Poll: I Will Give You £500 to NEVER Play Atari Again!!!

[Bakuryukun]

Forget it. I don't just play the latest thing that falls in front of my face like a lot of gamers do these days. I have a passion for this medium as a whole and I believe that when a game came out has near nothing to do with it's overall quality and effectiveness of it's mechanics and aesthetics. I'm 23 so I was born in '88 and yet I STILL play games that came from '74 and greatly enjoy myself, if you can't do that I feel sorry for you, because you have apparently become jaded to what makes this medium so effective in the first place.

Besides, because I play so many old games and own so many right now, I would actually technically LOSE money on this deal. I like old games, I like new games, I just like games and I don't see any reason for them to have an arbitrary "best before" date.

Don't be afraid of big blocky pixels lads, they may be sharp but they won't hurt you.

 

[GraveeKing]

20,000 pounds and you have a deal. Then I wouldn't forget

 

[dex-dex]

but I love digdug.
so no. even for 500 pounds

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I'd take the money if it was a bit more. Sure I'd never get to play those games again, but I rarely play them as is. And money like that is worth not playing some old games for the rest of my life.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Tetris had nothing to do with Atari, so yes.

 

[hecticpicnic]

The subject confused me and the poll doesn't have "other" which is fairly important considering how limited your options are.If you mean any remake/version of every game that was ever on the 2600 than probably nut of the games specified yes.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

What about modern Atari games? Witcher, Champions Online, Ghostbusters, etc?

 

[TornadoFive]

Lasy week this would have been no problem, and I've taken the money and be fleeing to the hills beofre you'd even finished offering it.

But I've just gotten back into Tetris. And have gotten slightly addicted to it. Hmm, this will need further thought.

 

[Genixma]

I don't do it anyway.

 

[hecticpicnic]

I went with 'a little higher'

a) because the definition of 'retro games' is somewhat vague
b) because £500 isn't a lot, comparatively, for what you're asking. I mean that's a lump sum for, depending on age and likely death expectancy 20-50+ years of time. that's a pretty pathetic £/hour ratio.

500 quid a year, maybe.

£500 a week... now I could live with that. Although that again depends on how retro 'retro' is considered to be.

Ninja edit for typos

500 quid a week to do nothing, know thats my kinda deal.

ok, some one offers you £500 ($800) to NEVER play tetris, pacman, digdug, space invaders, snake or any other retro legend EVER again! and that includes modern day rip-offs or remakes, do you accept?

How far does this definition go? Space Invaders is a game where you shoot aliens. So is Halo. Is Halo thus considered out of bounds?

I don't really play Halo all that much anymore anyway but come on.

I think it only counts for games with the same mechanics but different/same skins.

 

[JSDodd]

Sounds good, sign me up sir

Could use that money to buy many better games

 

[Rad Party God]

Uhhh... the title is a bit misleading.

Are we talking about specificaly about the old Atari?, because that's the first thing that came to mind. If that's the case, because I assumed it was at first, I wouldn't mind at all, I wasn't a fan of that thing anyways. My dad had one and I played it, but I prefered to play with the Amiga and the NES at the time. /nostalgia blast

If you're talking about Atari's games as a brand, including new and old, that's a little bit trickier, because there are a couple of good Atari games (Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, The Witcher, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Neverwinter Nights, many Infogrames games...).

If you say ANY retro game from the 80's, I'd say you're fucking insane, because I love to play from time to time my good old NES and a few good oldies.

That's like saying you're paying someone to not watch ANY old movie from the 80's and downwards and don't watch a modern sequel/remake of a movie from that era. It'd may work for Star Wars though.

If that's the case, then no thanks, keep your money.

 

[Kermi]

No, that's ok. Keep your money.

 

[Signa]

Those old classic arcade titles are pointless and annoying to play now. I remember being about 5 and winning at Pole Position at Chucky Cheese's and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, but I rarely play games to get a higher score.

Now, if you meant all games that anyone could classify as retro (meaning not "last gen" but anything earlier) then I couldn't even begin to consider accepting this offer. The best games of my life were on the SNES and through to the early 2000's. $800 is such a weak sum to never play those games again. For $800, I can pledge to never play an old arcade classic again, but I'd kill myself for anything more recent.

I should point out that I'm 28 years old and played those games back when they were "the thing". I'm not some graphics obsessed teen that refuses to play Doom (like my 19 year old co-worker) just because it's too old. Fact is, I like challenging games, but I don't really like to play them if the only objective is to see how long you can live to get the best score. I don't even like grinding the endless survival modes in games like Plants vs. Zombies. It's almost like admitting defeat before you start, because you know you never are going to win at the game.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

No, never.
Those games are the foundation of all that is video-games. I would no sooner sell away my right to listen to classic music or play some ancient, but culturally signifcant board games, like chess or shōgi. It´s not something you want/need to do every day, but it´s still nice to go back to the beginning sometimes.

Besides, seeing how my brain is wired, being aware of the existence of those games, without being able to play them, would just wreck havoc with my ability to focus on anything else.

(And unless you are a teenager, 500 bucks is really not that much anyway, trust me.)

 

[joemegson94]

I'd definitely accept that offer, and maybe buy a 3DS.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

As much as I adore Tetris, it isn't worth $800.

 

[frizzlebyte]

Sure thing. Only one I'd even remotely miss is Pac-Man. But I can get along without it just fine.

Ah needs mah munneh! Naow, dangit!

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'd have to clarify, anything ever released by Atari? Or retro as in anything by anyone before say, 1990?

I'm poor, so I'd take the cash either way, I think SNES is my golden age, Mario World, Shadowrun, FF3/6, Killer Instinct, Smash TV etc.

I like a lot of older games, but I wouldn't feel huge guilt in leaving them behind so long as I can reach back to SNES time.

 

[C95J]

Hell yeah! I don't play any of those games anyway, and I have never played an Atari Machine in my life.