Don't laugh, but I still play with this thing. I'm not ashamed of it, that's just how it is. The Atari 2600 is a very simple, fun machine, and new developments in technology has long passed the poor Atari, but this thing is still a lot of fun.

You've got a joystick with one button (or, a paddle with one button) and some very blocky graphics and poor sound. No rumble packs. No stereo sound. No A/V jacks. Just a fun little machine.

The lack of bells of whistles are a bit refreshing with this system. What the Atari lacks in ability, it makes up for in sheer, old fashioned game play. The Atari was limited even when it was at its peak, and programmers for the system knew this -- they squeezed as much as they could out of that system, and concentrated on solid game engines. The Atari never was much of a machine when it came to graphics, but those simple little games and arcade ports were fun as hell. They still are.

So, don't tell me about bad graphics and sound. I know all about that with the Atari. I've lived with this system for years. Perhaps the appeal of this system has a lot to do with the fact that it was so revolutionary and unique for its time. The first home console game that I played was an Atari 2600 (it was the Atari VCS back then), and a lot of other people can say that.

Prior to the Atari, the idea of bringing home a translation of an arcade game was unheard of. Being able to plug cartridges into a system and have it act like a completely new game was also a fairly novel concept. When the Atari showed up, these ideas were pretty new, and people were fascinated.

The same can't be said of new consoles. They don't offer anything that's new and revolutionary like that Atari did. If you get a Playstation 2, you get some snazzy graphics and sound, but you're still just playing games. The "playing games" part of the equation was a relatively new concept when the Atari arrived -- people played arcade games and had those "Pong" machines at home, but having such a selection available for home use was novel and unique.

So, the Atari was the first company to offer cartridge-based gaming in the market and make the concept radically popular. It deserves its place in history. Sure, it was inferior to some of the other systems at the time such as the Intellivision and ColecoVision, but the sheer volume of titles available for it and the absolute revolution it spawned make it one of the finest systems of all time.

Recommended: Yes