Your Atari "firsts" memories and experiences...

[Clint Thompson]

Figured this would be a fun topic and shed some light into the lives of everyone here and their background or experiences with Atari as a whole. Looking forward to hearing everyone's stories!

 

My first Atari 1040ST I lucked out and found at a local Goodwill for less than $20, which was in incredible deal!  Not only was it in really good condition, it also seemed to work flawlessly. Mind you, this was before the eBay and scalper or flipping days where people would buy things just to turn a profit immediately because they knew it was retro/vintage or what have you. I think I only owned the ST for a few years as I didn't have much software and this was before I had learned about LGT, which unfortunately now charges for all downloads. I want to say I remember the disks being downloadable for free at some point but maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. That was my first and last Atari ST and the plan is to get an 4MB STe sometime in the near future to fill that void.

 

Sometime in early 1999, I received my very first Atari Falcon, which I had always wanted since seeing them in the Toad Computers catalogs around the . At the time, I also had what I was finally happy with as a very fast PC as well - with an AMD K6-II 450Mhz and 64MB of RAM, WinTV card and eventually a 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 16MB AGP card. Anyways, back to the Falcon - it arrived COD and I had no experience with cash on delivery. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly cash on delivery as I would soon learn lol and they had to re-deliver the next day because only money orders were accepted. So due to my own ignorance, I had to delay it another day. Had that machine for several years and enjoyed the many demos and capabilities of the machine for what I could use before selling it off. It had a BlowUpFX and some other board installed which made it highly incompatible with a lot of the software I wanted to try, as it turned out.

 

To kind of extend on that story, later on I would end up with yet another Falcon which was also modded unfortunately, as it had a Centurbo II installed and something was wonky with the DSP as a result and I also re-sold this unit as it just had problems. I remember learning from that point on to make sure I would only get another Falcon if it wasn't modded. I would finally end up with a really nice unit sometime in 2001 or 2002, upgrading it myself with an FPU and maxed out the RAM to 14MB. Foolishly, I would sell it years later due to financial constraints and still regret having to had done so.

[Ballblaɀer]

The year was 1984, and I had just turned four years old a few weeks before Christmas.  It turned out that Santa Claus not only brought a 5200 for me that year, he hooked it up to the console TV in our living room overnight!  I later heard through the grapevine that Santa had bought the 5200 pretty close to Christmas, but didn't realize until he got it back to his workshop and opened it that the included pack-in game was Super Breakout and not Pac-Man.

 

OH NO.

 

Apparently I was a Pac-Man fiend even at that early age -- I think the neighborhood club where my parents often dated in the late 1970s had a Pac-Man cabinet, and they must have taken me there at times to play on it.  I definitely recall playing arcade Pac-Man at a very young age, but couldn't tell you where or when.  I certainly remember watching the Pac-Man cartoon on ABC when it aired in '82 - '83, and I *was* Pac-Man for Halloween one year, too.  I'd love to find a photo of that -- I was this enormous, bulky, yellow, homemade cardboard monstrosity -- but so far no luck...

 

Anyway, at the 11th hour, Santa and his helper were scrambling around trying to find a store and/or elf that still had Pac-Man in stock.  It came down to the wire, but long story short: I was a very happy kid on Christmas morning.  I can't recall what other games were under the tree that first year -- I'll have to dig out the old family photos to take a look.  For Christmases every year after that for the next 6-8 years, there would be at least a game or two under the tree.  I'd guess that I played Joust, River Raid, and Star Raiders more than any of the others over the years, but 5200 Pac-Man was the start of it all for me.  I never had another console in the house growing up, so video gaming at home was Atari 5200 or nothing until we saved up and bought our first computer (a Mac LC).

[greenween]

I'm going with my first 5200 moment also. 1984 as well. I loved my 2600, I spent the night at a friend's who had just got a 5200. Holy crap!! After playing Pac Man I spent every weekend at his house! I was 12 then, 30 years later I finally bought my own 5200 and have 25 cartridges for it, even bought some awesome end labels for them from a member of this forum! I don't care how great the graphics get, I will always go back to my Atari.

[greenween]

Dang though!!! The night my mom brought home the 2600, with Combat, Breakout, Space Invaders, and Night Driver!!!! That might be the greatest moment of my life!!

[Atari 5200 Guy]

My first Atari was the 5200 on its initial release. It was a gift for Christmas...but Santa left the system on Mom's coffee table. Between four and five in the morning I had to navigate, in the dark, past that table without waking anyone up, to reach the bathroom. I tripped over the cords to the 5200, fell to the floor, slung it and the controller under the TV. Yes, under...Mom's TV was an RCA that stood on four legs and have a full stereo built in the top under sliding wood panels. I didn't seem to hurt anything and spent the next three hours or so playing Super Breakout. Opening gifts later revealed Space Invaders, Galaxian, and I believe Missile Command. Great memories for sure.

Edited June 12, 2016 by kamakazi20012

[MaximumRD]

I knew this topic reminded me of an earlier post I made and I found it! I will paste it below as well as a link to it 
 
 
Posted 10 August 2015 - 02:24 AM

Yeah oddly, my first 2600 playing back in the day was on a friends console. Oh, I had many of my own loose cartridges but I spent more time looking at them in the little plastic storage case then actually playing them since I had to take them to my friends lol. The thing though, his mom was weird, very strict and on top of that like many adults back then believed having it running to long would end up wrecking the TV. But it was not only enough to simply turn off the system, no, you had to disconnect, wrap everything back up and store it back in the box, like I said, weird. So needless to say playing it usually took place after Gord's mom went to bed and of course we had to be quiet as well. But between my carts and his I still managed to play a lot despite the circumstances and it usually resulted in Gord falling asleep while I continued playing into the wee hours, some favorites were Cosmic Ark, of course Space Invaders and Breakout. It was not until some time later I got my own Vader model finally.
 
http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/12-my-atari-2600-wasnt-really-mine/?do=findComment&comment=5315

[Dan Iacovelli]

remember getting my 2600 for xmas in '77 (I got my first 2600 when it came out for xmas, got my 7800 for xmas when it was out,lynx the same way,the jag was the only exception wasn't for xmas,but brought from local atari store on first release in chicago)

there was one game I would beat everyone on that was flag capture

[Atari Creep]

After reading a few memories of receiving their consoles I quickly realized, I do not for the life of me remember how or when we got our VCS. Call it an Atari LACK of memory!

 

I only know it was a Sears Tele-Games heavy 6'r and one day it was there, what day that was, how or why I couldn't tell ya!! HAHAH 

[Sabertooth]

My sister just sent me some old photos she found. Here is me circa 1983 (age 6) with my beloved Atari 2600 clone, the Coleco Gemini. I cropped Chopper Command which was laying loose on the floor out of the photo. Other items of interest include "The Fall Guy" board game.

[StormSurge]

Love it!! I had those ESB sheets too!

 

My sister just sent me some old photos she found. Here is me circa 1983 (age 6) with my beloved Atari 2600 clone, the Coleco Gemini. I cropped Chopper Command which was laying loose on the floor out of the photo. Other items of interest include "The Fall Guy" board game.

[Karyyk]

I remember getting mine for Christmas in '86 (we got into gaming a bit late...my father was always worried we'd turn into cave dwellers if we ever started playing them). It was the "Fun is back for $50" 2600 Jr., along with Space Invaders (Battlezone and Chopper Command followed within a week, so I usually count those as my first games). For the life of me, I don't recall us having any pictures of it, although we still have an old reel-to-reel tape recording of the request, telling my family that I wanted a "BMX Bike and an Atari system." It was the 80's after all...

[Keatah]

Gosh I never thought to go through the "hundreds" of cassettes I still have of the old days. We used to leave a recorder running a lot of the times when playing video games. Not unlike the rambling youtube commentaries of today. There's gotta be some classic moments in there!

[dauber]

My first Atari experience was probably some very brief futzing with my brother's Touch Me. He was into those handheld LED games. He had a lot of the Mattel ones -- Auto Racing, Basketball, Football, Baseball.....and of course Atari Touch Me. He also had Comp IV.

 

The first Atari experience to ever have an impact on me had to be at my uncle's house. He and my cousins introduced me to Space Invaders on the 2600. Played that for a while, and then my uncle took out Space Invaders and put in Super Breakout and showed that to me. I don't think I actually played Super Breakout that day, just watched him play. I don't remember for sure when it was, but it must have been 1981, because my next Space Invaders experience after that was playing the arcade game on President's Day weekend in 1982 at the game room in the Holiday Inn in Bradley, IL. I didn't know it was an arcade game until then.

 

And I remember when K.C. Munchkin! was out on the Odyssey², except I didn't know what console it was on. It piqued my interest because I knew it was a Pac-Man clone, and the thought of playing Pac-Man at home really blew my 7-year-old Pac-Maniac mind. I said out loud, "Ooh, I hope Uncle Phil gets that Munchkin game!" My brother said nope, it's an Odyssey² game, not for Atari. Ahhhh, well. (My aunt did say they ordered it though!)

 

I think the next time I played Atari was that summer, briefly at my next-door neighbor's house. Never liked those neighbors, but hey, when the opportunity to play Atari Pac-Man arose, I couldn't turn it down! It was my first time playing the 2600 Pac-Man, and as big a Pac-Man fan as I was (and still am), the huge differences didn't really put me off at all. I played that and a little bit of Freeway. I didn't care for Freeway; I saw it as a cheap Frogger rip-off (and only recently found out that both games were actually developed at roughly the same time, so one didn't necessarily influence the other.)

 

Got my first Atari 2600 (four switch woodgrain) for Christmas in 1982. Hung on to it for about 24 years, when I got a 7800 and traded my 4-switch for a huge stack of MAME CDRs. Since then I've had three heavy sixers (I got an eBay lot that came with two heavy sixers and a junior -- and the item description did NOT mention the heavy sixers!), two juniors, a Vader (which I modded and gave away in a podcast contest), and currently in my possession are two Sears light sixers and two additional 7800s. I don't want to have too many consoles around, but I always loved the look of the Telegames sixers (I only want one -- the other came in a recent eBay lot I bid on); I decided to get a second 7800 when I realized what a pain it was to pack up my one 7800 when I went to Midwest Gaming Classic, so I wanted a backup. Well, the backup isn't friendly with 7800 carts (even without the plastic sleeve over the cartridge port it has a death grip on 7800 cartridges!), so I got another 7800 that I plan to mod and keep as my backup.

 

About five years ago I bought a 5200 from a store in town for fifty bucks. I kept it a year or two; didn't like it. So I traded it with the aforementioned friend for his 600XL, which I then modded with 64k RAM so it's essentially an 800 XL. Haven't used it much though...

 

And for Christmas my parents got me the Atari Flashback Portable.

 

So yeah...in sum, my retro stuff consists of:

- two Sears sixers (one of which I plan to keep)

- three Atari 7800s (two of which I plan to keep, the third I'll probably sell off if I can get that cart port to be friendlier!)

- an Atari 600XL

- Atari Flashback Portable

- GPD XD handheld, which I use not only for arcade, NES, SNES, and N64 emulation, but also for handheld 2600 gaming on the ROMs that don't work well on the FBP.

[CrossBow]

My first Atari experience was likely sometime during its initial release in the late 70s as friends of my parents had them and I can remember playing breakout and Freeway. We didn't get our own 2600 until Christmas '81 or maybe '82 when I would have been about 7 or 8 years old. But it didn't come from Santa (for a number of reasons..not the least of which, was because I already knew the truth about that since I was about 4 years old.) But it also wasn't much of a surprise, because my parents had wrapped it as it was in the normal box. So it was maddening to me for the last 2 weeks before Christmas because I knew what it was under that tree!!!

Kept that 4 switcher until I finally gave it to my cousins about 5 years later. 

[Starbuck66]

My first Atari experience was in 83 I believe... my dad came home with a Vader model 2600 with Pac Man as the pack in cart. I don't remember playing it though, my first memories of playing the Atari were Q*Bert and Super Breakout.

 

Through the 80's and early 90's I played a ton of Atari. I had people at church giving me stacks of games when they found out I had a 2600 and still played it; they had moved on to the NES by then. We had a video game rental store next door to our house, and one of the guys there gave me a huge collection of games (about 50 or so) and a bunch of accessories, including Indy 500 with driving controllers, a Wico Command Control joystick, the kids touchpad, and Star Raiders CIB!

 

I finally (after much begging) convinced my parents to get me an NES in 1990, but I still played the Atari off and on through the 90's. Sadly my collection got lost after I moved out of my parents house; I managed to keep my NES and games, but I don't know what ever happened to the Atari stuff.

 

Fast forward to 2012, took my daughter to see Wreck it Ralph, and I realized she had no clue who most of these video game characters were. I decided to start retro gaming, and of course the first place I wanted to start was Atari. I got a Flashback 4 for 15 dollars off of eBay, but with no Activision titles I decided I needed a real console. I got a 7800 bundle with 50 games off eBay for about 60 bucks shipped, and now I've got over 200 2600 games, and 20 7800 games. I've also got a 5200 (thanks again RickR!) with 21 games, and I've enjoyed learning the quirks and charm of the 5200.

[DegasElite]

We got our first A2600 (and experienced Atari for the first time) from my aunt in 1982. The game system had cost $129.99, at the time, and I believe it was bought from JCPenney. We had Pac-Man, Dodge 'Em, Night Driver, Space War, Combat (of course, as it came with every 2600 then), and Outlaw as the first games in our collection. Over the years, the collection grew to more games. Soon, we had Frogger, Taz, Crystal Castles, and Space Attack to name a few. Fast-forward to Christmas 1987. I received an Atari 7800 from my parents. I was overjoyed. Eventually, my father gave up the A2600 collection and gave it to me. Now, in 2017, I have five Atari platforms (every one made by Atari for the US market except for the A5200) and over 300 games for my Atari platforms combined.

 

Oh, and did I mention that I have two Atari computers? Well, I guess, now I just did. I have a 130XE and a 1040STE computer. There have to be over fifty games for those two in a combined collection alone. Yup. In thirty-five years, I have been quite busy collecting.

 

Thanks.

Edited July 17, 2017 by DegasElite

[DegasElite]

Love it!! I had those ESB sheets too!

 

He's also wearing a SW: ROTJ T-shirt. True to form. Cool.

 

Looking forward to seeing SW: TLJ, coming out this December!

Edited July 24, 2017 by DegasElite

[Mcorleonep]

My first experience with Atari is always going to my friend's down the street.  He got his Atari 2600 in 1978 just after they came out.  We had some JC Penny Pong knockoff device at the time.  I was amazed by the color graphics and the variety of games he had.  Two years later on my birthday, my mom brings home an Atari system of our own along with Space Invaders.  Of course it wasn't that new to me anymore since I'd been playing it every other day or so down the street but it was still great to have in our home...

Edited August 3, 2017 by Mcorleonep

[Keatah]

Don't recall exactly, specifically the very first moment. But close enough.

 

It was a rather pedestrian experience, some nondescript winter evening or Saturday afternoon in 1977. I remember exploring the "worlds" of combat. All the different terrain. That and playing Surround. The full aweseomness of the VCS would be revealed to several decades later, when I could appreciate how much was done with so little.

 

I don't think I ever had a first "wow" moment with videogames because I grew up with them. It's as if they always existed and the exploration of the electronic gaming field was a given. Even back in like 1976 and 1975.

 

The "wow" moment was with the discovery of red LED handhelds. Those were amazing, and I always thought there was a special sort of intelligence inside the chips. I didn't know how they all worked. And it would have been totally plausible (to me) that they were like mechanical mazes inside, with control levers and chutes and valves. Like a big-ass Hot-Wheels track setup going everywhere.

 

Of course each console from the dedicated pong units to my latest emulation PC, each one, had their impressive moment. I was rarely disappointed.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Keatah

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Now that I think about it. Every new console after the Atari 5200 I received was either a Christmas or birthday gift until the 32-bit era came along. All Atari stuff, less line XEGS and Lynx, were Christmas gifts. Games, too.

 

I remember having a PlayStation and at least 10 games. Most of those games are considered best on the system now. Where I lived at the time there was a game trading store called Game X Change. I walked in and seen the Jaguar and Lynx stuff and went mental. I went home, gathered up all my PlayStation stuff, and traded it in for a Lynx II, a few games, and the large padded case...plus a power supple and I still had some credit left over. All Lynx stuff was new in the box. I left at Moms house and when she passed her house got ransacked before I could go and retrieve my belongings. They didn't take the Saturn that was there. Go figure.

[socrates63]

I mentioned this in my introduction thread in multiple posts, so I thought that I'd consolidate and share it here as well with some additional editing.

My first "first" Atari memory... The 4-switch VCS (as it was known then) was my first console back in the early 80s. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade when I got it. There was no surprise or Christmas involved. It was purely a business transaction. At the time, my weekly allowance was $3 and the price of the VCS at Toys R Us was $120. I made a proposal to my dad that if he bought me the console, I would forego a year's worth of allowance. "You'd save $36," said I to my dad. A few days later, we went to Toys R Us and bought the VCS, but he kept giving me my weekly allowance 🙂 Thank goodness that he did. Otherwise, I'd have been playing Combat by myself for a year, and that's not much fun for a kid with no brothers or sisters.

The funny thing is until last month, I thought that I had the 6-switch 2600 as a kid. It wasn't until I got a light sixer last month that I realized my mistake. One thing I clearly remembered from my original 2600 was that the joystick plugs stuck up at an angle. When I got my light sixer, the joystick jack was located near the bottom of the back side of the console and not near the top as I remembered it, and the joystick plugs went in at a flat angle. 

From the 2600, I moved on to the 800/800XL/130XE/ST and the 80s was all about Atari for me. When the 90s came, I transitioned to the PC (386) and my Atari computers were packed in boxes for storage. For nearly 30 years until 2017, I hadn't seen anything Atari in person -- call it the Dark Ages. 

My second "first" Atari memory... My Atari re-connecting got its start three years ago at PRGE 2017. I attended PRGE for the first time because it was the 40th Atari anniversary celebration, and when I found out that David Crane and Garry Kitchen were hosting a panel, I had to go. I was already pumped to meet my childhood heroes, but when I saw a massive booth filled with Atari 8-bit and 2600 setups, I was an emotional mess. I hadn't seen a fully working Atari 800 setup since my own in the 80s. With trembling fingers and butterflies in my stomach, I approach an 800 and -gasp- touched it. When I returned home from that trip, I told my wife that I wished I could have the 800 again. I really didn't think that two years later, I'd have one in my possession. Seeing the white block cursor on the blue screen when I fired up the 800XL brought back a lot of memories. I also got an 800 in the box.

My third "first" Atari memory... In 2020, I've finally been re-united with the 2600. Last year, out of nostalgia, I bought a Retron77, but I never opened the box. I discovered AtariAge earlier this year and got a 7800 four months ago. I recently found out that it has compatibility issues with some homebrews and that prompted me to get a light 6-switch 2600 last month. Two weeks after that, I jumped on a nice deal for a fixed up and upgraded 5200. The past month and a half has been a blast reconnecting with the Atari consoles from my childhood and discovering for the first time so many console games that I passed up because I was busy with my Atari 800. I even picked up a CRT TV recently to complete the full retro setup. The last several weeks have been a whirlwind! And on top of that, I've discovered this community this week.

[Paul Westphal]

Sears sold my parents a non-working unit and we had to wait for what seemed like an eterniity to get the replacement. After that rough start, there were many game trades with friends during my childhood that became kind of a social thing for us. I eventually ended up with a 800xl and 1050 disk drive. Now I repair and restore all Atari. Funny how that works out.

[RickR]

@Paul Westphal, you may be the only one here that appreciates this:  My first 2600 came from GI-Joes, and I bought an 800XL/1050 combo at the Sears at Washington Square. 

 

[Paul Westphal]

That's some random pic off the internet with my 53 year old Brothers' face badly photoshopped 🙂

[Paul Westphal]

RickR  Yeah I remember GIJoes on 82nd ave having a HUGE 2600 display kiosk with multiple games you could try. There were two game stores down at LLoyd Center mall. When the great crash hit, they had games for $10 and under. I think I got Space Jockey for $5.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Paul Westphal