The Atari 2600

[TheGoofster]

Check out this similar auction: (NES instead of Atari)

You might be able to make enough to get back to DW!

Actually, I saw a picture of that on a Nintendo board I occassionaly frequent (although I had no idea it was selling for so much), and that is kind of what gave me the idea of taking a picture of my atari games.

I doubt, though, that there could be any comparrison in prices. The NES auction includes ALL of the NES games. I only have about 230 of the 900+ Atari games. It is definately something to think about though. In fact, I might even be able to sell all of this, and get enough for a Wii and some games - hey, now there's a thought!

 

[biras jim]

starmaster

 

[lfeikert]

OK. I've looked through the picture and can't fine one of my favorites. Problem is I can't remember the name of it either. It was Bomb something I think. You used the paddles and there was a little bomber guy at the top that kept dropping bombs. you had to catch them in your buckets before they hit the ground. Anyone remember the name ? That game and River Raid were my favorites. Oh, and of course Frogger! I wish I still had my Atari--life was so simple then!

 

[cybrkitn]

Did you buy those when they first came out? If so, that would have been a couple of hundred bucks! Those cartridges were running about $50 a piece back then. Now you can get them for about $2 a piece.

I had some of those games that you have in your picture. Loved Megamania, and turned over both SeaQuest and PacMan (meaning I got the highest score before it went back to zero again).

 

[TheGoofster]

OK. I've looked through the picture and can't fine one of my favorites. Problem is I can't remember the name of it either. It was Bomb something I think. You used the paddles and there was a little bomber guy at the top that kept dropping bombs. you had to catch them in your buckets before they hit the ground. Anyone remember the name ? That game and River Raid were my favorites. Oh, and of course Frogger! I wish I still had my Atari--life was so simple then!

That was called Kaboom, and you're right it's not in the picture. It's weird, becasue I know I have that game. It makes me think that I might have a few more games laying around somewhere. I actually thought that I had more games than this, but I don't know where they currently are.

 

[CheshireVal]

I used to really love Kaboom.

 

[TheGoofster]

Did you buy those when they first came out? If so, that would have been a couple of hundred bucks! Those cartridges were running about $50 a piece back then. Now you can get them for about $2 a piece.

I had some of those games that you have in your picture. Loved Megamania, and turned over both SeaQuest and PacMan (meaning I got the highest score before it went back to zero again).

See post #12.

Probably the games that I did the best on were asteroids, missle command, space invaders and pac man. Those were games that you kept playing until your thumb fell off from pushing the button. I think my record was actually on Missle Command. I don't remember the score, but I played one continuous game for about six hours before I just couldn't play any more.

 

[goofygirl]

Too funny! I remember some of those!

 

[Towncrier]

I used to really love Kaboom.

Kaboom was my all time favorite. A close second was Activision's Tennis. It actually looked 3-D. The funny thing is that Activision seemed to make better games for the 2600 than Atari.

I heard an interesting story about the Space Shuttle Lander cartridge for the Atari 2600. Seems that the developers of that game were given access to NASAs actual shuttle simulator. The game was a pretty close facsimile of the real deal. One person who bought the game discovered that it was possible to de-orbit the shuttle without using the main engine and by simply using the thrusters. He contacted the authors of the game who in turn contacted NASA. As the story goes, the NASA engineers tried out the scenario on their simulator and verified that it was indeed possible to deorbit the shuttle with just the reaction control thrusters. And according to the story, NASA actually has implemented a contigency plan to de-orbit the shuttle using the thrusters.

Sound a bit urban legendish to me, but I like the story and figure that it makes good reading even if it isn't entirely true.