Atari 2600 package complete, just in time for Christmas

I grew up in the NES era and I have no nostalgia for the Atari 2600. Heck, I don't even like Atari (the company), and the more I read about the company, the more I hate them. But today my Sega Genesis controller arrived (it's compatible with the 2600 without modification) and I have to say I'm enjoying those wacky games with primitive graphics and no music quite a bit. The thoughts in my mind are not, "Man, this is just like I remembered," but rather,

• "People must have been easily entertained in the '70s." 
• "I'm having to use my imagination quite a bit with these graphics." 
• "I'm actually quite impressed with what they did with these graphics."
• "I like seeing how big of a difference there was between arcades and home consoles at the time."
• "I'm not expecting to see an ending screen any time soon" (indeed, these games just got harder and harder until the game forced you to lose), and, 
• "There's no way I can mess this up with only one button on the controller." 

The Atari 2600 controller is pretty awful, but the Genesis controller, while still a bit stiffer than my Saturn controller, makes the Atari 2600 feel like a real console. And appreciating it for what it is and was, it's pretty fun and amazing. I might have to thank James Rolfe for steering me in the right direction.

Why did I buy an Atari 2600? Ostensibly for my brother for Christmas, but it's really for me and my brother for Christmas. I won the eBay auction (console, original power supply, two joysticks, paddles, games, and their manuals) by sniping with a max bid of $66.67, but I ended up paying just under 50 bucks. (50 BUCKS!) Free shipping.

When it came, there was a bunch of rattling. There actually wasn't any packing material! Also, the power supply was missing, one of the joysticks was broken, and one of the paddles was broken, but since the paddles came in pairs, both were worthless to me. I messaged the eBay seller and he was very apologetic and sent me the rest of the stuff and a game he forgot to include the first time around, and later on sent me replacement paddles. Driving paddles, so I still need to shell out for the regular paddles, but whatever. I spent an extra $6 or so getting a coaxial adapter, which apparently could be had for $1 or so, but it was still cheap enough so whatever. My Sega Genesis controller was under $10 shipped, so that was cool too. I'll keep the broken joystick if I ever want to mod my NES controller for the Atari 2600 like this guy.

The manuals are pretty useful to have because of the switches for the difficulty settings (a concept which I'm still wrapping my head around). Luckily Atari Age comes through for this. I can't believe how many variations Space Invaders has!

What's left? Get the system modded for s-video, pause, and LEDs, buy adequate storage for games, collect more games like Pac-Man 4K, and maybe learn how to get started on building a custom joystick for all my legacy consoles. Foehammer looks good for this purpose.

Weird-ass dream (2013.12.13)

I dreamt I was popular.

Was kinda nice, actually...

Embracing the YouTube / Google Plus Integration

I don't care what anyone says; this new YouTube / Google Plus integration is great! It gives those of us whose accounts were banned (which is, to say, all of us) a second chance, and now I might actually purchase movies and other videos on YouTube.

Here's my first video on my main account.