Classic Game Night
Like Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj - our four geek-and-nerdy pals on The Big Bang Theory - do on Friday nights, we too had a Classic Gaming Night tonight in our household.
Our console of choice - the venerable Atari 2600.
My time with Atari stretches way back, as I am an owner of the 4-switch CX2600A model of the 2600. Admittedly, I've not played with my model in many, many years - and could not be sure if it even worked - but I still have quite a number of fond memories from childhood playing games on the machine. And though its game-play and graphics are more than laughable today, the Atari 2600 still holds a certain level of mystique...
So, imagine my surprise when Nicole and I were in Michigan a few weeks ago to discover that her dad had a version of the machine too - the Sears Video Arcade II - and he was going to give it to me. We weren't able to bring it home with us from Michigan at the time, but, having met her dad in Nashville this past weekend, we were able to make the trade.
With this version, as with mine, time has passed it by... so connecting it to today's TVs by the old analog switch boxes we used to have to get with it were not possible. There's no UHF connectors on TV's anymore! Thankfully Radio Shack sells a certain adapter called the "Phono-to-F Adaptor" plug, which is a RCA-to-COAX plug adapter. It's about 1 inch long and about $2.00 if you can find it.
I found one at our local Radio Shack and came home to try out the consoles - who knew if either of them worked?
After getting the Sears version unwrapped and hooked up, I switched on a number of games to instant glee - most of them still worked and, more importantly, the console did too. After verifying that the Sears console worked I set my old one up... but unfortunately while power was running to it I could not get a picture out of it from any game.
I has a sad.
But I did get a few hours of play on the Sears version with Pac Man, River Raid, ET, Bowling, Cosmic Arc, Smurfs (yes Smurfs), Megamania, Space Invaders, Astroids, and Pitfall before calling it a night.
Our console of choice - the venerable Atari 2600.
My time with Atari stretches way back, as I am an owner of the 4-switch CX2600A model of the 2600. Admittedly, I've not played with my model in many, many years - and could not be sure if it even worked - but I still have quite a number of fond memories from childhood playing games on the machine. And though its game-play and graphics are more than laughable today, the Atari 2600 still holds a certain level of mystique...
So, imagine my surprise when Nicole and I were in Michigan a few weeks ago to discover that her dad had a version of the machine too - the Sears Video Arcade II - and he was going to give it to me. We weren't able to bring it home with us from Michigan at the time, but, having met her dad in Nashville this past weekend, we were able to make the trade.
With this version, as with mine, time has passed it by... so connecting it to today's TVs by the old analog switch boxes we used to have to get with it were not possible. There's no UHF connectors on TV's anymore! Thankfully Radio Shack sells a certain adapter called the "Phono-to-F Adaptor" plug, which is a RCA-to-COAX plug adapter. It's about 1 inch long and about $2.00 if you can find it.
I found one at our local Radio Shack and came home to try out the consoles - who knew if either of them worked?
After getting the Sears version unwrapped and hooked up, I switched on a number of games to instant glee - most of them still worked and, more importantly, the console did too. After verifying that the Sears console worked I set my old one up... but unfortunately while power was running to it I could not get a picture out of it from any game.
I has a sad.
But I did get a few hours of play on the Sears version with Pac Man, River Raid, ET, Bowling, Cosmic Arc, Smurfs (yes Smurfs), Megamania, Space Invaders, Astroids, and Pitfall before calling it a night.