WOW!! Atari 2600!! I remember my brother and I wanting one of these when we were kids. This was before I understood the concept of money and checks. My parents would always say they couldn't afford one, to which my reply was, "Just write a check!!" :-) Yes, it's too bad that, "just writing a check", doesn't work unless you have money in the bank. Sometimes, I truly miss the innocence I had as a child. We begged and begged to get an Atari 2600. The next door neighbor kids had one, so of course we wanted one because it was so much fun. Finally, one Christmas, my parents somehow came up with the money to get us one. Oh the beauty of a joystick with that little red button. I'm all about those joysticks because the ones today have TOO many buttons for this old woman. One of the very first games we got for it was Pac-Man! I can only imagine how many hours were wasted on that game, but we were in heaven. You weren't cool unless you had an Atari 2600 and Pac-Man! I can remember playing that game not only with my folks, but also with my grandparents. Keep in mind, they were born in 1917 and 1918, so this was really something for them to see and play. They loved it, too! Even though I liked Pac-Man, I soon became obsessed with Frogger and Pit Fall. Now THOSE were my favorite games!! I always just wanted to get to the end of one of these games, but it never happened. My parents favorite game was Chopper Command. Remember that one with the helicopter that shot rectangular bullets? And the sound effects...how could we ever forget the sound effects. There was Breakout, then Super Breakout. You had to use the paddles with the circular knobs with the red button on the side (shown in above picture) to play this one. The world really started changing in the 1980's. We look back now and laugh at the graphics on the Atari 2600 games. Yes, they were pretty pathetic, but we thought it was the greatest invention of all time back in the day. Video games and consoles have come a long way, baby...but if I had to choose between an X-Box with Kinect and an Atari 2600 today, I'd have to go old school and choose the one with the joystick with the red button. If you're old enough to remember what an Atari 2600 is, what were some of your favorite games? Feel free to share some of your favorite memories. Have a great day!
2 comments:
Ahhh, the memories! We had the Atari before the 2600...it was a Pong home console. The only thing that it would play was Pong. That's the one I wish we still had, although I could go for a little Pitfall.
I don't think I ever played Pong. I've heard of it, but not really sure what it is. I don't think I even knew there was an Atari before the 2600. How did I not know about this?? My folks probably kept it hidden from us so we wouldn't be asking for it. haha!
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