Grey boxes

[Mendon]

While going thru my 2600 collection the other day, I have some (not many) games boxed with instructions. I happend to notice that one of the boxes, Realsports Volleyball, is in a grey box with no color at all on it; sort of a black and white or mono box.

 

Is there a story on why it was released in a non-color box (like a cost cutting plan)? Are there other games that were released this way?

 

Just curious....

 

Mendon

[Room 34]

I have reissued copies of Home Run and Canyon Bomber with a copyright date of 1988 that were packaged in all-gray boxes like this. The instruction manuals are also reprints of the early-'80s versions but black-and-white on flimsy paper. I also have a copy of Othello dated 1986 that came in a color box, but with the black-and-white reprint instructions.

 

A late-era effort to cash in one last time on the old games with minimum expense... that's what I think it is.

[King Atari]

I think those games were released in sets. I was going to buy a sealed Basketball like that, but (I think) I opted for a sealed Secret Quest instead. They're just cheap late-80's releases, guess Atari wanted to liquidate.

[Room 34]

I think it's a little different than that.

 

There are the ones that game in the 3-packs (excuse me, "pak"s - sic), which had plain white boxes with black text, like this:

 

 

Then there are the ones I'm talking about, which have the full design of the original boxes, just reproduced in grayscale instead of color.

 

AA doesn't have the grayscale boxes in the archive, so I have taken the liberty of desaturating the color on a Home Run box scan to simulate what my Home Run box looks like.

[Godzilla]

I think King Atari is on the right track with his answer. There were sets of games released in a single box, and the games inside had b/w boxes iirc, atari may have had a glut of those sets unsold, and just pieced out the individual cartridges.

[Curt Vendel]

While going thru my 2600 collection the other day, I have some (not many) games boxed with instructions. I happend to notice that one of the boxes, Realsports Volleyball, is in a grey box with no color at all on it;  sort of a black and white or mono box.

 

Is there a story on why it was released in a non-color box (like a cost cutting plan)? Are there other games that were released this way?

 

Just curious....

 

Mendon

 

Mendon,

 

That's called: "Hi, I'm a Tramiel, I'm sitting on a boatload of old stock, lemme sell it, but do it on the mega cheap, so non-colored boxes are printed up to package the old stock to sell to squeeze out additional revenue from every nook and cranny within the firms assets"

 

 

Curt

[Curt Vendel]

I think King Atari is on the right track with his answer. There were sets of games released in a single box, and the games inside had b/w boxes iirc, atari may have had a glut of those sets unsold, and just pieced out the individual cartridges.

 

Those games were generally B&W, not grey boxes, also those were issued in pre-Tramiel era. The grey boxes are all re-issues with updated copyrights on them and said Atari Corp instead of Atari, Inc (A Warner Communications Company)...

 

 

 

Curt

[Room 34]

Thanks Curt... I guess my message got lost amidst the giant images I posted!

[dwh]

I'm still kicking myself for not buying all the grey and white boxed games when I was at CGE02.Of course, now I'm missing one of the white boxed games from one of the "pak's"....I do have grey boxed versions of volleyball,brain games&canyon bomber.It will be cool when this is all listed at the AA database someday.

[CPUWIZ]

FYI, this is one of them ...

 

[King Atari]

That B/W Home Run was the box style I was thinking of. Thanks for clarifying that (I completely forgot about those plaiN white ones).

[CincYnoTi]

it seems atari did several things to cut costs with packaging in the 86-88 era. they re-released many of their original titles in the grey box format with b/w docs like bowling, basketball, home run... they also re-released silver label games which originally had color docs with grey labels and b/w docs, such as kangaroo, taz and gremlins. they even re-released games like pigs in space, which originally had a big color foldout poster as instructions, but later came out with a b/w regular set of instructions.

[Room 34]

No one has yet addressed the REAL question here, though... which is, on what planet, exactly, is Othello considered an "action" game?

[Pitfall Harry]

As a kid, I had a real Othello board game. The board was a green plastic, and the plastic pieces were black on one side and white on the other. The pieces looked like miniature Oreo cookies broken open -- so much so that my little brother constantly tried to lick the frosting off the white side of the playing pieces. He even called the game Oreo, instead of Othello.

 

To this day, I cannot play Othello without running out and buying a bag of Oreos within 24 hours after the game is over.

 

Ben

[Room 34]

So the "action" in Othello consists of Pitfall Harry navigating the treacherous jungle terrain of the eastern L.A. suburbs to Albertson's to capture the elusive Oreo cookie!

 

(Is Albertson's still around out there? I was sad when I heard Lucky went out of business... not that I particularly liked Lucky, but I thought it was a somewhat daring name to give a supermarket. Kind of like playing Russian roulette with your food.)

[CPUWIZ]

Is Albertson's still around out there?

 

Yes and it's actually not a bad supermarket.

[Room 34]

Is Albertson's still around out there?

 

Yes and it's actually not a bad supermarket.

That's good. When I lived out there (in Upland), I lived within walking distance of both a Stater Bros. and an Albertson's. The Stater Bros. really sucked, but I'd usually go there for quick stuff, because it was directly adjacent to my apartment complex. The Albertson's was diagonally across the intersection from it, but that meant walking across both Foothill Blvd. and Mountain Ave., both of which were mammoth thoroughfares. It would take about an extra 15 minutes to walk to the Albertson's even though it was not even a block away! So usually when it was time for a big grocery run, we'd drive over to Albertson's.

 

I would feel bad, but I knew there were people in my complex who would drive (less than a block) to the HEALTH CLUB across the street from the Albertson's. I never understood So.Cal. culture!

[video game addict]

Bump!

 

I just searched the forums, looking for references to the grey box releases. This seemed like a good enough thread to bump up. Here's what I could find so far, what am I missing?

 

 

 

Atari Grey Box re-releases: ('86-88)

 

 

Basic Programming ©1986

Basketball ©1987

Blackjack ©1986?

Brain Games ©1986

Bowling

Canyon Bomber ©1987 & ©1988

Codebreaker

Demons to Diamonds ©1986

Flag Capture ©1986

Fun With Numbers ©1986

Game Of Concentration ©1986

Golf ©1986

Home Run ©1988

Maze Craze

Night Driver

RS Volleyball ©1986 & ©1988

[MattG/Snyper2099]

your missing:

Air Sea Battle

[awsomo3000]

sounds to me the grey boxes are kinda the equivilant to ps2 greates hits

just to make a long story short

[video game addict]

sounds to me the grey boxes are kinda the equivilant to ps2 greates hits

just to make a long story short

 

Except Atari used sh!t games.

 

Playstation Greatest Hits are usually pretty good ones.

[Joey Kay]

your missing:

Air Sea Battle

 

My 1988 Air-Sea Battle is in color... were there two different pressings?

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

[video game addict]

your missing:

Air Sea Battle

 

My 1988 Air-Sea Battle is in color... were there two different pressings?

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

 

Your box is in color or the cart label? I'm looking for a list of the boxes that were grey/gray. Most the carts were nice high color labels inside the blah boxes.

 

In fact some games received their first artwork label in the grey boxes, so they are worth tracking down for that reason alone.

[Room 34]

Most the carts were nice high color labels inside the blah boxes.

I wouldn't exactly say they're "nice". They are definitely full-color, but they were also done on the cheap.

[video game addict]

Maybe it's the wax on the labels. Some of them shine like there's no tomorrow! I think also you have some with the black tape covering the errored joystick/paddle usage. Maybe not better, but some have some sort of high wax look, surprising they weren't all B&W to better match the boxes they were sold in.

 

 

Here's a couple comparisons on the boxes: