Reading all of this makes me love the fact that I got an Atari 800XL from school for free with a load of arcade cartridges and a classic one button two pot joystick.
It's more awesome than anyone can tell before they mess with it. Every day I'd introduce a couple more kids to the thing and they'd always be late to the next class trying to get just a little farther in whatever game they were playing. Even had it on an old black&white TV for realism.
I love the thing.