JayAre

Bill, thanks for sharing this. Both items are great. I noticed that the manual is actually for Galaxian, instead of Centipede. I had never seen a manual covered up with tape like that. I'm attaching a picture of what the original manual looks like. As you can see, they covered up the ATARI SERVICE portion on the top-right corner, along with the Warranty info. on the bottom. They also covered up the PRINTED IN U.S.A. on the bottom-right corner with the MADE IN TAIWAN tape. I looked online, but the only thing I found similar to yours is a manual that came with an Atari Corp. CIB, and it had the MADE IN TAIWAN tape, but not the other two. Could it be that your manual was used during the Atari Corp. era, and they just used a left-over Atari Inc. manual? If this was the case, they covered up the Warranty section, since it mentioned Atari Inc., and also maybe because that specific warranty didn't apply anymore. But I'm not sure why they covered up the ATARI SERVICE part. Was that service discontinued at some point, with Atari Corp? Although they left the Warner text, along with Atari Inc. mentioned at the bottom, so I'm not sure. Great find, Bill.

I'm trying to find an image of that standee online, but I'm not having any luck. With those items that are a bit older (around 1980), it's sometimes more difficult to find them. But I think you guys are right; it certainly looks like Dragster.

I just received these pictures of Activision's presentation at the January, 1981 Winter CES in Las Vegas. Activision released its first games in July, 1980, so I'm assuming the company made its very first presentation at the 1980 Summer CES. Which would make the pictures below its second CES presentation. Enjoy! Larry Kaplan & David Crane I think that might be David Crane (in the light shirt) playing a game Jim Levy looking on as two Activision employees hold up a Swedish Erotica poster featuring pictures of porn stars Seka & Lisa De Leeuw Picture's blurry, but here we have David Crane Larry Kaplan. And I think that might be Bob Whitehead behind the lady

It really is amazing just how many different sized boxes there were for the 2600. And then you have the Joyboard, the two Milton Bradley games, Kid Vid Voice Module and Video Reflex/Video Jogger/Foot Craz Pad set. But those are way too big for protectors.

I was organizing some of my Atari stuff and found this last picture from the Pitfall Party. That's Activision President & CEO, Jim Levy, holding the cig.

Just to echo lazzeri's comment, Dan at retroprotection.com has an amazing selection of box protectors, and he's incredibly helpful. I've communicated with Dan in the past & have identified which protectors fit these odd-sized 2600 boxes. I thought I'd pass this info. along to you guys, as it might be helpful. Aside from the ones lazzeri already pointed out in this thread, below I'm detailing the protector (in bold) as referenced on Dan's site, along with the 2600 games that will fit; I'm also attaching pics. Most are a great fit; some are a bit loose but still do a nice job. If you guys have any other odd-sized boxes not shown here, you can send me the box dimensions, and I can check the protectors I have to see which one provides the best fit. Or you can always contact Dan. Super Smash Bros. - Action Pak & Star Raiders Atari Adult - Mystique & Playaround games Fire Emblem Fates - 20th Century Fox games Sega 32X TALL for Special-Sized Games or Intellivision TALL Box - either of these protectors work for SEGA games. But for the games w/ gatefold boxes (i.e. Tac-Scan & Sub Scan) which are a bit thicker, the Sega 32X TALL (shown in the picture) is a slightly better fit; if ordering this protector, contact Dan first, as it hasn't been added to the site yet PS VITA 1000 Models Console - Omega Race Star Wars Vintage - EPYX games, IMAGIC "cheap packaging" & BOING! Star Wars Elite Standard - Track & Field Marvel Vintage - Berenstain Bears KID VID Game Set Amiibo Guardian - TRON Special Pack Funko Freddy Rides - Back to School Pak & Racing Pak Four Swords Gamecube - Superman w/ promotional wallet Vectrex - Stella Gets a New Brain CD w/ booklet TurboGrafx 16 MINI - Gameline Master Module

From the 1983 movie Videodrome, here we can spot a pair of 2600 joysticks, a box & cart for Air-Sea Battle, and a Combat box. There's another cart in the last picture, but it's out of focus; I assume it's Combat. That's James Woods, by the way.

Roger, that's too bad. Thankfully things didn't get out of hand. CVGA, that Hot Wheels watch is way cool. What a shame you lost it, especially like that. I think things like that happened to a lot of us growing up. As far as the Mickey watch, unfortunately, I don't have it anymore. I was just remembering something about the watch. This is a stupid story, but oh well. Just like you, I used to take my watch to school. At different times of the day, my classmates and I would try to come up with what Mickey was doing, depending on where his hands were pointing. I actually remember a few of them; I looked online & found some pics to show you guys what I mean. For the hours of the day that we weren't at school, we just moved the time forward on purpose. Mickey celebrating after winning a race John Travolta's famous pose from Saturday Night Fever Here we have Mickey clapping This one was our favorite - Mickey needing to pee real bad

Phil, you reminded me of my first wristwatch. It wasn't digital, but it was from Bradley. It was a Mickey Mouse watch that I had when I was around 8 years old. I found a picture of one online. Man, I used to love that watch.

I agree; it's always cool to see how stuff developed with time. Those plastic trays with the backing are my favorites as well. Although that blue one is pretty nice also.

I thought it would be a good idea to create a thread just to document the different tray variants from IMAGIC for the 2600. I went through my collection and found 5 different types of trays, of which I'm attaching pictures. Perhaps there are others; if you guys have any, please go ahead and add pictures of those to the thread. TYPE 1 - Black plastic; smaller IMAGIC logo in recessed part of tray TYPE 1 - cardboard backing TYPE 2 - Black plastic; larger IMAGIC logo; no recessed section TYPE 2 - cardboard backing TYPE 3 - Black cardboard w/ flap & black plastic interior tray TYPE 3 (back) TYPE 3 - I removed the interior tray, just to see what it looks like TYPE 4 - Blue plastic; larger IMAGIC logo TYPE 4 - no cardboard backing TYPE 5 - White plastic; larger IMAGIC logo TYPE 5 - no cardboard backing

An AtariAge member was kind enough to send me images of the Feb./Mar. 1984 (Vol. 3, No. 1) issue of the Joystick Jolter newsletter, which I'm attaching here. They were sent as a series of smartphone photos, but they're perfectly legible. I don't see any other issues of the newsletter anywhere online. I was reading that Joystick Jolter was the first video game fanzine and that many retailers used the publication as a purchasing guide for their stores, as mainstream magazine reviews were sometimes a month or two behind a game's release date. It's a pretty interesting read. JoystickJolter_FebMar_1984.pdf

That's a good point, CVGA. Given Activision's high standards, those other clubs probably didn't make sense for them. Or maybe the financial terms weren't appealing. I think you're right in thinking that Activision and Time-Life partnered in this venture, especially seeing as how no other manufacturer's games were sold through the club. I just noticed what you were referring to as far as the logo - the Activision rainbow.

I came across this ad and realized that it's related to the stamp sheet I wrote about in this thread. The ad is for GAMESTARS, a video game club from Time-Life, where you could buy Activision games in the mail. Up to now, I thought that Columbia House and RCA were the only video game clubs for the 2600. I had never seen Activision get involved with these types of services (e.g. Columbia House, RCA or the Gameline "online" service). But they did with GAMESTARS, perhaps because it was backed by Time-Life. And it looks like GAMESTARS also sold this storage folder; maybe they sold other accessories as well.

Awesome! A great read. Thanks for sharing.

Phil, nice job on the 2600 video. Very informative. I'll definitely stay posted for the upcoming videos. Keep up the great work!

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Wiz. Get well soon.

Those compilation albums were actually pretty good. Growing up, I had a Heavy Metal one from K-Tel. Although I always found it funny that they put "Dancing in the Street" by Van Halen on there. Not exactly heavy metal. Shawn, thanks for the interesting info. Good to know.

As most of you know, Xonox was owned by K-Tel, which were the good folks that brought you the Veg-O-Matic, the Miracle Brush and compilation albums. Here's a record sleeve from one of those albums, featuring a Xonox ad. Pretty cool.

I just checked, cause I wanted to make sure. It's the same one as yours - for Fast Food.

That's a really cool card. I think I found one of these in a copy of Cosmic Creeps.

I think you're right. On the bottom of the sheet, it says "Now that you have this new addition to your family..." which is probably referring to the 2600 itself, so I'm guessing this came packaged with the console. The character seems to be based off of Superman. Interesting that they call him Clark too. And also an interesting choice of words with the "No heavy spanking" line.

I wonder which aspects of the manufacturing/packaging process were automated and which ones were by hand. I'm guessing it varied depending on the company.

A while back, I opened up a sealed copy of Pengo, and there was no instruction manual. And for a sealed Bachelor Party, I found two instruction booklets. A friend told me that he once opened a sealed Super Cobra (from PB) and discovered a small handwritten note containing numbers, letters and abbreviations. He figures the note had something to do with the games that were being packaged that day at the factory. How about you guys? Have you ever come across anything odd when opening a sealed 2600 game?

CVGA, I'm pretty sure that FM and BT are the only Data Age games with the parchment. And I love "extras" in games as well. I've been guilty, on more than one occasion, of buying a game mostly for the "extra".