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Yes, indeed it is a great ideia, and probably way feasible than what I am looking for - individual catalogs for every game. Great advice, thanks!

Yeah, I guess that's the safest bet. Thanks!

Yeah, your OCD beats mine. Actually I was looking for something easier like some date printed in a hidden corner of the box or label. But thanks! I guess a good indicator is the black "A New Game for Atari" stripe. But that's all I've figured out by myself.

Hello, I am trying to add catalogs for my Activision boxed games that are without one. Already purchased a few assorted catalog lots, I hope I´ll get them eventually. Anyway. I´ve already read the *amazing* catalogues page right here at AA (http://atariage.com/system_catalogs.php?SystemID=2600). But there´s something I´m not sure yet... Is there a specific way to determine what´s the best catalogue for a given game who´s listed on multiple catalogs? I mean, let´s take Boxing for instance. It is listed from the very first catalog (AG-940-02) to some pretty later ones (AG-940-11). How do I find out wich one is the best one for my particular game and box? Or am I just being *extremely* OCD-ish and should take a cold bath and move on? Thank you.

Hello, I am looking for the following: CIB GAMES: Beamrider; Cosmic Commuter; Checkers. USA and complete, please. MANUALS: Kung Fu Master; Skiing; Rampage. Thank you!

So... I FINALLY got the prices on doing a custom box for Channel F carts. It would be a 150 x 110 x 25 mm box, what means it would be a perfect-on-every-side custom-made two-pieces box. It would still have the problems I´ve mentioned (thin plastic, two-piece). But doing it custom is cheaper than I tought. Problem is, there´s a minimal order of 500 units. So... Costs are: BRL 148,00 (Brazilian Reais) for the custom-made cutting tool. BRL 0,83 for each unit. Since we have to order 500, that means BRL 563,00 for 500 units, or BRL 56,30 for a 50-pack. As of today 1 BRL = 0.31 USD. That means that a 50 units lot would cost 17,45 USD. Price is pretty interesting. But we must have buyers for 10 50-unit lots. I don´t know if that´s possible.

Player a million times in my MSX when a kid. Loved it. :-) I guess that's why I want it on A2600.

It seems on the follow-up he was joking. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Hey! At least there´s hope! Thank you for keeping the door open. We surely appreciate it.

Yeah, we have our peculiarities. I´ll probaly write this down later but on early 80s we were under a military government. They passed a law called "market share reservation law" that stated, basically, that it was forbidden to import assembled hardware. At all. We were allowed to import components, but *no* finished products. At leaste legally. The idea behind it was to force the creation of a national, Brazilian-made computer industry with brazilian-designed computers and processors. Yeah. Worked like a charm. So, what happened is that computers and videogames that could be assembled with over-the-counter electronics were cloned by the dozens (we had probably 10 different clones of the CoCo, and of course maybe 15 different Atari models). Those whose components seemed impossible to get (for instance, SID for the C64) were ignored *or* purchased in very limited numbers on the black market. By that time every single Brazilian had his smuggler of trust (we used to called them "importabandista", a mix of "importador", importer, and "contrabandista", smuggler. Impoggler, maybe? ). We trusted our "importabandistas" to buy from Whiskey to computers, from Pringles (yeah, also forbidden) to car parts. It was idiotic times. I truly don´t miss them. OH! And foreigner software was NOT protected by copyright laws. Domestic made, yes. So it was perfect legal to dump a Megamania and make pirated carts. BUT it was illegal to dump and copy Megaboy carts. Yeah. I´m serious. Today we are able to import almost everything we want. The trick part is, we still pay 100% on taxes. Including shipment. So, when I buy an AtariAge game for USD 30, I´ll have to take in account another 20 USD on shipment and USD 50 in import taxes. Yeah. I´m still serious.

Ouch. Sad news.

Actually Brazil had the weirdest, most bizarrely-restrictive legislation in the 80s, and that explains our bizarre market and commercial practices by that time (for both computers AND videogames). I should try to write a short article on those eventually, it'd be a fun reading.

It seems that a few japanese MSX computers were legally imported back then (Casio, Toshiba, Sony) but by far the most common is Talent (a clone of Daewoo models from Korea). It even had an official MSX2 version. Apparently retrocomputing scene is quite interesting and different from Brazil, they had official releases of C16, C64, Atari, TI99 and Spectrums over there too. Quite interesting.

I was checking my e-mails. The seller of the "Elites", Aki, is actually from Finland. Sorry about that. I'm getting old and confused. Hope you don't hate that as much as we hate getting confused with Argentina. :-) The Konami book is a pretty great one indeed! And Matra have a few great homebrews. (Unfortunately I managed to miss Mecha 9. Shiite. It is supposed to be a limited release. I'm gonna kick myself in the head later) Anyway, I don't know if that's your thing but there's also an AMAZING book on Spanish games for MSX, Spectrum, Amstrad and some other, an incredible research effort. Highly recommended. http://www.heroesdepapel.es/producto/genesis/ (Spain has released some great MSX1 games back in the day)

Bringing a dormant thread back... I´ve read one thing or two about kickstarting a second batch, or even preordering + deposit. Is there any possibility of this come true? Probably something like Albert setting a minimum batch number (e.g., 200 copies), and then everyone interested paid it upfront, in full or parcial (like 50-50) and the manufacturing would only take place when and if the minimum order number was reached? Every once and a while we hear about people looking for it. Yes, and me included.

Yes, it is clearly not focused on computers but instead in those amazing, weird ads from the 80s. :-) Carlsson, are you a fan of MSX too? How did you managed to find Matra? Was MSX "a thing" in Sweden aswell? I´ve managed to met a single MSX collector in Sweden. Bought two "Elite" MSX versions from him. Isn´t him you by any chance?

That´s amazing!

I think you might like this book. http://www.matranet.net/boutique/books/bbl/bbl.php I do managed to grab a copy before it ran out of print. The ads are amazing, a lot of bladerunner-ish computer fetish with pretty short-haired japanese girls and sexy-looking machines. Japan as it finest:-)

I am DEFINITELY not a world-class expert but I am pretty familiar with MSX, the japanese standard developed by Microsoft and ASCII in early 80s. It had a decent traction back then and achieved a cult status in Europe (specially in Spain and Holland but also in some degree in Italy, UK and France), some Arabic countries (Kuweit, Egypt and Saudi Arabia) and Brazil. It also had some interesting "scene" in USSR. Did you guys know that MSX was the only commercial 8-bit computer used in space? There was an MSX2 computer made by Sony on MIR, the Soviet Space Station. http://msx.gnu-linux.net/msx-in-space/

Here's a great start: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/JPNcomputers/Japanesecomputers.htm

So... Super Famicom was released in Japan on november 1990 for 25,000 yen, grossly 200 US Dollars; SNES was released in USA on august 1991 for 210 US Dollars. Mega Drive was releasen in Japan in october 1988 for 21,000 yen, grossly 165 USD Genesis was released in USA on august 1989 for 190 USD. I guess that makes not much of a difference.

Pretty tough question. I have no idea. Items were made in Japan, with japanese costs (labor, electricity, storage, distribution and a huge et cetera). That´s probably explains part of the cost. Maybe (and a huge maybe) price could be lowered with scale and overseas manufacturing. But I honestly can´t tell. I think the best idea is to seach japanese item made in Japan an abroad. For instance, compare SNES and Super Famicom price tags. That might be a fun research.

Being all the way across the world, having a taste for the bizarre pre-crash systems and relying primarily on eBay, it hugely relies on what pops up online. Sadly for me, shipment costs alone tipically goes above what most of you guys are saying your budget is. And that makes me a sad panda.

North & South and Nuclear Wars, both for Amiga. Fun as hell. (None of them "hardcore" strategy, specially North and South. But really great games)

One thing we must have in mind is that by that time (late 80s, early 90s) Japan was in the apex of a GIANT bubble. Japanese had sh*tloads of money back then, everything was super expensive in US dollars BUT really affordable to them. Most japanese games had prices printed in the box. It's not rare to find games that costed as high as 150 dollars a piece at retail price. This is insane. MSX games were 50 dollars a piece in Japan and 2 pound in cheap cassetes in UK. I read once that they were buying land in Tokio at 750,000 dollars THE SQUARE METER. Can you imagine that? https://housingjapan.com/2011/11/10/a-history-of-tokyo-real-estate-prices/ When the bubble bursted in 1990 Nikkei (Japan stock market) lost 2 TRILLION DOLLARS in one year. They just haven't fully recovered yet. So... Talked too much as usual. My point is, 3,000 dollars was not a big sum at all in 80s Japan.