+bfstats Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDe...ot_id=159374916 Not mine. You'll have to register with the site to see the description. Not much in the way of photos, but the list of materials is intriguing. Anyone have $150,000 - $250,000 handy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 5 Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Not that I have a few hundred thousand dollars handy, but I would love to have a closer look at what they do have... (If you don't want to register, here is the description (estimated at $150,000 - $200,000 USD) DESCRIPTION An extensive archive of original marketing materials (as detailed below) from the "Golden Age" of Atari, ca. 1981 to 1983, comprising more than 2,000 items of widely varying sizes and formats, including manuscript memorandum, internal specification guidelines, original sketches, blue lines, mechanicals, proofs, color separations (including acetates), and screen diagrams; the archive is mostly related to marketing materials for Atari games and game consoles, especially boxes and manuals, but includes some early design and graphic work for specific game characters and components; the archive contains mostly English-language materials, but proofs and mechanicals for cartons and manuals in French, German, Spanish, and Italian are also present. The whole archive organized into approximately 135 large file folders for graphic materials. CATALOGUE NOTE In the beginning was Pong: A remarkable survival from the adolescence (if not quite the infancy) of video gaming and a truly essential and consequential documentation of a pivotal cultural revolution. Video gaming is now a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry with world-wide receipts rivaling Hollywood. The newest generation gaming platformsthe Nintendo Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's X-Boxprovide hyper-realistic graphics that virtually bring fantasy worlds to life. But the fantasy of video games began on a much simpler scale, one that demanded greater imagination from its players. The first and most fondly remembered incarnation of Atari was started by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972. Atari was one of the firstand one of the most successfulfirms to try to move the computer gaming industries out of arcades and bars and into homes. Atari first introduced Pong into traditional arcades, and it was not until the release of the home console Atari 2600 in 1976 that the company began to expand at an unprecedented rate. As new technologies improved, Atari developed systems that were compatible with both home computers and television setsthe games designed for the latter platform even promised color graphics on color TV's. Atari was also responsible for the publication and distribution within the United States of many classic games developed by Namco in Japan. Within a few years, gamers (as they were not yet called) were able to choose from among a huge variety of games in many genres: action, adventure, puzzles, mazes, fantasy, sports, and even education. (How many birthday parties were sidetracked when the guest of honor received Math Grand Prix and not Mario Bros., as he had requested?) The following games are among those represented in the present archive. Many of these games have been "re-mixed" for current platforms and are still available in classic format on-line or in "plug-and-play" systems. Adventure Air Sea Battle Asterix Asteroids Backgammon Berzerk Bowling Brain Games Breakout Canyon Bomber Casino Choplifter Circus Codebreaker Cookie Monster Counter Measure Defender Dig Dug Dodge Em Donkey Kong Jr. Golf Gremlins Hangman Haunted House Homerun Human Cannonball Hunt and Score Indy 500 Joust Jungle Hunt Kangaroo Mario Bros. Math Grand Prix Maze Craze Millipede Miniature Golf Missile Command Moon Patrol Night Driver Othello Outlaw Pac Man Pele Soccer Pengo Phoenix Pole Position Pong Qix Raiders of the Lost Ark Real Sports Baseball Real Sports Basketball Real Sports Football Real Sports Tennis Robotron Rubiks Skydiver Slot Cars Slot Machine Slot Racers Soccer Space Dungeon Space Invaders Space War Starship Steeplechase Street Racer Super Breakout Super Pong Super Pong Ten Superman Surround Sword Quest: Earthworld Sword Quest: Fireworld Sword Quest: Waterworld Video Chess Video Olympics Video Pinball Warlord Marketing graphics were particularly vital for these early games. While game designers could achieve a computerized Pac Man that looked essentially like the character on the box, sports games, especially, were an entirely different matter. The box for Atari Basketball might have featured generic versions of Willis Reed and Dave Cowens, but the players on the screen (limited to one per team) were bizarrely geometric. The basketball figures, like all video game graphics of the period, we formed by the combination of multiple micro-cubes: their arms resemble elephant trunks, and the body outline of each player is delineated by wildly prominent noses and knee caps. Even the ball is square. But elementary as these materials seem now, these are the games that animated designers and gamers alike to advance to such current hyper-real titles as College Hoops 2K7, NBA 2K7, and Backyard Basketball 2007. In the same way, Pro Stroke Golf and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 are following a path blazed by Atari Golf. The player on the Atari box cover may have been a romanticized hybrid of Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller, but the video golfer more closely resembles a rectilinear Joseph Merrick. By fortunate coincidence, some of Atari's most popular and enduring games are among those with the deepest representation here. For example, Dig Dug, a maze game with the objective of eliminating underground monsters, has a huge group of materials ranging from typewritten copy for the game manual to original color sketches of the various bonus fruits and vegetables to geometric black-and-white versions of the same to a fine watercolor drawing of a Pooka to a mock-up of a TV-screen diagram. The legendary Pole Position, which was developed by Namco and published in the United States by Atari, is represented a similar range of graphics. At one end of the scale is a rough pencil and red pencil sketch of a Formula 1 race on graph paper; at the other end is a thirteen-color TV-screen diagram depicting four race cars on the track. In addition to games, the Atari archive also contains material relating to various game systems and consoles, the Atari Club, marketing tie-ins with Sears department stores, and hand-held games, including the Touch Me. Ironically, Atari first released Touch Me as an arcade game, which Milton Bradley closely imitated with their hand-held Simon. When Simon proved more successful than the arcade original that it was modeled after, Atari re-released Touch Me as a hand-held, but it never overcame Simon's head start. The most intriguing non-game material in the archive is probably the marketing drawings for the Kee Games Video Game System. An ostensible rival to Atari, Kee Games claimed that its system offered "fantastic variety [and] flexibility." But in fact Kee was a secret subsidiary of Atari, created simply to circumvent exclusivity deals demanded by some arcade and pinball distributors of the time. The subterfuge was soon discovered, but Atari continued to use the Kee brand for some marketing and distribution efforts. This archive contains no material beyond 1983, the year of the so-called "great video game crash." The crash was largely spurred by the growth of the home computer industry, which promised all the games that dedicated video game platforms could provide, as well as many other benefits. Atari was one of many victims of the competition and contraction that resulted. Atari was also hurt when several key programmers defected to start up Activision. In addition, the company became involved in a lawsuit with Nintendo and Coleco over the rights to Donkey Kong. In short order the company's chief executive was forced out and the home game console and home computer divisions were sold. The original Atari was no more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udisi Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 well 2 things here... 1) Is this the first video game related Sotheby's Auction? I don't know of another one. 2)This seems a bit seep to me. Sure the mterials are neat, but I can't see them being worth $125k-$250k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Am I wrong in this logic. The only person who would bid on this iis one of us? And I don't see one of us bidding on this lot at that price. Should some collector/investor get a bug up his ass a bid is possible but that certainly would say something about our hobby. It would indicate that it is bigger than our collective whole in otherwords dare I say it its gone mainstream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDe...ot_id=159374916 Not mine. You'll have to register with the site to see the description. Not much in the way of photos, but the list of materials is intriguing. Anyone have $150,000 - $250,000 handy? So I take it Vendel cleaned out a closet of extra crap and sent it to Sotherby's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Too bad there are not any pictures available. I would be interesting to see some of this stuff reach the light of day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Nope, not my stuff... But I will be on hand for the auction. The materials are from a private collector - a former Atari employee actually from California. I have been speaking with Sothby's and explained that most likely the $150K opening bid wont get any bites, but if they broke the 135 folders down into separate lots they'd have a better chance at smaller bids on the individual lots instead of the auction as a whole. Should be interesting, but I think it will be rather disappointing that the lot may not get any bids. Curt http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDe...ot_id=159374916 Not mine. You'll have to register with the site to see the description. Not much in the way of photos, but the list of materials is intriguing. Anyone have $150,000 - $250,000 handy? So I take it Vendel cleaned out a closet of extra crap and sent it to Sotherby's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bfstats Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 My hope is that whoever wins this auction (assuming ANYONE would bid that much for something almost entirely UNSEEN) will be sufficiently connected to our community to be willing to share photos of materials of such, ahem, "value". Definitely sounds like museum stuff to me, but who would care besides US??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 What do you think the value is on an original painting for the box art of one of these games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Wonder007 Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 What do you think the value is on an original painting for the box art of one of these games? I was analyzing this topic and all I got to say is that we need to see pictures. 135 folders worth of Atari goodness sounds very tempting but I need to see some pictures. Moreover, Atari artwork is not highly sought after as many think. If somebody were to sell 135 Atari 2600 NTSC prototypes (never seen or heard of before...even by Tempest), it still won't fetch $150,000 in my opinion and protos, in my opinion, are more valuable than Atari artowrk. But, then again, we need to see the contents of each folder. I'll tell you this though....it will not fetch $150,000, that's for sure.......not even half that. I don't want to even say how much it could go for because I have not seen the contents. But, to give an estimate, at $100 a folder X 135 folders, perhaps it could be sold for, say, $13,500 but it falls back to what the heck are in those folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Do you think it contains full sized painted like the ones in the CGE museum (Warlords etc) or like the Airworld one Curt owns? They make it sound that way but I can't see one of those fitting into a folder. Whats the final painted artwork for a cover of a game worth? Less than a proto? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krytol Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Sotheby's site is offline at the moment. Were there any more pictures than this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 thats it just those 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Wonder007 Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 I think an original Atari painting is worth less than certain protos. We just need more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted June 2, 2007 Share Posted June 2, 2007 I think an original Atari painting is worth less than certain protos. We just need more information. Sure when you can sell 250 or 500 copies or more at $50 each. After the ROM has been dumped it is not worth more than an original box cover painting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FND Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Did this already End or was it Removed, Ended or Canceled ? I just tried to look at it again but it seems to be gone from there site ? FND Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 (edited) Did this already End or was it Removed, Ended or Canceled ? I just tried to look at it again but it seems to be gone from there site ? FND With any hope they listened to Curt and are breaking up the lot. His word does hold alot of weight being Mr. Awecade, HSC, FB1, Fb2, FB2p, FB3, ATARIGOD, Museum Curator, Ect. EDIT: And if that is the orignal watercolor (or oil) painting for Pacman I would pretty much give my left nut to own it Edited June 3, 2007 by Shawn Sr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FND Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 They must of been updating there site as its back now I did a search of there auctions using Atari as the search word and found two more auctions for Atari Items FND Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Did this already End or was it Removed, Ended or Canceled ? I just tried to look at it again but it seems to be gone from there site ? FND With any hope they listened to Curt and are breaking up the lot. His word does hold alot of weight being Mr. Awecade, HSC, FB1, Fb2, FB2p, FB3, ATARIGOD, Museum Curator, Ect. EDIT: And if that is the orignal watercolor (or oil) painting for Pacman I would pretty much give my left nut to own it Why does everyone always say the left nut, why not the right one? It's hard to say what this stuff could go. I think a lot of collectors, including myself, wouldn't have a lot of interest in 99% of it. I would like to see it and admire it but I really wouldn't want to pay money for it and own it. It will be interesting to see what happens. This has to be the most expensive Atari related auction, right? (Please nobody post the Meanguns auction ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y-bot Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 What do you think the value is on an original painting for the box art of one of these games? Some of the original artwrok that was at the World of Atari '98 musuem sold on Ebay a few years ago for not that high of prices. $200 each or so I think. I didn't see it until after the auctions ended. It was icwhen or something like that who sold them. y-bot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 (edited) Whoa whoa whoa.... when did I get appointed AtariGod??? Man, I gotta read those memo's when they come in, now I gotta go change my business cards again, !* !!! Curt Did this already End or was it Removed, Ended or Canceled ? I just tried to look at it again but it seems to be gone from there site ? FND With any hope they listened to Curt and are breaking up the lot. His word does hold alot of weight being Mr. Awecade, HSC, FB1, Fb2, FB2p, FB3, ATARIGOD, Museum Curator, Ect. EDIT: And if that is the orignal watercolor (or oil) painting for Pacman I would pretty much give my left nut to own it Edited June 8, 2007 by Curt Vendel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Whoa whoa whoa.... when did I get appointed AtariGod??? Man, I gotta read those memo's when they come in, now I gotta go change my business cards again, !* !!! Curt Well maybe if you would stop phoning in on every board meeting instead of showing up you might stay up on things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric_ruck Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 I was cleaning out links and found the Sotheby's site...does anyone know what happened with this lot ultimately? Curt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 I was cleaning out links and found the Sotheby's site...does anyone know what happened with this lot ultimately? Curt? I believe the sellers kept the stuff when it didn't sell. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Too bad we can't find who the sellers were. Maybe they're in need of a smaller amount of money in their life and would sell it cheap (few thousand?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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