Profile Atarian: Jason Wells

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Why Collect Atari Games?
By Jason Wells

April 2, 2005

Actually it was my friends who said why in the HE double hockey sticks would you collect Atari 2600 Games? Atari 2600 holds special memories for me growing up as a child. How many of you reading this remember spending all day in the arcade playing that game of Dig Dug or Asteroids when you got a quarter or two or just hangin' out wishing you could play those games at home.

A few of my friends got Atari 2600's and I only had Good old Radio Shack Pong. I used to go over their house and play Pitfall, Enduro, Asteroids, all the 2600 favorites. I would be so jealous of my friends who had their 2600's. I remember helping a few friends clean their rooms just so we could play their Atari.

The time finally came and I finally got my Atari 2600. My father got it off a Radio show that people called in to sell their wares, sorta like a radio flea market. I got the Atari 2600, 2 joysticks and paddles and 12 games. I was so happy that I finally got my Atari. I remember playing it for hours on end, driving my mother and father crazy because I was always had the Atari going on the TV that everybody watched TV on. But the famous video game crash get me a ton of games. I don't remember what happened to my old Atari 2600.

A lot of years later I discovered Emulators and I found Stella. I was in Atari Heaven, but it just was not the same.

Just a month ago I started to collect the Atari 2600 stuff. I cleaned out all the second hand stores and pawn shops in my area of every Atari thing I could find. I cleaned up every system and cartridge I brought home and start to play some and some of the games I bought I completely forgot about. It is fun collecting something that was a big part of your childhood. I think this is why there are a lot of Atari Collectors out there today, it was a big piece of their childhood growing up.