Did you have a 7800 back in the 80's?

I remember seeing them in stores in the late 80's, but did not get mine until about two years ago. Did any others here get one new, and how did you justify it against mighty NES and Genesis?

As an aside, was there a time when 7800 systems and games were being clearanced for dirt cheap at Toys r Us and Kay-Bee? I certainly do not remember seeing this in my area.

I have only owned a 7800 for a few years.

I remember Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 being discounted at Bargain City and Kmart but not much else.

Anybody else own new?

I got the 7800 as soon as it was released. Loved how it offered superb graphics of classic arcade games and had backward compatibility with 2600 games!

TrekMD wrote:I got the 7800 as soon as it was released.

So, around 1986? What was the retail price at that time for the system?

Dang if I remember! All I know is that I saved for it and got it.

Someone did a bar graph about console prices from 1976 - 2006. I printed them out and put with my game lists but I did not print out who did this. They also did a relative console prices.

Example 1986: 7800 new for $140.00 - prices in 2006 dollars $255.22

Not sure if the prices are correct but from about Genesis on they seem to be with in about a few dollars of what I paid for mine.

Thanks for posting the price, onthinice!

Well if I can figure out how to post pictures. I would put it up.

onthinice wrote:Well if I can figure out how to post pictures. I would put it up.

You have to have the pictures hosted somewhere (Picasa or any other online picture service) so you can add a link to the image.

I thought so but was not sure.

Now you know.

Knowing is half the battle!

Are you certain that pictures cannot be directly uploaded to Retro Gaming Revolution server from one's hard drive?

You can host them here, I just discovered. You upload the image, copy the URL, and then you use the image icon to get the proper HTML code for the image. The picture I'm posting here was done using that process.

Something I have seen with photo hosting sites is what happens if the server goes down or the pictures somehow get wiped off the server. It leaves blank holes in forum posts that are not pleasant to look at.

sloan wrote:Something I have seen with photo hosting sites is what happens if the server goes down or the pictures somehow get wiped off the server. It leaves blank holes in forum posts that are not pleasant to look at.

Oh yes, I'm familiar with those "white holes."

I will try again. Thank you both!

Looks like you did it!

Thanks! I am like a dog chasing a car tire. Once one gets it not what do I do with it.

Some of those console prices are pretty high!

When you think about what folks were earning back in the Late 70's and early 80's. It is kinda of mind blowing that some of them sold as well as they did.

So, this was about the 7800. What other consoles did you guy have in the 80's? I only had the 2600 and the 7800. The other systems I have, I got later.

onthinice wrote:When you think about what folks were earning back in the Late 70's and early 80's. It is kinda of mind blowing that some of them sold as well as they did.

My family was poor, no doubt about it. VCS hit shelves fall of 1977, and I finally weaseled one from my dad for Christmas 1981. Four years after the fact, I finally got Atari. I remember going to my uncle's house (he always got the latest gadgets) for Christmas of 1977 and watching them play their new VCS. They had pinball, and Asteroids, and I longed to play. No dice. I was 12, old enough to do it no harm, but they did not let me play their new Atari. When I finally got my own 4 long years later, I savored it.

sloan wrote:

onthinice wrote:When you think about what folks were earning back in the Late 70's and early 80's. It is kinda of mind blowing that some of them sold as well as they did.

My family was poor, no doubt about it. VCS hit shelves fall of 1977, and I finally weaseled one from my dad for Christmas 1981. Four years after the fact, I finally got Atari. I remember going to my uncle's house (he always got the latest gadgets) for Christmas of 1977 and watching them play their new VCS. They had pinball, and Asteroids, and I longed to play. No dice. I was 12, old enough to do it no harm, but they did not let me play their new Atari. When I finally got my own 4 long years later, I savored it.

Oh, it was not easy for my dad to get me one either. I got mine in 1980 but I enjoyed every minute of it and still do to this day.

I had an Odyssey 2 and later about 1982 got an Atari 2600. Only ever had a few games. Later I got Star Wars Empire Strikes Back and that used to be a favorite.

I know my parents talked about making $2.85 an hour in the 1970's. So I am not sure how we ever had any game system. Yet alone the games to play on one.

We were poor, but my brother and I would scrape where we could to get VCS games. I actually had amassed about 30 games by the time of the "crash".

I never knew how many games were actually released for the 2600 until much later.

But if you and your brother would have been on my street you would have been considered rich kids back then! That is very cool! You at least got to experience a good number of games when they were still new.

Sounds like we all had some challenges getting not only the consoles but the games as well. Remarkable how much these systems have stayed with us for so many years. Probably the reason is that it was not easy for us to get them and they were fun to play with!