I wasted my childhood on one of these systems. I was going to grow up and own the Atari Co. Of course I can't now.... but that's another lament.

Avoiding the boring history lesson that usually goes here, I'll sum up quickly:

The Atari 2600 was one of the first systems to hit the market (I think only the Odyssey and original PONG made it out before it). Regardless of not being the first, it was definitely the best, and you could still by cartridges, though not many, from toy stores in 1992 (that would be 25 years after its launch.)

It was such a popular system, that competitors found ways around competing by developing attachment allowing their system to play its games. Lawsuits quickly followed.

In spite of blocky graphics, and almost no color selection the Atari 2600 reigned king of all home consoles. Beating out others that offered better graphics and more advanced games.

Here ends history lesson.... because as we know, reviews are not about history lessons, but information as to why you would or wouldn't want one of these.

First the specs. Most of you have heard that the word 'bit' when describing modern game systems. The N64 is 64 bits. Super Nintendo was 16 bit, and the regular Nintendo was 8.

The Atari 2600 was 4. Yes, four mighty bits of gaming power.

I believe the 2600 had 16 colors and was able to show 8 of them at once, though I could be wrong on that, it might have only been 4.

Depending on what type of controllers you used, the Atari could handle 1 - 4 players. Yes, that’s right, the Atari did 4 simultaneous players without a Multi-Tap.

Paddle controllers (looked like 2 knobs with a buttons on the side) came in pairs and hooked into one of the control ports on the back. The paddle controllers were very fragile and often broke, thus they're the hardest to find in good condition.

The joysticks however, were this side of indestructible. And with 100s of clones making joysticks (Most systems from the time used the same type of joystick), they should be the easiest piece to find. Thankfully most of the games used joysticks, and very few used paddles.

You needed to hook this system up to your TV, must the same way you hooked up your Playstation or Nintendo. Don't look for any SVHS adapters though, these things needed an RF unit, a $3 part at your local Radio Shack. Go ask for one today, you'll love the looks they give you. Regardless of the looks, they'll still have one or two dusty RF units on some back shelf somewhere, probably right next to their last TRS-80 color computer....

The reasons to pick one of these throwbacks to glam rock, rolled pants and Smurfs are many. The first reason stems from one of my favorite quotes "OK, so you fraged me, show me what you're really made of.... Lets play Video Olympics" (a version of Pong). To this day I have never found anyone younger than me that can consistently beat me at that game.

OK, so I'm stretching...

The only real reason you'd want to pick one of these up is if you have fond memories of playing it. Period. Sure there are 1000s of games, 90% of them are really fun. The controls are simple, you can give it to a 4 year old and not worry they'll destroy it. But it just doesn't stand up against its modern rivals. You have to miss playing it, either because you did, or you have a friend who did. That nostalgia is what helps keep it around.

That said, there are several places you can pick one of these bad boys up. My personal favorite is Goodwill. Yes, that’s right, you heard me, Goodwill. Aside from a mighty selection of narrow ties, Goodwill’s usually have some electronic section, where you can often stumble across some old Atari paraphernalia, usually for under $1 (the system might cost you $2.

Failing finding anything of quality at your local Goodwill, take your narrow ties, and head to Ebay. Ahh, the mighty Ebay. While you will be hard pressed to find the value online, you can be much more selective in your search. Prices, as with all auctions, very here. What one day goes for a couple dollars can be fifty tomorrow.

However, if you don't have any friends or roommates you want to annoy by hijacking the TV you might want to download an Emulator. Finding a site to download from is easy enough, go to your favorite search engine and type; "Atari 2600" AND emulator. Boom, you've got scores of Atari goodness to play on your PC, for FREE! I'd pick out my favorites, but since they are fan based, and not really companies, they tend to close often. Best bet is to go search, see what is still kicking, and go from there.

The only drawback to emulating is that it doesn't really drive home that nostalgic feeling. You really need a system for that.

So if you miss your favorite game from the days of yore, pick one of these up. You'll thank yourself. If you need the newest graphics and sounds, and don't like games just for playability and fun, stick with your new systems.


Recommended: Yes