Task: Attend an Atari Party
Needed: Time and travel
Time: 1 day
Introduction
Many of us carry out our Atari projects in isolation due to the rareness of the hobby. As such, we relish those infrequent opportunities to meet with other enthusiasts to celebrate our love for Atari and to exchange ideas. I have previously posted about Vintage Computer Festivals which provide an opportunity to meet up with like-minded hobbyists. Another outlet is Atari Parties which are hosted annually by kind souls who open up their homes allowing people to aggregate to play with hardware and software and talk about Atari for hours on end. I had the good fortune of being to attend Atari Party East in September of 2019. This Atari Party has been hosted for the last three years by Bill Lange who lives in New Jersey (USA) and has an amazing collection of Atari hardware and software. I had a such as good time meeting new people and discussing a variety of Atari topics including mods and rare hardware.
Instructions
Track down an Atari party close to you and attend! These can be found by Googling “Atari Party” and the current year. There are several in the USA and Europe each year. There might be some in other countries as well.
Comments
One of the great things about Atari Parties is learning new things. I brought an ATR 8000 with me and got help troubleshooting some problems with it. Having experts on hand can be endlessly more useful than what you get online. There was also a giveaway table at Atari Party East. These can be a good opportunity to pick up some software, hardware, books, etc. I highly recommend attending one if you can.
