Atari Party is an event to celebrate old video games. It's a kind of hands-on, living museum, where various game systems and games will be showcased. It's a free event, open to the public, and all games will be available to play for free.
Note: This is not a trading or selling event. All games are from volunteers' personal collections, and are being brought so everyone can play them.
As of 2017, Marlin "MacRorie" Bates, of Woodland, took over the reins of Atari Party. More info coming soon!
From 2009 through 2016, Bill Kendrick, known in Davis as a co-founder of the Linux Users' Group of Davis (LUGOD), and known globally as developer of Tux Paint, the award-winning open source children's art (as well as other open source software), founded and ran the show.
Bill grew up with the Atari 2600 and owned and programmed an Atari 1200XL since he was 7 years old. He still owns a variety of Atari systems, though doesn't consider himself a 'collector'. As of mid-2017, he'll no longer be living in Davis.
In 2003, Bill Kendrick participated in his first Vintage Computer Festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. People were bringing Commodore 64 and Apple ][ folks, so he decided to go as an exhibitor to represent Atari 8-bit computers.
In 2008, having recently moved back to Davis, and with a little space and time to set all his game systems up again, he ended up with an itch to share all the fun with friends. VCF West never took place in 2008, so the itch was not satisified.
Bill came up with the idea of an "Atari Party", similar to how people had been having "Wii Parties" at the time — with a pair of paddles and a copy of Warlords, you can have 4-player fun on the Atari, too! Asking all of his friends via Facebook if they'd be interested, he received an overwhelming response, so scheduled the first Atari Party in Davis, California!
Some photos of Bill Kendrick's Atari exhibits at Vintage Computer Fesitvals
Kids enjoying games at VCF 6.0
Me (Bill Kendrick) and Robert Bernardo (Commodre 64 guy) at VCF 6.0
People playing Enduro at VCF 7.0Some photos from Atari Party 2009
Playing on an Atari 800XL
Watching a guest speaker talk
Playing Atari 2600Some photos from Atari Party 2010
Atari Jaguar, projected
Various 2600s
Atari XLSome photos from Atari Party 2011
Lots of gaming
Classic computing TV shows
Insides of an Atari 800Some photos from Atari Party 2012 with Digital Game Museum
Al Alcorn, Atari employee #003, about to speak.
"Computer Space" arcade game
"Pong" arcade gameSome photos from Atari Party 2013
Books being packed up for display.
Gaming
Atari 2600 "Space Invaders"Some photos from Atari Party 2014
A variety of Atari home video game and computer controllers.
Atari Flashback, Paddle TV Games, and Lynx, and Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP
"San Francisco Rush" on PlayStation 2Some photos from Atari Party 2015
Atari employee Dan "The TrakBall Man" Kramer
Various Atari STs
"Tempest" arcade gameSome photos from Atari Party 2016
"Dragon's Lair" on Atari Jaguar.
Atari Portfolio palmtop computer.
Atari Video Music