Saturday, October 3, 2015

One Man's Trash: Atari 7800 Gaming System

So, I guess this isn't technically One Man's Trash, but I wasn't quite sure where to categorize today's blog.


This story actually began last weekend when we let the boys watch Pixels which is a movie about aliens coming to destroy Earth in the form of 1980's Atari video games. To defend against the alien attack, the United States government hires former video game champions to lead the planet's defense.

While the movie received negative reviews from critics, the boys LOVED it (methinks because they are convinced that if this were to ever happen in real life, our phone would be ringing off the hook to call everyone's favorite video gamer, Ryan Barrett Walkush, into action).

Flash forward to this weekend. It has been raining since last week, and it will continue to rain throughout the weekend thanks to Hurricane Joaquin. The boys have been talking about the old school games featured in that movie for a full week.

Ryan Barrett Walkush to the rescue! You see, this man actually still has his original Atari console AND all of the joysticks PLUS more than 100 video games and their players' guides/manuals - from the 1980s!



Among the video games were such fan favorites as Pac Man, Centipede, Qbert, Frogger, Space Invaders, Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Galaga, and the list goes on. We decided to hook everything up to see if the system still works.



Guess what? Everything still works just like you remember it! Same old school graphics and you still have to blow on the cartridges! And, yes, the boys figured out how to play them right away. (Although Ryan is still clearly the high score in the household - are you paying attention Mr. President? I mean, we might need these skills one day if aliens ever invade.)





So are we prepared for an entire weekend of rain from Hurricane Joaquin? I'd say so!

This should keep them busy for a few hours at least before they jump into a new book series.

Nice to share a bit of nostalgia with the boys!

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