7 replies to this topic

[tyranthraxus]

I've got an Atari Inc. E.T. that I'm considering opening up, either that or I will bundle it into an eBay lot that I'm putting together of sealed commons. I've never been into collecting boxes & manuals but I'm curious if there are there any cool posters/catalogs to find?

[save2600]

In the E.T. cart, I don't think so. If there is a poster of any kind, it'd be an Atari catalog that folds out into a poster. You can kinda tell if you have a poster by gently squeezing the box and seeing how much give it has. Might even have a slight bulge to it...


I thought at first E.T. might have this one:  http://www.atarimani...rev-a_49_2.html

...but if there's a catalog at all, might be this? http://www.atarimani...6725_289_2.html

(don't believe I've never seen the second one)

Does anyone know how Atari determined they would put catalogs in their games? Must have been a "first, second, third pressing" kind of phenomenon one would think, so maybe they put so many catalogs into the first batch of certain titles. Have no idea... always seemed pretty darned random to me. I remember thinking that by the time of the Jr., 7800 and XE releases, they were stuffing more catalog-posters into certain batches of titles.

[tyranthraxus]

Well I came to my senses and realized that I was debating opening an E.T. cartridge! That 1st catalog looked tempting to leaf through some 30 odd years later so I broke the seal. Had that nice 1982 smell to it! The catalog it came with was this 49 game one from 1982:

http://www.atarimani...-rev-e_5_2.html


Which kinda makes sense since its a release from late 82. But what made it worth it for me was getting this flyer for Raiders of the Lost Ark:

http://www.atarimani...-2-6911-_2.html


All in all opening the box was more fun than I ever had with actual video game.

[HatefulGravey]

I was given an sealed copy of Venture for the 2600 once. The seal was kind of bad so I decided I wanted to open a 2600 game like kids did back in the day. It was interesting to be opening a game that had been sealed longer then I had been alive. The neatest part to me was just how clean the cart was. I have a pile of loose carts, but the cleanist wasn't near a pretty as this game was coming out of the box. The PCB was still nice and pretty in the bottom of the cart, freaking beautiful.

That said I have something like 10 other sealed games I can't make myself open. I often wonder whats inside, and if I knew there were posters in there I would open them now, but I don't so I wont.

[Mxyzptlk]

HatefulGravey, on Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:04 PM, said:

I was given an sealed copy of Venture for the 2600 once. The seal was kind of bad so I decided I wanted to open a 2600 game like kids did back in the day. It was interesting to be opening a game that had been sealed longer then I had been alive. The neatest part to me was just how clean the cart was. I have a pile of loose carts, but the cleanist wasn't near a pretty as this game was coming out of the box. The PCB was still nice and pretty in the bottom of the cart, freaking beautiful.

That said I have something like 10 other sealed games I can't make myself open. I often wonder whats inside, and if I knew there were posters in there I would open them now, but I don't so I wont.

   I am pretty sure Xenophobe came with a poster. I am not positive though, as the box came to me open and someone could have put it in there after the fact.

[Syntaxerror999]

tyranthraxus, on Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:49 PM, said:

All in all opening the box was more fun than I ever had with actual video game.

Im sure kids back in 82 said the exact same thing!

[save2600]

Syntaxerror999, on Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:00 PM, said:

tyranthraxus, on Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:49 PM, said:

All in all opening the box was more fun than I ever had with actual video game.

Im sure kids back in 82 said the exact same thing!

Nah, we didn't look at it that way. In fact, sealed Atari games just impeded the gameplay.  Couldn't rip through that shit fast enough.  

[Zwackery]

I open all sealed items regardless of rarity.  Some carts no longer have that "Atari smell", but when they do it's quite nostalgic.  Also, seeing what was in the box and particularly the quality of everything is usually fun.