I have incredible memories of playing Atari when I was a kid. I actually bought a "video game diary" from one of those book club things (you remember those, with the newsprint flyers and the 95 cent books) and I kept up with it, meticulously recording my high scores and having tournaments with my friends.

How 'bout you? What did you play? Were you an Atari kid or a Nintendo kid? Spill...

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Answers

Atari, obviously! I was a huge fan of Burger Time and was elated to see it referenced in your blog. That came a little later in my Atari career, however. Early thumb-cramps came from Space Invaders, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Superbreakout, Enduro, and the disturbing E.T. game in which E.T. walks around looking for dots that represented Reese's Pieces and occasionally keeling over and dying. Very disturbing. I also had stickers from my book club with various bizarre slogans concerning video games: QBert is Qute! Insert Quarter Here! (featuring drawing of an outstretched palm) Don't Invade MY Space! (featuring Space Invaders looking as angry as they possibly could, consid

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

I'm definitely Atari generation, but nothing compares to a good old fashion arcade. I'm really not very good at video games though. I'm not a quitter either. Right now I've got a Play Station and I plan on buying a new one when they come out this fall. Is it sad that a 26 year old professional has to relive his youth with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game?

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Colecovision.

Mr. Do still kicks ass.

Chris http://www.pigeonhole.org/

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Another Colecovision tot here...

The Smurfs game, Donkey Kong, some infuriating little airplane game called Looping... I can't remember the other games we had/have.

Of course, the Colecovision wasn't my only gaming outlet. The trusty Tandy TRS-80 kept me busy for hours with 13 Ghosts and Frogger and Monty Plays Scrabble and the game that made me scared to be in the same room as the computer at night, Zork. I don't know why it scared me really, but text-based games can cause the young brain can go insane with thoughts of grues lurking around certain flood control dams...

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Colecovision DOES kick ass, in general. My favorite game was Mr. Do! on that system... Pepper II, Popeye, and even that Smurfs game (just because the graphics were so futuristic!)

One of my neighbors had the Coleco, and one of my others had an Atari. I loved the Fishing game, and Ka-Boom! was a favorite - whatever happened to paddles, anyway? Even my Commodore VIC-20 had 'em....

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I always liked coin-op games: My family would make an all-day trip to a mall 3 or 4 times a year, and rather than having my mom make me try on pants I would save up money and spend the entire time in the arcade. Sinistar was my favorite, and Tempest a close second. But with home systems I am always at least 5 years behind the times, when they get really cheap because they're almost obsolete. I didn't get into the first Nintendo until 1996! I don't even want to say what year I got my first Atari 2600!

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

Ooh ooh, I had the E.T. game for the Atari and I remember never getting anywhere with it. I didn't really know what the objective was and I kept getting stuck in this ditch. I'd just sort of sit there for a while, make his head go up and down, fly up half way, fall back down, and then quit the game.

In the arcade I was a huge Popeye and Joust fan. I loved my Atari but I was always jealous of my friends who had the mysterious Intellivision... It had such amazing games like that Sea Battle one...

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

I loved Atari, which was the main reason my parents wouldn't let me have one. They said they were too expensive, and I would never go outside if I had one. As a result, I became obsessed with video games. Much of my early 80's childhood was spent in pursuit of video games. I visited my friends only to play Atari, and most of them were already bored of video games and wanted to go outside and play kickball. I couldn't get enough. In my hometown there was a soda machine that would cough up a couple of quarters if you kicked it hard enough. I would run with sore toes to the local arcade and play a game or two of Star Castle and Centipede (my 2nd favorite game ever). Either that or I'd buy a lik-m-aid.

In 1987, I saved up every cent I had for a Nintendo, and managed to be the first kid In my class to acquire one. I was extremely popular for a while. I spent hours beating Contra over and over again. Nintendo is also the home of my favorite video game Golgo 13. The first (possibly only) Nintendo game to feature implied sex and a pack of cigarettes as an energy booster. I have every corner of that game memorized.

Today I've overcompensated for that Atari my parents never bought me. I have an Atari, 400, 2600, 5200, 7800 and Jaguar, an Atari clone, Intellivision, Colecovision, the previously mentioned Nintendo, two game boys, Virtual Boy, several Pong systems (the ones with hockey, tennis, raquetball), Sega Master System, Sega Genesis (with 32X), Sega Saturn, Game Gear, Playstation and Nintendo 64. There's also some stuff that's not immediately coming to mind. Many of those systems were purchased through Nathan's method of waiting until nobody wants them anymore. Playstation is wonderful because of all those collections that compile the old arcade titles on one CD. God bless Midway for providing me with an arcade-perfect copy of Moon Patrol after all these years.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Pah! To hell with these trashy American systems with their slick graphics and smooth gameplay. ZX Spectrums all the way! Admittedly I never had a Spectrum because they weren't 'educational'. I had the BBC Model B Microcomputer, the nearest thing to a State-Approved Microcomputer you could buy. All the games were rubbish, except Elite, but I loved them anyhow. Come to think of it I wonder if Soviet Russia had an official State Computer.....

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Intellevision was by far the best system created. Games like Lock & Chase, Burger Time, Beauty and the Beast. Who could go wrong. Especially if you had the voice modulation unit!!! Where would you be without playing B-52 Bomber???????

-- Anonymous, October 24, 2000

One word:Contra. Up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,B,A,select,start Need I say more?

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2000