Datahunter241

My Atari Nightmare
It was spring of 1985... my mom, two older sisters and I where down stairs in our game room playing our Atari 2600. It had that awesome wood grain on it. We noramlly did not play like this together but we where waiting for my dad and older brother to come back from town with a new game system. We were all very excited, especially me since I was the master gamer of the house.
The Nintendo had come out a year before and I wanted it so badly beacause all my freinds had one already. We had collected a nice cache of games for our Atari, the cover art of which always made you believe that the game was going to be way better then it really was. But Atari did have some really fun games despite their poor graphics.
My favorite game was Joust. You flew on these huge birds and tryed to land on other guys to kill them, you then had to collect their egg in a short peroid of time or it would turn into an even harder bad guy. My friends and I would try and kill each other instead, all the while trying not to get killed by the other baddies.
Some of my other favorite games:
Food Fight
This game was very simple but I spent many hours throwing pies at those chefs.
Jungle Hunt
This game was alot like Pitfall, but I loved swimming and killing crocs with my knife.
Missle Command
It took alot of pre-planning for this game, you had to shoot the missles just right to save your city. (The box art is very cool, the actual graphics are not however.)
Mario Bros. (the Atari version)
Mario on Atari? Crazy I know, but I love playing the two player version. Again it was alot of fun just trying to kill your friend.
You could see my excitement over playing as a little italian man jumping on mushrooms. Just as my patience had grown thin I heard my dad and brother coming down the stairs, and as they came into view my heart sank, I felt like throwing up. There was no Nintendo... only a weird box with Atari 7800 written on it.
'AN ATARI??? WE ALREADY HAVE A FREAKIN' ATARI!!!' As this thought ran through my head I could see the big smile on my dads face, he thought we would be so happy. I knew I couldn't let my disapointment show. I slyly asked my dad ' I thought you were going to get the Nintendo?' He said 'it was too exspensive, plus this one can play all our old games'. I mustered up a big smile and tried to act excited. I still felt like throwing up.
We opened the box and my dad hooked it up. We put in the Pole Position game that came with it and we all played for about 30 minutes. That was the last time that we played games as a family. I was the only one to play it after that.
The next game system I would get would be the Sega Master System, which I bought used from a friend with my own hard-earned cash five years later.
Even after all that disapointment I still have a soft spot for that game system, I still have it along with all my old games in a box in my garage, and once in a while I'll hook it up and let the memories of that day and many after that rush over me. Here's to you ATARI, you were like my little nephew I never wanted but grew to love!
Joust

'Thy game is over' WOW, this is just wierd

HAHA I HATED ATARI!!!!

Wow.. I started off with Pong.. then we got an Atari 2600 in 84', Then Nintendo years later.. Never had the 7800...lol looks like I didnt miss much!
I still love the ol' 2600... Yars Revenge is still the shit and I probably can still kick my friends asses at Warlords!
Nice Article!!

I got a 7800 as a surprise 'just because' gift from my parents. I didn't even ask for it specifically,and I already had a Sega Master System. But boy did I log hundreds of game hours into that thing.
I had Food Fight, Joust, Robotron 2084, Dr.J vs Larry Bird, and some others I can't remember. I also got a nice cache of 2600 games off of my cousins who had upgraded to the SMS. Great memories

My brothers and I had the Atari 5200 and we had a blast playing that system. Then we got the Nintendo and we never stopped playing until our mom turned it off. Great atricle.

I see a Sears Video Arcade catalog. The system was essentially a Sears-faced 2600 VCS, sold by the famous retail giant from 1978 to 1983.
The Super Video Arcade was Sears's version of the Mattel Intellivision, which they sold in response to the quick sell-out of Mattel's original when it was officially sold by retailers in 1980.

I remember being half way to my goal of saving up enough money to buy a Nintendo in '88. My Mom's friend had a kid who wanted to get rid of his Atari 2600 and his entire collection of games. Of course, the kid's mother was pushing real hard to sell me this stuff for about $50. I was getting really impatient, as saving up for the Nintendo was taking forever. I was almost sold.
Then, I realized that this kid was just trying to stick me with his obsolete piece of crap so he could by another game for the Nintendo that he already had. See, he was one of those spoiled brats who got everything he ever wanted just by crying to mommy and daddy. The Atari 2600 would have been fun for a few hours before I realized I made the biggest mistake of my life.
In the end, I decided to wait it out, and I got my NES. Here's a big middle finger to the kid who got it so easily, and tried to screw me over.

I remember getting my first system, The Atari 2600. 'Under 50 bucks from A-Ta-Ri'
When the Nintendo was already out. But being poor back thenb and knowing what my parents
were going through, I was happy to have it.

my experience took place a couple years earlier, but my fam got a colecovision instead of an atari. the colecovision was way better than the atari, but my young logic couldn't help but feel slighted since all my friends had atari systems. but i know now...

I feel your pain. I was the last one to get Nintendo in my hood. But i wasn't lucky enough to have Atari either. We rocked the Apple ][. FOR LIKE EVER! Great article.

How ironic, I just bought an Atari 7800 last week (I'm a classic game collector). I had an Atari 2600 which died on me, so I decided to seek out a mint condition Atari 7800 as it played its own games and the majority of 2600 games, you can't beat it. I can see your point of view, If I was given this instead of an NES in Christmas 87, I would have been really disappointed. Great collectors item though, hang on to it!

Ironically, I ended up getting the 7800 before getting the Nintendo. I loved the fact Food Fight was the only game (next to Ms. Pac-Man) I played on it, whereas the last Atari game I got for it was the 2600 version of Jr. Pac-Man. I ended up obtaining the Nintendo when my dad wanted to play 1942, but discovered it was only for the NES. Though I loved the Atari, I ended up playing more on the NES.

I have a similar story with the ATARI 7800, except I screwed my own self. I had a 2600 and it ran it's course. When it was time to buy a new system I considered the NES but for what ever reason I went ahead and got the 7800.
I guess I was some kind of loyalist or maybe skeptical of the NES's
high-falootin' graphics. Either way, the 7800 turned out to suck ass, especially that hand cramp-inducing controller.
Well shit, I was only around 9 yrs. old at the time. Too bad ATARI couldn't forsee the market any better than I could.

This would be the equivalent of wanting your parents to buy you a Super NES, and they get you a Turbo Graphix 16 instead.

The bigger nightmare would be if you got an Atari 5200.

I remember my one friend's family had all the major systems of the day (NES, Genesis, SNES) but they still played games on their Intellivision (the Atari knock off). It wasn't for nostalgia either, this was like 1993 and these kids were younger than me...they bought the Intellivision AFTER their SNES-it baffles the mind!

I wanted a nintendo not another Atari! Thats the nightmare.

I don't get it. Why is this a nightmare?

I gave you a thumbs up, because I liked the article....but I also feel that its a little short. I expected a little bit more about why it was such a disapointment, and instead it kind of jumps to 'then I got a master system.' I am not being mean, because trust me, I couldn't have done a better job..... but I almost want you to continue this and explain a little more why it was such a disapointment, especially for someone like me who's first system was a NES and was a little to young to enjoy the atari days. Anyway, it was still a fantastic idea for an article, thumbs up man!