Rocker67

I don't remember which game it was but I had to have a 2600 after playing it at my friend's house. I got it in 1981 or 82.
That one TV in the house was definitely real back then 😆 Luckily for me, my parents didn't watch TV. I didn't have equipment conflict with them until several years later when I got into BBS and would tie up the home phone line.
 
I always wondered why people would buy those black boxes with the boring looking cartridges, but that makes total sense -- if you're a Sears shopper, you bought your games there. I'm also about the colorful packaging, and it was the reason why I got into collecting 2600 games. And now, it seems like a lot of the Sears games are all the rage for serious collectors.
 

One other memory just happened last year. A coworker knew I collected Atari stuff and said he inherited a storage space. Inside he found an old Sears TeleGames Light Sixer System. It was just the console only, so he brought it to me and I took it home. After a major cleaning and I mean a major cleaning, replacing the video cable that was falling apart, and checking the board carefully, I plugged it in, put in Video Pinball and turned it on. I played Video Pinball for a while after that. I ended up buying it from him and it is now part of my collection. It just showed me how hardy these systems were back then. I would put my money on any newer system being in that condition and never working again. These older systems were built like tanks.

I know I have covered this with some feedback to Ferg on the 2600 Game By Game Podcast, but here are my memories.
My first memories of Atari is the Super Pong console my parents had. My dad would bring it out and we would play it for a while, then he would disconnect it so it would not stay on by accident and cause burn in on the tv.
Later on I went to a friends house and he showed us Space Invaders and I was hooked and had to have that game myself. On my birthday in 1981 I received the 2600. I think I finally pinpointed the date as I remember the games I received for that Christmas were 81 releases. I got Space Invaders, Air-Sea Battle, and of course Combat with the system. Then a few months later for Christmas I got Asteroids, Missile Command, and Video Pinball. The one thing I do remember was the frustration on waiting for a time to play as we only had one TV and my parents loved watching it, so I had to wait, sometimes days and maybe a few weeks, before I could play again.
One funny story was how we found out that Atari and Sears Tele-Games were the same games but with different names. One day, my dad and me were playing Air-Sea Battle and he said hold on, I have a surprise for you. He came back in the room with Target Fun. We plugged it in and found out it was the exact game we were just playing just a different name. Luckily we were able to return games back then without question and was able to get something else. Think that was how I ended up with either Human Cannonball or Sky Diver from a different store after that being afraid the same thing would happen at Sears again.

Looks like Howard Scott Warshaw e-published a new book on Amazon yesterday -- Once Upon Atari: How I made history by killing an industry. It looks to be only available on Amazon (paperback out in two more days). Another book that I really want to read! My life is a backlog.
paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0986218669/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG9XSWZ/

Lots to ponder here. 
Ever wonder why the C64 outsold the Atari 8-bits? It becomes obvious why Atari had to redesign the 400/800 to be simpler (and less expensive to produce).  This is why the XL line was born.  A single board version of the computer with a more elegant look than the C64. You buying a Colecovision with Donkey Kong or an Atari 5200 with Super Breakout for $50 more?  

If you're interested in getting patches for Activision games that did not have patches, there are two people selling them. Links are below. I've ordered most of the patches offered in the second link. The Bridge patch was posted today, and I ordered it as well.
Bridge patch - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/313221-fs-new-activision-bridge-embroidered-patch/
Multiple patches - https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308314-new-activision-patches-jaguar-imagic-lynx-14-patches-total/

That is a fantastic collection and setup! 👍 ❤️
I also prefer CIB copies but because of crazy prices, I've decided to buy loose copies of HERO and Cosmic Commuter to complete my NTSC 2600 Activision collection. With the savings of foregoing boxed copies 🙂 I ordered a cartridge holder for HERO. I will follow up with him to have one made for Cosmic Commuter next year.

Impressive! I have almost 300 games for my A2600 alone, but not so many CIB collections. Most are cartridge only. I would love to get more games with the original boxes and instructions complete. Thanks for sharing. :O)

Thanks a lot for the trouble........
Too bad I had already voted so I do not have that problem now.
Actually, I have never played the arcade version of Reactor, or even seen it. In fact, I never knew it was an actual arcade conversion till years later. I just loved playing it and always enjoyed playing it for hours.

I would have had trouble voting here if Reactor or Venture had been on the list as they were some of my favorite games to play. I did have to vote for Berzerk as I loved playing this one the most out of the list shown.

I will agree about it being a bad port to the 2600. Wafers instead of dots, vitamins instead of prizes, and the background choice. But the way I rank whether the game is a bad port is gameplay. Does Pac-Man play like the arcade? For the most part yes. Could it have been better? Yes, as Ms. Pac-Man proved a year later. But all in all, at the time, for the 2600, I considered this a good game and played it a lot because it was what we had at the time.
I look at this game and feel, like you said above, that this was a sign of the impending doom of Atari.  Some of the decisions that were made at Atari at this time were very questionable. Rushing games out before they are finished, only black backgrounds for space games because people would be confused with a black background on Pac-Man, and the holding back of the 7800 and using the 2600 sound chip in it to save money. What could have been if decisions had been made with consumer in mind instead of the bottom dollar savings.

I was thinking about trying this soon. When I was watching Ferg's Extra Life Marathon and he was having video conversion issues, everything was almost black and white and when he played Pac-Man, it seemed to be easier on the eyes.

Everyone seems to hate on Donkey Kong, but I think one game that is worse is Donkey Kong Jr. You cannot even straddle two vines as you climb.

Here is my game room tour. I have over 250 cib 2600 games, a nice little collection of 7800 games, and a nice collection of home brews with titles that interested me. I am not a completionist and do not want to own every game. I only get games that I want to play. I only have 42 games that are not in box, and I have manuals for a lot of them, but they are so expensive now that I hope to catch box only deals somewhere. I also have ps3 games and Nintendo games not pictured, but only a few and that is the part of the room still under construction.

The lights are for me to carry into the garage portion of the room. When we converted the garage, there was only one light fixture so we decided not to add a light into the other part.

The one you could not see is Mountain King.

The lights are for me to carry into the garage portion of the room. When we converted the garage, there was only one light fixture so we decided not to add a light into the other part.

The lights are for me to carry into the garage portion of the room. When we converted the garage, there was only one light fixture so we decided not to add a light into the other part.

Yes, those are FANTASTIC! Part of the reason this feels like an evolution of my current setup. I use the same sorts of things downstairs, though they're horizontally oriented rather than vertically. In the holes without consoles, I put drawers with controllers, cords, cleaning supplies for games, tools, etc. It works marvelously, and you should really get some.

Very nice set up and collection!  I like that idea of the "cube" shelves to hold systems and controllers.  I'll have to find something like that. 
I see those Harbor Freight LED lights -- I use those exact ones too!  It seems like it's harder to see as we age, am I right? 

Here is my game room tour. I have over 250 cib 2600 games, a nice little collection of 7800 games, and a nice collection of home brews with titles that interested me. I am not a completionist and do not want to own every game. I only get games that I want to play. I only have 42 games that are not in box, and I have manuals for a lot of them, but they are so expensive now that I hope to catch box only deals somewhere. I also have ps3 games and Nintendo games not pictured, but only a few and that is the part of the room still under construction.

I will agree about it being a bad port to the 2600. Wafers instead of dots, vitamins instead of prizes, and the background choice. But the way I rank whether the game is a bad port is gameplay. Does Pac-Man play like the arcade? For the most part yes. Could it have been better? Yes, as Ms. Pac-Man proved a year later. But all in all, at the time, for the 2600, I considered this a good game and played it a lot because it was what we had at the time.
I look at this game and feel, like you said above, that this was a sign of the impending doom of Atari.  Some of the decisions that were made at Atari at this time were very questionable. Rushing games out before they are finished, only black backgrounds for space games because people would be confused with a black background on Pac-Man, and the holding back of the 7800 and using the 2600 sound chip in it to save money. What could have been if decisions had been made with consumer in mind instead of the bottom dollar savings.

The one you could not see is Mountain King.

I will agree about it being a bad port to the 2600. Wafers instead of dots, vitamins instead of prizes, and the background choice. But the way I rank whether the game is a bad port is gameplay. Does Pac-Man play like the arcade? For the most part yes. Could it have been better? Yes, as Ms. Pac-Man proved a year later. But all in all, at the time, for the 2600, I considered this a good game and played it a lot because it was what we had at the time.
I look at this game and feel, like you said above, that this was a sign of the impending doom of Atari.  Some of the decisions that were made at Atari at this time were very questionable. Rushing games out before they are finished, only black backgrounds for space games because people would be confused with a black background on Pac-Man, and the holding back of the 7800 and using the 2600 sound chip in it to save money. What could have been if decisions had been made with consumer in mind instead of the bottom dollar savings.

Here is my game room tour. I have over 250 cib 2600 games, a nice little collection of 7800 games, and a nice collection of home brews with titles that interested me. I am not a completionist and do not want to own every game. I only get games that I want to play. I only have 42 games that are not in box, and I have manuals for a lot of them, but they are so expensive now that I hope to catch box only deals somewhere. I also have ps3 games and Nintendo games not pictured, but only a few and that is the part of the room still under construction.