What systems have you owned/currently own?

[Gazza]

The Atari 2600, originally called the Atari VCS, is the godfather of modern videogame systems, and helped spawn a multi-billion dollar industry. Atari sold over thirty million of the consoles, and together with other companies sold hundreds of millions of games. Cartridges for the system were produced across three decades, and there are homebrew games being produced even up to the present.

The Atari 2600 was released in October 1977. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F, however, the Atari 2600 is credited with making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.

By 1979, Videogames started to become increasingly popular, but the VCS wasn't exactly breaking any sales records. That is until 1980, when Atari became the first company to port an arcade game to cartridge. That game was Space Invaders. Space Invaders for the VCS hit the shelves in January, 1980, and was a huge hit. Many people bought the VCS just to play Space Invaders at home. This game was the first example of what one would term a "killer app". The future of Atari looked bright.

By 1984 though, the videogame market had collapsed under the weight of cheap, poorly designed software from companies looking to cash in and make a fast buck from the video game market. However that didn't stop Atari and they kept trying to push the 2600 with promotions and low prices, emphasizing the vast number of games available. Even in 1989, Atari was still pushing the Atari 2600 in its "The Fun is Back... Under $50" campaign.

The Atari 2600 sold over 30 million units and at the peak of it's popularity "Atari" was a household name making millions and millions of dollars and employing over 10,000 people. But it declined, and the company effectively died in July 1996 when it was purchased by JTS (a hard drive manufacturer) who sold off most of Atari's remaining assets.

These are the different official model variations of the Atari 2600:

- Atari VCS - CX2600 Sunnyvale Edition. This was the original model made in the US and which came to be known as the "Heavy Sixer" due to the six switches and heavy internal RF casing.

- Atari VCS - CX2600. This was similar to the original but was now manufactured in Hong Kong and was much lighter than it's predecessor.

- Atari VCS - CX2600A. Functionally identical to the above two units. This was known as the "Four Switch Woody" due to two of the switches having been moved to the top of the unit and those two switches are much smaller. (This is the version I own and which is shown in the pic below).

- Atari 2600 Black Edition. These units were introduced in 1982 and were primarily black in colour with no woodgrain. This model was referred to as the "Vader".

- The Atari 2600 Jr revisions: There were three different variations of these "Junior" units. They were first introduced in 1986. All are very similar except for slightly different casing and appearance.

In the pic below,
to the top left is an official Atari storage case unit, next to it an Atari 2600 system - the "Four Switch Woody" version.
next to the 2600 is what is known as the Arcadia Starpath Super-Charger cartridge add-on module. This unit basically expanded the game capabilities of the Atari 2600 by adding extra RAM and thus allowing for larger games with higher resolution graphics. A cord coming out of the side of the cartridge plugged into the earphone jack of any standard cassette player. Games for the Supercharger were stored on normal audio cassettes. These cassette games had for the time relatively short load-times, unlike those crazy loading times of a Commodore 64.
Next to the Super-Charger module is an audio cassette tape deck, and below that are five cassette games compatible with the module.
To the middle of the pic are a bunch of Atari 2600 games and to the left of those are some Atari 2600 controllers.

[Dalem]

I honestly love all the updates on this thread, everytime I see it in the recent threads box I know I have at least 3 mins of reading ahead of me. I find all the write ups very interesting and think Gazza has a priceless collection.
Keep it up

[Gazza]

Thanks, Dalem. 
Yeah it's kinda fun to do and I've always thought that these older system, even with the passage of time, have not lost their relevance, so to speak.
And this is the perfect forum to do this. I mean it's so laid back here so you won't get the usual questions of - why do you own so many systems? what do you do with them all?  blah blah blah etc etc

[Gazza]

The Intellivision.


After successful test marketing in 1979, Mattel Electronics released its Intellivision system nationwide in late 1980. Armed with twelve games, better graphics and sound than its competitors, and the promise to release a compatible keyboard that would turn the system into a home computer, Mattel set its sights on taking down the "invincible" Atari 2600. They got off to a good start, selling out the first production run of 200,000 Intellivision units quickly.

Mattel also released the system under different names to expand its market. The Intellivision was released in Sears stores as the Super Video Arcade, at Radio Shack as the Tandyvision I, and as the GTE/Sylvania Intellivision.

Many people bought an Intellivision with plans to turn it into a home computer when the keyboard was released. There was a huge marketing campaign behind this (one-third of the back of the Intellivision box was dedicated to the "Under Development" keyboard), but months and then years passed without the keyboard being released. Actually, it was released in a few test markets in late '81, but the price was too high and the initial reaction poor. So in 1982, Mattel scrapped plans for the infamous keyboard, but later (due to government pressure), they had to make a computer add-on anyway.

Mattel tried some new things in 1982, releasing a voice-synthesis module called Intellivoice that made sound and speech an integral part of gameplay when used with compatible cartridges. Intellivision also released the Intellivision II console which was described as "smaller and lighter than the original, yet with the same powerful 16-bit microprocessor." The Intellivision II was designed for a few reasons: to lower the production cost, make repairs easier (for example, it replaced the hard-wired controllers with removable ones), make expansion easier (for the upcoming 2600 adapter and other accessories).

Probably the most interesting accessory for the Intellivision was PlayCable, an adapter that plugged into the cartridge port. For $4.95, the cable company would transmit PlayCable subscribers 20 Intellivision games a month. All you did was select the game you wanted to play from a menu, and the game would download into the adapter's RAM where it could be played. Every month, the games would be rotated or changed, and users would receive new instruction books and overlays for each new game in the mail.
If you think about that for a minute- the fact that there existed a system where downloading playable games was possible, in the early 80's?! That's just mind boggling!

Regarding the games,
125 cartridge games were released for the Intellivision between 1979 and 1990, with a small portion requiring the Intellivoice or ECS add-ons.

A few additional homebrew games for play on a real system (or through emulation) have been released since 2000.

Many of the first 125 games feature some of the best graphics and sound for any video game system before Coleco released its more powerful ColecoVision, though gameplay speed often seemed a bit slower than many of its contemporaries.

By 1983 the video game crash began to put pressure on the entire industry, and in the spring of that year Mattel went from aggressively hiring game programmers to laying them off within a two-week period. By August there were massive layoffs, and the price of the Intellivision II (which launched at $150 earlier that year) was lowered to $69. Mattel Electronics posted a $300 million loss. Early in 1984, the division was closed — the first high-profile victim of the crash.

The Intellivision system sold over 3 million units.

In the pic below,
I have two Intellivision consoles. The one to the left is the Intellivision II and next to it is the original model. Next to that is the Intellivoice module unit. Toward the bottom of the pic one can see some games that were compatible with this unit (the games in the white boxes)

[Dalem]

Awesome Collection

[Residante]

Gazza, nice example of the Intellivision. Plus the Intellivision II which I did not even know existed...

This is one of my most loved consoles. On Retro Sundays I still often give the Intellivision a go...

If I may ask, where do you source most of your consoles from (E-bay I assume, or do you go overseas a lot/relatives there?) and how much did you pay for this example. I know shipping is very expensive...sitting on the tip of Africa and all.

Anyway, said it before but I think you have some awesome items in your collection.

Nice one.

[Gazza]

Thank you Dalem.


@ Residante,

Yeah the Intellivision II was released in 1983. It's more compact than the original model, and has detachable controllers.

Yeah most of my stuff(not all) I get from eBay. The shipping as you say does tend to get somewhat expensive, but I usually try and make use of Priority shipping(from the US) which is cheaper than Express Mail and also has a usable tracking number.
The Intellivision II system + the Voice module and 24 CIB games, set me back $145 incl shipping. So that cost works out to something like buying 2 new xbox or ps3 games.


On a different topic,
For those guys that have yet to splurge on that PS3 GOW III Ultimate Trilogy Edition,
I managed to get me one of these earlier this week, and I will say it's quite a cool looking package with some decent extras including the remastered versions of the first two games in the series and the God of War trilogy soundtrack. I think there's also a voucher to download a documentary off the playstation store. I've not yet tried that out though.

[Akira]

*Drool* Where did you say you live? And what kind of security do you have again?

What do you do for a living Gazza? And while we are getting personal, What is your shoe size, favourite colour and food of preference!

[The Valentine]

*Drool* Where did you say you live? And what kind of security do you have again?

What do you do for a living Gazza? And while we are getting personal, What is your shoe size, favourite colour and food of preference!

Don't forget:

-Credit card info
-Biggest fantasy
-Mother's maiden name
-Favourite quote from Shakespeare
-Preferred cup-size
-Freakiest fetish
-First dogs breed
-list of criminal offences
-and supplier of your chronic

[Gazza]

@ Akira,

-gautengeleng
-fidel the hairless terrier
-ice road trucker
-between a bigfoot and a sasquatch
-pimpin' purple
-aush soup

@ Valentine,

-mastercard - 5565-3078-0997-0046. Three digit security no- 186
-it's a tie between Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy XII
-geneviève
-he who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself
-dd double dang
-a little inflatophilia now and again
-saarlooswolfhond
-spat on the sidewalk a couple times and wore a fake moustache that caused laughter in church
-nodding disease, there's no known cure

[dawid22]

Mmm... Gazza, I think it is about time you line everything you have up for one big-ass shot. I know it will take time, but I'm itching to see it all presented at one time

[Gazza]

Mmm... Gazza, I think it is about time you line everything you have up for one big-ass shot. I know it will take time, but I'm itching to see it all presented at one time

I don't reckon I've got a wide enough space for a single shot of the whole lot
For the hardware alone, though, yeah that's probably possible.
In the meantime, for those new to the thread and who might not want to be going through a hundred pages, here's the summarized version.



Magnavox Odyssey² with Voice module




Odyssey² games.




Radofin 1292 APVS




Atari 2600 with an Arcadia Starpath Super-Charger cartridge add-on module.




Intellivision model 2/Intellivision model 1 with Voice Synthesis module.




Colecovision with Atari Expansion add-on module.




2X Commodore 64 with Floppy Disc Drive and tape unit.




Atari 7800.




Sega Master System with Power Base Converter and 3D glasses.




Nintendo Entertainment System and FC Mobile NES portable.




Sharp Twin Famicom.




Famicom Disk System games.




Atari XEGS.




2 X Sega Genesis Model 1/Sega Genesis Model 2/2 X Sega Nomad/Sega CDX.




Super Nintendo Entertainment System.




Sega CD Model 2.




Sega 32X.




PC Engine Duo/TurboGrafx 16/CoreGrafx I/TurboExpress




NeoGeo AES/NeoGeo CD (Top Loader)




NEC PC-FX.




Sony Playstation.




Philips Magnavox CD-i.




Atari Jaguar/Atari Jaguar CD Attachment.




2 X Panasonic 3DO FZ-10.




Sega Saturn.




Nintendo 64 Pikachu Edition/Nintendo 64.




Sega Dreamcast Black Sports Edition/Sega Dreamcast White.




Playstation 2/PS2 Slim.




Playstation 2 games.




PS2 Demo Discs.




2 X Nintendo GameCube with 2 X GameBoy-Player attachments.




Microsoft Xbox.




Xbox 360 Pro/Xbox 360 Core and HD-DVD unit.




Xbox 360 games.




Nintendo Wii.




Playstation 3 NTSC 60GB.





PC games.
















Portable Systems:


Donkey Kong Game & Watch.




NEC Turbo Express.




Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP+/GameBoy original.




Sega GameGear and Master Gear Converter.




Atari Lynx I/Atari Lynx II.




GameCom Phat/GameCom Slim.




NeoGeo Pocket Colour.




Bandai WonderSwan Colour/SwanCrystal.




Nintendo DS Lite.




PSP Phat/PSP Slim & Lite.




Gaming rooms:

[dawid22]

Awesome room

I really do hope that no one ever breaks in to your place as no insurance would ever be able to cover what you've collected.

[xeroboxer]

Awesome collection! The life of the collector is a lonely one, sure makes me feel better knowing I'm not alone out there Your collection is amazing. I might have you on the Nintendo, Sony & XBox stuff...but for the rest you are king of the hill. Nicely done dude. I will have to do a pic shortly

[Gazza]

I might have you on the Nintendo, Sony & XBox stuff...but for the rest you are king of the hill. Nicely done dude. I will have to do a pic shortly

Everybody's got me on the Ninty, Sony and 360 stuff :lol:
That GoW III game is the only current gen title I've bought in almost a year. lol

Looking forward to your pics.