The first game I ever recall playing was Pitfall on the old Atari 2600 system back in the early 1980’s. Of all the games I wound owning on that system, I think it is the one I enjoyed the most. Of course this is all looking back through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. Going back and playing the game now a couple of decades later doesn’t seem to have the thrill that it once did. That being said, I still look back on it fondly. Something about swinging on vines over crocodile infested waters on the look out for various kinds of treasure seemed like quite the adventure.
One of the other games I played quite frequently on the old Atari system was the much-maligned Pac-Man. Now I had played the game in the arcades and was quite aware of the shortcomings of the Atari home version. At the time I just chalked it up to the Atari being incapable of reproducing the quality of the arcade due to to less-powerful hardware. Little did I know that it was mostly due to programmers rushing something out the door that pretty much amounted to an alpha test. Nevertheless, I invested quite a bit of time in that game as well.
I had several other games in my Atari library, but none that I played as frequently as those two. Others that come to mind are Breakout and Night Driver, both of which required the paddle controllers. Another one that comes to mind was on the Combat cartridge. It was the old multiplayer tank game. I recall quite fondly of blowing up my friends’ tanks of the opposing side. I do also recall having Space Invaders as well. I never really got into that game as much as everyone else. Just never really appealed to me for some reason.
Looking back, I believe that I considered these to be the gaming end all, be all. I remember seeing commercials for the new system coming out called “The Nintendo”. The commercials perplexed me somewhat as I saw kids plying with what appeared to be a robot. I was thinking all this seemed needlessly complicated when I just had a joystick with a button on my Atari. I never even considered owning this new ridiculous looking system. All that would change when I visited my cousins over the summer and was introduced to a character named Mario…
Im excited to find this website. I need to to thank you for your time due to this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it and i also have you book marked to check out new stuff in your blog.