ATARI EARLY DAYS NOSTALGIC BLOG

ATARI NOSTALGIC BLOG ::

As with many of us who grew up during the ‘70s and ‘80s, we got introduced to Atari with their latest new interactive electronic toy in town, a new toy that was meant to be plugged into our B&W TV. PONG was its name!

PONG
TV PONG: That was something new and never seen before, the first two-player electronic game allowing us to move a light bar up & down on each side of our TV screen; by using round knobs! Upon starting the game, we both were now trying to prevent that square ball to pass us and to bounce it back to the other side hoping your opponent will not be able to block it to win a point! Interactive tennis was now available on our very own TV, how cool was that! And, the pure joy of having succeeded to win the game at the end after all those beeps of the ball hitting the walls and our futuristic light-rackets.

ATARI VCS :: A NEW KID IN TOWN!
ATARI 2600: A few years later, in 1977, a new electronic interactive machine hits the stores, something everyone just called an ATARI gaming machine to moms and dads, this new machine enabled us now to play games in colors, games that were even more fun and challenging than Pong!

COMBAT: BATTLE TANKS
The COMBAT game came bundled with the Atari 2600, each could control a tank advancing in a deserted field with a huge block to avoid, hearing the deep sound of our tank engine advancing forward, seeking the enemy, trying to find the right angle to shoot the other tank who is there to destroy you!
Combat offered multiple scenarios and maps to play with, giving also your tank the ability to curve the missile just enough to hit the tank that was hiding behind a blockade; projectiles could also bounce off obstacles!

COMBAT: DOGFIGHT
DOGFIGHTING: Once you were bored of fighting vigorously with the tanks, you could take it up to the air and pursue the war to the death in a super warplane WW2 dogfight in the clouds.

HAVE YOU PLAYED ATARI TODAY

HAVE YOU PLAYED ATARI TODAY: This is why the original Atari logo holds a rather special place in the hearts of so many people. Representing a special time we had and a period of our life where fun and play were as beautiful as seeing and hearing a baby laughing. I still enjoy fondly playing many of these classic video games on my Atari game consoles and computers today!

ATARI LOGO

FUN FACT: The, now legendary logo designed during the early '70s was created by Atari’s very first in-house designer, George Opperman Atari’s art director who created also the art for Atari's coin-op cabinets and backglass artwork for Atari pinball games. Sadly, George Opperman passed away too soon during the mid-'80s from lung cancer; at an early age of only 50.

During an interview in 1983, Opperman offered an explanation for his famous design, stating that the logo represents a stylized letter “A”, for Atari. The Atari logo later was described as a "Fuji" (as in Mount Fuji in Japan) and was meant to represent also the game Pong, with "two opposing video game players with the center of the Pong court in the middle.
If there is one brand that resonates with me and screams ‘80s pop culture nostalgia, it is definitely: ATARI.
In my opinion, this is the most beautiful video game logo ever. There is no other type of logos that will that make me smile as much with that special good feeling aura about it as much as Atari!

MY ATARI 1200XL :: COLORFUL ATARI LOGO!

______________________________________________

Blog by Philippe Lafortune, "The Geek Connoisseur" RETRO GAMERS HUB I'm also hosting the largest retro gamers community hub on Facebook with its 40+ retrogaming interest groups/pages:
RGH Groups Directory: http://RetroGamersHub.com
My Facebook: www.facebook.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ATARI MISSILE COMMAND ARCADE BLOG

Image
ARCADE NOSTALGIA BLOG :: One of my all-time favorite arcade machines: Missile Command ! It is also one of the best looking Atari arcade cabinets of the 80’s! I've played this awesome game in arcade rooms for hours on end. Easy to play but hard to master if you wanted some serious high-score! When I first saw its cool large control panel with its big target control trackball and its missile launch control compose of three volcano-like buttons I was hooked immediately and wanted to play it. I still remember the first time I've played it; pressing the start button for the very first time. Hearing the sounds of a new level starting and all the sound effects during gameplay and at the end when it was calculating the remaining missiles and cities you've saved along with the bonus city sounds which was a nice relief to hear after they've destroyed them all. How cool it was to defend your cities from incoming ICBM missiles with fast reaction and precision trackball gameplay b
Read more

SAVE MONEY ON SHIPPING WITH LOOSE CARTS!

Image
Consider this when shipping with Canada Post and USPS . Here's something that Postal Offices will not share with you! Many people believe it is expensive to ship internationally, between the United States and Canada. It's not really true if you can keep it as a Letter-Mail! However, when using this option, make sure your buyer understands or that you clearly indicate this below; especially when selling online: SHIPPING LOOSE GAME CARTRIDGES Here is a simple guideline to follow to reduce the shipping cost, save your time, or any hassles filling customs forms when shipping internationally. Shipping loose game cartridges such as Atari , ColecoVision , Intellivision , Sega , Nintendo , PSP , Xbox , Playstation , or anything else that can fit inside a large yellow or plastic envelope, they can actually be shipped using the Letter-Mail option as long as they are not thicker than 20mm (0.8 in.). This method only requires you to buy stamps only , no customs forms to fill , and you can
Read more

ARCADE RACING RETRO GAMES BLOG

Image
ARCADE RACING RETRO GAMES BLOG :: From low res to high speed, racing games have come a long way! I remember playing my first racing video games in 1974 : " Gran Trak 10 " from Atari, a black-and-white top-down racer with white dots trace the borders of the track, we needed to avoid hitting the dots with a real steering wheel to control a car sprite. Then we've played in Night Driver in 1976 in arcades beside pinball machines; this also came out on the Atari 2600 in 1978. In 1980 , we had other types of arcade racers, one that I really enjoyed was Rally X from Namco; this was a top-down, multi-directional racing game with multiple paths and opposing racers. A few years later, in 1982 , Namco came out with Pole Position ! This arcade racer was one of the most influential racing games of all time. This is when a bright, third-person view graphics and smoothness of motion became a standard for racing games. The 2600 arcade port was still decent even with the console limitati
Read more