It's amazing how fond I am of certain things, and at the same time I don't even realize it. Yesterday, my first official "nostalgia" purchase from ebay arrived. Yes, it's the Atari 2600 circa 1979. I received one for my eighth birthday and it remains to this day my most memorable birthday gift. I remember saving money from my paper route for months to get the next new game and begging my Dad to drive me to Toys 'R Us so I could buy one. At one point I had over eighty games, but years of childhood 2 for 1 swaps and yard sales when I was away at college decimated the collection. It was with great anticipation that I unpacked the console and plugged it into the television. First game of choice: Space Invaders. This game is hard! I think I was better at it twenty years ago. Next I played Defender, Beserk, and Combat. It's amazing the I still find the sound effects in Beserk unsettling. Now I need to purchase my all-time favorites: Pitfall, Indiana Jones, and Circus. I find these games so amazing, perhaps because I now understand how they were made and programmed. Modern 3-D games are beyond my current comprehension, although I could provide a laymen's explanation of how they work. I understand the Atari well enough that I could program the games myself, and that's part of the reason I find it so intriguing.