JayAre

I recently bought some Activision promo items/merch. from a former Activision employee. One of the items was the Pitfall Pouch. Since there's been some discussion in this thread as to whether Activision was responsible for manufacturing the item or if it was a third party, I asked this former employee what she remembers about it. She told me that Activision gave one of these backpacks to every employee. She went on to say that whenever the company released a game, employees would usually receive a copy of the game along with whatever promotional item was associated with it. As the years went by and the company grew, and then the eventual crash occurred, the company slowly did away with this practice. Since Activision distributed this backpack to its employees, it would seem to me that the company was involved in the production of the item. One other note about the backpack. In a 1994 issue of Digital Press, the staff wrote the following about it: "I obtained this at a local store which sold an assortment of items, including electronics. This was a free bonus to the first 100 customers who purchased 2600 Pitfall!. It's a thin green polyester knapsack with the words "Pitfall Pouch Activision" written in yellow. Since this was the only store giving it away in my area, I don't know how rare it is, or if it was part of a national promotion." Hopefully this info. provides some clarification.

You're welcome, Rom. Anytime.

Thanks, Rom. It's the only M Network decal I'm seeing online, so it could be the one. And both the insert and decal have a 1982 copyright year, so maybe. Rom, do you need for me to send you the decal pic for your site, or can you copy it from here?

In some of its games, M Network included an insert (pic attached) with an offer to send away for a free decal. I'm also attaching a picture of an M Network decal that I came across. Does anyone know if this is the decal associated with this offer? Did anyone ever send away for it? Thanks.

Here's another one: Lock 'N' Chase (you're a thief trying to steal gold bars, while running from the police)

Thanks so much for the awesome information; those details are really interesting. Troy, by chance, would you happen to know if CBS Electronics ever sent out the decals relating to SOLAR FOX and BLUE PRINT? As far as the Imagic posters for the 2600, I've seen them with and without stars, for the same game. I remember that you would receive a poster when you signed up for the Numb Thumb Club. Do you recall when you would receive the poster with the star, as opposed to the one without it? Maybe one version of the poster replaced the other at some point. Thanks for your kind help. It's great to finally get some clarification on all this.

Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing the star pics. Troy, when you submitted your high scores, did you receive anything else, aside from the stars? I'm asking because the Numb Thumb News says that you would receive an iron-on decal, and just mentions the star in passing. Thanks.

CVGA, thanks for taking the time to post the pictures of your posters. They're very cool. I'm attaching a pic of the page from the Numb Thumb News which lists the high scores required for the 2600 and the Intellivision. Based on the scores listed there, it appears that your 50,000 pt. reward poster is for the Intellivision, right?

Just wanted to correct my original post where I indicated that there was no mention of the stars in the Numb Thumb News. Well, I was reading through the second issue of that magazine, and there's a part that says "We've decided that all that work for all those intense playing hours deserves more than a simple star as reward!" It sounds like they're referring to the gold stars there. My mistake. And I wanted to share some information regarding the CBS Electronics decals. In an issue of the 2600 Connection newsletter from 2007, Al Backiel mentioned that he had submitted the correct mystery words for SOLAR FOX and BLUE PRINT. He never received anything for BLUE PRINT, and for SOLAR FOX, CBS Electronics sent him a "SOLAR FOX ROCKS" t-shirt (see pic below). In the very next issue of the newsletter, Scott Stilphen mentioned that he had also sent in the mystery word for both games and didn't recall ever receiving anything. Maybe CBS Electronics never sent out the decals. Or perhaps they sent them out in the beginning, and maybe ran out at some point. At least they sent out the t-shirt instead, for Solar Fox. May very well be the case of two more 2600 promotions/contests having gone somewhat awry.

King, that's an interesting possibility. Could be. I don't suppose the pouch was actually used by employees to take check deposits to the bank, since this is what these pouches were normally used for. Although, if it was used for this purpose, why would they bother to put the company's name and "SURVIVAL KIT" on it? Who knows. HV, thanks for the suggestion. I went ahead and sent messages to David Crane and Dan Kitchen. If I hear anything from them, I'll be sure to update the thread.

Guys, thanks so much for the comments. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. I hadn't thought of that, Swami. It may very well be the case. Thanks. There is, JHD. It says "University Place Clothing Co., N.Y." Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks, Bill. I appreciate the comment. I had never heard of this either. It's incredible how much Atari merch. there was back then. Well, like you said, hopefully someone out there knows something about this item. Thanks again.

I recently acquired this pouch from a former Activision employee, who worked at the company during the early 80s. The pouch is empty, but I assume that it originally came with all sorts of knick knacks inside. This appears to be a promo item. Associated with Pitfall maybe? I've looked online but can't find any information about it. Does anyone know anything about this item? Thanks.

OK, so there's an imposter in this here Lucky Charms lineup - the IMAGIC Stars. I believe Imagic sent these to players who submitted certain high scores. I've read through Imagic instructions manuals, game catalogs, and the company's newsletter, the Numb Thumb News, and there's no mention of the stars. Did Imagic ever promote/advertise these? The newsletter does mention receiving an exclusive iron-on award decal for achieving high scores, but these are different from the stars. Then there were the CBS Electronics decals that players would receive for discovering the hidden mystery word in SOLAR FOX and BLUE PRINT. The insert that came with the games that promoted this offer indicates that it was a set of 6 decals, and a couple of images of the decals are shown on the insert. Of these rewards, I've only seen online pics of the Imagic stars (but now I can't find the webpage), but not the other two. All of these seem to be extremely rare. If anyone has pictures of any of these rewards, it would be great to see them. Thanks.

Just wanted to update this thread. A while back, I was able to buy one of these backpacks. I was recently talking about it with a friend who's also a collector and who owned one of these at one point. Several years ago, he bought one from the original owner and asked him how he had acquired it. The seller told him that he bought his copy of Pitfall at a Lionel Playworld store in Miami. The copy he bought was the only one that he saw that came with the backpack. The backpack was folded and was on the back of the box, and everything was wrapped in plastic. He bought this copy thinking it was a free Pitfall jacket. Looks like this confirms what the OP was saying about how he acquired it. Apparently, retailers were sent the backpack, and at least some of them eventually passed them on to customers as a pack-in with the game. I was looking at the one that I purchased, and on the inside, there's a small manufacturer's label. It was made by a company called Bel Aire Products Co., 82 Lincoln Street, Akron OH, 44308; (216)253-3116. Since there's been some discussion as to whether Activision was behind the production of this item, I called Bel Aire Products to see if I could get any information. But the number was disconnected. I did an online search and found a company with the same name at a different address in Akron. I called, and the employee told me that the original owners sold the company to the current owners many years ago, but that they didn't have any records going that far back. Oh, well, it was worth a shot.

I was just glancing through an issue of the 2600 Connection newsletter from 2001. In it, Scott Stilphen described the different Atari Inc./Corp. game catalogs. One of these was the catalog that's the subject of this thread. Scott indicated that the catalog was only released in Atari press kits. I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks, Spriggy. Well, at least knowing it was around in 2001 helps narrow down the timeline a bit. Why did the text refer to it as being kitsch of the Japanese variety? Was the writer suggesting that the artwork on the can looks like anime?

Good observations there, King. When I first saw the cap earlier today, I couldn't make out any of the details. But I just took a long, hard look at it, and I can see what you're saying. Those round/oval shapes kind of look like the Yar's eyes. And you're right, Zzip; a trade show would have been a perfect place for this item to show up.

Hizzy, I hadn't thought of that. Given how little info. there is out there on this thing, that's entirely possible. If it was fan-made, they did a damn good job, as it looks really nice. Well, I did a little snooping around on the ole interweb, and I found three instances relating to this item. I don't know if it's the same one in all the pictures though. The first is the pic that I used in my original post, which is from Rom's site. The second instance is a set of pictures (attached) from a table at the E3 in 2011. There's an info. card next to the can, but I can't read what it says. And in the last pic (attached), I noticed that there's some etching/engraving on the orange cap, but it's difficult to see what it is in the picture. If that etching is related to the game, I would think that this thing was professionally made, as it's a bit unlikely that someone would have been able to do that from home. But I guess anything is possible. Man, I'd love to get to the bottom of this.

Yeah, this is an interesting one. Extremely difficult to find too. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was sent to retailers as an in-store promo item, which is probably why they're so scarce. And maybe not too many of these were produced either.

I'm assuming it was just a gag item, maybe to promote the game. If it was, did it just shoot out air? Was it made my Atari? Definitely one of the oddest Atari merch/promo items. Here's a pic (thanks Rom).

Great idea for a poll. Love the Xonox carts, especially the double-enders. Shape is kind of unique, and the oversized double-ender carts are pretty cool. Having two games on one cart is an interesting concept ("A Quantum Leap in Video Game Technology", as per the Xonox boxes). And I always thought the protective endcap on the double-enders was really neat.

Awesome explanation. Thanks so much.

Hey, guys, a quick programming question regarding the infielder controls. The way the game plays is that, if the ball is hit to the infield, you choose which infielder to control, and you can move that player horizontally anywhere along the screen. But you're limited to a specific vertical boundary above and below the initial starting position of each indfielder. Wouldn't there have been a way to allow each infielder to roam freely anywhere on the screen, like they did with RealSports Baseball and Super Baseball? Thanks.

SAVE, do you mean the infielders? But I can totally understand how the controls would be a deal-breaker for a lot of players. I've just played this game so damn much that I think I've developed a pretty decent feel for the controls, and I've just gotten used to it. But it takes a considerable amount of gameplay to get over that learning curve.