AtariSpot // rob

Hello, bsky! This account mostly exists to highlight unusual Atari 2600 stuff. The platform is decades old now, but there are still many things waiting to be discovered. If you follow VGHF, you may have already recently read about something I helped to preserve. gamehistory.org/atari-2600-t...

We’re back with some previously undocumented (to my knowledge) Atari 2600 game packaging from Canada! Major thanks to @nathaniellockhart.bsky.social for his help with one of the pickups. theatari.spot/blog/2026-10...

We’re back with some previously undocumented (to my knowledge) Atari 2600 game packaging from Canada! Major thanks to @nathaniellockhart.bsky.social for his help with one of the pickups. theatari.spot/blog/2026-10...

Physical Media Collector Pumped For Downfall Of Humanity https://theonion.com/physical-media-collector-pumped-for-downfall-of-humanity/

Until the actual answer is known, I shall choose to believe that Nintendo* hired a clandestine factory in Malaysia (for some reason) to make this while negotiating with Atari to sell the Famicom in N. America. * in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires…

Very few people have survived the Malaysian Controller Mystery Hole. Rumor says there's still two Hori Support Gameboy Controllers in there, if you're brave and lucky enough

🏛️ Before the Internet, computer clubs helped people learn, trade software & explore personal computing. A surviving binder of 50 Atari newsletters from August 1987 offers a time capsule of that world. Explore the Atari collection & more computer history: blog.archive.org/2026/08/27/a... 🧵

You know how in dreams sometimes your brain invents stuff that seems realistically plausible? This mystery gamepad from Malaysia might as well have arrived from a dream — I’ve never seen another, and I know essentially nothing about its origin. theatari.spot/blog/2026-08...

Back in May, I helped dump seven prototype game cartridges that represent some of the earliest steps toward home video games as we know them today. I've published my findings on a new Archive Annex video: meet the FRED III. youtu.be/180erQryZFw

My uncle married one of my dad's sisters about 30-ish years ago, by my recollection. I hadn't really been around him a lot, but the handful of times I was, he made very strong impressions. He had quite a talent for computers, was the biggest Java evangelist I've ever met (even back in its infancy).

Randy Eric Crihfield has passed away. He was well known in the Atari community as one of the pioneers of #Atari2600 homebrew scene, producing some of the earliest games through his company, Hozer Video Games. Among them was Edtris 2600 (1995). www.morningjournalnews.com/obituaries/2... #atari

A fun new post about that time for consoles before Atari got in! thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/2026/08/22/1... Learn about the strange, interesting, and largely European early history of game consoles!

If you missed it… hey, I’m alive! I’ve got a new site going so that I can put things somewhere that isn’t social media. The first truly new post is about a heretofore undocumented 2600 clone console manufactured in a state-owned factory in China. Much more to come! theatari.spot/blog/2026-07...

Okay, fine, while I’m here… I acquired my first 2600 cartridge that retailed in Uruguay. (The shop in Montevideo is on a street called Paraguay) Neat little 8-in-1 cartridge, and one of them is a game you don’t find too often on unauthorized multicarts: London Blitz!

Tengen's NES version of Ms. Pac-Man contains an Easter Egg seen by having Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man bounce off of each other repeatedly as they go through opposite ends of a tunnel. This causes baby Pac-Men to spawn in the middle of the maze! Eating them nets you 5000 points each.

Parade day. Go Birds. 🦅 More photos later/tomorrow!

THEY’RE CLIMBING THE POLES IN TOKYO GO BIRDS🦅🦅🦅

Had to go celebrate with strangers since I’m not in Philly. What a night!

funniest highlights of the philly police scanner, a thread

It’s time

World fucking champions!!!

The Video Game History Foundation Library is now in early access. For free. For everyone. Wherever you are. Read more: gamehistory.org/vghf-library...

New post on the Atari Archive website: Canyon Bomber! David Crane's melding of two disparate Atari arcade games from the mid-70s really elevates the experience of playing each of them. www.atariarchive.org/atari-vcs/ca...

I include TV-like controls in my retro emulators but never considered linking preferred settings to certain games. > NTSC Colour In Vintage Games > Includes a proposal for a 2600 container format and additional metadata. via @jetsetilly.bsky.social's Mastodon jetsetilly.github.io/Gopher2600-B...

In speedrunning terms, I performed a sequence break and skipped the entire second phase this week (HOLY HELL THEY DID IT!!!)

It’s not Halloween, but it *is* Random Game Saturday! I would never have been able to show this one if not for a recent big trade (yes, an Atari TRADE! in the year of our lord 2025!) Honestly, I expected never to have this one given where prices for it have gone in recent years.

The Video Game History Foundation opens its digital archives to the public next week

The PC is Dead: It's Time To Make Computing Personal Again My new essay on how we lost control of personal computing to Internet surveillance, DRM, and extractive business models—and how we can launch the era of Personal Computer 2.0 www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/ar...

the debris from starship flight 7 caught over turks and caicos. absolutely unreal. 📸: dean olson on twitter

You Wouldn't Download an Arcade Machine...would you? New Video: youtu.be/SONO6LTHuR8 Watch as Ed Fries laser scans an entire arcade machine for us to download and 3D print, and not just any machine, this is an incredibly rare #atari model from 1973. Call the cops!

Another prototype for #Atari2600 console found. It's a diagnostic cart named VCS Vertical Bars by Horace Olive https://forums.atariage.com/topic/378681-new-2600-diagnostic-cart-found-and-released/ #atari #retrogames #retrogaming

ATTENTION: I am starting a charity bundle to benefit victims of the Southern California wildfires. Game (and other) makers, please submit your projects so we can do some good. There is a call for submissions of projects through the 18th, please share widely! FAQ below: itch.io/jam/californ...

Worth noting that the rom's parent directory, at least in our backups at the museum, has a game concept file talking about a fishing game for bars with very similar ideas, wotha file modified date of around a month later than the roms (though the rom was compiled a few months earlier)