Bad Activision Labels.

[Tomas Fahy]

Hi.

 

I recently got into collecting Atari 2600 games since there cheaper than NES games and also very fun. While searching Ebay and car boot sales for games i noticed that the majority of Activision games had very tatty/ripped labels compared to ones from other company's which seemed to have labels in decent condition most of the time.

 

Because of this i was wondering, is this just a coincidence and i'm getting unlucky or were the labels made out of a lower quality materials than ones made by Atari, imagic Ect.

 

Thanks for all responses.

 

-Tomas

[Harrison]

I've actually had the opposite experience. Activision labels are mostly intact when I find them, however they do have the issue with the glue coming through the paper and giving them a mottled look.

 

I have a few labels from other publishers that looked like they've been chewed up by bugs. Crazy theory: if the activision carts have a unique type of glue, maybe that type of glue is tasty to your local species of bugs.

[VicViper]

The glue that they used doesnt age well, leading to what us in the community refer to as "Actiplaque." It is a very common occurance, and I'm not really sure what can be done about it. Now Parker Brothers labels, they seem to come off constantly. Luckily, as you noted, Atari carts are dramatically cheaper than NES era stuff, so grabbing more than one copy until you find a nice one is pretty doable.

[Harrison]

Now Parker Brothers labels, they seem to come off constantly.

It's always that end of the label lifting up, and then being hard to glue back down. It's such a weird shape. Very annoying.

[RamrodHare]

If you find carts in good shape, but with bad labels, you can always order reproduction ones from a couple of members here. If you have a decent printer, there's even a website that helps you create new labels. The other option is to find a local print shop and take them the label files on a flashdrive and let them print you up some. The downside with some of those options is cost. I really don't like the idea of buying a game for $1 and then having to pay $5+ for a new label. The print shop I go to is extremely cheap for small runs of sticker paper. Of course you have to cut them out yourself, just like if you had printed them at home, but the print shop has better printers and paper. If I ever get around to doing a run of labels, I'm going to use the weather resistant stickers like I had printed for my vintage Star Wars droids and vehicles.