1982 Atari Pencils

[Mirage]

Thought I'd share my Atari pencils collection from 1982. I've had them since new.

 

Anyone else have any of these, or remember them?

 

Sorry, it's kinda hard to take a pic of round pencils! The artwork is pretty neat. I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600?

 

Anyway, pencils are, in order, top to bottom:

 

Super Breakout

Yars' Revenge

Centipede

Warlords

Haunted House

Asteroids

Battlezone

Star Raiders

Missile Command

Tempest

Edited March 7, 2008 by Mirage1972

[+Psionic]

I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600?

Most likely.

 

These have popped up from time to time. There's at least one other person here with a set of them, IIRC.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=95065

[Mirage]

Cool, thanks!

 

I did a search of the forums, but didn't see anything (there's lots of mentions of pencils, but not in the right context!)

 

BTW, I have 2 extra Yars' Revenges and 1 extra Warlords, in case anyone is interested in making a trade. If these aren't particularly rare or desirable, then I'll just keep them. As always though, interesting trade offers would be welcomed The main set pictured isn't up for sale/trade though.

[opeygon]

wow those are pretty awesome!

[Zwackery]

Sorry, it's kinda hard to take a pic of round pencils! The artwork is pretty neat. I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600?

Those pencils are really cool! Do you remember where you bought them? While Tempest was being developed for the Atari 2600, what I noticed is that each of your pencils corresponds exactly to the series of 10 double-sided cardboard flats/posters released by Atari (marketed by ArtFaire and sold for 79 cents each).

 

Asteroids

Battlezone

Centipede

Haunted House

Missile Command

Star Raiders

Super Breakout

Tempest

Warlords

Yars' Revenge

(Sorry, Asteroids and Centipede pics are missing.)

I'm still looking for the Centipede one.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Zwackery

[Mirage]

Do you remember where you bought them? While Tempest was being developed for the Atari 2600, what I noticed is that each of your pencils corresponds exactly to the series of 10 double-sided cardboard flats/posters released by Atari (marketed by ArtFaire and sold for 79 cents each).

 

Sorry, I have no recollection of actually getting them. I probably got them in a trade for a bunch of those football team pencils that everyone had back then, explaining why I don't remember getting them in a store or wherever. (I still have a bunch of the football pencils somewhere, too.)

 

The matching posters must mean those were the core games they were pushing at that time. Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out!

[fdurso224]

Thought I'd share my Atari pencils collection from 1982. I've had them since new.

 

Anyone else have any of these, or remember them?

 

Sorry, it's kinda hard to take a pic of round pencils! The artwork is pretty neat. I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600?

 

Anyway, pencils are, in order, top to bottom:

 

Super Breakout

Yars' Revenge

Centipede

Warlords

Haunted House

Asteroids

Battlezone

Star Raiders

Missile Command

Tempest

 

 

Nice Pencils! Now lets write a letter.

 

Anthony.....

[+Psionic]

Nice Pencils! Now lets write a letter.

No way those are getting sharpened.

[Clint Thompson]

Those are fantastic looking... never seen them before I can almost smell them!

[Ross PK]

Those are really cool, can't believe you managed to resist sharpening and using them after you got them.

[missioncontrol]

Sorry, it's kinda hard to take a pic of round pencils! The artwork is pretty neat. I'd say they were Atari 2600 pencils as there's a couple 2600-only games in there, but then there's also Tempest. Unless this was when they were planning to release Tempest for the 2600?

Those pencils are really cool! Do you remember where you bought them? While Tempest was being developed for the Atari 2600, what I noticed is that each of your pencils corresponds exactly to the series of 10 double-sided cardboard flats/posters released by Atari (marketed by ArtFaire and sold for 79 cents each).

 

Asteroids

Battlezone

Centipede

Haunted House

Missile Command

Star Raiders

Super Breakout

Tempest

Warlords

Yars' Revenge

 

 

Thanks for the list and pics. I did not know how many of these there are. I am missing Super Breakout, Asteroids and Centipede. I have seen Breakout and Asteroids on e-bay once, but was outbid on them. I have never seen an Centipede one either.... I have the rest of them

[Mirage]

Those are really cool, can't believe you managed to resist sharpening and using them after you got them.

 

Yeah, I'll bet for that reason, there aren't too many of these surviving today. Even back then, I was an Atari collector. Unfortunately, the rest of my stuff didn't survive the "great Atari purge" of about 1984 when my attention turned completely to the C64. I think these were just too small and inexpensive to be noticed and languished in the bottom of some junk box until recently.

[Mirage]

Thanks for the list and pics. I did not know how many of these there are. I am missing Super Breakout, Asteroids and Centipede. I have seen Breakout and Asteroids on e-bay once, but was outbid on them. I have never seen an Centipede one either.... I have the rest of them

 

I can't confirm that these are the only ones in the series, but I strongly suspect that they are, especially since they correspond with the poster things shown above. I've always wanted to have "the whole set" of whatever I collect (yeah, so I shouldn't have picked 2600 carts to collect!!!), so I'm pretty sure I would have gotten one of each that I knew of back then.

 

To me, the most interesting one is Tempest. Assuming these were "2600" oriented, it almost seems like having a Tempest proto! Okay, not really.

[Ghost Soldier]

Nice pencils

[thrax]

I remember atari pencils. I also remember that "personalized" pencils were the 'in' thing to have.

[so_tough!]

These pencils kick ass!

[Disco Scottie]

I have all the pencils, as well as all of the poster thingies.

[pinball22]

Ok, I just wandered onto this thread I never saw before and I'm so insanely jealous... I can't believe I've never seen these, since at that time I was both a huge Atari fan and a pencil collector (I don't know why, it was the thing to do in my 5th grade class). I still have all my pencils in my Pac-Man lunchbox. If you've still got the spares, I'd love to trade something for them. Or if anyone else has any... especially the Haunted House one!

 

EDIT: a quick Google has informed me that there's a second set.

Edited November 7, 2008 by pinball22

[cvga]

I've been going through some of my stored items and found 20 different atari pencils. Looks like I have the whole set

[Mirage]

Oh, that 2nd set is great! Space Dungeon?! SwordQuest?! Dig Dug?! Crystal Castles?! WOW!!!

 

(This page is still up: http://neatocoolville.blogspot.com/2006/08/atari-pencils-check-out-new-pencils.html)

 

4+ years ago... I'd totally forgotten about this thread. All of my pencils remain unsharpened, in case anyone wonders

Edited August 5, 2012 by Mirage

[cvga]

I'm wondering why one of the pencils is named Bentley Bear. It doesn't mention Crystal Castles on it. I also found a 21st pencil for the game Radar. It looks exactly like the Atari pencils but doesn't say Atari on it,

[Mirage]

I'm wondering why one of the pencils is named Bentley Bear. It doesn't mention Crystal Castles on it. I also found a 21st pencil for the game Radar. It looks exactly like the Atari pencils but doesn't say Atari on it,

 

Got a picture of the Radar one?

[cvga]

Ok, here's a picture of each side of it...

 

It says that it's part of the 'mean machine' series. I have no idea what other pencils were part of that series.

[Mirage]

Interesting. I suspect that's something different altogether, not having anything to do with part of this collection. With the "Mean Machine" thing, not saying Atari on it, and not seemingly having anything to do with any Atari games. Thanks for sharing.

 

I really wish I'd seen (and gotten) that Set #2 BITD.

[BillyHW]

Very cool Atari pencils.