158 thoughts on “Shall We Play A Game?”

  3. Aww c’mon Walden. Just because he isn’t gay like you, doesn’t mean you have to be a troll.
    In fact I think I had an old Atari game about trolls. Tempest Walden….man in drag!
    Nice site Wil. Keep’um coming!
    HB

  4. Quote—————————-
    Haunted House, Air Sea Battle, Combat, Bezerk, River Raid, Circus Atari, Vanguard, Star Wars (You know the one where you had to blow up the At At’s) Chopper Command, Fast Eddie, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Defender, Missle Command, Laser Blast, Star Master, Indy 500, and of course Pac Man. Anyone else have any of these games.
    Posted by Josh Sol at January 7, 2003 04:50 PM
    ————————
    I had all of those games. Haunted House had to be my all time favorite! There was something about guiding a pair of square eyes through a “house” that appealed to me…But I think I liked it best when you got “scared to death” and your eyeballs started spinning around real fast and the screen flickered and that wonderful “thunder/wind” sound blared from the TV speaker.
    OMG now I just *have* find an Atari on eBay or something! LMAO!
    Wil, I seem to remember a Star Trek game for the 2600 that I had…years before Wesley Crusher was a gleam in Gene Roddenberry’s eye. I remember playing that and thinking about how much I wished I could actually be on the Enterprise, roaming throughout the galaxy in search of Klingons…And you actually got to live my childhood fantasy! LOL

  6. Wil,
    You had to do it? You showed the Atari 2600 joystick, and that brought back memories. Visiting my cousin at his home, he started with a Atari 2600, then got a Atari 7200 (remember those?). I see you are still a console gamer, as I look at one of the games that you play, The Lord of the Rings–The Two Towers.
    I have seen the first movie of the trilogy, and I am reading the Lord of The Rings trilogy right now, it’s a blast for me, and I remember when I checked it out of the library as a kid to read it after seeing the cartoon on one Saturday afternoon.
    Darn Wil, I checked out your biography, and you were a film actor before being *ahem* pigeonholed into Wesley Crusher.
    I liked that character at the beginning, but later I hated the way they used him to fill up some episodes when they had no original material for Star Trek-The Next Generation.
    And I’m glad that you are a geek. Take care of Anne, she sounds like a special lady Wil.
    I’m sorry that I have been behind in the posts in here, but your appearance on The Screen Savers made me want to check out your web site and try to post to it.
    Now back to your regular posts.

  8. My family and I were geek royalty in the 1980s: we had an Atari 7800 AND an Intellivision. I still have the Atari, though I’ve given it to my 8-year-old son to use. When I was 12 or so, my dad, my uncles and I would have Intellivision baseball tournaments on weekends.

  9. Dude that’s So Cool– Man I miss my youth and my mind- don’t know which is worse? ;P

  10. Okay I have to share this story!!
    Some friends of mine were having a retro-gaming type nite.. a friend found her old Atari 2600 at her parents’ place, so everyone came over to play. Included in the group was a 21-year old. They sat down to play Q*bert and said 21 year old was getting pissy ’cause he couldn’t get Q*bert to go where he wanted to go.. he kept jumping off the grid and whatnot.
    The funny part?
    Said 21-year old was holding the joystick upside down.
    He had NO IDEA which end was up!!!
    Everyone kept the secret to themselves for most of the night until finally breaking down and telling him he was holding it upside down (button towards him instead of toward the TV).
    Too funny 😉

  11. My current one has a throttle-thingy at the bottom of the stick, and to simulate rudders I can twist the stick. And loads of buttons to program.
    Oh, the good ol’ days of simple pleasures and crappy joysticks.

  12. Recognize it? Hell, I *collect* for it! Retro-gaming has a HUGE fanbase right now. Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Vectrex… There are new games coming out (in cart form!) for the old game systems and there’s a Classic Gaming Expo held every year in Vegas for fans of the old systems. No sense just grasping onto those old videogame memories, when it’s just as easy to fire the 2600 up for an hour of Kaboom or Pitfall!

  14. P.S. I also have a Magnavox 2000 and it still works… ohh ya Pong baby! with the analog turn dials… whoooooo talk about fun.

  15. Sigh. Atari 2600 was the only system I was good at. I’m pathetic, I know!
    Speaking of pathetic, I’ve been a bad “lurker” monkey on and off again since July (whereas from Jan-June, I was a regular). Can anyone enlighten me as to when Wil left G4? Please e-mail or contact via soapbox due to Mr. Wheaton’s desire to keep this non-BBS. Sorry, SIR!

  17. “Darn Wil, I checked out your biography, and you were a film actor before being *ahem* pigeonholed into Wesley Crusher.”
    I think that being pigeonholed as Wesley is far better than being cornholed as Wesley..Although I could be wrong.

  19. Hey I think Atari should make another system that is based on the old one…for us nostalagic children of the 80s generation. I love Frogger and Tank and Ping Pong, and pac-man and just about all of them.

  20. I refer Mr Silmarillion 7 Jan:
    You Lucky Lucky Bastard! I lived in a farking shoebox in middle of road – and I was lucky! Seriously, we only had 2 television stations in Canberra (our National Capital City – not Sydney) Australia, up til the late 80’s, we didn’t get ‘satellite’ TV until late 90’s and even then only about 20 channels!! We are only now looking at wideband internet and TV (just coming on line). So back in your box I say!!!! You spoilt bratt!! 🙂
    Best regards
    G.

  21. Depends, which of us gets the joystick, and which has to use the power of their brain to make the game work? :p

  22. Yes, High School – we had ‘Micro B’s’ and they were the ducks guts! We had 1 Apple Mac (1) for the whole school (850 kids) in the early 80’s and that was the shit! Ohhh Memmooorieessss.

  24. My family has been telling me for years to get rid of my brother’s old Atari 2600 and I refused! Go me! I even have all the low-quality versions of Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders! Here’s to the good old days and the best old toys…

  26. Ok, this is gonna show how freaking young I am but…I remember playing Atari once. Yup, once. And when I got home from the friends house I was playing in my room and I wanted an atari too so I drew one wih markers on the side of my dresser. Seriously. I think I was 4. Hehe.

  27. Oh yeah, good times….
    Wargames was a great movie (mental note: add it to my wishlist)
    The Atari games are the only ones I ever spent any time playing, and the only ones I ever had any proficiency with. Breakout, that was my game.

  29. Ahh, our old Atari 2600. I miss it so. I think we still have the 40 something games that my dad left with it. I wonder if I can get a new one. Hrm.
    ~runs off to check Ebay~

  32. The 2600 was a great system, but those joysticks were deadly. My sister got really pissed at me one time and hurled one of those things at my head. It managed to gash my skull so bad I lost about a pint of blood. (no stitches though)
    But the games were fun.
    So many memories.

  33. thanks wil, now i had to break out my 2600….im even thinking of getting a 7800 console now (from ebay of course)….great fun…sometimes you want to go back to the sprite gaming of the 80’s.

  34. Wow, I still have my Atari set-up. Though it’s kinda sad these days. Kids with their new games babbling about blowing things up and “Ooo look at the how high the resolution is” and other such nonsense. I remember Pac-man, Pong, and Donkey Kong being the coolest games everyone wanted. Then Final Fantasy I came out…wow…back in the day. Anyway, lest I rant anymore, it’s good to see someone still knows what real fun is.

  35. Websites like Atari.org and atari-history.com keep the original Atari products alive!
    I still love seeing the Atari logo on new video games and knowing that at least the name still carries on!
    Have you played Atari today?

  38. …the first Atari game I ever played was a Smurf game. God, I was like 2 or 3 years old, and I STILL remember it!
    Of course, I lost.
    But the Kings WON’T this year!!! Boomer and The Dave will win the bet if they make one! I hope. Anywho, that’s where I saw you for the first time, Wil. I asked to have a picture taken with you, and you were nice enough to let me. =)
    My Dad picked a hissy fit, though. He’s a nerd, too!

  40. Atari rocks. Gimmie the original 2-bit monster anyday. This new 128 bit stuff is masturbation.

  41. SWEET! An Atari controller. I’m 19 years old, but I DEFINATELY remember those beauties! I loved Atari, especially Pac-Man! He kicks major ass!

  42. Chii!
    Oh, man, it’s been a long while since I played an Atari. I’ve been tempted to get those 10+ in one game machines.. but, alas, I’m stuck with Sega Mega Collection for GameCube (Genesis collections are okay…) and MOOs, MUDs and MUSHs (text based games shall rule forever).
    Atari! Atari! Atari! (thus ends my little comment and back to your normal lives)

  43. Holy cripes you get a lot of comments. Anyway, my “hubby”‘s first computer was a Timex. One of the little ones that you hooked up to your television. I think he had 64 kilobytes of memory. Beat THAT 😛

  46. Ah, yes. The immortal words of Joshua. Voice of the War Operations Planned Response computer. “I’d piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good, let the boy in there Major”. I still have an Atari 2600 also, with the fake wood trim. That, and the Avon 10 games in one Joystick. I am still trying to find Pitfall and Pitfall 2 though… Awesome post Wil. …”Yar’s revenge is new for Atari, have you played Atari today?”

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