Atariage got it wrong. No hard feelings though!

[Inky]

I think it's safe to say that the So Cal release was more of a 'text market' kinda thing,

 

"text market"? You mean that the California and New York stores were full of text that spelled 'Atari'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't been a douchebag in a while, so I thought Id join the douchebaggery

[Fort Apocalypse]

Crap. Now I can't read any of the darn posts in this topic without having to select and scroll, select and scroll to see whether there is hidden text. Has there been other hidden text in posts that I missed? Maybe someone was making fun of me in hidden text and I didn't see it? What if Albert is hiding derogatory comments as <!-- comments --> within the page, and they've been there all along, silently mocking me. I'm going to bed tonight, but I don't think I'll sleep much.

[BDW]

I think it's safe to say that the So Cal release was more of a 'text market' kinda thing,

 

"text market"? You mean that the California and New York stores were full of text that spelled 'Atari'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't been a douchebag in a while, so I thought Id join the douchebaggery

 

There's always room for one more

[Albert]

What if Albert is hiding derogatory comments as <!-- comments --> within the page, and they've been there all along, silently mocking me. I'm going to bed tonight, but I don't think I'll sleep much.

I suggest you "View Source" on every page and through any comments just to be sure.

 

..Al

[Inky]

What if Albert is hiding derogatory comments as within the page, and they've been there all along, silently mocking me. I'm going to bed tonight, but I don't think I'll sleep much.

I suggest you "View Source" on every page and through any comments just to be sure.

 

..Al

I just "view source"d this page to see what things you were hiding.

[Albert]

I just "view source"d this page to see what things you were hiding.

There's a lot of source, I bet you didn't look very hard.

 

..Al

[Fort Apocalypse]

!!

[BDW]

^^^^^

 

I loled so hard I had to check it myself.... It's there!!!!

Edited July 23, 2009 by brandondwright

[darthkur]

4 Titles - Pole Position (pak in), Ms Pac Man, Joust, Dig Dug and Centipede I have one of each with 1984 labels and a 1984 Joust box as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

 

So what games did those poor suckers in CA and NY have available to them for the two years that the Tramiels had the 7800 on ice?

 

 

 

I'd like to know that myself. Could not have been many of them I would assume.

 

 

 

 

 

Very interesting. Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

[+Mitch]

4 Titles - Pole Position (pak in), Ms Pac Man, Joust, Dig Dug and Centipede I have one of each with 1984 labels and a 1984 Joust box as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

 

So what games did those poor suckers in CA and NY have available to them for the two years that the Tramiels had the 7800 on ice?

 

 

 

I'd like to know that myself. Could not have been many of them I would assume.

 

 

 

 

 

Very interesting. Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

 

The Pole Position label is the same, the other four are different.

 

Mitch

[ApolloBoy]

Very interesting. Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

The labels aside from PPII are all in full color and IIRC, slightly holographic.

[Lord Thag]

"text market"? You mean that the California and New York stores were full of text that spelled 'Atari'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't been a douchebag in a while, so I thought Id join the douchebaggery

 

 

It's ok. I hear old people are cranky like that.

[+Random Terrain]

Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

I hate coarse dates.

[Tempest]

Very interesting. Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

The labels aside from PPII are all in full color and IIRC, slightly holographic.

IIRC the pictures are also tilted at an angle.

 

Tempest

[darthkur]

The Pole Position label is the same, the other four are different.

 

Mitch

 

 

The labels aside from PPII are all in full color and IIRC, slightly holographic.

 

 

 

 

 

IIRC the pictures are also tilted at an angle.

 

Tempest

 

I really would love to see these. Are there scans of them anywhere? Anyone have an estimate what the rarity rating on these would be?

 

 

 

 

 

Are the labels any different on them? Other than the date of coarse.

I hate coarse dates.

 

 

Me too. Rough on the digestive system.

[Tempest]

I really would love to see these. Are there scans of them anywhere? Anyone have an estimate what the rarity rating on these would be?

Yes, look towards the bottom of Curt's page here:

 

http://www.atari7800.com/7800/museum.htm

 

Tempest

[darthkur]

I really would love to see these. Are there scans of them anywhere? Anyone have an estimate what the rarity rating on these would be?

Yes, look towards the bottom of Curt's page here:

 

http://www.atari7800.com/7800/museum.htm

 

Tempest

 

 

 

Excellent. Thanks for the link. It's a real shame that that style wasn't retained for all of the 7800 carts.

[Albert]

Excellent. Thanks for the link. It's a real shame that that style wasn't retained for all of the 7800 carts.

Agreed, those are much sharper than the labels used later.

 

..Al

[Tempest]

Excellent. Thanks for the link. It's a real shame that that style wasn't retained for all of the 7800 carts.

Agreed, those are much sharper than the labels used later.

 

..Al

An a lot more expensive I'd imagine.

 

Tempest

[Albert]

An a lot more expensive I'd imagine.

 

Tempest

Not any worse than the silver labels Atari used for 2600 and 5200 games. But you're right in that I'm sure Atari went with the later labels as they were cheaper to produce.

 

..Al

[kool kitty89]

Perhaps I'm going on a tangent, but this is something that always bugs me about the supposed 1985 "release" of the NES. It's inconsistent to make that claim while saying the 7800 wasn't released until 1986. Either test markets count, or they don't. And I think by normal convention they don't.

 

The "1985" NES was just a test market in the last couple weeks of December in a few stores in New York City. ie it hardly existed at all, hardly anybody even saw one then, and it certainly wouldn't qualify as a "release".

Further test markets continued in 1986. They didn't finally release the NES on a large scale until about mid-1986. (full disclosure: I read that on wikipedia -5 pts)

I'm sort of amused how many people in places like youtube claim to remember getting their NES in 1985. Yeah there's a few people who got one then, but not as many as the people who claim to remember it now.

I think people's minds have been twisted because all the accessories say "©Nintendo 1985" on them.

 

That's what I was thinking. One difference though, would be that the 7800 was set up to be launched in time for the 1984 holiday season prior to Tramiel taking over, while the NES probably couldn't have made a full launch eariler than it did, everything else being the same. (delays from negotiations with warner, the gaming crash, designing the actual NES -modifications to famicom to AVS, the test markets in '85, gaining confidence with retailers-Worlds of Wonder, etc)

 

 

I used to think the same way about the Tramiels, however after shedding the bias and looking at the facts and more importantly looking at the memo's and emails flying around from July 84-April 85 what I found was Tramiel was smart in one sense, not so smart in others. Money was a massive issue for him - building a new computer from scratch is not a cheap enterprise especially back then, literally everything was being sold from filing cabinets to whole buildings - the Vax mainframe in Atari Grass Valley was traded to Digital Research in exchange for GEM being ported to the Atari ST for example (Ron Milner - Grass Valley explained the whole story to me), with huge stockpiles of custom 8bit chips - getting the 8bit line going under lower costs and the XE badging made sense. The 7800 was a brand new product, very little (in perspective) of the way of inventory was available for it, Tramiel did not know the video game business and stayed in his comfort zone of computers. From his point of view it was a great choice - in the overall picture, had he kept on some people who know the videogame side and could've gone into detail on the 7800 and 2600 sales, and with the wide open field since Intelly & Coleco were pretty well battered and limping off into the sunset - he should've put more time into the consideration of the system and its long term potential.

 

Curt

 

Yeah, also interesting that they got the 2600 going again (released the Jr.) by fall of 1985 (before the NES test market), though that probably could have happened sooner if he'd been more concerned about balancing the VG portion of Atari with his own plans. (his actions are pretty understandable)

 

It does seem like he rushed a bit though, loosing some people that could have been useful for the computer sides of things. (like the engineering team for the AMY chip -a good addition for the ST) Projects like Sierra may have been other things that got passed up, though the information seems to be too vague to determine whether that would have been a parctical design as an alternative to the ST. (if it was practical, being already prototyped, could have meant a significant savings in development costs and a quicker release -possibly more competitive or even superior to the Amiga as well) The related Gaza project otoh doesn't seem like it would fit in this respect though, with the dual CPU layout and (supposed) high-end workstation orientation, it would probably be too expensive.

Edited July 23, 2009 by kool kitty89

[Curt Vendel]

No way dude and if I am wrong, I would definitely respect it coming from you as you too know your stuff.

 

 

Curt

 

Hey Curt, I hope you didn't think my "wiki slam" was against you ealier. Was directed at the OP. I know you know your stuff and all.

[atarian63]

Perhaps I'm going on a tangent, but this is something that always bugs me about the supposed 1985 "release" of the NES. It's inconsistent to make that claim while saying the 7800 wasn't released until 1986. Either test markets count, or they don't. And I think by normal convention they don't.

 

The "1985" NES was just a test market in the last couple weeks of December in a few stores in New York City. ie it hardly existed at all, hardly anybody even saw one then, and it certainly wouldn't qualify as a "release".

Further test markets continued in 1986. They didn't finally release the NES on a large scale until about mid-1986. (full disclosure: I read that on wikipedia -5 pts)

I'm sort of amused how many people in places like youtube claim to remember getting their NES in 1985. Yeah there's a few people who got one then, but not as many as the people who claim to remember it now.

I think people's minds have been twisted because all the accessories say "©Nintendo 1985" on them.

 

It's awesome that AtariAge automatically converts ( c ) to a legally correct © symbol. +10pts to atariage.

 

 

agreed, and the NES really didn't take off until 1988. it lingered in the "a few cool kids have one" status for quite a long time. if i had to make a definitive date of nintendo going mainstream, i would make it the fall of 1988 with the release of the first issue of nintendo power.

We had an NY distrubutor and got a NES at the store for display with the robot for christmas 05. It got little to no attention. Though I will say in late 85 and early 86 there were STILL customers asking about 7800. Very sad indeed that the roll out did not continue in 84.

[keitaro]

these labels are awesome. It would be great print repro labels for your common joust, digdug etc. carts. or even see these kind of labels for homebrew games.

[MaximRecoil]

Perhaps I'm going on a tangent, but this is something that always bugs me about the supposed 1985 "release" of the NES. It's inconsistent to make that claim while saying the 7800 wasn't released until 1986. Either test markets count, or they don't. And I think by normal convention they don't.

 

The "1985" NES was just a test market in the last couple weeks of December in a few stores in New York City. ie it hardly existed at all, hardly anybody even saw one then, and it certainly wouldn't qualify as a "release".

Further test markets continued in 1986. They didn't finally release the NES on a large scale until about mid-1986. (full disclosure: I read that on wikipedia -5 pts)

I'm sort of amused how many people in places like youtube claim to remember getting their NES in 1985. Yeah there's a few people who got one then, but not as many as the people who claim to remember it now.

I think people's minds have been twisted because all the accessories say "©Nintendo 1985" on them.

 

It's awesome that AtariAge automatically converts ( c ) to a legally correct © symbol. +10pts to atariage.

 

 

agreed, and the NES really didn't take off until 1988. it lingered in the "a few cool kids have one" status for quite a long time. if i had to make a definitive date of nintendo going mainstream, i would make it the fall of 1988 with the release of the first issue of nintendo power.

 

I started seeing commercials on TV for the NES and the Sega Master System at around the same time. About two weeks later, my cousin had an NES. He was the first person I knew to have an NES (complete with ROB the Robot), and remained the only person I knew to have an NES for quite some time. It was the summer between 5th and 6th grade for me, which means 1986. About a year later (near the end of the school year, 6th grade, mid 1987), another kid in school told me he just got "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" for his NES and wanted me to help him with it because he knew I was good at the arcade Punch-Out and Super Punch-Out. This was the second person I knew with an NES. So by mid-87 they were still uncommon. About a year after that I started seeing them everywhere, and even got one for myself. I remember noting at the time the sudden explosion in popularity. My formerly esoteric knowledge of how to beat Super Mario Bros., and the locations of the warp zones and other secrets had all of the sudden become common knowledge.

 

Oh, and back then, every NES worked the first time. My cousin's original 1986 NES turned into the soon-to-be-infamous "Blinking NES" around '88 or so, and I figured he'd just been rough with it; dropped it a few times, or whatever. I had no idea that it would soon become a pandemic.

Edited August 28, 2009 by MaximRecoil