This post brought to you by the letter “V”, Video Games at Home (Part 1)

Video games, they have been some part of all of our lives in one way or fashion.  I have been with them since the beginning when it started with Pong!  Those were the days!  For a game that is as old as it is, back then, when you couldn’t play outside, or you wanted some other form of entertainment, this was it!

I am going to just share some of the systems, and handhelds that I used to own, or own now and some of the games, that I truly enjoy for them.  I hope you enjoy this stroll through video game history with me.

Pong (Atari Version, 1976) I was 7 when we owned this, and to me it brings back some of the fondest memories, and my desire to learn everything I could about computers growing up.

Atari 2600 (Atari, 1977) With the included game Pac Man at the time, it looked nothing like the Arcade Original, really played nothing like the arcade original, but if you had one, and your friend didn’t you were the coolest kid on the block! My favorite 3 games for it were:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark:  You had to play with 2 joysticks, and it was just a game that grabbed you, from the puzzles you had to solve, the different areas of the game that you had to explore, and that classic music, it will forever be one of my favorite 2600 games.
• Bezerk:  I loved the classic 2600 version of Bezerk, you were a human trying to keep robots from destroying you, all the while trying to keep from hitting the walls, and avoid the bouncing ball.
• Pitfall:  I could play this game for hours, jumping over scorpions, climbing up and down ladders, swinging from vines over water and crocodiles.  Just a fantastic game.

Magnavox Odyssey²   (Magnavox / Philips, 1978) I remember this system being at my Grandmothers house in Chicago, Illinois.  When we went there to visit one time, my older sister Tammy had it, she stayed with my grandparents in Chicago, and I got to play it when I visited.  I finally convinced them to let me have it, as she did not play it that much, and I got to take it home.  It had a keyboard on it, which was cool for a home system, and certain games had overlays that you could interact with on the keyboard, or use the keyboard to type numbers for math games, etc…, there were upgrades for it, like the voice synthesizer which I ended up getting a year later, and boy those games were fun, graphics overall were not as good as the Atari 2600, but there were a few stand out games I loved.

• K.C. Munchkin! : Was pretty much a Pac Man clone, and the company actually got sued for that same reason.  But it was a fun game and what was challenging about it was that at higher levels, the maze would change as you moved, and even later levels, the maze would disappear, and you would have to maneuver around figuring out how to move without dying, and seeing the maze.  Awesome!
• The Quest for the Rings:  Wow, what a game, ahead of its time, it came with a board game player pieces, for the 4 characters you could play in the game, with a tie in to Dungeons and Dragons, and the use of the keyboard, joysticks, and the game pieces, it was just one of those games I fondly love, it was also more expensive back then, usually $20-25 more than a regular game, they had a few of those premium games this being one of them!
• The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt:  This game rocked!  It was a stock trading simulation game, but it was fun!  and again ahead of its time for the limitations of the systems back then!

This concludes Part 1 of my stroll down my Video Game History, that I have loved and enjoyed!  Would love to know what games from the Atari 2600, or the Odyssey 2, that you loved?  Please share!  As always, I appreciate you being here, and have a fantastic day!  Tom.