Atari....

On and off over the last "while" (decades), I have taken out and dusted off the old Atari 2600. It's been about 6 years since I last took a trip down memory lane with it. This time around I've been hampered by non working power supplies, crumbling cables and in general a degraded and fading system.
I originally got my first Atari 2600 Jr. from a Santa visit way back in the mid 80's, this system survived a lot including being drenched in water once. It received a fatal blow in the late 80's when some pins on the player 1 port got mangled and broke off when attempted to fix. About the same time a friend was selling his and I picked it up at a bargain price with some games.
I've held both consoles/cables and games in a box for long time.
Call me old fashioned and sentimental but emulated versions of the games are nothing when compared to taking the actual console, putting the same cartridges into it and playing it with the same joystick that was used that Christmas morning.
I was resigned to the fact that I may not play it again. I've looked up second hand sites and seen a lot on offer. There is a thriving online market for the console and games. People selling original or new versions of cables/joysticks etc. And I was tempted to buy and rejig my old version back to life but I was halted in my tracks by the flashback system! Pardon my french, but ho-lee-cwap!

So with the knowledge that I could get a new system that played the old games two things held me back from this new device. It's reviews were less than stellar with regard to the "wireless" joysticks and it was missing some games I loved to play.
Further research solved the joystick problem as I could hook up a wired controller via ports on the console, that meant I could use the old controller pictured at the top of this post or by a new version of it.
The games... bit of a bigger problem but this is why I've really held off buying.... the next version of the flashback... flashback 5... "may" have a cartridge port! 
There have been modded versions of the flashback 2 that have had a cartridge port installed but the next one may have one as standard.... I really hope it does... its as high on the wish list as is possible.
Lets see what the next 6 month's (year?) brings. I can wait ...... really I can...... honest :)