@ AI: well, I thought that people on this forum would "decode" the title word as they read it. Sorry really, I've added description.
I still don't know what I'm gonna see when I click the link. I'm going in. Phew, it's safe. Okay, now to edit the OP...
What a blast from the past.. However it was missing a console from my past I was hoping to see. The Atari 400 it was the first time I ever did any programing (ok, so it was just Basic but still). My parents bought it for me as a gateway to allow me to play videogames, they said I had to spend an hour within the "computer" mode before I could play an hour worth of games. My Dad was a die hard Atari fan, when Nintendo came out I couldn't get one, instead I had the Atari 7600 and eventually I was able to get the NES but only after my parents were sold on the running pad and track and field games. Hard to believe I'm one of the "Old One's" and I'm only 31, I'm sure people here remember the first Pong console!
Surely the keyboard (for want of a better word) disqualifies it from being a console? Not knocking it, it was my first computer too, I have fond memories of Star Raiders, Rescue on Fractalus <betrays school-boy pirate heritage>, Ball Blazer (hmmm, maybe I'd progressed to a 800XL by then ...) and so on ... <sigh> Things were better* in my day, etc * Eh, not really. Simpler maybe ... edit oh, now I see it's got the 800XL on that page, and a few other keyboard machines ... Wonder what criteria they used to define "console".
This is probably the best thread ever So many memories, although I never did have the Fairchild Channel F. I really need to win the lotto already so I can buy a huge house and setup all these machines in one giant room of video game epicness.
Not sure about the other machines but the 400 went into Basic programming mode as long as you didnt have a game in it I believe. It's been so long since I had it, going back to when I was a child my memory is a little fuzzy but I do know the machine I had didn't require a cartridge to be able to program it. Don't remember if the book came with the machine or if my parents bought it for me but they showed you how to make simple programs, like how to make a animated bird (ok so it was just alternating symbols to make it look like the wings where flapping) And simple question and answer programs. 10 Print Hello RUN Watch your screen fill up with the word RUN on the left hand side..oh the joys of basic programming
My first console. I still have it somewhere. Its like a gem for me. A gem of the past. A collectors item. I keep it safe. I was 5 or 6 years old when I owned it. And there is something about this console that still addicts me when I see it lying there, or when I see the package. There was something different about the older times that made gaming seem sweeter and with a soul. I miss that feeling. Simple but lovable. I can still remember the smell of plastic from the cartridges and the console itself. Console games today are much more advanced and I cant imagine myself playing old games often. But still I feel that they (today's games) lack something special. Perhaps that special that they lack is me. it was the fact that they were far from having any similarities with reality and therefore it communicated directly with my imagination. Thats surreal gaming right there. Probably thats what these games had. The limited graphics and sound became a part of you and you became a part of it through imaginagination *pulls a tissue*
I'd say the principle reason is a LOT less money/business involved... Gaming at some point sooner or later had to step up from "garrage developing" and goes mainstream. Also, it all seemed very fresh and new at the time, and the fact that the people playing in those days were mostly kids, and when you are a kind eveyrthing seems great , like today's kids have their consoles and games they like. As years are passing by, bunch of things can't have the "wow" impact they did the first time we experienced them.
The Atari 2600 was my first console too, but it was the first version made by Sears branded Tele-Games & it had the wood grain & 6 switches. Dad got it for us in the late 70s. I would have been 6 or 7 at the time. He was such a tech geek in the 70s & 80s. Tommy McClain
I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment! That's why I always roll my eyes when I hear posts about how great games where in the past, or such and such was the greatest game ever (and the game was back on the NES). I have very fond memories of games from my past as well; however I know after trying to play them again (usually through an emulator) that the "Magic" was no longer there for me. I prefer to keep those memories the way they are because as soon as I go back and attempt to play those exact same games my perception of them changes drastically. To this day my perception of Joe Montana football is that it is the best looking football game, I refrain from looking at images or playing the game because once I do my perception of it will change..and a piece of me will die Just as I'm sure todays youth will look back upon Halo: Reach and say it was the best game ever; even though it has been surpassed 2 fold by the time they are as old as me