Atari 2600

Allow me to pay respects to the Atari 2600, the console that was born the same year I was. I never played a game on it, but thanks to the backwards compatible Atari 7800, I was able to enjoy a bunch of 2600 classics. This console was pretty successful even in the dark ages of gaming as it pushed through 30 million units. Not to mention its most successful game, Pac-Man, sold 7 million. If I was a bit older I might have loved the peripherals on this console too. It had the joysticks, paddles, driving controller, track ball, and keypad. You know what else? Online wasn't started by todays consoles. That's right, the 2600 could download games online too! Over 75 titles were available to download through a phone jack to an oversized atari cartridge.

Atari... ugh.

Respect the pioneers of this great industry!

Yeah, I'm with Z. I have nostalgic memories of Atari, but while some things, like the NES, stand the test of time, Atari's machines don't. Did you know the 7800 was 8-bit as well? Yeah, it was capable of NES-quality games. Why didn't it have any? Atari was stupid and uncreative. They almost killed the industry that Nintendo ended up saving.

Still, I did have good times on the 2600 and 7800, so I owe them that much.

Well I didn't, I owe them nothing!!! LOL

There were a handful of impressive 2600 titles, most notably Solaris and Moon Patrol. Solaris was so advanced graphically it looked more like a 7800 title. Never beat it though. Another one of my sins is that I actually enjoyed E.T. Heck, it was one of the only 2600 games you could actually beat.

I actually used to beat ET on a regular basis. It was very, very hard. I didn't know at the time that the game was supposed to be bad. Streex, do you remember having to find just the right spot for your ship to pick you up at the end? LOL. You had to inch your way across every pixel of the screen until you found it, and if you blinked, you might not see that you were there and have to search all over again. Genius game design!

Yeah I remember that. It was also in a random spot every time you played the game. I thought that was cool but it was aggravating at the same time. It didn't help that you were slowly losing health with every step you took. I didn't play or beat ET until maybe 4 years ago. I actually beat it again for the world to see on Ninfest's first marathon back in 2009. Even without any nostalgic feelings for the game I thought it was very unique compared to other games of its time.

Plus you had to stand on that exact spot the moment the time came for your rescue or you would pretty much have to start over. All this while avoiding government agents! Stand still + avoid enemies = HUGE AGGRAVATION!

Definitely unique, though. I actually don't think people give the programmers enough credit. This wasn't your typical lazy licensed game! They were actually trying something creative!

This is some footage of me beating ET during the 2009 marathon. It's a frustrating watch with lots of lag. I die a few times but eventually beat it.

At least they like Atari 2600. It was indeed fun. Now if it was Atari 5200, yeah it would be pretty bad and forgetful.

I never played any 5200 games and always thought it was weird that the 7800 was backward compatible with 2600, but not 5200.

Yeah, I never tried 5200. 7800 had some little-known gems like Food Fight, but Combat on the 2600 is probably the game I put the most time into with my dad. I've always loved multiplayer, which is probably one of many reasons Nintendo won my loyalty early on- it's long been a focus for them.

Some other classics I loved were Desert Falcon, Ms. Pac Man (simple game plays well on 7800), and Robotron: 2084. Was Combat that game where you were each a tank and you had to find a way to shoot the other guy? Kinda like Tanks on Wii Play?

That was one of many, many games on Combat. But yes, the Wii Play game was totally right out of Combat.