quick question

[xg4bx]

what did the average 2600 game cost back in the day?

[fiddlepaddle]

Pre-crash: $29-$39 ea, higher when the system was first released. Post-crash the floor was about $1.

[Pitfall Harry]

what did the average 2600 game cost back in the day?

 

"The day" spanned many years, and there were always bargains to be found at different stores if you went looking for them. A good ballpark figure is $35 - $40. After you factor for inflation, that works out to about $90 worth of purchasing power in today's economy per game.

[accousticguitar]

If you give me a year from 1977 to 1986 I can give you some example prices from the Sears wishbook.

 

Edit: Better make that 1977 to 1984. They seem to have stopped carrying Atari products in 1985.

Edited August 4, 2009 by accousticguitar

[SeaGtGruff]

what did the average 2600 game cost back in the day?

Prices could vary a bit depending on the size of the ROM. Smaller games (2K and 4K) were maybe about $20 give or take, whereas 8K and up were more expensive. For example, my copy of Haunted House was $21.88 at K-Mart, and my copy of Super Breakout was $16.00 (originally marked at $16.00) at K-Mart, whereas my copy of Defender was $32.88 at K-Mart. (I bought a lot of my games at K-Mart back then!)

 

Michael

[Rik]

I've seen prices from $9.99 to $70.00 CDN,during its peak.The $9.99 games were mostly in the clearance bins during crash.But there were the "CHEAPO" games priced at $9.99 to $14.99 like Sneak n Peek at all times though.

[VectorGamer]

what did the average 2600 game cost back in the day?

 

$30

[Godzilla]

what was the original MSRP of the launch titles?

[Nukey Shay]

$19.99...a price figure that nobody (that I know of) went below until games started to stagnate in autumn '81. That was the MSRP of Fairchild Channel F cartridges too. Montgomery Ward was still using that figure for Channel F as far as 1980 when Space Invaders hit home.

[Godzilla]

wow, never knew that. I always thought they had a higher retail originally for some reason. I didn't start buying games until 1980, we couldn't afford a used system until then.

[ericwierson]

I vaguely remember paying somewhere in the teens ($13-$19) for games at KayBee(?) toy store in and around 1984. I am pretty sure it had to be around that price as my father was extremely poor and I had to use lawn mowing for neighbors money to buy anything I wanted or needed.

[tremoloman2006]

I remember them mostly being between $19.99 and $29.99. Pac-Man was the first to reach $49.95 and had waiting lists that lasted months for them. Boy was it a disappointment when we got the real deal. If only they had released it with Ms. Pac-Man's graphics. That STILL pisses me off to this day.