MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > I was an Atari-less child

I was an Atari-less child


But I had Pong. I played it by inserting a cassette into a tape recorder that was attached to a Texas Instruments computer. If it couldn't be purchased at Radio Shack we did not own it. If I wanted to play on an Atari I had to do it at a friend's house.

1. What was your favorite Atari game (if any)?
Mine: Frogger
2. What is your favorite video game (any system) of all time?
Mine: Super Mario 64

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You poor bastard.

I feel like Jeff Bezos over here - I had a Colecovision with an Atari adapter.

Pitfall II was my favourite Atari game and Tetris is my all-time favourite.

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You would have been one of the cool kids then whose house I would have wanted to visit, as long as you didn't mind watching me play Frogger for 2-3 hours straight.

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The cool kid lived down the street and had Turbo with a steering wheel ( :

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Well, there are degrees of coolness and I think you still had me beat in the video game department.

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I was an Atari-less child to, although when I was growing up the most popular console was the OG PlayStation, although some had an N64: I was always a PC gamer myself.

1. What was your favorite Atari game (if any)?
Mine: Pac Man or Space Invaders

2. What is your favorite video game (any system) of all time?
Mine: Thief Gold

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I loved Pac-Man, too. I had a miniature arcade version (a rare non-Radio Shack purchase, probably got it for Christmas) that was about 12 in high and playing on it was one of the highlights of my youth.

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Awesome

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Adventure

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Do you know “Created by Warren Robinet?”

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Is that the alleged "first easter egg?" I read about it somewhere.

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Indeed it is. I think I had a book back then that gave the instructions on how to access the room. You had to move an invisible dot and a sword or something to a wall and push it all through at the same time, and you ended up in a place that has flashing text that said “created by Warren Robinet.”

Was exciting back then. lol

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I had a SNES. Favorite game at the time was Mortal Kombat 2... but now, my favorite is Secret of Mana 2, unreleased in the US, but fan translation was made in rom form that worked on the excellent Zsnes emulator. Now there's a remake of it called Trials of Mana I think, which doesn't look like anything I'm interested in.

All time favorite... Yakuza 5. It was my first Yakuza game, and probably an ideal introduction to the series. I was hooked from the first 20 minutes, which was all cutscene. Before that, I used to say Ninja Gaiden Black to sound hardcore. NG2 is better, but the music isn't as hype.

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You know a lot more about video games than I do. 😁

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Secret of Mana 2, unreleased in the US,


Actually, it was released on switch under the name collection of mana. Not just that but the collection is just a bunch of roms running on an emulator, so it has been dumped. So you can play it with the official translation.

I think you are missing out by overlooking the remake, it’s actually amazing.

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Ahhhh, the memories of being a kid in the 70's and 80's.. My parents bought me the Atari 2600 which had the worst game of Asteroids EVER right down to the joystick and the graphics and it was just BAD, but then they came out with the Atari 5200 System which corrected tis and it looked like the Asteroids game I remembered so fondly. I used to walk up to TARGET and play their Mattel Electronics Intellivision game console that was set up in the aisle to play baseball. Now in 2024, I purchased an Arcade Machine with 3000 Games built in including every videogame from the 80's and 90's. This list includes ASTEROIDS, DELUXE ASTEROIDS, MISSILE COMMAND, JOUST, GALAGA, FROGGER, CENTEPEDE, Every MORTAL KOMBAT Game ever made including "VS" Games, every MARIO BROS game, DONKEY KONG, DONKEY KONG JR, WOLFENSTEIN 3D, SEGA OUTRUN(Which is my favorite race game) and the list goes on and on. I paid $1200.00 for it and play it on the Weekend

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That arcade machine sounds like a lot of fun. I haven't played video games in years but I bet I would enjoy something like that. Is it the size of an old school arcade game? I'm just not sure if I would have the space for it.

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It stands 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Here's where I bought it and what it looks like

https://arcadesmarket.com/collections/new-arcades/products/bar-top-counter-top-arcade-multi-game-new-with-free-shipping

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Oh! Okay. That sounds doable. I might actually give that some thought.

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I was Atari-less as well, but we did have an Intellevision. I think my favourite games were Frogger, and Astrosmash.

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A fellow Frogger lover! I don't know what it was about that game but I just couldn't get enough of it. I liked my friends who had an Atari for reasons beyond that, but playing Frogger was always the main thing I wanted to do at their homes. I hope they didn't mind! 😬😂

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There was another frog game that I liked called Frog Bog. It wasn't as fun or as good as Frogger, but I did enjoy it as a kid.

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I have Frogger for the Sega Genesis and it's pretty much arcade-perfect. I also have it for the Atari 2600 (and I did when I was a kid too), and it's a good version considering the drastic limitations of the Atari 2600 hardware. It also can be very easy if you have the difficulty switch on the easy position, because that allows your frog, when floating on something in the water section, to safely pass through the side of the screen and come out on the other side. The original arcade version has no such option, which makes them far more difficult, especially with regard to getting your frog safely into the far left home base.

The main thing I don't like about the Atari 2600 version is that it has a very crude rendition of the music and it doesn't play the music at all while you're navigating your frog, both due to hardware limitations. The Frogger tune is one of the catchiest video game tunes of all time.

My cousin had the ColecoVision version when we were kids, which is not only much better than the Atari 2600 version in terms of graphics, but it has a great rendition of the Frogger tune. In some ways I like its rendition of the tune even better than the original arcade tune:

ColecoVision - https://youtu.be/QWu6aBu9pYo
Atari 2600 - https://youtu.be/1_M9i2IZBcw
Arcade - https://youtu.be/1rUPuz2Z9NY?t=58

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I have had every system ever made,

hard to top the current one

( XBOX Series X )

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That's cool! My sons have had just about every system that has come along during their lifetime and they still enjoy playing video games as adults.

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yep, same here,

i had Madden NFL Football '94

and i just bought Madden NFL Football '25

😆

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I have Bong. That game is fun too.

Signed, million man.

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Is that short for Donkey Bong? What are some of the main character moves?

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Nope. It's a bong for smoking weed. Look at my avatar.

Signed, million man.

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Hee, hee. I knew what you meant. I was just messin' with ya. I have a bit of imp in me. That will become clearer over time, I suspect. I kind of showed up here expecting everyone to already understand that and I'm realizing that was a bit silly of me.

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🤣

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I'm an expert at that game!

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At Frogger?

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No, Bong! 😵

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I wonder how you would do at Frogger after playing Bong?

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I'm a gamer, and I've found I do better if I smoke a little bit...However, there's a fine line between that "a little bit" and "so much that it becomes a detriment!"

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Same here. I'm getting better drunk too.

Signed, million man.

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