Matthew vs. The Atari 2600

By: Thunderstarwarp

It was mid day in the outskirts of Megaville in the suburbs. Living in these suburbs were the towns super heroes. And this is the day an ex government agent was to be getting something he was trying to get for a few months now…an Atari 2600.

Matthew has chosen his new life the one of a retro and new aged gamer. He didn't find other things that 'normal' teenagers his age enjoyed…well…enjoyable. So he decided to stick with gaming and he wanted to see where it began and really feel what it was like. Something that an emulator can't do on the internet, but with the internet he could buy one on Ebun. He found one that came with 51 games and still had the original box. And if it didn't work his 'brother' Dexter could just fix it.

Matthew was in the living room of his new home watching TV till he heard the door bell. Dexter's mom or his adoptive mother was the first to hear it.

"Matthew, will you please get that." She asked from the kitchen.

"Yeah sure whatever." Matthew replied from the living room going to the door. Matthew walked toward the door not really expecting anything. When he got to the door and opened it he saw the UPS man just get in his truck and leave. He looked down to see a large brown cardboard box. On the side of it was the mail. He looked down to look at the sender and saw it was from Ebun. "Ha ha! Finally after two weeks of waiting I finally get my Atari 2600!" he said excited.

He grabbed the box and the mail and went back inside. He threw the mail on the kitchen counter and made his way to his room upstairs. Right now he was so happy he just wanted to play this thing for hours…well within playing all 51. As he made his way upstairs he saw his 'dad' walking by the stairs also.

"Hey, son what do you have there?" He said pointing at the box.

He stopped and turned to his adoptive father and said "Well, what I got here is the first game console to make owning a game console popular. That being the day back in 1977."

He laughed and said "Well going retro huh? Well have fun with it."

Matthew was already making his way to his room again going upstairs and he said to him "Oh believe me I will."

As he was almost to his room he was stopped by a sudden force making him fall to the ground. He fell back holding on to his game console for dear life. He looked up to see Dexter's sister or now his new sister…Dee Dee.

"Hi Matthew!"

Matthew covered his eyes rubbing them and said "Hi Dee Dee."

"Ohhh, What do you have there?"

"It's an Atari 2600! Another game console to add to my collection. Now please my sister…leave!"

"Can I play?"

Matthew got back up and said "No. Look I haven't even played one of these things before and since I bought it with my own money I think I have the right to play it first. Go bother Dex or something."

Matthew's relationship with Dee Dee actually started off like a brother and sister relationship. After Matthew, Dexter, Blossom died in their final battle against the DarkStar Council and Dee Dee convinced Grim again to not take our souls just yet he brought her back as well to make sure she couldn't intervene again with his job. With all that he does have to thank her and there isn't a doubt that Dexter was happy to have her back. And since she did bring them back they did win. Bell escaped and so did Skywarp but they will be dealt with soon enough.

But since Matthew was adopted by Dexter's parents and she was alive again she has become his sister. And according to Dexter…even after being dead for a few years and back to her same again…she hasn't changed. Despite how bad he felt thinking this…he couldn't see how Dexter could miss her. But like any brother and sister he did have some sort care like any family member would.

"Please!" Dee Dee begged.

Matthew turned back to her still holding the box and said "Fine."

"Yeah!" she then ran to him and hugged him. He would push her off but he was carrying the box."

"But only after I play a couple games first."

"Okay!"

Matthew sighed and continued to his room and she followed at the end of the hall. When he got there he cut open the box with a military combat knife and took it out. He looked at the wooden old console…it was kind of cool to see this thing for real. He then looked at the attachments.

"What the frea-" Matthew said taking out the attachment. He saw that this stupid thing didn't work on RCA cables. It worked on cable connectors. "You have got to be kidding me."

Now Matthew knew there were converters so he could use RCA cables but he really didn't want to go to the store…he just wanted to play the freaking thing! But fortunately he has his old 13' Television he keeps in his closet and that would have to do. Defiantly not what he wanted to do but it would have to do unless he was to go through the annoying process of taking out the TV in the entertainment center and all that. So he took out the old TV and placed it on his desk that was on the opposite side of his room.

"Need Help?" Dee Dee offered.

"No that will not be necessary." He answered.

"Sure?"

Matthew at this time was carrying the Atari to desk and he said "Yeah I am good. Really."

"You don't look like."

Matthew growled and then said "Fine, then bring the box with all the games in it."

With that he started to hook up the Atari to the small TV. Dee Dee on the other hand was getting the box full of game cartridges. She started her way from the bed to bring them over but when she was half way across the room she tripped over Matthew's Playstation control and dropped all the game cartridges. Matthew just plugged in his the AC adaptor in a turned to see Dee Dee on the floor.

"Well done Dee Dee." Matthew said sarcastically.

"Hey, wait." She said picking up one of the cartridges and looking at it while lying down. "What are you an idiot? These aren't games."

"Yes, they are Dee Dee. Video games back in 1977 didn't work on discs. They worked on cartridges like the ones you dropped on the ground." Matthew said correcting her.

He then saw that he finally hooked everything and so he grabbed a few game cartridges from the ground near his chair.

He took five games and read the title of them aloud. "Okay, let's see. 'Ghostbusters', 'G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero', 'Pit Fall', 'Pole Position', and…hello?"

The fifth one was a blank cartridge. There was no label or anything telling what game it was. Matthew looked at the thing and said "Well I didn't expect to get 'Halloween' on Atari but whatever."

"What?" Dee Dee asked as she finished putting the other game cartridges in the box they came in.

"Well there is a game based on the old Halloween movie and the games were cheaply labeled…or not even labeled." Matthew said spinning the cartridge then putting it into the Atari's slot. He was then was about to hit the on switch but then a hand grabbed his stopping him. He turned to see Dee Dee stopping him.

"Don't do it!"

"Oh, this ought to be good. Why not?" Matthew said in his sarcastic tone.

"There is an old legend that an evil Japanese game developer created a game that was blank. Doing so he put a curse on it forcing who ever plays it the game console will try and stop destroy them." She told him in a worried face.

Matthew looked at her leaning on his arm resting on his desk showing that he was not amused. "That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard."

"I'm being serious!"

"You didn't even know that this thing ran on cartridges. Sorry, look, seriously come back later let me enjoy this thing."

"Don't play that game!"

"Whatever! Fine."

She was on the way out and said "Really don't play-"

"Okay! Fine! I'll play G.I. Joe or something."

She then finally left his room leaving him in his room. "Thank you God! Now let's play this blank game."

With that he flipped the switch and turned it on. When he did he saw the screen flicker but nothing came up. He started flipping the other switches but nothing happened. With that he dropped the joystick controller and then he removed the game cartridge.

"No wonder it was blank…the cartridge is blank."

With that he grabbed the box to pick out another game. He found 'Missile Command' and he took it out and placed it in the slot. He then turned it on and then he saw the game.

"Alright! Let's actually take out some falling missiles from the sky." He started to use the joystick but it was unresponsive. "Oh, don't tell me I bought a bad game console!" But as he said that he saw the environment around him change. His room turned all green and he saw red structures on each side of him. He took a step back…he was in a 2 dimensional signal color world.

"Um…how in the?" he couldn't figure it out. What just happened? He was no longer in his room…he was just…in a weird one color world. He then looked up to see pixels of lines coming down on the cities. He saw in front of him were controls. It was all just a bunch a colors all over the place.

"These are controls to play a freaking video game!" he yelled so ticked right now.

He started pressing so many buttons annoyed. He could hear missiles being fired but he couldn't tell if he was hitting anything. After a white he hear explosions and could tell by guessing he was hitting the meteors.

Just then he could hear a large explosion that changed the color around change but after that he found he was back in his room with the joystick in his hand.

Matthew dropped it kind of freaked out…he looked at the TV screen and saw that it was working and playing the game.

Matthew glared at the old console and went to the top of his entertainment center and grabbed his laser gun. He was about to shoot the thing till again the entire room was again changed. This time his room was nothing but green bars all around him making a bunch of black squares. He turned back to his Atari 2600 and saw that unlike the rest of his room was still there.

"Do you really think you are a gamer?" The dark demonic voiced asked.

Matthew looked around looking for the origin of the voice and then said "To some degree yes."

"If you are a gamer…then let's see if you can take on the ATARI 2600!"

"What?"

All of a sudden he saw the Atari sprout out four metal legs and then he could see the switches make like eyes between the Atari's slot. Matthew took a few steps back holding on to his laser gun taking a few steps back.

The Atari then faced him and then in its slot started to fire out cartridges. Matthew dodged some of them but also shoot a few. The Atari then fired a pixilated line from the sides at him in which he dodged. When the line it the ground it made a weak and low sounding explosion.

"Okay this is just stupid now." He said pointing his gun at the game console. The Atari then started shooting 2D blocks among other 2D items. He dodged them all them and fired at the side of the console destroying one of the 2D pixilated laser blasters. The Atari followed him and continued to fire at him.

"You can't stop the ATARI 2600!? Then what makes you think you can play today's video games!" the voice said.

Matthew growled not knowing what to do. He already tried shooting the thing put it is not enough. How does he stop a game console…(Matthew punches himself in face).

Matthew then jumped into the air and when he did he grabbed the game console and flipped the off switch and when he did that everything around him disappeared going back to his room. He looked down at the old Atari and he was more than ready to just slam the thing into the ground and destroy but then stopped…

(Next Day)

"I can live without a retro game console…" Matthew said angry to Dexter as he dropped the box with the Atari 2600 and all its games out into the street.

"Well who needs an Atari 2600 anyhow? How about you just get yourself a Colecovision or an Intellivision?" Dexter proposed to him.

"We'll see my brother…we'll see." was his response as they went back inside.

Just as they left, three boys came to see the old game console on the side of the road. The tall yellow skinned one said "Hey, guys it's an Alien space computer that the space mutants use for cooking bacon."

The slightly shorter boy came in front of him and said "Actually Ed, I think this is an old Atari 2600. Hmm…it seems that it is in still working condition."

The shortest one then came in front of them and said "Well then let's take it! I mean its garbage to them so let's take for our selves. I mean a free video game console."

"VIDEO GAMES!" Ed yelled grabbing the two boxes running to his house.

"Way to go Monobrow! Let's test this at my house."

"Well since the original owner did throw it away it is technically for anyone and-" he was cut off by Eddy saying "Whatever Double D let's try it out!"


I don't think it is necessary say what happened…