Post by starbuck66 on Oct 5, 2016 13:42:26 GMT -5
Hello,
My name is Bryce (aka Starbuck66), and I've loved this podcast from the moment I started listening to it!
I was born in 1980, so technically I should be a bit young for the Atari 2600, but my dad brought home a Vader model when I was 2. He had the Pac Man and Combat pack in carts, Super Breakout, and Q*Bert for games. Until 1990 or so, it was the only video game console we had in the house. My cousins had Nintendo, and I always begged my parents for one, but we were on the poor side while I was growing up, so getting an NES just wasn't in the budget. So while they were playing SMB, I was honing my Q*Bert skills :-)
In the late 80's, I started receiving free Atari games and consoles from people when they found out I still had one and used it. There was also a video rental shop next door to my house, and one of the guys there had a ton of Atari stuff. I remember him giving me a ton of joysticks, including some Wico bat stick command and control ones, some Gemini sticks and paddle controllers, the kids controller with all the games, Star Raiders with manual and keypad, Indy 500 with driving controllers, and a ton of carts including many of the Activision games. This added with the other games I got from people put my collection at well over 100 games, plus 3-4 consoles and a slew of controllers.
Once we got an NES, we only had three games for it (SMB/Duck Hunt and Junior Jeopardy), and other than the occasional rental there was only so much of those I could play. So I would often still dig out the 2600 and play some Pitfall, Berserk, Ms Pac Man, Asteroids, Super Breakout, Battlezone, Keystone Kapers, Space Invaders, Dragonfire, (and the list could go on) just because the games were still so fun for me.
Sadly once I moved out of my parents house in 2000 I left my whole Atari collection in their shed, and the house was eventually sold without me retrieving it. I have no idea what ended up happening to everything; I think my mom just ended up selling everything for pennies on the dollar or throwing it out. Luckily I kept my NES, and I got a decent collection started in the early 2000's between buying a friend's collection on the cheap and getting carts at rock bottom prices at EB and at rental stores as they sold off their NES games.
Fast forward to 2012, and after seeing Wreck it Ralph with my daughter, I realized how much I missed my Atari and retro gaming in general. I bought a Flashback 4 used on eBay for about 20 bucks with free shipping. It was cool, but when I realized no Activision or Imagic games were on it, I knew I would need to get a real console. I got a nice 7800 bundle on eBay for about 50 bucks, and it came with quite a few games. Since I started collecting again, I'm up to 160 individual 2600 titles. I'm still far from getting them all, but I'm working on it :-) I'm mainly a loose collector because it's less expensive, takes up less room, and fits with my belief that games should be played, not just displayed on a shelf to look at.
I'm also into collecting for just about every console past the 2600 as well, so my passion for gaming runs pretty deep and across most of the console generations. They say you don't forget your first love though, and that's why the Atari is still the most fun for me to collect for. When I started looking for retro video game podcasts and found this one, I was geeked! I couldn't believe the detail and history Ferg was covering for these games, and it really made collecting and playing them more fun. Thanks again to Ferg for starting his podcast and allowing all of us to share our passion for Atari!
My name is Bryce (aka Starbuck66), and I've loved this podcast from the moment I started listening to it!
I was born in 1980, so technically I should be a bit young for the Atari 2600, but my dad brought home a Vader model when I was 2. He had the Pac Man and Combat pack in carts, Super Breakout, and Q*Bert for games. Until 1990 or so, it was the only video game console we had in the house. My cousins had Nintendo, and I always begged my parents for one, but we were on the poor side while I was growing up, so getting an NES just wasn't in the budget. So while they were playing SMB, I was honing my Q*Bert skills :-)
In the late 80's, I started receiving free Atari games and consoles from people when they found out I still had one and used it. There was also a video rental shop next door to my house, and one of the guys there had a ton of Atari stuff. I remember him giving me a ton of joysticks, including some Wico bat stick command and control ones, some Gemini sticks and paddle controllers, the kids controller with all the games, Star Raiders with manual and keypad, Indy 500 with driving controllers, and a ton of carts including many of the Activision games. This added with the other games I got from people put my collection at well over 100 games, plus 3-4 consoles and a slew of controllers.
Once we got an NES, we only had three games for it (SMB/Duck Hunt and Junior Jeopardy), and other than the occasional rental there was only so much of those I could play. So I would often still dig out the 2600 and play some Pitfall, Berserk, Ms Pac Man, Asteroids, Super Breakout, Battlezone, Keystone Kapers, Space Invaders, Dragonfire, (and the list could go on) just because the games were still so fun for me.
Sadly once I moved out of my parents house in 2000 I left my whole Atari collection in their shed, and the house was eventually sold without me retrieving it. I have no idea what ended up happening to everything; I think my mom just ended up selling everything for pennies on the dollar or throwing it out. Luckily I kept my NES, and I got a decent collection started in the early 2000's between buying a friend's collection on the cheap and getting carts at rock bottom prices at EB and at rental stores as they sold off their NES games.
Fast forward to 2012, and after seeing Wreck it Ralph with my daughter, I realized how much I missed my Atari and retro gaming in general. I bought a Flashback 4 used on eBay for about 20 bucks with free shipping. It was cool, but when I realized no Activision or Imagic games were on it, I knew I would need to get a real console. I got a nice 7800 bundle on eBay for about 50 bucks, and it came with quite a few games. Since I started collecting again, I'm up to 160 individual 2600 titles. I'm still far from getting them all, but I'm working on it :-) I'm mainly a loose collector because it's less expensive, takes up less room, and fits with my belief that games should be played, not just displayed on a shelf to look at.
I'm also into collecting for just about every console past the 2600 as well, so my passion for gaming runs pretty deep and across most of the console generations. They say you don't forget your first love though, and that's why the Atari is still the most fun for me to collect for. When I started looking for retro video game podcasts and found this one, I was geeked! I couldn't believe the detail and history Ferg was covering for these games, and it really made collecting and playing them more fun. Thanks again to Ferg for starting his podcast and allowing all of us to share our passion for Atari!