2600 - It Doesn't Get Older, It Gets Better

[IntvGene]

Interestingly enough, you may be surprised to see these words on the bottom of a 1989 Atari catalog. Surely, these words still ring true today.. 15 years later. And, while I still love the Intellivision and Colecovision, I think that the king of old consoles is still the same king that it was in the early 80's.

Now, Atari is long dead... and I don't care what you call Infogrames right now, but it sure as hell isn't Atari.. at least to me. But, there's no way that they intended the 2600 to be this popular, this long. And now, instead of having the bumbling Atari corporation handling things, we have homebrews and hacks instead of "professional programmers". I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but as it stands today compared to 1989, Is the good ol' VCS better off, or worse? How about compared 1982? Any comments?

[oesiii]

Along with the Vectrex, I think the 2600 homebrew scene is amazing considering the hardware they are working with. So I think we are better off these days, 90% of all the games are under $5 or even less at thrifts and fleas, the homebrews and hacks are coming out at a steady rate, and most of them that make it to production are quality.

And if you're a collector there's a huge library of games, hardware, and accessories that's bested in size by very few other consoles like the NES.

I think the scene will only get better this year with some new hardware coming out like the Cuttle Cart 2 :D

[Oobgarm]

To be honest, I think that it's better off now than in the circa-1982 era. I don't lay any claim to expertise in the 2600 field, but I can tell that the homebrew and hack programmers of this day and age are more into the hobby. They have a genuine passion for it, and I think that's key. It's a stark conrast to the me-too, money grubbing industry before the great crash.

[bensenvill]

that and its american.

but about how well its endured, look at how those 10int1 joysticks have been selling. I mean in one way or another, they have never left the store shelves (also didnt radio shack start selling the original carts a handful of years ago).

~Tj

[Half Japanese]

As a retail wage-slave, I can attest that the Atari joysticks have been selling fairly well....but have nowhere NEAR the demand for the Namco ones (mainly due to Pac Man).

[Flack]

I think it's better now just because you can find games for a buck or two instead of paying $30 for Air-Sea Battle.

[ubikuberalles]

To be honest, I think that it's better off now than in the circa-1982 era. I don't lay any claim to expertise in the 2600 field, but I can tell that the homebrew and hack programmers of this day and age are more into the hobby. They have a genuine passion for it, and I think that's key. It's a stark conrast to the me-too, money grubbing industry before the great crash.

I aggree completely. I am constantly amazed at the things the homebrew and hack programmers have done with the 2600. I didn't think they could do some of that stuff on a 2600. Portable VCS? Cool stuff. I even have a VCS emulator on my PDA! It's the homebrews and the hacks that have kept my interest in the VCS strong.

[Ze_ro]

Ah, I love 2600 games... simplicity is something that is overlooked these days, and it's nice to have games with simple objectives and easy to learn controls (Yeah, yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Space Shuttle are complicated, but whatever), and no extra distractions like fatalities or side-quests. Personally, I think ALL systems just get better with age.

--Zero