The Console That Started It All!
Written: Sep 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wide variety of titles. Great entertainment value
Cons: for the standards of the time...none
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| gym-378's Full Review: Atari 2600 |
The First??
Okay...so there may have been a few consoles prior to the Atari 2600, but its predecessors usually only offered one or two games and didn't offer the range of titles and quality of games that the 2600 did. If you ask today's PlayStation and N64 owners which console started it all, I'm positive that the majority would point to the 2600.
The Best??
I would not presume to try to tell you that the 2600 could compete in today's graphic-intensive market, but at the time the 2600 was as good as a console could get. Since gaming consoles had been limited to games like Pong, there had never been a opportunity where home gamers could bowl, play tennis, or lead a tank into battle.
Was it as good as the arcade games? Of course not. But the fact that you could play at home and didn't have to spend a quarter every time you wanted to play certainly outweighed the fact that the graphics weren't as good as the stand-ups.
My First 2600
I can vividly remember the day my dad brought home our 2600. I was 11 and he had purchased the console and a couple of games. I remember spending hours playing Combat and PacMan. As I look back now, I chuckle and the quality of the graphics compared to today's games, but since we had nothing to compare it to at that time, we love it! I even remember waiting at the local toy store for the newest titles to be released at Midnight.
For years we played games on our 2600. Everything from Space Invaders to BarnStormer. In fact, I remember the ActiVision titles being some of the best with games like Asteroids and PitFall being my favorites. I can't tell you how many hours my family spent cheering each other on while someone would leap and alligator or swing from a vine in PitFall.
The Competition
About a year after we got our 2600, my dad got into repairing game consoles like the 2600, the Intellivision, and ColecoVision so we always had a number of these consoles around. While the Intellivision and ColecoVision consoles had slightly better graphics, the 2600's wide variety of titles always kept us coming back.
As a gameplayer who has owned everything from Pong to Playstation, Atari's 2600 will always have a special place in my heart as the first true gaming console.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gym-378
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Location: Kansas City, MO
Reviews written: 198
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