Atari 2600 Promotional Joystick

[Dino]

Has anyone ever seen one of these before?

 

 

This is what the seller had to say:

 

Up for auction is this rare Atari 2600 Promotional Joystick controller for store counter display. They had a drawing that cost $1 for three tickets and I bought 9 tickets and they called me a couple months later after the release of Donkey Kong and it was no longer a new seller so when they did the raffle and my name was drawn. I won this controller along with the game. The controller didn't come in a box but the game did. This controller is new except for the couple times I have played it. The game does not come in a box. It is Mario Bros it did not come with a controller. But I figured and a Mario Bros controller would go good together or even Donkey Kong because that is where Mario got his start. The game and controller both work.

[atari2atari]

It . . . it . . . has a little hat on it!

 

 

One wonders if perhaps the store the seller won it from simply glued a Mario hat onto a regular ATARI joystick?

 

Since the "promotional" joystick never came with a box, it points to a "homebrew" Mario joystick . . . ?

 

-a2a

[FireStar]

Where would he have gotten the hat from? Were there already mario toys when 2600 DK came out?

[atari2atari]

TOTAL speculation, however - -

 

- That style of "M" on the hat only came about in the 90s; prior to that, Mario was not identified by the "M"

 

From Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario) :

 

"Miyamoto developed Mario with the idea of using him as a "go to" character that could be put into any title as needed, albeit in cameo appearances, as at the time Miyamoto was not expecting Mario to become popular.^[7] To this end, he originally called the character "Mr. Video", comparing his intent to have Mario appear in later games to the cameos done by Alfred Hitchcock within Hitchcock's films.^[15] Over time, Mario's appearance has become more defined; both a red "M" in a white circle on the front of his hat and gold buttons on his overalls have been added. Miyamoto attributed this process to the different development teams and artists for each game as well as advances in technology as time has gone on.^[12] Nintendo has never revealed Mario's full name, stating only that it was not "Mario Mario" despite the implication of the Mario Bros. series' title, its use in the film, and information given in the Prima official Guidebook to Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.^[16]"

 

- Given that such a design feature was not present when the original 2600 Mario or Donkey Kong were around, I think that our seller might have chopped a hat off, say, this collection - -

 

 

And made a nice story up to sell his item.

 

Just a speculation . . .

 

-a2a

Edited December 23, 2011 by atari2atari

[Rom Hunter]

I don't think it's genuine.

 

Never seen it before and the "M" story convinced me that it's not from the eighties.

 

[nofrills100]

I've seen this before.... somewhere here on AA... where - i have no clue - but I have definitely seen a joystick with a mario hat on it - but from memory it was a similar story, probably the same ebayer, still trying to sell the same 'promotional' joystick

Edited December 23, 2011 by nofrills100

[nofrills100]

ahhhh.....

 

post 364 http://www.atariage...._1#entry2299912

 

 

original auction: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 280690576107

Edited December 23, 2011 by nofrills100