6 replies to this topic

[Cousin Vinnie]

For those of you who care, I am an Alcohol/Drug rehab counselor at a residental placement for teens. These kids are mainly pains in the butts: constant disrespect, swearing, constant complaining. But, most have been abused or neglected and they are just rebelling. So I love them and treat them well regardless.

Today, for a fun activity that promotes teamwork, we had an Atari 7800 Ms Pac Man team tournament. One guy looks at the screen, the other one with the joystick looks away from it, and they have to communicate to get Ms. Pac-Man to do much of anything. We had a tournamnet, and it was fun.

When I whipped out the 7800, the kids went through a series of reactions. First, their faces lit up, and they began to recall old Atari stories and to list games they enjoyed when they were kids. Then, they realized Atari isn't cool anymore and that they let a little bit of their "real selves" out into the open, so they complained that I didn't bring in a PS2 and that they wanted to do something else. So when I started to pack it all way, knowing what they really wanted to do, they went livid, "We want to play! We were just screwing around!"

At the end, everyone had a blast. So much so, I am donating one of my 7800s to the center (it will be decimated in 2 weeks) with all of my spare games. It was amazing to see everyone's face light up to see the Atari and Ms. Pac-Man roaming around on a big screen TV. Clients and Staff ooohed and ahhed with every death defying turn. It was good to see kids act like kids. Anyway, just goes to show you that a good game is a good game. Just shows you how a classic will be around 20 years later.

Cousin Vinnie
www.bigfishusa.com/7800

[bigferret]

The Ms. Pacman team idea was a great one!

Although it wasn't for nearly as worthy a cause - when I was in college back in 87, I used to hook up my brand new 7800 to the 52 inch TV in my dorm's common room and me and my friends would play Food Fight and Galaga. It always drew lots of attention and everyone wanted to play.....

Ah, the memories.

These days my wife thinks I'm a bit odd for all the gaming I do on all my Atari consoles.

[MegaManFan]

bigferret said:

These days my wife thinks I'm a bit odd for all the gaming I do on all my Atari consoles.

P'shaw! My wife HAD a vintage Atari when we got married. She may find me obsessive bordering on slightly mad, but at least she understands how fun vintage Atari is to play. Yay me! Tell her you could always be doing much worse things like obsessing over anime and sci-fi movies.. oh wait, I do those things too! I guess there's no hope for us, so they'll have to learn to live with it and love us anyway.

[PacManPlus]

Hey Cousin Vinnie -

That is a very sweet story! I would like to help; I have doubles of Pole Position II, Galaga, and Xevious that I would be willing to donate as well.

If you think that's a good idea, PM me and let me know where to send them...

[joeybastard]

That's a really cool way to teach these kids something about team work/coperation. It reminds me of my mom trying to get the owners of the nursing home she runs to buy a few GBAs because she discovered they seem to like Tetris and some of the puzzle games. The owners said no but some of the residents have asked their relatives to get them one. My mom, a crusader for video games and old people!

[Witchfynde]

Wow, joeybastard's mom and Cousin Vinnie are just cool people! Yay and thumbs up for both! Whip those kids into shape!

[King Atari]

Great stories, very cool how this old stuff can entertain those who are all Playstation on up.