2600 in "Freaks and Geeks"

[DickNixonArisen]

I always thought this show looked stupid, but I really fell in love with it when I gave it a chance. Anyway, in one episode, the "Geeks" (Sam, Neil and Bill, all 14ish) are drooling all over the 2600 (the show is set in the early 80's) and Sam inadvertantly catches Neil's dad at the mall with a woman who isn't Neil's mom - while checking out a rack of Atari games. I saw robot tank and space invaders. Neil's dad buys a 2600 for Neil out of guilt after trying to talk Sam into keeping his secret. The boys play asteroids. Later, Sam's parents buy him one as well after reflecting that he was a good kid, and he cries while embracing his dad, glad that his family doesn't have the problems that Neil's does. This causes his dad to quip "wow, he wanted this thing more than we thought" or something similar.

[RJ]

Yep, I recall seeing that on TV 10+ yrs back.

[SoulBlazer]

Yep, I recall seeing that on TV 10+ yrs back.

 

It's very common to hear sound effects from Atari 2600 games like Pac-Man in shows and movies, but you don't often SEE a actuall game or a system!

 

One exception of this was in a episode of Alias that I watched on DVD the other day. One of the main characters is interupted during a break at work and shows off a 2600 joystick in one hand and the game cart Asteroids in the other. No mistaking that label cover from my youth.

[DickNixonArisen]

Oh, and in the "Dare" video by Gorillaz, (is that their name?) their computer appears to be controlled by a cx40

[Miss 2600]

And, of course, the air traffic controllers on Airplane playing Basketball.

 

I really liked the show Freaks and Geeks, but only saw a few episodes. I think it took place in 1980 which is a real cool year to set the start of a tv show. Unfortunately it didn't last despite being critically acclaimed. I remember them (I guess the Freaks) talking about a Jethro Tull concert in one of the episodes which I thought was cool because that's one of my favorite bands. I didn't see the 2600 episode. It's on DVD, I think. I might have to check it out.

[Pioneer4x4]

...Sam inadvertantly catches Neil's dad at the mall with a woman who isn't Neil's mom - while checking out a rack...

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I know exactly the episode you mean and I think it's unfair that they show coin-op Asteroids on the TV console instead of actual 2600 Asteroids. No offense to the 2600 version but if it had played the coin-op version like they indicate in the episode I would have loved it.

Having said that, I do think the FlashBack2 version of Asteroids Deluxe is a pretty decent recreation given the limitations of the hardware.

[Nesbroslash]

I've seen a few episodes of Cartoon Network's new show, Adventure Time, and the main characters own a Vectrex like game system that they play imitation 2600 games on, and you can hear lots of Atari sounds.

[DickNixonArisen]

Yea, you know, I noticed that it wasn't the real game and forgot to mention it. False advertising. hah.

 

The show is brilliant. Very sweet, and avoids the whole mistake of depicting high school as wholly defined by social cliques. The characters are realistic rather than caricatures of "the dumb jock" or whatever. The problem with the dvd set is that it's too packed with extra content and so there's only 3 episodes per disk, and episodes are full-hour, so renting it is basically worthless and netflixing it takes a while to see the whole thing. It's only 18 episodes, though.

 

Also - the venture bros. box art

 

and there's a few episodes of Knight Rider where Michael is playing some game projected on the inside of Kitt's windshield. It looked like Atari but I don't remember the game, it was monochrome red. I remember thinking "that's the best a computer car can do is atari?" and then thinking "well, it's not like he has to watch the road or anything."

[SoulBlazer]

Yea, you know, I noticed that it wasn't the real game and forgot to mention it. False advertising. hah.

 

The show is brilliant. Very sweet, and avoids the whole mistake of depicting high school as wholly defined by social cliques. The characters are realistic rather than caricatures of "the dumb jock" or whatever. The problem with the dvd set is that it's too packed with extra content and so there's only 3 episodes per disk, and episodes are full-hour, so renting it is basically worthless and netflixing it takes a while to see the whole thing. It's only 18 episodes, though.

 

Also - the venture bros. box art

 

and there's a few episodes of Knight Rider where Michael is playing some game projected on the inside of Kitt's windshield. It looked like Atari but I don't remember the game, it was monochrome red. I remember thinking "that's the best a computer car can do is atari?" and then thinking "well, it's not like he has to watch the road or anything."

 

There's a TON of video games and references to them in Knight Rider. One episode shoes Michael playing a racing game that looks like it could be a Intelivision game. In another he plays Pac-Man. And in another they give Devon a Coleco mini Pac-Man, but the sounds are fake. In other episodes you can see actuall arcade machines like Asteroids. It's not surprising, considering when the show aired (early 80's).

[Retro Rogue]

I always thought this show looked stupid, but I really fell in love with it when I gave it a chance. Anyway, in one episode, the "Geeks" (Sam, Neil and Bill, all 14ish) are drooling all over the 2600 (the show is set in the early 80's) and Sam inadvertantly catches Neil's dad at the mall with a woman who isn't Neil's mom - while checking out a rack of Atari games. I saw robot tank and space invaders. Neil's dad buys a 2600 for Neil out of guilt after trying to talk Sam into keeping his secret. The boys play asteroids. Later, Sam's parents buy him one as well after reflecting that he was a good kid, and he cries while embracing his dad, glad that his family doesn't have the problems that Neil's does. This causes his dad to quip "wow, he wanted this thing more than we thought" or something similar.

 

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/67249-classic-gaming-tvmovie-reference-thread/page__view__findpost__p__829394

 

 

All the stuff in the episode was from Curt.

[DickNixonArisen]

Oh, wow. My wife will be pleased to know someone involved in AA did the prop work for those scenes.

 

Also, didn't realize there was a dedicated thread. My bad.

[DickNixonArisen]

oh and triple action is in that rack too..

 

one of these things is not like the others

[RJ]

it's unfair that they show coin-op Asteroids on the TV console instead of actual 2600 Asteroids.

 

It's not the coin-op version; if anyhthing it's a dressed up hack of the VCS version, where the asteroids are hollowed out to simulate vector graphics.

Edited May 20, 2010 by RJ

[Retro Rogue]

it's unfair that they show coin-op Asteroids on the TV console instead of actual 2600 Asteroids.

 

It's not the coin-op version; if anyhthing it's a dressed up hack of the VCS version, where the asteroids are hollowed out to simulate vector graphics.

 

No, it's the coin-op version. Just watched it again to make sure. It's on a faded out screen with the wrong aspect ratio, which means they probably just taped (with a camera) some play on an actual Asteroids coin-op (or MAME) and then played back the recording on that vintage TV set to make it look like they were playing. Sounds are there as well. Pretty common, most video game and computer scenes in movies are done that way, with the actor simply pretending to play/type/etc. A TV budget isn't going to account for recoding or hacking an entire new version of 2600 Asteroids back in 2000, just for 5 seconds of screen time.

 

I think what's funny for me is seeing all the obvious mistakes. Like that the show is supposed to take place in '80 and there's a shiny new Robot Tank box in the stand next to him in the store (along with other games that came after that). Or that it looks like they threw whatever Intellivision games they could get together in there as well, and there's a not so new looking dented/crumpled green Intellivision game box just above his head in that scene.

Edited May 20, 2010 by wgungfu

[RJ]

Yes I stand corrected. I watched it too & it's nowhere near any VCS version (hack or otherwise). I've seen that hack I mentioned somewhere; my mind mustve juxtaposed it w/ Freaks & Geeks.