong]

My mom had an Atari-something-or-other (don't remember) back when I was just a wee girl. The small number of games we had were fun (except for the drag racing game, which despite allegedly being "fancy" and "new" with "full color" NEVER WORKED...). Matter of fact, I was just thinking earlier today about how my favorite game was Combat (that one where you and a friend shoot each other's tanks out). Ah, memories.

...I was pretty good at blowing up my mom's tank for a three year-old XD

[PNT510]

I think what I love most about the Atari was how easy it was to name games. Got a game about fighting it's just call combat, an adventure game is just called adventure, and football was just football.