Happy 40h Birthday, Atari. We're Officially Old

[MiamiMom63]

Today is the 40th Anniversary of the Atari video company, when Atari introduced their first game "Pong". You know you are officially old if you remember the first game "Pong". Did you have "Pong" and do you remember what your favorite Atari game was? Happy 40th birthday, Atari. We're officially old | Online Video Games Reviews & News | News.com.au I thought this would be a cute and interesting thread for us vapers that are officially old if we remember this. lol.

 

[Vapira]

Ha ha ha! I remember Pong! Yup, I'm officially old!

Vapira

 

[Huffelpuff]

I remember seeing Pong and thinking that it looked so amazing. The microwave fascinated me then too along with rich people who had 5 pound carphones.

 

[MiamiMom63]

LOL. Yea, we thought WOW, a game you can play on your television?!?! ha! Back then we had to go to the neighborhood arcade to play games. Everyone went to the arcade on the weekends.

 

[klstreet]

When I was a kid in the 90's, for the longest time I thought the Atari 2600 was just the hottest and the newest thing out there because thats what my dad told me when he got it for me, and being home schooled, I really didnt have much exposure to anything, I later found out pretty quickly I was dead wrong XD

Btw Asteroid is still the greatest game of all time

 

[MiamiMom63]

When I was a kid in the 90's, for the longest time I thought the Atari 2600 was just the hottest and the newest thing out there because thats what my dad told me when he got it for me, and being home schooled, I really didnt have much exposure to anything, I later found out pretty quickly I was dead wrong XD

Btw Asteroid is still the greatest game of all time

I actually was quite a Centipede pro in my day. lol. I always floated around too much in Asteroid. lol.

 

[klstreet]

The game that frustrated me the most was Adventure. I could never figure out what the hell I was supposed to do lol

 

[Jaymzifer]

I remember when we first got Pong, it was the greatest thing since sliced bread; then the Atari cartridge system came out and I spent hours playing circus with the paddle controller trying to keep my acrobats from going SPLAT on the ground. Good times, good times.

 

[Jason McRoy]

LOL! I remember how awesome it was when we bought our Atari! My brother and I would play that thing for hours! Then our friends would come over and we would have tournaments! Ah the memories...

Pong, Centipede and my all time favorite- asteroids! I would love to just play that game again. They should make a version for the PS3. lol

By the way, anyone recall having to sometimes blow into the cartridge before you pressed it into the console to get it to work properly?

 

[Butters78]

I remember my old Atari as a kid My brother and I had loads of fun on It playing pacman and zaxon.

Oh and good to see another native Floridian on here. I was born and raised in Hollywood

 

[WCSR]

I remember my old Atari as a kid My brother and I had loads of fun on It playing pacman and zaxon.

Oh and good to see another native Floridian on here. I was born and raised in Hollywood

Zaxon was the shiz... I had an Atari2600, and then got an Atari400 "computer" with the tape loader. Zaxon would take like 10 minutes to load. Seemed like forever when you're 6 years old.


Can't forget such awesome games as Pong, Pacman, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Centipede, Zaxon, Space Invaders, Pole Position, Missile command, Video Pinball, Pitfall, Q-bert, Frogger, Outlaw, Skydiver, etc...


The Atari truly changed the landscape for kids. The awesome thing, is you can play virtually any Atari game online....but it's not the same without the controller.

 

[tlmoody27]

My all time favorite Atari game is Pitfall. I don't know if it was a popular one but I would spend forever trying to get that guy across the swamps and over the alligators backs.

 

[ohai]

Ahhhhhhhh Atari!

I'm turning 40 this year too! I had no idea we had so much in common. My favorite was always Berzerk. Anybody remember Evil Otto?

 

[Jason McRoy]

My all time favorite Atari game is Pitfall. I don't know if it was a popular one but I would spend forever trying to get that guy across the swamps and over the alligators backs.

OMG! I totally forgot about Pitfall! No matter how long we played that game there was never an end to it. You didn't ever win the overall game! Unless of course we just didn't play long enough. Did you ever make to the end?

 

[tlmoody27]

OMG! I totally forgot about Pitfall! No matter how long we played that game there was never an end to it. You didn't ever win the overall game! Unless of course we just didn't play long enough. Did you ever make to the end?

No, I don't think I ever made it to the end, if there was an end. Wonder if you can get that game on the android phone? Have to look in the market for that.

 

[nanovapr]

Atari also made big waves in the "real computer" world for several years. In the world of MIDI and music, an Atari 1040ST was the hot stuff that Hollywood used in the late 80's. MIDI is not just the crappy music that PC games later used.

I read today that Atari's Pong was a ripoff of the earlier Magnavox Odyssey TV game. Nolan Bushnell visited the factory, saw it, and made his own. This claim was disputed, and Magnavox produced the guestbook that he signed. Now, *that's* archiving your data. Or, your guestbooks, anyway...

You can get 10 Atari paddle games, built into one Joystick.

 

[Stinknugget]

Frogger and Brakeout ARE still my favorite atari games.

My father surprised me with a 2600 when i was kid. He called me downstairs after my shower one night before bed (on a school night ) and i saw him laying on the floor with the controller. Needless to say i freaked out. He let me stay up late (probably 11ish lol) and play with him. Me and my father played Atari for years to come. That original system took a dump so we upgraded to NES,SuperNES, Genesis so and and so forth...My father gradually grew out of gaming until Medal of Honor came out on PS1. He LOVED that game but that too lost its novelty after a few years. About 2 years ago i picked up a 2600 system with a bunch of games and fit it to the TV in my parents basement. Me and my dad played Atari once again and i have to say it was pretty awesome. 20+ years had passed and our lives have changed so much. This time around we didn't mind waiting for the other persons turn to finish so much and just enjoyed the moments.

 

[Baptyzmbyf1re]

Pitfall, River Raid and Riddle of the Sphinx. I LOVED my Atari and a few years ago picked up an old model. It is sitting a few feet from me right now

 

[Ratchet]

OMG, I'm getting OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used to play that one a really old TV with the Atari hooked up to it... LOL!

 

[B2L]

My all time favorite Atari game is Pitfall. I don't know if it was a popular one but I would spend forever trying to get that guy across the swamps and over the alligators backs.

I remember playing pitfall until I had a huge blister in the middle of my palm, wow... I hadnt thought about that for a long time!