“Over 30 games”…featuring colored blocks moving in a straight line. (Atari commercial, 1979)
“No other company offers you as many different video game cartridges as Atari.”
A very good Friday to you, Bionic pals! Today, we’ve got a spot for Atari showing of games like; Sky Diver, Football, and Outlaw. The commercial aired in December 1979.
Tune back in tomorrow for a double dose of electronic game spots from ’79. Bleep bleep! Blorp blorp! Awww, I went too much to the right!
Previously on 70s Spots: Daily 70s Spot #396: Sony Betamax (1979)
More Atari at Bionic Disco: 35 years Ago This Week: Atari 2600 Console Launches
The very first computer I’d ever owned was an Atari 8bit system. I traveled the world with that little box (via GEnie , CompuServe and later the internet through a collage shell account. Seeing that ad, recalls the heady days of early computing, when everyone played at programing in BASIC; when the idea of programing in assembler seemed a natural next step. Then again, reflecting on the commercial, maybe computers have come full circle and returned to their game machine roots.
And yes, I do still own that original Atari, yes it’s still set up, and yes Virginia, I do still use it and play games with it. A Beta Max machine and an 8bit computer, I guess no one will be overly shocked to find out I shoot all my photographs on film.
Amazing how many of the old Atari systems still function. Never had one myself, but played them at friend’s houses. I don’t think my mother wanted a game system hooked up to the TV. She was probably wise there as I would have been glued to it all day long. I had a ton of the handheld electronic games though. Mattel Football was a favorite.