I can remember my first video game system. (Well, the first one was actually a hand held Mr. Quarterback by Coleco. Mattel also had some hand held sports games, and they all consisted of red dots for players.) But I am talking about one that plays on the TV.

It was 1977 on Christmas morning we got a Sears video game system that hooked up to the TV. It had a version of Pong, and also a simple car racing game. It came with four paddles, and you could play one or two or up to four players. I think they said it cost $100, which was a boat load of money back then. Graphics were black and white and there was a small speaker on the console itself for sound, I don't there there was any sound on the TV itself.

This is an actual picture of me playing the game on Christmas 1977.



Ironically I was in a Friday's or some restaurant like that in Worcester in 2007 and they had this exact video game up on the wall along with all sorts of other memorabilia. I found a picture of it on the internet.



Soon after the Atari 2600 came out and also the Mattel Intellivision game systems. It's amazing how bad the graphics were on these games back then, but we would play them for hours. And the worst thing about those games, you couldn't save your progress. You either finished the game or you didn't. I'll have more on past video games in another post I'm sure.

Leave a comment or email me and let me know your first video game memory.
daveicehog@aol.com