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Ranking your collection


johnnywc

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After completing the long task of getting a spreadsheet of all the domestic Atari 2600 games, including the title, company, label and rarity (per the Atari Age Rarity guide), I set out to 'rank' the quantity and quality of my collection.

 

For quantity, I simply computed the percentage of games I have to the total games in the list. The result: 38%. I have a loong way to go...

 

For quality, I computed the percentage of 'rarity points' for games I have (ie. Combat gets 1 point and Quadrun gets a 10 (if I had one!)) to the total rarity points in the list. The result: a paltry 25%.

 

Although my results are not by any means scientific, I was wondering how my collection, modest as it may be, stacks up against the rest. Any one care to share?

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I don't think we'd ever get a universal benchmark but it would be fun to vote on the top collections and rank them based on atariage member opinions. Especially now that it is college football season Just think, you might walk around and say "I'm rated #4 in the AA (atari age) and #6 in the DP (digital press) this week".

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Pitfall Harry -

 

Thanks for your insights. I completely agree with you - a Gauntlet cart is certainly worth a lot more than ten common carts, heck maybe even a hundred. And sure, a boxed game in pristine shape will always be worth more than just a loose cart with no label. PAL games should be included, and dupes, prototypes, etc. These are all true.

 

Let me clarify: I just thought it would be neat to determine how far along I was in my quest: to collect all NTSC games that were released, including major label variations.

 

As far as the rarity points: I again agree on the absurdity of the ridiculous assumption I made that a rarity of 10 is worth only 10 times more than a rarity of 1 in a collection. My initial calculation gave rarity points based on the power of 2 (2,4,8,16,32...1024) so that 1 rarity 10 (ie. Gauntlet) cart would be worth 512 rarity 1 (ie. Combat) carts. The result of 4% was just too depressing.. .

 

Anyway - let me put up a disclaimer that my results are in no way scientific and just a general benchmark that I'm using. But I do agree that it would be neat if we could come up with an agreed upon scoring system to *rank* our collections more accurately.

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quote:

Originally posted by Tempest:

I don't even want to think about how much my collection is worth (or how much I've pumped into it).

 

Tempest

 

I know... I just saw the auction you won for the 5200 stuff... and that's a sh*t load of money to me

 

Osbo

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I apologize for posting my question of "ranking" collections without actually giving the standards I used. :P

 

Well, here they are:

 

1) I only included NTSC (Domestic) games listed in the Atari Age Rarity Guide, mostly because I do not own one PAL or foreign cart.

 

2) I only included the MAJOR label variations (again, as defined by the AARG)

 

3) I did not count dupes. For example, I have 10 picture label Combat carts, but only 1 counts towards completing my collection.

 

4) I did not include prototypes, pirates, or modern releases.

 

5) When determining the percentage of my list (for rarity), I simply gave each game a value based on it's rarity (as defined by the AARG). So, by dividing the rarity points of the collection by the total rarity points would give this number.

 

6) The condition or completeness of an item did not affect it's points. So, a complete MIB Moon Patrol is worth the same as a loose cart with magic marker on it.

 

As we know, (5) is very subjective and I may alter it to give a more realistic value, and I'm certainly open to any suggestions. One was the power of 2 scoring (so that a 1 would get 2 points and a 10 would get 1024). Another is the sqaure of each, so that a 1 gets 1 point and a 10 gets 100. There are certainly endless possibilites...

 

As for (6), perhaps a list that ranks the "condition" of a collection would be more appropriate. For example, each point ranking could be scaled according to things like condition of the cart, instructions, box, etc., with a maximum score for MIB and a minimum score for a loose cart with a damaged or missing label.

 

Perhaps the members of Atari Age would be able to come up with a fair scoring system. It may even be worth while to have separate lists for different things (ie. top 100 list for NTSC carts, PAL carts, prototypes, all, "best condition" carts, etc.). Alot of work, for sure, but interesting none the less...

 

Thanks for letting me rant - I'm gonna go play Atari Video Cube now (just got it and it's my crown jewel.... )

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