Kids love to play video games, but new gaming systems are expensive. Then you add in the cost of buying new games, any extra controllers they want, and it gets expensive. Not to mention all the electronic waste when they want the next great system.

That’s why my kids just have an old Atari 2600, plus whatever games they can play online on the computer for free. Much, much cheaper, and the games are still incredibly fun.

The systems really aren’t that hard to find. You might luck into one at a garage sale or thrift store, but if you don’t want to hunt around town you can buy old consoles and games that still work through either Amazon or eBay.

My kids go absolutely nuts for our system. I still need to get a better joystick for them, but when you consider how old these systems are, that’s not such a bad thing.

Most will come with what you need to attach it to a modern television set. If you had one and you remember the old connections, you know it won’t work anymore. But if you need to buy something, there’s an RF TV Adapter on sale at Amazon that’s supposed to do the job quite neatly. Or you can search for one of the consoles that has been modernized with the red, yellow and white plugs.

I have no doubt the time will come when my kids will want whatever the hot gaming system is. But for now they are quite happy using a system that was made more than 30 years ago and still works well today.