Skylark68

I remember a few games not being sealed, they just had a plastic tab so it could hang on display racks. I don't think any of the Coleco games were sealed.

I think Pitfall II was probably the most important and impressive, but I always liked Desert Falcon's music. It has that unique Egyptian vibe to it. Too bad it doesn't run throughout all of the gameplay.

Don't forget about the mother lode of Atari contests: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8dgHwGIkQg I'm sure there were some hard copy ads for this contest too...

While the game itself wasn't a puzzle, I'd have to mention "Name This Game" as an honorary puzzle title... Also, don't forget about Hangman and Brain Games unless you are thinking about a different kind of puzzle.

I think I recall that the game was sold by itself as well, but I imagine that this bundle was more common. I could be 100% wrong though. It would be tough to play without the driving controllers and I don't think any other game was made that utilized those.

Missile Command is addicting. Even if you don't have 3 bases or jet aircraft attacking, the game is sheer brilliance. One of the few games that I repeatedly come back to time and time again.

Paint scheme is virtually identical on the Combat box to this photo of a T38... Maybe the artist envisioned the Combat game as a "trainer" for would be fighter pilots. ha

Definitely T-38's, not F-5's. The rest of your ID's seem correct though. The battleship is an Iowa class battleship. I'm not sure what a salvo from those 16" guns would have done to a few WW1 era biplanes (and triplane).

The thing about that era was is that the games are typically really awesome, but the packaging is usually pretty weak. I personally thought the instructions in two tone maroonish/pinkish were terrible.

I don't remember the exact year that my family bought one, but it was within a few days of Pac Man being released for the system. My Dad packed up the '79 Le Mans station wagon and the family headed off to Gemco. We ended up with a 4 switch woody, Combat, and Pac Man. I remember trying really hard to get my Dad to get Warlords but he said we were only buying 1 game to go with it and he wanted Pac Man. I think he played it maybe 2 or 3 times the entire time that I was growing up. I bet he would have liked Warlords better. Oh well. Eventually I picked up a pretty decent game collection, aided especially by the crash (when you could get most of the games for under $5.). When the NES came out I tried real hard to get one, but my Dad didn't want to buy any other video game systems (mainly due to the crash). We ended up with a Apple II GS a couple of years later (he got burned on that worse than the Atari - ha). So, I ended up being "stuck" with my old Atari for video games. It was a good time to still be an Atari fan because stores like Kay Bee and Toys R Us still carried a lot of titles, and plenty of kids that got a NES got rid of their Ataris at garage sales that we frequented. Eventually through garage sales and friends I accumulated a Sears light sixer, an Atari heavy sixer, a Jr., and at least 2 or 3 other 4 switchers. In the past 2 years or so I sold all of the systems except for my original 4 switcher (which still works great). I love Atari mainly due to the simplicity of the games and the fact that the replayability is basically limitless. The only game that I never liked for the system was Swordquest Fireworld. I could always find at least one reedeeming quality for all the rest of the games that I owned.

I'm going to try to make it this year. It's just a couple of days before my b-day so I think that would make a good present to myself.

Yeah, I know what you mean. They were basically Intellivision style carts with a Atari adapter stuck on the end. Not very inspiring.

Where is that artwork from (the first game)? I know the 2nd one is Tron...

The design of the carts was pretty interesting although they definitely don't stack easily at all. The games themselves are generally really good in my opinion. Dark Cavern, Frogs and Flies, etc. are pretty stand up games, and better than their Intellivision counterparts.

I have the CX-80 and it's a pretty good unit. Plus, mine anyways was made in USA...

That may be true for adults (just like wine and haggis), but when this first came out I was a little one and played the heck out of it. It was one of my favorite games for a period of time... Maybe I was just a strange kid?

That Odyssey cabinet looks like the closest to being homemade. The (probably) Magnavox TV is just sitting up there...

This is awesome. It reminds me of the late '80s when this stuff was relatively easy to find at garage sales. The price is great for Power Lords by itself. Turtles is pretty rare too. The CIB Conquest and Quest are awesome. Conquest is really fun although the subs have an advantage over any other unit.

This is awesome news. It's always wonderful to find original documentation.

Those sound like the old DLM math games, maybe. #2 reminds me of Alien Addition. Go to the Asimov archive and search the site index for "DLM" - there should be two disk images there. This one I can answer with 100% certainty. It's Speedway Classic, also at Asimov. Make sure you get this particular image, since their other one doesn't work: Speedway Classic (WORKING copy) (Actioncraft - 1984) (Jean Laffite crack).dsk The Incredible Laboratory, by Sunburst Communications? To the people looking for History Mystery on Microzine #18 - there is a disk image of it on Megaupload. However, it seems to be bad. It's labeled as "uncracked", but the disk must have been resistant to even nibble-copying (since the image is a .nib and unbootable). I nevertheless attempted the crack described in issues #53 and #63 of Hardcore Computist, but I couldn't get a sector editor to read the image at all. Incredible Laboratory is correct! Thanks!!!!

I assume it was made late in the release cycle, but I had a b&w Breakout manual with the instructions in quite a few languages. My blue label Demon Attack is just a plain black and white manual (not even a manual, nothing more than a pamphlet) with nothing but text (no graphics or pictures).

Let me be a little more specific... Is there any information out there that anyone won one...? I didn't know if it was like a lot of those other contests like US Games "Name that Game" or the infamous unawarded Swordquest prizes. You guys are so sarcastic...

I remember this ad on the back of comic books from when I was a kid. I forgot all about it until I did a search for Super Cobra or fleabay. Did anyone win this? eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230619159486

There is a store not too far from my house in an old shopping center. He has a pretty cool setup with a game room next to the store (6 or 7 TVs with different systems hooked up to them). He hosts birthday parties and other types of get togethers. Most of the Atari games can be found in a bin and the games were right around $1 a piece if I remember correctly. He has some more uncommon games that are marked with prices, but I've found plenty of good games in the bin that weren't Pac Man or Asteroids.