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Atari 2600: Like an air-tight bomb shelter from 1983
Yesterday Kymberly the wonder girlfriend and I drove to my home town of Richland Washington. We thought it would be fun to stop in the town of Cle Elum where I was stranded when my old car died near there. When Kymberly rescued me we did not get a good chance to check out the town.
As we were walking down the main drag I glanced inside the only used videogame store there and saw something that made my heart stop They had a huge collection of working Atari 2600 systems and games. They were cheap and in good shape. Now I have never owned an Atari 2600 but all my friends had one. I was a Colecovision gamer ( Kymberly was into Intellivision ) but logged much of the early 80s with an Atari 2600 joystick in my hand. They had a smaller re-designed 2600 in good shape with three games for a mere $25! I impulsively got it and thought also picked up some other games and a spare joystick for about $50 for the whole package. I was as giddy as a kid in candy store it was like the shops wares were kept in a sealed air-tight bomb shelter from 1983. I was a bit snarky in retrospect when I told them that they could probably sell their 2600 wares on eBay for more than they were charging there. If you are ever in the mountain town of Cle Elum and are into old school games I seriously suggest you go check out their retro goods.
The games that I found were:
Combat
Pac-Man
Space Invaders
Frogger
Defender
Ms. Pac-Man
Missile Command
Mario Bros.
Astroblast
After arriving to my parent's house I hooked it up to their newish TV using the archaic co-ax cable and fired the baby up. Pure retro bliss. These are the very definition of old school gaming and now I have to be on the look out for good Atari 2600 games
RAD!
Jake at December 24, 2003 
Games
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Comments
Merry Christmas! Wish I could find a cheap Atari.
Posted by: Andrew at December 24, 2003 12:29 PM
Mint!
Posted by: pete at December 24, 2003 12:37 PM
I want one!
Posted by: Tim at December 24, 2003 1:27 PM
'wicked sick'
Posted by: Henry at December 24, 2003 6:28 PM
I seriously question your credibility when you say you never owned an Atari 2600. You run a site called '8-Bit Joystick' for christ-fucking-sakes! I mean, this is as disillusioning as when Harry Knowles admitted he had never seen the first of the Evil Dead series.
Merry Christmas.
Seth
ps- I'm back.
Posted by: seth at December 24, 2003 6:44 PM
I never owned a 2600 because all my friends had one and I was all about the Colecovision.
Harry Knowles is a wanker.
Posted by: Jake at December 24, 2003 6:56 PM
Harry Knowles IS a wanker. You are, in fact Correct. I guess you just aren't "swank" enough.
Posted by: pete at December 24, 2003 11:00 PM
Wakka Wakka Wakka.
Huzzah for impulse!
Posted by: Matt at December 25, 2003 8:25 PM
I was a little bit surprised, like Seth. 8-bit joystick screams Atari to me.
I went looking for my 2600 the last time I was at mom & dad's. Unfortunately, I think the attic has claimed it, which means I'll probably never see it again until they move. I'd love to hook that bad boy up to my video projetor and play some 8-foot tall Combat.
Posted by: Jeff at December 26, 2003 8:54 AM
ATARI SUCKS THERE ARE NO GOOD ATARI GAMES!!!!!! I DONT CARE HOW "RETRO" ATARI IS BECAUSE IT SUCKS!!! and besides we all know that coleco vision was much better, just ask michael ian black
Posted by: Jack McCrack at December 26, 2003 5:30 PM
Oh there were tons of good Atari 2600 games. If it were not for the 2600 there would be no Colecovisio, NES and Playstation.
Posted by: Jake at December 26, 2003 5:43 PM
There would also be no E.T.-themed games about a frog/penis hybrid that falls down holes over and over again like some sort of Sisyphian Baby Jessica. Also, no games where Pac-Man is brown and goes BRAWMP BRAWMP BRAWMP BRAWMP. Nor, for that matter, would we have Custer's Revenge, Beat 'Em And Eat 'Em or any of the other "erotic" titles that graced the 2600.
Posted by: Evilninja at December 28, 2003 11:18 PM
I got mine on eBay, and I probably paid way too much for it. It did come with steering paddles and around 40 games though. I play it way too much, as I'm sure you will.
Oh, Jake, you'll be happy to find out that by pooling Christmas funds and gift cards together, I was able to skip down to a local EB and pick up that Neo Geo Pocket Color pack you wrote about a few months ago! I also got a used Dreamcast with Soul Calibur and a VMU. Yay!!!!
Posted by: Jeff at December 29, 2003 10:03 AM
Yeah I was skeptical about using eBay. Hey that is a great find about the NeoGeo Pocket and Dreamcast. three cheers for old game systems
Posted by: Jake at December 30, 2003 9:50 AM
Nice! I still have and play my 2600. Be sure to pick up: Demon Attack ( http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=134 ), and especially H.E.R.O. ( http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SystemID=2600&SoftwareLabelID=228 ). H.E.R.O. is one of my all time favorite games and definitely one of the best titles on the 2600 IMO.
Posted by: ZYirAH at December 30, 2003 12:31 PM
2600s (post-5200 re-re-release systems) are a dime a dozen, even on eBay.
I have two 2600s: my original wood finish VCS (first-generation, baby) and a black finish re-release 2600. That one pictured above looks like it's a really late re-release. Probably post 7800, as part of the final last ditch effort to sell hardware following the NES release in '86.
Posted by: jason at January 2, 2004 7:18 AM
Yeah some faux wood grain would be cool but this one is a bit more reliable than one from 1977
Posted by: Jake at January 2, 2004 9:16 AM
Atari 2600 RULES
Posted by: icrazie at January 14, 2004 6:41 PM
