Atari developed one of the most popular and the most best selling gaming systems in the world. In 1977 Atari successfully launched a gaming system that almost everyone in the world wanted. The Atari Video Computer System or VCS created a new way to entertain the young and old alike in the late 70s to the early 90s.

If you played Atari before, you know how crude and simple the graphics were in this gaming system compared to the 3D state-of-the-art graphics with the latest technology in gaming consoles introduced today.

The popularity of Atari lasted for many years. However, with the introduction of a more realistic gaming system today, Atari became a relic. In the 80s, Atari game systems and its game cartridges flew off the shelves of stores worldwide. You can even compare Ataris popularity with the Christmas season craze that you may experience with other popular gaming consoles available in the market today.

However, because of overproduction of gaming cartridges, the market for video games crashed. Even with Ataris success, it was affected by the declining demand in the video game market. By the fall of 1986, Atari gaming systems wasnt available in most retail stores in the US.

However, even after all these years, Atari games are still fun to play. Even old games like Pac-man, Asteroids, Missile Command, and other popular titles Atari produced were still widely available in the video game market. Although it wasnt really available in cartridges like before, it is, however, still being played in the internet.

Today, Atari is now a game developer for PC games and other popular gaming consoles out in the market. They now develop games that can compete with the standards that people are searching for in a game. Popular Atari game titles, such as Neverwinter Nights, Test Drive Unlimited, Age of Pirates and others are now available for PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and others.

These games also have the stunning advanced 3D graphics that most people look for in a game today. With great sound effects and realistic graphic quality, Atari games can really make you want to play their games over and over again.

Atari games are also available in different genres. They have Role Playing Games or RPG, strategy games, action games, first person shooter games, driving games, simulation games, online games, fighting games and they also develop games for kids.

With the different kinds of games available that Atari produces, you can be sure that you will never run out of great game titles from Atari. If you get tired of an Atari game, you simply have to go out and buy another popular title developed by Atari.

However, fun as all the new games Atari is developing now, the old games, such as Missile Command, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Tempers, Battlefield and other popular game titles back in the 70s and 80s are still fun to play with. People who grew up in the Atari era have searched for the old gaming titles in the internet and play it online.

These games can still be played in your PC by just having an active internet connection and logging on to www.atari.com. Or, you can purchase the old Atari Video Computer System or VCS in the internet. Today, the game system still exists and people still buys them. Even the cartridges are for sale.

If you want to play old video games the old school way, then purchasing an Atari Video Computer System is the best way to do it. Relive the 80s and play hundreds of different games developed by Atari.

All you need to do is plug the Atari VCS to your TV, plug in your favorite Atari game cartridge and play like you did when you were a child. If you have children, try to let them join the fun by letting them play too.

Atari games are widely available for download in the internet. Old games can be downloaded and played in your computer. But, if you want to play with these old and simple games like in the 70s and 80s, purchase an Atari VCS gaming console in the internet.



By: T J Madigan

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What is it like to work as a video game programmer? It is considered by many game-playing children to be a dream job. Is it actually as good as it sounds? It certainly is an interesting life. However, as with anything else on this planet, there are both positive and negative sides to working as a video game programmer.

For the last 7 years I have worked as a video game programmer at three development studios: Activision/Treyarch, Visual Concepts and DiscoPixel. I have published titles for the Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles. This article is a summary of some of the perks and pitfalls that I have experienced through my work at these companies.

Perk #1 - Make Games!

This one is pretty obvious, but the biggest perk of working at a video game studio is that you will be MAKING games. You will be helping build the next great game that potentially millions of people will play and enjoy. There’s an amazing satisfaction that stems from knowing that you helped make something big.

Perk #2 - Play Games!

In addition to testing and improving your current game every day, you’ll also be playing games made by other companies. There are few jobs out there where sitting down and playing a newly released console title is considered research. Companies definitely want you to stay on top of the technology and features of new games, and the only way to do this is by playing lots of games. At the companies I’ve worked at, I’ve never seen anyone get reprimanded for playing video games during the day.

Perk #3 - Independence

A great aspect of working as a video game programmer is the independence you are given. It is rare that you’ll have a manager breathing down your neck or double checking everything you do. To get hired into a development studio you need to already have excellent programming skills, so you are given a lot of freedom to make many decisions yourself. You may be assigned a general task to complete, but how that actually should be done, as well as how long it should take, are often up to you.

Provided that you can get your work done, the companies I have worked for generally seemed to be very willing to let me work on my terms. When I was tired or bored or lazy I could go play a game or relax somewhere without anyone complaining. Happy employees with improved morale make better games.

Perk #4 - Fun Office Environment

Everybody that works at a video game studio has one thing in common: they love games. If they didn’t love playing games they would never have been hired to make them. Because of this, the office setting often has fun or quirky things anywhere you look. Many people bring strange new objects to show off or play with during the day.

Most video game studios have lots of games and toys lying around to keep its employees entertained. A few things that I have come across at various studios: Arcades with free coin-op games, foosball tables, ping pong tables, razor scooters, board games, action figures, puzzles, daytime basketball games and giant stuffed animals.

Coming to the office still means you’re going to work, but there’s no reason why it can’t also be fun.

Perk #5 - Free Soda + Snacks

This perk is maybe not important to everyone, but it’s nice to know that you won’t go hungry working at a video game studio. I’ve never met a video game company that hasn’t offered free soda and snacks as part of the benefits of working there. I suppose being loaded up on caffeine and sugar helps boost productivity. During long days at the office, companies will typically provide free dinner as a thank-you for staying late. One company I worked for served fully catered meals from assorted restaurants every night for many weeks.

Pitfall #1 - Long Work Hours

Making video games is a lot of work. The amount of time needed to make the latest game seems to be growing exponentially. Development teams continue to get bigger and bigger every year, yet somehow the amount of work per person doesn’t seem to get any smaller. Games are very complicated. Also, the nature of games is that they must be fun, which is not always so easy to accurately pencil into a schedule. A lot of experimentation is needed, especially with new game concepts.

Before a milestone and especially a few months before a game is released, the work day will be very intense. The work has a way of very quickly piling up. New features and old bugs **** away all of your time. Working long nights or weekends is not uncommon. Fortunately, employees generally care about the games that they are making, and their passion helps energize them through these occasional long shifts.

The stress can get overwhelming, too. At one company I had a giant stack of bug reports waiting for me on my chair when I came into the office. I would work all day, scrambling to fix the bugs as quickly as possible, working on full blast all day and night. I’d go home for a couple hours of sleep, but when I’d return to work there would be a new, even larger stack of bug reports waiting for me.

Typically after a project has shipped there will be a period of downtime where the employees can get a chance to relax and recover. The work load will suddenly significantly reduce. One company gave bonus vacation time after a project shipped, and another put employees “on call” for about a month, in which they only had to come to the office if there was some kind of problem. It’s nice to know that your long work hours do not go unnoticed.

Pitfall #2 -Choosing What to Work On

Working on your own video games in your free time is a lot of fun. You get to choose exactly what game and tasks you want to work on, focusing only on the fun stuff. Anything boring can be safely ignored since the only audience is you. Unfortunately, this is not the case for large video game studios. There are many tasks to be completed, some of which are not too glamorous. Fixing console manufacturer standards violations or building data tools is not very exciting, but it still needs to be done by someone in order to ship the final product.

These tasks typically are given to people who are just starting out in the video game industry, perhaps as a rite of passage, but probably just because nobody else wants to do them.

In addition to the possibility of working on less glamorous tasks, you could be assigned a project that you are not fully interested in. Typically the company will let you work projects that interest you, but this is not always possible. A particular project could be falling behind schedule and it needs a few more employees to fix some bugs or add some new features. Or, the project you are interested in already has enough workers.

I think that the passion of the employees working at a video game studio is crucial to the success of that game. If you are not excited about what you’re working on, it will show up in the game you’re creating. To avoid any misunderstandings or letdowns, before deciding to work at a particular company, it’s important to find out what game you will be working on in addition to what tasks you will be assigned.

Pitfall #3 -Pay Not as Good (Maybe?)

I’ve heard from a few people that the pay working as a video game programmer is not as good as the pay working at more conventional companies. Business database programmers, for example, could be earning more money. This could be true. However, choosing your profession is not just about the pay. You spend a large percentage of your life at your job. Money is not everything. Choosing something that you enjoy is important, too.

I thought the pay at the companies I have worked at was very reasonable. There is also a large potential upside from royalty checks coming from a game that sells well, which has sometimes turned out to be significant. You will definitely not be living as a pauper if you get a programmer job at a video game company.

Conclusion

I hope that this article has been helpful towards learning a little bit about working as a video game programmer. As with everything in life, there are pros and cons to this profession. If what you have read sounds good to you, I hope you find that dream job making the next great bestselling game.



By: Tom Bak

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The video game industry is a wide open field, complete with dozens of possible options for those that want to craft the next great video game. For those that are good with numbers, find themselves incredibly adept at picking out small details and more than anything like seeing how things work on a basic level, video game programming might be the job for you.

As a game programmer, you must remember that you are not a game designer. It’s not your job to craft the how or what of the game. You are instead tasked with taking a set of specific instructions and making them come to life in your code. The video game industry is filled with roles, but the role of game programmer is probably the most important. You lay the foundation for the entire project.

Over the years the role of a game programmer has become more and more specific, changing from a catch all designer, programmer, artist role in the 1970s to a very specific job now. There are more than a dozen different positions you might hold as a game programmer, ranging from game physics to sound to graphics, and artificial intelligence. Every facet you can imagine in a video game has a specific engine operating it. As a game programmer your responsibility will likely be working directly with one of these engines to help complete a very specific portion of the game.

You should expect to spend a decent amount of time in school preparing for this job, learning multiple programming languages and getting your degree in Computer Science. There’s a lot of math and you’d better have a keen eye for detail, but for those that do, video game programming is among the most interesting and exciting jobs you can get as a programmer.

The video game industry is as varied as any and you might find yourself in a series of different roles, working on different projects every six months or so. Once you’ve mastered the details of your craft, it’s a matter of specializing and video game design. That means getting to know certain engines, programs and concepts.

For example, a simple role playing game might require a single physics engine programmer, a job that leaves you with a lot of responsibility and duties. Your next project might be a shooting game though, or an action RPG, the kinds of games that require massive teams of physics engine programmers, putting you on a very specific detail, like gun mechanics.

Or you could very well find yourself on an entirely different team, programming artificial intelligence for alien enemies. The possibilities are endless and the variance in the programming you’ll do immense. But, if you find that you want more than anything to work in the video game industry but aren’t a math wizard or want to get involved in the visual aspects of game design, there are still plenty of options open for you in the game industry.



By: Hitoshi Jones

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Over the past few decades video games have become one of the best forms of entertainment and its popularity is continuously on the increase not only among children but also among the youth. It is regarded as the best means for spending your time with your family and friends. The nature of video games has changed much. Conventional ones were very much unattractive in their design and styles and had less entertainment value and scientific merit.

It will be a very good idea if you would like to go for used video games instead of a brand new one. It will help you save money and along with that provide you with entertainment and fun. Usually, used video games are more focused on using the interactive visuals and are complemented with the game responses.

It will be a good idea to go back to your childhood days and find the used video game systems. Although it will be very difficult to track down the old and used system, but still it is possible to find the one that you might have been searching for. If you are about to purchase a used video game, then you will have to check out all the local stores near your place. There are very few stores where you will find those used video game systems.

You can check out the Internet to get hold of the sites where they sell the old and the used video games. Since it will not be possible to get the one that you might be searching for, the best way to find it will be to go online. You can even find them at the garage sale and the flea market where you will definitely find a store where they might be selling the used video game. It totally depends on you whether you want to buy the used video game online or in person. So according to that you can start searching for it.

Once you get to know a store where you will find used video games, do not forget to test it first before buying it. There are various sites where you will find very limited collections of used video games today. The prices are also very affordable compared to that of new video games.

You will even come across many discounts if you search properly. And the other important thing is to know about the history of the used video game, so that you can know how it was maintained before and also for how long you can use it without any hassles or troubles. Perhaps the most visible benefit that the video game has provided to human beings is the artistic and the entertainment contributions.

There are numerous types of video games that are available today, and frequent changes are introduced in the video game and also in the system that plays a video game. So it won’t be a bad idea to get the used video game so that in any case you have to dispose it later on and you won’t regret since they didn’t cost you a fortune.



By: Victor Epand

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If you want to become a video game tester and get paid to beta test unreleased video games, I believe there are 4 tips which will help you get a games testing job quicker. I have been working as a games tester for a little over 2 years, and following these pointers helped me to become a video game tester.

Tip 1 - Understand Games Testing Is A Career

If you want to become a video game tester, you need to know that it is a career and not just some fun hobby. You will have deadlines like any job and will need to show commitment to your set tasks. Game testers who prove themselves reliable and able to deliver on deadlines get rewarded with more jobs.

Tip 2 - Own Many Different Gaming Platforms

The second tip I would suggest for those who want to become a video game tester, is to own as many gaming platforms as possible. Bottom line is the more gaming platforms you own, the more games you will be able to test. And the more games you can test the more money you will make - period.

Tip 3 - Follow Instructions

If you want to become a video game tester you need to be able to follow strict instructions from your employer - the gaming company. You will always be asked to fill out surveys and make specific notes. You must have legible writing and be able to communicate the bugs/issues you find in the games you test very clearly. The more information you provide the better.

Tip 4 - Keep Applying For Jobs

If you want to become a video game tester you must keep applying for jobs. There is a reasonable amount of competition so you will not get all the jobs you apply for. Sometimes you may have to knock back a job as you are committed to another, so you want to be sure you always have backup jobs waiting for you.

Conclusion

Follow the above tips and you will become a video game tester sooner rather than later. You need to be patient and persistent initially, but the hard work will pay off. I have been involved in games testing for a few years, and have built up a solid reputation with gaming companies cause I always finish the games on time and give them good feedback - do the same and you will have no problem.



By: Peter Johnson

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What is the deal with this new fitness video game that everyone seems to be obsessed with these days?  You know what I am referring to.  I don’t even have to mention the name unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months.  You might be an addict already or you might be a nonbeliever.  What if I told you that you could burn some calories by playing a video game?  Could these games really replace going to the gym?  Are they aimed at the more sedentary population?

 

You need to own the original game and then you have to buy an additional CD with the balance board.  After entering your birth date, age, and *** you will activate the balance board.  Be prepared to hear that you’re overweight if you have large muscles.  The BMI doesn’t take lean muscles mass and body fat into consideration.  Don’t be shocked if your age is older than you are.  It is largely determined by how well and how fast you do the first balance test and doesn’t take other factors into consideration like muscle strength or cardio endurance.  Balance is a key component because it is one of the four categories of the fitness series which consists of skiing, a table tilt, and soccer.  Many of the activities are focused on the core muscle group with encompasses slower, more controlled movements. 

 

In addition, it offers yoga, strength training, and aerobics.  True yoga buffs are not likely to be impressed with this version according to some critics.  I am not surprised, because when I practice yoga, it is more for the experience and ritual.  It’s a good idea to take advantage of technology that is associated with being a couch potato and combine it with something more active.  The company that manufactures this game doesn’t claim it will result in significant weight loss or even make people healthier.  I guess it is better than the older game versions where only your thumbs get put to good use. 



By: Lyla Feldman

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Remember that these games have been sitting around collecting dirt for over 20years. When you insert them into your system the metal connectors of the game have to touch the metal connectors in the system. If there is dirt inbetween than there is no connection. You need to remove all the dirt from that game and then it will run like it was in 1985.

Dip a Q-Tip in the rubbing alcohal and rub wet the metal contacts on the dirty cartridge. Then use the dry end of the Q-Tip and rub hard until you remove all the dirt. You may have to do this several time and go through several q-tips until all the dirt is removed. You want to repeat this step until the Q-tip is clean after cleaning. Now that your game is clean we can quickly clean your system using that clean game. Just take the game and put it in the system and remove it. Now clean the game and repeat. Every time you will be taking dirt off the System chip and transfering it to your game to be cleaned. After this you should have no problems. Your system and games shopuld be working fine.

This cleaning trick will work for Nintendo NES games but also Super Nintendo SNES, Nintendo 64 N64, Sega Genesis Games and most other cartridge based games. Check out www.DKOldies.com for more tricks on cleaning your games and systems. We also sell a wide variety of Classic Games with Free Shipping.



Remove the screws on the underside of the system.



Turn the system over and lift off the plastic top.



Remove the screws holding down the metal RF shield and remove the shield.



Remove the screws holding down the black plastic cartridge holder. Note how the small plastic tab on the front of the holder slides underneath the motherboard. Slide the holder forward and remove (it’s all right if the motherboard bends slightly).



Lift the back of the motherboard up and pull off the set of contacts in the black plastic housing. (They will resist a bit but just rock them back and forth to slide them off.)



Dip a toothbrush (preferably not yours; use a loved one’s) in the cleaning solution and scrub contacts off.



Rinse contacts off with water and allow to dry.



Lift up the back of the motherboard and slide the contacts back into place.



Lift up the front of the motherboard and slide the cartridge holder onto the contacts. Be sure the tab on the front of the holder clips underneath the motherboard.



Reattach the cartridge holder’s screws. (The long ones go in the second set of holes from the back.)



Plug in the system and test with clean cartridges. (It’s perfectly safe to do so with the top off.)



If the games still won’t work, the system contacts may be bent out of shape.



If the system is working properly, replace the cover (you can leave the RF shield off if you like; I won’t tell the FCC) and reattach the screws on the bottom.





 

Love playing your old games but are tired of the Blinking system. Are you always blowing inside your games thinking that will help or are you constantly tapping the side of the console? Use our instructions to keep your games clean, free of dirt and grime and playing to perfection.



By: DKOldies

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I make my living playing video games. Can you imagine this? - doing what you enjoy doing most - and getting paid for it? Sounds like a wild fantasy, right? Think again. Many gamers get paid very well just to spend time with their consoles playing the latest games, because they are video game testers.

In a perfect world, you could hang with your buds playing video games all day while earning money. Admittedly, the world is imperfect, but you can earn money playing video games all day. No kidding. Many video game companies will pay good money for the help of regular video gamers. Whether you are hooked on to video games or just play occasionally you can turn gaming into gaining.

There are two different ways you can make money while playing video games, and neither requires a college degree or job experience in the gaming industry. Video game companies are always searching for people to try out their new video games or to sell their games, gaming systems, and software and other things. These are not gimmicks. Testers and suppliers provide valuable services to video game companies, and they are paid real money.

To become a video game tester, all you have to do is find a video game maker which does testing and sign up on their website. Becoming a member costs between one and four dollars monthly, not to bad, but it is a small fee to pay to get the opportunity to try out video games for money. Your job will be to test video games before they are marketed to the public. That way manufacturers can improve the games before they go on the market using info from real game players. In return, the gamers get the game for free; they get all the cheat codes to try out; and they earn money!

The other way to get paid for playing video games is to become a supplier. Suppliers actually sell products for video game manufacturers. They get an early look at new games, gaming systems, and software. Not bad! You get to be your own boss and work on your own schedule!

If you are an avid video game player or just want an excuse to indulge your gaming habit, sign on to be a video game tester or supplier. Have the best of both worlds.

After completing your first assignment, you may be so excited when you receive that first paycheck that you spend all your time gloating about it. Don’t! Keep up the process of contacting companies and providing quality reviews and feedback. You will build up an impressive resume of game testing assignments that will help you get even more and better paying ones in the future.

Sounds like a great job, right? So, if you want to be able to tell you friends “I game for a living”, follow the steps above and you’ll soon be on your way to making a full time income from the comfort of your console.



By: Ted Huffman

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Over the past few decades, video games have evolved to become one of the best forms of entertainment. Its popularity has grown immensely among the younger generation. It is regarded as one of the best means for spending one’s time with one’s family and friends. Unlike earlier versions, today, video games are much more entertaining as the graphics and other technologies have improved.

If you are really into video games, it’s not a bad idea to go for some of the used games. This will help you save money while giving you a wider variety of entertainment at an affordable price. It is also a good idea if you want to go back to your childhood days and find used video game systems, although it may be very difficult to track down the old used systems. Still it is possible to find the one you might have been searching for.

If you are about to purchase the used video game, then you will have to check out all the local stores near you. There are very few stores where you will find those used video game systems.

You can also check out the Internet. There are some sites where they sell the older used video games and systems. The internet is probably the easiest place to find these older systems. Another option you might consider is a garage sale or flea market. If you can find a game system you like there, you should be able to find a store where they sell games for that system.

Once you find the game or system that you want, you should definitely test it out to make sure it works properly. There are various sites where you will find a very limited collection of used video games today. The prices are very affordable compared to the new video games. You will even come across many discounts if you search properly. Another important thing is to find out about the history of the game, if possible. That way you can determine how it was maintained and be assured that it will last you a good while without hassles or trouble.

There are numerous types of video games that are available today, and there are frequent changes in the video games and systems. So it won’t be a bad idea to get a used video game just in case you have to dispose of it later on. You won’t have much regret since you haven’t had to pay a fortune for it.



By: Victor Epand

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GameFly is an online service that allows you to rent video games through the mail, similar to what NetFlix does with movies. For a low monthly fee, you can choose to have either one or two games out at once, depending on your chosen plan. Once you have maintained your account in good standing for a specified amount of time, you can opt to upgrade to plans allowing three or four titles at once. We’ve been using this service for over three years, keeping our entire family in games for several different gaming consoles. We have found two games at a time to be adequate for us, even though we have several gamers in the family.

The Online video game rental service offers over 5,000 titles covering all the current gaming systems from Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Older systems like the Nintendo 64 are not included. When we signed up, we were given access to our own personal GameQ, a place to keep track of up to 50 titles of games we can’t wait to get our hands on. The variety has served us well… we have a collection of different consoles, and everyone likes a different type of game. None of us has had any trouble selecting our favorites, whether it be a role-playing game, a first-person shooter, sports or a fighting game.

It’s a great deal if you like to play and test out a variety of games and for all the ******** gamers. At our house, someone is always playing something; consequently we rent a lot of games every month. If a game proves particularly challenging, we can keep it until we beat it. If it turns out to be too easy, it can go back in a day or two to be replaced by the next game we can’t live without.

Turnaround is pretty fast… it takes approximately five days from putting our finished game in our mailbox until we receive the new one. New titles are available almost immediately… we’ve only had to wait occasionally when demand was unusually high. For those rare games we can’t live without, we are able to go to our GameQ and click on the “Keep It” button by the title we want to keep. Members are offered a discounted price, and we also earn GameFly Rewards from our rentals, which can take a few more dollars off the price.

Signing up is simple and Gamefly even offers a Free trial so gamers can test out there service. They have added new game systems as they come on the market and considering how hot the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 are it’s nice to have a vast selection and the newest games. , and they now have two shipping hubs… one on the east coast and one on the west.

Overall, GameFly is highly recommended because of it’s vast selection of games to choose from and savings over using the local video game store.



By: Yo Fujikawa

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