Quick Thoughts on the Atari 2600 Posted: September 25, 2012

I am old enough to remember the Atari 2600.  I never owned one, but had some relatives and friends that did.  Although most of the games sucked, some were fun enough to keep my attention.  The games I played the most were Pitfall, Haunted House, Pac-Man, Red Baron, and Kaboom!.  There are other good games like Star Wars that I also played, I just didn't have as much regular access to them.  Come to think of it, when combining all the games that all my Atari-owning friends had, I actually played a lot of games for the 2600.

While I do reserve some fond memories of playing the 2600, the system itself sparks no passion from me.  I think it's ugly, rushed and under-utlized.  Even the games that were fun controlled like crap.  And, while what I'm about to write may be an unfair comparison, I thought the ColecoVision blew it out of the water, at least graphically.  

In the history of games, Atari 2600 does deserve respect, sort of like how single-cell organisms deserve credit for their role in the history of human evolution.  We might not be where we are today console-wise had the 2600 never existed...  maybe...

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• I kinda agree

  Posted: Sep 26, 2012 12:00AM PST by  RunningWithGuns
  

  I played the Atari 2600 back then and very few games have stuck with me. However, when Game Room happened a few years ago on Xbox Live, I tried out a few again. I figured out Pitfall finally and appreciate it now, and Yars Revenge is pretty fun actually. I rediscovered Stampede and really like playing it. It's my favorite Atari game. Night Driver is a game I liked way back and it's become prophetic since I drive at night for my job now.

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• Yeah

  Posted: Sep 26, 2012 12:00AM PST by  dilutedme
  

  We had a Coleco Vision with 5 carts and the Atari attachment with about 40 carts I played the hell out of that thing all the way up till 1990! Then my parents finally got me the NES Power Set and I've been a Nintendork ever since!

  

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• David

  Posted: Sep 26, 2012 12:00AM PST by  BrokenH
  

  I had an Atari system but it wasn't what made me a gamer. I could "enjoy" playing pacman,centipede,joust,space invaders,pit fall, and break out but it wasn't until Nintendo and SMB that the "addiction" part of that equation came into play. lol.

  Still, without Atari Nintendo probably wouldn't exist either. I sort of believe one gave birth to the other. (Metaphorically speaking)

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• I remember

  Posted: Oct 01, 2012 12:00AM PST by  kungfoomilkman
  

  playing some atari games when I was little. My brother got one for christmas one year and we played all the time. We played pitfall, centipied, and i think space invaders was the other game we had.