Atari Dreams

[Justin]

Does anybody else ever have dreams about Atari or classic gaming?

I dreamed last night that I was out of town, in an asian thrift store and found an Atari 2000 (a red one) new in an unreleased box, in addition to 3 new sealed unreleased games. They were asking $80 for the system and $30 for all three games. I saw it neatly organized in a very large cardboard box on the floor by some other used toys. They lady at the store thought it was intended for young children - and I remember thinking she wasn't wrong. I could not believe what I was seeing! I didn't even know they had designed a box for it, the way they had for the Atari 2700. The store was closing and I immediately took everything up to the register and bought it.

 

In my dream, I thought of you guys and knew I'd have to get home and film an unboxing video and show the Atari 2000 getting hooked up to the tv and played for the first time. I was going to put it on YouTube and share it here in the forums.

Then I woke up. And it wasn't real. Just a dream. It felt so real though. I wish it was! I've had other Atari dreams over the years - almost all of them seem to do with finding new old Atari merchandise in a store. A few years ago I had a dream that @btbfilms76 called me and told me to get down to the Toys R Us in my town because they were having their "going out of business" sale and they found a bunch of Lynx stuff lost behind a retail display. I had a dream in the 1990s about finding new Atari 7800s at Sears, but they were made in more of a grey color similar to the original Lynx I.

Have you ever had dreams about Atari or classic gaming?

[RickR]

I've had dreams like that before too!  The one I've had more than once is coming across an abandoned Toys R Us (it's usually the haunted one in Garden Grove, CA) and somehow being allowed in (under the pretense of it being risky to do so due to it being haunted), and me not hesitating at all.  I  go straight to the cage, figure out how to break in, and grab as much stuff as I can!  It's a great dream!  I think sometimes I go find a wagon and use that to load stuff up. 

[Justin]

3 hours ago, RickR said:

I've had dreams like that before too!  The one I've had more than once is coming across an abandoned Toys R Us (it's usually the haunted one in Garden Grove, CA) and somehow being allowed in (under the pretense of it being risky to do so due to it being haunted), and me not hesitating at all.  I  go straight to the cage, figure out how to break in, and grab as much stuff as I can!  It's a great dream!  I think sometimes I go find a wagon and use that to load stuff up. 

It's funny you say that. I mentioned the Toys R Us dream with the Lynx systems and games that had long ago been placed behind a retail display cabinet. When I was young I worked at two different Toys R Us locations in different states and ran "R-ZONE" which is the video games and electronics department. I was the guy in the cage. I still have dreams about that, and sometimes they intertwine with my Atari dreams. 

In real life - sometime around 2001 or 2002 - I moved some stuff around in the cage and found two boxes full of brand new Nintendo Virtual Boy games, and two small master cartons containing 6 brand new Neo-Geo Pocket Color systems, all silver. These were all relatively small boxes about the size of a few 2600 game boxes put together. They were shoved behind tons of DVDs and other stuff in a cage that should've been better organized by the person I took it over from.

So having lived through that experience - and having this site newly launched at the time and constantly thinking "It's amazing to think that this room used to have piles of Atari games" - I've always had that wish that I could find one last box of new Lynx systems or Atari cartridges for all of the 8-bit systems. All these years later it finds a way to weave itself into my dreams.

[TrekMD]

It's been some time, but I used to have plenty of Atari dreams, particularly when expecting new games! 

[DegasElite]

I have a lot of dreams about protecting my Atari game collection from getting parts of it stolen. I guess I am very conscious of that. Valuable stuff, you know. :O)

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I had a dream one time where I was participating in an AIO squad challenge and my hardware died for no reason.  No big deal and I go to a closet, open it up, and stacked from floor to ceiling was multiple Atari consoles all brand new in boxes, laying flat so more could be stacked in a single row.  

Other dreams are memories replaying of holiday mornings and birthdays I got game systems on.  The one that really plays the most is when my dear grandmother put a 7800 under the tree.  I never realized just how much that little console had a hold on me.  I love my 5200, don't get me wrong, but I have a lot of good memories of the 7800.

[socrates63]

On 8/5/2023 at 5:55 AM, Atari 5200 Guy said:

I had a dream one time where I was participating in an AIO squad challenge and my hardware died for no reason.  No big deal and I go to a closet, open it up, and stacked from floor to ceiling was multiple Atari consoles all brand new in boxes, laying flat so more could be stacked in a single row. 

This reminds me of the time a month ago when I visited a local gamer. He invited me in to his house and showed me his collection. Most of his collection was in a large room (converted garage) that made you feel like you walked into a small retro gaming store. From insider swag (he worked in the Microsoft Xbox unit for many years) to imports to you name it, he probably has it. Then he took me to one of his bedrooms and opened a cabinet. He had stacks of Nintendo 64, probably at least a dozen. I’m all for having back-up consoles but a dozen seemed like overkill and bordering on hoarding 😂 

As for me and duplicate consoles… nothing crazy (my wife may disagree)

• Backup PS3 in the box
• Two heavy sixers in addition to my daily driver six switch
• Extra PS2 slim (I have three PS2 setups)
• R2D2 Xbox 360 for display purpose
• OG Halo Xbox for display purpose
• Two Nintendo refurbished 2DS still in the box
• Extra PSP and Vita 
• Atari 800 in the box
• Extra Atari 800XL

 

As far as dreams are concerned, I don’t recall having one. The closest experience was when I attended my first PRGE back in 2017. I remember my feelings when I laid my eyes on the AtariAge booth. Seeing all the Atari 800 and other Atari 8-bit computers running almost brought me to tears. I thought I was seeing a vision or maybe I died and went to heaven. It had been at least 30 years since I had them running in my house and never had a clue that people were still using them.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

14 hours ago, socrates63 said:

This reminds me of the time a month ago when I visited a local gamer. He invited me in to his house and showed me his collection. Most of his collection was in a large room (converted garage) that made you feel like you walked into a small retro gaming store. From insider swag (he worked in the Microsoft Xbox unit for many years) to imports to you name it, he probably has it. Then he took me to one of his bedrooms and opened a cabinet. He had stacks of Nintendo 64, probably at least a dozen. I’m all for having back-up consoles but a dozen seemed like overkill and bordering on hoarding 😂 

As for me and duplicate consoles… nothing crazy (my wife may disagree)

• Backup PS3 in the box
• Two heavy sixers in addition to my daily driver six switch
• Extra PS2 slim (I have three PS2 setups)
• R2D2 Xbox 360 for display purpose
• OG Halo Xbox for display purpose
• Two Nintendo refurbished 2DS still in the box
• Extra PSP and Vita 
• Atari 800 in the box
• Extra Atari 800XL

 

As far as dreams are concerned, I don’t recall having one. The closest experience was when I attended my first PRGE back in 2017. I remember my feelings when I laid my eyes on the AtariAge booth. Seeing all the Atari 800 and other Atari 8-bit computers running almost brought me to tears. I thought I was seeing a vision or maybe I died and went to heaven. It had been at least 30 years since I had them running in my house and never had a clue that people were still using them.

The A8 regardless of model has always had my interest.  Commodore may have out sold Atari but Atari had more personality in my opinion.  I never really stopped using an A8 of some kind.