r/Atari2600

After a long day of work, it feels nice to relax with some Atari!

Hi there gamer historians,

My dad held onto our old console with games and paperwork and I'm not sure whether it makes sense to dust it off and sell it or hold it in case the grandkids get into retro games...I've done a little research but I'm not trying to take it apart to examine any deeper. It was purchased new (in the 1970s I believe), and I included the stickers on the back in photos if that helps. (Is it a heavy sixer or light sixer, and what's the difference)? I know it's operational but don't know if there's an easy way to connect to a modern TV. Any ideas?

Regardless of what I end up doing with it, if I can connect it without taking it apart and doing some kind of conversion, I'd like to play a little first just for the sake of nostalgia... Any help is much appreciated!!

Yes, this *thing* (first photo) is not a cheap clone. Well… it is cheap, but not a clone.

For loads of reasons, including a law that prevented imports from other countries, things could only be sold in Brazil if they were made there. Because of that, the Atari 2600 would only arrive on Brazilian soil in 1983 — well into the (US) Videogame Crash — when a manufacturer of high end audio equipment called Polyvox acquired the rights from Atari Inc. to start manufacturing the 2600 in-house.

For most of its history here, Polyvox made the 4-switcher ‘Vader’ version (the second photo features my very console, a mid-80’s unit). It looked and worked just like the North American one, with the exception that, after 1984 or so, they started coming with internal power supplies instead of external bricks. And the Atari sold like water on a hot day. Because of the very same market protection law, the 2600’s natural successor, the NES, never got an official release, making the second-generation console thrive all the way up to 1993, when the imports ban was lifted and the SNES was officially released by Nintendo. For some reason, the Atari Jr. also never saw the light of day over here.

In 1991, Polyvox realised that the end of the line was coming for the Atari. The Master System from Sega (manufactured in Brazil by Tec-Toy, I believe) was selling really well, the market was flooded with cheap clones of the NES and Famicom (the ‘Famiclones’) and the SNES was well on the horizon. But they still tried to squeeze the most out of the poor 2600 that they could. Then the 2600s was born.

At first glance, you might confuse it with a normal Vader. But its goal was to be as cheap as possible, replacing the 4 metal switches with a plastic on-off switch on the left and two push-buttons (game select and game reset) on the right. Gone was the Color/Bw switch that older models had.

But the biggest offenders were the hardwired joystick controllers coming out of the front (easy to see on the third photo). Anyone that has ever had or played with an Atari 2600 will know the problem right away: Atari controllers were not exactly known for being reliable beasts and… if one of them broke… congratulations, you just fucked up your entire console!

Anyway, have you guys ever heard of this weird hybrid, end-of-the-line, cheap as can be console? Does anybody have one?

I have about a billion Pacman , but I was digging through some old boxes and found this one from 1987 and i'm not finding much online about it when looking at the UPC. Assuming this is some sort of standard we release. I foun.\nD some with similar labels , but they have the white cc2646.

Love this beautiy ended up getting a lot of games with it as well

I came across a lot on FB Marketplace that was way too cheap to pass up.

5 2600's, a 5200, and a 7800, a handful of games and controllers, and one of those console cases.

I’ve always thought of an Atari game where the 2 player action button jumps and the 1 player action button fires. Have you?

The Atari arrived and in the end I was left wondering if it was that model or a different one; the box and seller's title said it was a "1981 Atari VCS CX2600" model. 😅

Talking a walk thru one of the local Goodwills I found this beaut on the showcase.

$89.99 + tax Untested with the power supply, 2 joysticks and about a dozen cartridges. Couldn't get a good angle for the pictures. 😅

This really is an astonishing program given the limit resources on the 2600. Also, the manual is very well written

I had a few hours free so I thought I’d try out the 2600+

My feelings are mixed. HDMI output, wireless joysticks and 7800 compatibility are great.

However, the 2600+ just looks and feels unsubstantial and cheap compared to the original hardware.

It is a shame that they didn’t take the opportunity to do a better job

Hi folks

I recently purchased this online. Unfortunately the label is looking quite manky. Does anyone have advice about how to safely clean it?