How to Relive your Childhood Memories

Do you miss some of your childhood memories? I was seven years old when the Atari 2600 came out. This was truly an amazing machine. With a full 8 bit processor, over 350 games that attached to your tv, it was sure to allow for hundreds if not thousands of hours of family fun. To think this was all for under 50 dollars.

My family has always been competitive. We compete in sports, board games, and even life in general. Soon, we would be competing in the electronic world of video games. A few years back, my mom was at a garage sale and for a quarter picked up a plaque that you hang on the wall. This plaque had a plastic tube for which you put dimes in. According to the plaque, once it was full, you had 50.00 worth of dimes. Our family had been saving all of their dimes for a little more than a year. The time had finally come to purchase a “family” gift. We had decided on Atari’s new joy machine.

We purchased the entertainment system at K-Mart. It was $50.00 well spent. The box was plain and simple, without much printing on the outside.  I remember wanting to open it in the car on the way home. We had purchased two additional games with the machine, which came with two as well. The two included games were Stampede and Pac -Man. We also purchased Pong and Combat (Combat had 64 games built into one). This is every kid’s dream. Everyone knows the classic Pac-Man, but the graphics on this were terrible, certainly not like the arcade version.  In Stampede, you are a cowboy on a horse running a track roping all of the loose cows. While I was not much of a real cowboy, nor did I ever want to be, Stamped allowed me to escape into a world where riding horses and five gallon hats not only made me cool, but made me think that pressing a button would help me catch cows.

Let the Competition Begin

Over the next two to three years, we purchased a huge collection of games. At one point, we had over 400 cartridges which gave us almost 500 games including everything from Pitfall to River Raid, Keystone Capers, to Crackpots. We had a sheet of paper taped to the entertainment center, where we kept track of our high scores. No score could be legally changed without a witness. (Although I think my brother may have changed some of his when no one was watching. I never would have done this. Wink Wink).

It was years later before the Nintendo came out. While all of our friends and neighbors bought these systems and played their games, which we better in their graphics and speed, and harder with their extra button on the controller, we never upgraded from our Atari 2600. Our family would challenge each other for hours with the phrase ‘I play the winner.’ This kept the competition going and going, and going.

Relive your Childhood Memories Today

A few years back while shopping at Goodwill my wife and I purchased an original Atari 2600. While the newer gaming systems provide high def graphics, realistic sound, and a much better playing environment, to me they are not quite as good as the Atari 2600. When I begin to play Pitfall 2, Dig Dug, or Burger Time the memories of my childhood come flooding back. I was especially good at Baseball and Tank Wars. Although, I could never beat my brother at Football (either electronic or in real life). Nothing brings back fond memories with my family quite like the hours spent playing these games. It is amazing to me 30 years later, that I still find joy in these simple games for children. Currently, I can play these games with my parents and have friendly competition and believe it or not, life lessons were learned through this game system. Practice makes perfect. Competition is good. Life isn’t always fair, and don’t be a sore loser or winner. These are the moments that count.

So what is the most precious thing I would keep in a time capsule…a game cartridge from my Atari 2600. You could also save your family score sheet you all wrote on keeping track of your own family competition throughout the years. The blue ink over the black ink is a dead giveaway that my brother changed the scores. Ha Ha. I know he changed that score from a 3 to an 8. Preserve these items in your own Family Time Capsule by using this “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule to create your own Family Time Capsule. Get yours today here. Check out this other fun article about 50 Things only 80’s Kids can Understand or Remember.

What memories do you have of your childhood that you relive today? What brings you closer to your family? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark