Retro Game On's Newest Member: The Atari 2600 Jr

You know what Retro Game On is lacking? Corporate sponsorship, hurr, just joking, I'm talking about 8 bit consoles! Yes, before that the only 8 bit representation were my Famicoms. Those don't get as much credit as they deserve either since I only have two games, but it mostly comes down to the fact that I can't figure out the tuning for them on my television. Even when it was tuned into my old TV, it had no sound and the picture was incredibly grainy. That's a Japanese console in Australia for ya, I guess.
I did buy an Atari 2600 nearly two years ago, but that turned out to be a dud. I think I know how to fix it, but in all honesty I've had no time to try, in-between Sega Game Gears. Since I had all the necessary cables, controllers and even a few games from the last one, it occurred to me that I should just buy the console without anything for a discount. Atari's are hellishly expensive online, so I've been putting it off for a while.

I came across this console on eBay for $30, which is plainly unheard of for an advertised working console. I know at that price that something must be wrong with it, but the seller had a 100% feedback rating over 2000 and something sales. I know 2000 is pretty small fry for an eBay shop, but that's still 2000 happy customers no matter how you look at it. I'm always into helping the smaller fish, and they were Australian too which seasoned the deal for me.

The games I have so far are Pole Position, Asteroids, Missile Command and Outlaw. I bought these all for $5 each on the sole basis that they were cheap. Well, cheap for the shop I found them in anyway. I don't know if that is a rational reason for purchasing them, but I did it non the less. After that I bought that broken console and it just went from there. Refer to those links above if you're interested in that particular story.

Since I just got it, I haven't had a chance to play those games I've had for two years, and I suck at them very muchly. It's sad to say since I consider myself a retro gamer, but I just haven't worked my head around that Atari 2600 joystick after years of buttons and dual sticks. I have all the time in the world now to learn though (well, until I die anyway) and I plan to get good.
Either way, my suckiness was a good excuse to create this short video with my friend after one, or, er, nine beers. We thought it was pretty funny at the time.