Atari Reminiscences

My first post was originally published in the September 2020 issue of the print publication The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine from Atari author and expert Michael D. Salzman. This fun Atari zine, which I highly recommend to all retro-gaming fans, ran from June 2018 until February 2022. Back issues of The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine are available on Amazon. Michael also creates Atari 2600 trading cards and runs The Atari 2600 Club on Patreon (which is currently free to join). 

Issue #28 of The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine from Michael D. Salzman

A friend and I were nostalgically reminiscing one day about our favorite decade the 1980's, with me lamenting how I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I could have, and her replying that it's tough to do so while you're living it day to day. That's an interesting insight, and one that perhaps can be attributed at least partially to the nostalgia many from "Generation X" have today for that bygone era. 

Several years ago while I was out shopping, a book titled Art of Atari caught my eye. This beautifully illustrated tome by Tim Lapetino tells the story of the many uncredited graphic artists responsible for the iconic Atari 2600 VCS game box artwork back in the day. It's a fascinating book I highly recommend to any history or classic gaming enthusiast, and one that opens with a foreword by Ernest Cline where he describes wonderfully how intertwined this amazing box art was with the overall experience of playing Atari. He notes how it helped bridge the gap between one's imagination and actual gameplay. Well suffice it to say those opening paragraphs immediately called to mind similar memories for me.  Read on...

The Art of Atari book by Tim Lapetino

Looking back I'm amazed just how much time I enjoyed in the arcades during the 1980's. For years on many a Saturday afternoon I could be found with friends at the local mall feeding quarters into consoles from Atari, Bally-Midway, Williams Electronics and other manufacturers in the hopes of achieving new high scores. And like many others I also enjoyed countless hours playing the home versions of these same games as they were released on the Atari 2600 console.
 
Summers in the early 1980's were the best times because school was out and my friends and I had the most free time. In good weather we'd mostly be outside, but rainy days and evenings for me were often devoted to classic Atari console games. Admittedly, Atari competed for my attention with other interests such as music, movies and professional wrestling on TV, but unlike those pop culture delights the Atari 2600 was interactive. Atari 2600 games in essence extended the arcade experience into the home, whether it be with arcade ports or original titles. I remember the anticipation and excitement reading Atari brochures, or magazines like Electronic Games, or seeing a commercial for an upcoming port of an arcade favorite, followed by the even more exciting trips to acquire them. 

The Toys R' Us video games aisles in 1983

I frequented many different places to buy games, which wasn't surprising since so many retailers from specialty electronics shops to department stores carried Atari product. My favorite place though was undoubtedly Toys R' Us due to their displays. They would have the game boxes showcased in all their artistic glory up on the wall with paper tickets below you would take to the register. After checkout the clerk would get the actual game from a locked glass case, making the whole process seem regal and important. Like I said, anticipation and excitement!

Because I generally preferred space shooters to "cutesy" games, home ports that immediately come to mind include Space Invaders and Asteroids. These games gobbled my coins at the mall and so were must-haves at home. (And as most know, Space Invaders was Atari's first "killer app", and a big reason for the success of the 2600 console). But even games I didn't play as often in the arcade like Pac-Man were exciting releases just because they were coming home. I distinctly remember my mom rushing me to the mall where we got the last of a 50-lot batch of these (Tele-Games) cartridges at Sears soon after the game was released, and then being able to happily tell my friends I had it! Sometimes bragging rights could be as satisfying as playing the game itself!

Although I didn't fully understand it at the time, Atari 2600 cartridges really were package deals. The lavishly illustrated boxes, manuals and cartridge labels were as much a part of the overall experience as the games themselves. This was Atari's marketing genius, which is why it is said the artwork was like the "bridge of imagination" between what one imagined a game to be like and the actual gameplay experience. I agree because with each new game purchase there was a period where I would mostly just admire the box, manual and cartridge art before really getting into playing. Today I hear some folks (mostly younger people and modern gamers) criticize early video games for the blocky graphics and / or simplistic gameplay. It's understandable to a degree given the complexity and connectivity of modern gaming, but nonetheless I know I always thoroughly enjoyed Atari 2600 games and never even thought about graphics being crude or unsophisticated. I was just too captivated by the magic and fun of Atari to contemplate such technical considerations. For example I remember when a friend got Imagic's space shooter Demon Attack (which actually had fairly good graphics for the time), I was immediately addicted to that game and didn't want to leave his house after hours of playing! Of course this simple, incredibly fun title was added to my own collection soon after.

    

The Demon Attack video game cartridge from Imagic

I continued playing Atari throughout the 1980's, even choosing to upgrade to the 5200 Supersystem (with VCS cartridge adapter of course) over the suddenly more-popular Colecovision console. This made sense considering my fondness for Atari, and indeed the 5200 was a great-looking system which brought gameplay even closer to the arcade experience. Then somewhere towards the end of the decade or possibly the early 90's things changed and Atari just kind of went away. This is something I've also heard other classic gamers allude to. That is, people talk about how Atari was such a big part of their childhoods for so long and then one day it was gone. (I guess this could be said of many elements of eighties pop culture as well). Of course this isn't to say the games just evaporated into thin air suddenly, but rather that the once dominant Atari 2600 began to be replaced as the whole industry started to change. Much has been written about the great video game crash of the 1980's and how other companies eventually emerged from the ashes to take over, and I will not discuss that here. But in my own case it was more a matter of life changes like beginning college that caused me to stop gaming. For so many years the famous Atari 2600 wood-grained cabinet was a fixture in my room, then one day my 5200 was boxed up in the basement out of sight, out of mind as I began to focus on other things. Perhaps sometimes significant life changes happen right in front of our eyes, but we don't fully comprehend them until much later.

The Atari 5200 SuperSystem

This brings me back to the Art of Atari book. Reading it reminded me of those long-ago days when Atari was such a part of my world. And that is saying something, because besides being vaguely aware the company had released a couple other systems after the 5200, I hadn't thought about gaming at all in years. Around the same time I read the book, I also learned that others had apparently become interested in Atari again too when I discovered Atari Age and many other retrogaming resources (such as an awesome new print zine called The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine). And I was really quite shocked that Atari Age was not just a historic nostalgia site, but rather a thriving community with a store full of NEW games being produced for the 2600 and other classic systems. The term "homebrew" quickly became part of my vocabulary, and I'm delighted to see that people have taken it upon themselves to extend the life of this system introduced in the 1970's. Even just casually perusing the site one can see the affection folks have for the 2600 and all things Atari in general. 

Issue #1 of The Unauthorized Atari 2600 Throw Back Zine from Michael D. Salzman

Today it appears that, rather than being thrown onto the scrap heap of history, the Atari 2600 VCS is continuing to thrive with a bright future. And the iconic Atari logo seems to be everywhere from t-shirts to posters, riding a wave of retrogaming nostalgia. My own rediscovery of Atari compelled me to dig my 5200 system and remaining cartridges out of the basement. (The unit didn't work, but after buying another on eBay I was happy the cartridges and VCS adapter did)! And since then I've begun slowly collecting Atari 2600 games again, along with their amazing boxes and manuals whenever possible of course. (As it was then, it's still a package deal that goes way beyond electronic programming). Even being a relative novice collector, I can fully appreciate the appeal of this wonderful hobby. And although I sometimes lament the fact that I never seem to have enough time to fully indulge in my (retro) gaming passion like I did way back when, I'm truly grateful to have rediscovered a memorable, happy part of my childhood.