My Atari Origin Story

Clearly I’m an Atari superfan, here’s some background as to how I got to be this way.

In the late 1970s, I recall that our family got one of those pong-type games for the TV. I’m pretty sure it was just a knockoff, probably from Sears or Radio Shack, and not an actual Atari one.

It’s hard to describe how exciting that was back then. Being able to actually play a game on the TV was amazingly novel and unexpected.

I recall playing lots of games of pong (or tennis and hockey as they were sometimes called when the board was tweaked slightly). My Dad would often spot me a few points and probably often let me win.

Those pong games were all two-player, though. And after the initial excitement wore off, it didn’t get used much, and just collected dust as it sat on top of the TV.

Remember, TVs back then were literal pieces of furniture! They were huge boxes that sat on the floor and had a big flat spot on the top to put stuff.

By 1980 something else had started to take over as the hot new thing. It was the Atari VCS, which took off in popularity with the introduction of the Space Invaders cartridge.

I’m not precisely certain when we got our Atari VCS, but I remember asking for one for a long time before we actually got one. I’m going to guess we got the VCS in late 1981, although I don’t feel like it was a Christmas gift.

In 1982, the name was changed to the Atari 2600 so that it fit into the product lineup with the Atari 5200.

I do remember when Pac-Man was released in March 1982. My Mom took me to JC Penney where we waited in line quite a while to get the game. I don’t think I really appreciated how expensive this stuff was back then. Pac-Man, at $30, is equivalent to $98 in 2024. Imagine paying nearly $100 for a game today!

For what it’s worth, I actually like Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. It may not look much like OG Pac-Man, but I played it a lot and that bonk-bonk sound is ingrained in my childhood memories.