What's your memories of the Atari 2600?

[CoteRangers]

So, I was roaming through the Internet, and I have seen some people who grew up with an Atari 2600 at a young age. Personally, I was born in 1996 (which was years after the Atari 2600 became obsolete for the time), so I don't have any childhood memories of the system. But I do own an Atari 2600 and did enjoy some of the games that it held (considering of how I'm a video game collector). But if you did grew up with an Atari 2600, I'm curious; what was your memory of the system? How did the video game crash of 1983 affected you?

[treismac]

I was born in '78 and my first system was the Atari 2600. I remember thinking Atari was absolutely amazing. Being cognizant that different companies made different games, I realized that Atari's label was on the lion's share of my favorite games. Activision, Imagic, and, to a lesser extent, Nintendo also garnered my attention and respect.

Fighting the TV Switch Box to give me a good picture was a bitch.

How did the video game crash of 1983 affected you?

As a young child I had no idea whatsoever of any video game crash, and for the record I thought E.T. sucked on the 2600, but Pac-Man was somewhere between good to meh until the Commodore 64's version rolled out a few years later. When the NES came out I thought "Wow. That looks better than my Commodore 64" rather than "Hosanna! The video game industry is saved!"

[Tanooki]

Old enough to own one very young, but didn't, had the test launch NES in 1985. Had a friend or two with one. I found most of the arcade conversions not that fun, but I did like some of the oddball titles, also the Nintendo DK and MB conversions weren't too bad. I remember for some reason liking gremlins, but even in that era I thought it all looked and sounded terrible vs arcade machines.

[ProjectCamaro]

I was born in '83 so I didn't own or play one when they were new.

But my grandparents had one at their house in the basement hooked up to a very old 13" TV and they had a ton of games that they had purchased at garage sales very cheaply. I remember my older brothers and myself playing it when we would visit. While the games couldn't hold a light to our Sega Genesis we still had a blast and I remember always loving H.E.R.O.

[A.C. Sativa]

I never played a 2600 until about 1989 or so (I was born in 82) and already having an NES by that point I thought the 2600 was complete crap. And to be honest my opinion hasn't really changed. I can understand the love from people that had one when they were a huge thing, but there's a fine line between retro and totally antiquated, and to me the 2600 is far over that line.

[tom]

Ah nice memories, 1984, my mother died, I inherited a huge lump of $$$s.
First stop my local toyshop, purchased a Vader (pack-in Phoenix) and Enduro, Ms.Pac-Man and Super Cobra.
Of course, there was no crash in Europe as it happened in USA, and games and consoles were still expensive, so that lot was approx. $1500 in 84s monies.
From then on daily trips to toyshops, computer shops, radio shops or any other place selling VCS games and buying VCS games by the bucket load.
I remember using my lunch break (1/2 hour) racing to town (10 min) parking the car (sometimes in a no-parking zone), run to the shop buying the game, and back to the car (10 min), racing back to work (10 min). Sometimes a parking ticket was stuck on the windshield, how did they do that? Hanging around just for me to arrive? I never figured that one out. Fun times.

[Gamevet]

Old enough to own one very young, but didn't, had the test launch NES in 1985. Had a friend or two with one. I found most of the arcade conversions not that fun, but I did like some of the oddball titles, also the Nintendo DK and MB conversions weren't too bad. I remember for some reason liking gremlins, but even in that era I thought it all looked and sounded terrible vs arcade machines.

I've seen too many people claim that they have a test launch NES. If you lived in NY in 1985, it's very possible that you have one. If you did, it would be worth a lot of money.

http://www.sodahead.com/entertainmen...ibaf&q=&esrc=s

I think most of you don't realize what is on sale here. This is not "a N.E.S" ,
- This version of the Deluxe Set is the first product ever distributed by Nintendo of America to American retailers. Nintendo's test market originally consisted of 100,000 copies of the Deluxe Set distributed in specific New York retailers who agreed to tryout their products, all with a return guarantee in case it doesn't catch up like expected. The first wave went well, so later in early 1986 Nintendo of America expanded their test market to the areas of Los Angeles, and thereafter the Nintendo Entertainment System was offered in 12 of the most important centers in United States. It is believed that no more than 350,000-400,000 of these initial Deluxe Set packages were distributed before the official nationwide launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

[treismac]

I've seen too many people claim that they have a test launch NES. If you lived in NY in 1985, it's very possible that you have one. If you did, it would be worth a lot of money.

http://www.sodahead.com/entertainmen...ibaf&q=&esrc=s

Other than a low serial number on the bottom of the system, are there any differences between a test launch system and a later released one?

[Gamevet]

Other than a low serial number on the bottom of the system, are there any differences between a test launch system and a later released one?

Maybe the box it came in.

I just see a lot of people believing that they had the system at launch, when most of the country didn't even see the console until 1987. I lived in Phoenix from 1986-1989 and I didn't see the console until early 1987, and it was being displayed with Rob the Robot and Duck Hunt as the pack-in.

[GamerTheGreek]

You could make any cx40 joystick a lefty if you cross 2 or 3 wires in the original controllers. I think orange and brown. Or green and brown