April 1979, I remember it so well. The next 8 months were to be the most painful of my life.
The girl behind me to the right is Lana Baynon – she was my first kiss!
She kissed me and I had no idea what she was doing. I really wanted her to do it again, but she never did.
After relentlessly pestering my parents for my very own Atari 2600, they caved in and said I could have one for Christmas…….8 months away. Now, this is where the story gets cruel. My parents were the most horrible people in the world to me and did something, that words just can’t describe. They went and bought it a day or two later, and made sure I saw them bring it home, and into the house. Then, they hid it until Christmas time. How could these people, my parents, be SO cruel to me. Just knowing it was in the house was a torture beyond comprehension. The anguish and mental trauma I endured would damage me forever. There was nothing I could do, but count the days. This actually made it worse. At any time I could tell you the amount of days remaining in my sentence. I was trying so hard to forget about it. I was trying hard not to count. Being aware of how long I had to wait seemed to slow everything down.
Eventually, the big day arrived. December 25, 1979. I walked into the loungeroom on Christmas morning, and there it was. I could see it, I could touch it, I could take it out of the box, but dad had to wire it in to the Rank Arena color tv, because I wasn’t allowed behind it. I got one game with it. Defender.
httpv://youtu.be/sFa5Lgu11DE
Now, you would think this was a welcome relief from 8 months of pure agony. To a point, it was. This is where family tradition became a factor. Dad took his sweet time wiring it in, and I got to play Defender for about 30 mins, before the command to “Shut it down” came. We had to go to my grandparents place, because that’s just what you have to do on Christmas day! I was like a freaking bomb ready to explode. 8 Months of pure suffering, a 30 minute tease, and then of to the grandparents place for the rest of the day, where they could pull my cheek, and rub my hair, and ooh and ahh over how big I had gotten.
Let your imagine run wild, and visual as far as your mind will allow, just how pissed off I was! Got it? Multiply that by 1000, and you may be in the same state as the ball park! I was ready to murder!
In time I did to get to use my new Atari 2600. I loved it so much. Mum would come and tell me to turn it off, and go outside and ride my bike and get fresh air. “What on earth would I want to do that for?”. She was as relentless in this instance as I was about the purchase of the device. She made it on to “My List” with this behavior. She was marked. I had my eye on her!
To repay my inhumanely cruel parents for the 8 months of brutality, I set about acquiring game cartridges. The “Defender” game was stupid now. I’d played it thousands of times. That was the beauty of the 2600. Unlike the Hanimex unit, which had four different games built in, the Atari was limitless. There were dozens of game cartridges available for purchase. And I made sure my parents had no doubt as to which ones I needed. It wasn’t “want”, it was “NEED”. The first on the list was “Indy 500”. A car racing game, that also came with new controllers. In place of the “Joystick”, Indy 500 required “Paddles”. These were similar to the controls of the Hanimex game console.
The new year was called 1980. The 80’s were here! More happier about that I could not be, nor have I been since. The 80’s were “The Days”. So much cool stuff happened in the 80’s.
httpv://youtu.be/28lv3K0pje0
