My new 1980s obsession

[Styles Bitchley]

Nice collection of cartridges! I bought an Atari Flashback during lockdown. My kids were unimpressed with the tech, but I enjoyed playing old favorites like Frogger, Galaga, and especially Pitfall. I like that the joysticks are just like the ones that used to come on Atari systems, and the box looks like a scaled down wood grain 2600.

I've been thinking about picking one of these up. They sell for peanuts used. I never had an Atari growing up, as it was too much of an extravagance for our humble household. Used to play at friends' houses though and it sticks with you, of course...the things you couldn't have as a kid stick with you. Lamborghini Countach is next - or maybe a 308?

[eagle]

One of my sons and I played Atari this weekend -- Missile Command & Centipede on the 5200, then H.E.R.O. on the 2600. Fun stuff!

[Reef monkey]

Nice collection of cartridges! I bought an Atari Flashback during lockdown. My kids were unimpressed with the tech, but I enjoyed playing old favorites like Frogger, Galaga, and especially Pitfall. I like that the joysticks are just like the ones that used to come on Atari systems, and the box looks like a scaled down wood grain 2600.

I've been thinking about picking one of these up. They sell for peanuts used. I never had an Atari growing up, as it was too much of an extravagance for our humble household. Used to play at friends' houses though and it sticks with you, of course...the things you couldn't have as a kid stick with you. Lamborghini Countach is next - or maybe a 308?

My dad wouldn't get us the 2600, he didn't want us just mindlessly playing video games (very prescient for the early 80s), he decided if we were going to have a computer in the house, it should have an educational component, so he got us the Atari 400. It had a cartridge slot where you could put game cartridges, and used the same joysticks as the 2600, but had a full keyboard (membrane). You put a cartridge for BASIC in the cartridge slot, and you could write simple programs. Also had a peripheral cassette tape drive you could use to save the programs you wrote, and some of the bigger, more complicated games were available on cassette; you booted the game from the cassette to the computer; it took forever, and 50% of the time there would be an error several minutes into booting and you'd have to start all over. We owned an educational game that taught states and capitals, and Shamus, a flip-screen shooter where you are a robotic detective traveling through multiple rooms with all sorts of enemies you had to fight while looking for keys to open new rooms until you got the the end. As for cartridge games, we had Pac Man, Galaxian, and Pole Position. The graphics for the 400 Pac Man were actually better than the 2600, more like the arcade version. The cartridges for the 400 were not compatible with the 2600 and vice versa, something my dad didn't realize when he bought us a 2600 Donkey Kong cartridge so we'd have a game to play on the 400 when we opened it for Christmas.

[eagle]

My sons & I reworked my mancave setup this weekend. Gone are the PlayStation (original, bought 1990s) and Xbox (original, bought when new in the market). Added are a Wii U and Nintendo Switch. Still, the 2600 and 5200 get the most play.

[ConchRepublican]

I have added 2 of the Arcade 1Up cabinets to our sunroom leading out to the lanai.

One has - Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, Dig-Dug, Galaxians, Galaga, Xevious and Mappy
The other - Defender, Gauntlet, Joust, Klax, Root Beer Tapper, GORF, Wizard of Wor, Rampage, Bubbles and Sinistar

I don't play them as much as I thought I would, but they are fun to have on when people come over. They are pretty cool and affordable.