Where were Atari games sold?

[Philflound]

Bought this Jr. new at Big Lots in the '80s (actually we got two of them),

 

$16.88 (Compare to 59.99! )

 

.

 

What a deal on that one! Nice.

Phil

[+Nathan Strum]

Sears used to rock back then. The video game section. Candy counter. Popcorn machine. Christmas "Wish Book". Our local one even had a couple of arcade games tucked away by the drinking fountain.

[+frankodragon]

There was a small business selling only video games somewhere in Milwaukee ages ago and how shocked I was looking at the prices of Atari 2600 games back in the 1980s. Most of the games were $50 and up. Back then with the 80s, those prices were pretty steep. It's like spending about $178-200 on a new Atari game today.

[AtariTexas]

I remember always going to Sears to get the new titles when they came out. Years later I remember getting any leftovers from the Kay Bee clearance bin

[Jaynz]

Sears used to rock back then. The video game section. Candy counter. Popcorn machine. Christmas "Wish Book". Our local one even had a couple of arcade games tucked away by the drinking fountain.

 

The Sears in Greenwood Park Mall back then actually had a full arcade next to their diner, which was next to the food court and cinema... Man, getting all nostalgiac now. *sniffle*

[shadow460]

I have a few boxes that had price tags on them at one point. I don't recognize many of the store names or tags except a couple from Kay-Bee.

 

We got games from several places including Kay-Bee, Toys 'R' Us, and Sears. I'm sure they were on the shelf at Hyde Drugs and Otasco as well. I was really too young to remember who sold games back then.

[pacgreg]

Does anyone have pictures of these stores with halls of atari stuff? I'm a, well I'm in highschool so you can tell that this stuff predates me.

[Prodos8]

My mom only had a Sears credit card back then so most of my games were from them. Almost all the department stores sold the games, but I do recall seeing them being sold at a Safeway grocery store. I thought that was odd, at the time.

[Shawn]

Here in Canada, I got a lot of my 2600 (as well as NES games) at Consumers Distributing

 

Ya I got some Atari and most of my 8bit Nintendo stuff from Consumers as well! A good chunk of my Star Wars and GI Joes came from there too!

[Shawn]

Kinny Drugs in Ogensburg, NY also had an atari section when I was a kid. The prices where always about $5 more than everywhere else so I never got any there myself.

[Philflound]

I remember when Pac-Man was coming out, there was an ad in TV Guide I believe if I remember correctly. They were selling it for like $54.95. Does anyone have a TV Guide with that ad? Not sure if it was from Atari directly or some other mail order company.

 

Phil

[shadow460]

I found a few price tags so far aside from the used game shop ones:

 

Barnstorming: Grand Central Dept 82 $25.95 $22.95

Freeway: 1081 52 A520612 PRICE 21.88, also, Vintage Stock $3.99

Keyboard Controllers: PAID Ramstein Audio Photo Club

Space War: 88 CITA $22.92

Maze Craze: Kmart $24. (the other two numbers have peeled off)

Circus Atari: Dr. Music 24.99

Donkey Kong: Montgomery Ward store #8400 $28.00 sold on November 11th

Street Racer: $9.95 (the label is tough to read though)

Air Sea Battle: 20.49 written in ink on the box

Night Driver: Montgomery Ward store #8400 $24.95 (sold on April 27th probably whatever year the picture label came out)

Berzerk Roedel $31.95

Air Raiders: 5861-5 676-1464

Remote Control Wireless Joysticks: Kay-Bee $69.95 23.99 and it has the sticker that says "Kay-Bee recommends alkaline batteries"

 

Also, IIRC (and it's been a LONG time), my Supercharger and Phaser Patrol came from Toys 'R' Us. All the games except Frogger came from a mail order company, I'm certain of that. I don't know where Frogger came from. Many of the games my Dad purchased for us came from a Toys 'R' Us clearance sale. There were TONS of those. Tanks but No Tanks was purchased at Old Paris Flea Market in Oklahoma City.

[accousticguitar]

I remember when Pac-Man was coming out, there was an ad in TV Guide I believe if I remember correctly. They were selling it for like $54.95. Does anyone have a TV Guide with that ad? Not sure if it was from Atari directly or some other mail order company.

 

Phil

I "only" paid $30 for Pac-Man when it came out which was a good price at the time.

[The Usotsuki]

Kinny Drugs in Ogensburg, NY also had an atari section when I was a kid. The prices where always about $5 more than everywhere else so I never got any there myself.

Don't remember ever seeing games there but I know the store. Beyond the Kinney Drugs in Ogdensburg I remember one in Pulaski too but by then it was already 1987 and I doubt 2600 stuff was still to be found out there.

[Jaynz]

Hit the flea market today (which has a vintage game store as a permanent spot) and found a boxed (yellow picture) 2600 Pac Man from Hobby Lobby for $24.99, which I guess would put it at roughly 1985 or so.

[AdvancedJudas]

I believe that was my topic and i wrote about receipts.

Ill write on out for you

 

 

HILLS

ADRIAN, MI

STORE #151

REG 35

OPR 26

 

68 3176 [ATARI/ICE HOCKEY] $12.97

$0.52 TAX

TOTAL $13.49

 

CASH $15.00

CHANGE $1.51

 

THANK YOU - PLEASE COME BACK

 

01/20/89 - 08:16p 5960

[AdvancedJudas]

[onthinice]

Hills was a nice store. They used to compete with Ames and Kmart in my area. Now they are three missing. Just Meijer's and Walmart.

[+bfstats]

Re-posting this from a 2003 thread:

 

I remember Kiddie City. Still had 2600 titles into the early 90's in the Baltimore area. Here's some more:

 

Kings

Toy Barn

Kay-Bee

Murphy's

Harmony Hut

Toys R Us

Video Concepts

Sound Waves (they even had the Mystique titles)

Games & Gadgets

BEST Products (NOT Best Buy)

Greetings & Readings

Now Playing

Bamburgers

Home Entertainment

Sears

Montgomery Ward

Drug Fair

K-Mart

Video Heaven

Camelot Music

Video Today

J&R Music

Circus World

Electronics Boutique

Record & Tape Collector

 

...and the dreaded Pleasant Valley Video.

 

I purchased at least one 2600 game from every one of these stores between 1981 and 1991. Never realized how many stores there were (27) until this topic made me go back and count. But 1982 was the best: White Marsh Mall had 14 stores selling Atari at the same time. That much competition made for some great price wars. Those were the days!

[Philflound]

Thinking about department stores, Bradlees and Caldors comes to mind. Anyone have labels from either?

 

Phil

[JQW]

Here in the UK, it seemed that the only store selling Atari's games, at least in our part of the country, were the Greens concessions situated in Debenhams department stores, at least during then early days. This meant a journey out of town, as there was no Debenhams in our town centre.

 

Once Activision and Imagic appeared, games could be picked up elsewhere, such as branches of Boots. Even a couple of small local independent electrical stores had a try at stocking Activision titles.

[The Usotsuki]

Hills was a nice store. They used to compete with Ames and Kmart in my area. Now they are three missing. Just Meijer's and Walmart.

 

We used to have Hills, Ames, K-mart, Wal-mart and Sears... now we have Target but we lost Hills, Ames and Sears.

[Blacklight]

I got mine in '82 on the last day of the 6th grade as a gift for hitting the "honor roll" all four terms. We got it from Toys R' Us. What's funny is that sometime in around 91' or 92', I loaned my Atari and all my cartridges out to a friend of mine and forgot I had given it to her and we eventually got married, lost touch. I had lamented my lost Atari for YEARS. I had forgotten that I had given it away. Then, out of literally NOWHERE, last Saturday, I ran into her completely out of the blue. She said as an afterthought, "Oh. By the way. I still have your Atari and all your games. Would you like it back?"

I followed her to her house, and was reunited with my Atari 20 years after it left my life. I cleaned it and it works perfectly. Even the notoriously awful paddle controllers and the racing controllers for "Indy 500" work perfectly without any unsteadiness! I almost kicked my wife out of the bed and slept with the Atari that night. I'm never letting it out of my sight ever again!!!

Edited September 7, 2012 by Blacklight

[Philflound]

Great story! Though your wife probably wouldn't appreciate it.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Eureka! I think I figured out about the boxes and their release dates. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before. My wife calls me a doofus and maybe I am. But as you know, I've gotten very particular with describing the boxes and variations with sometimes details that others would overlook. One thing I've been doing has been adding the printing company. Well, that is where I'm going to verify the exact month and year that the box was made. The majority are made by Bertco Graphics or Aopak San Francisco. Each of these actually shows the month and year the box was printed. I'm just going to have to look through some of the boxes and compare. This should clarify exactly when each of the types of boxes were made. I'll check into this and get back. This is a great breakthrough. What has bothered me was the Rev 4 boxes with the warranty box the same background color as the box itself. Were these made after the Rev 2 and Rev 3? I'll give you a definitive answer soon.

 

Phil