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7800 & 2600 Jr. ad in Sears 1988 Catalog


Stevaside

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Sure someone has uploaded this & alot of you have already seen it, but figured I'd share it anyways for those who haven't. It's from the wishbookweb.com site I recently discovered that is an absolute GOLD MINE for nostalgia! Full Sears Wishbook catalog scans from every decade

 

& On a side note..what's up with that TAC-2 7800 joystick?? Don't believe I've ever heard of that....

 

"Let yourself go with the PREMIUM GRAPHICS of the Atari 7800! " ...and "the HIGH-RESOLUTION SUPER SERIES CARTRIDGES!" :grin: Love it!

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Edited by Stevaside
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That's definitely interesting about the TAC-2. I had no idea they were still selling it by 1988, though I'm glad they were because I've always loved that joystick. Putting it by the 7800 really gives the wrong impression; even if there was a 7800 TAC-2 (though it definitely seems to be the standard 2600 TAC-2), there's no way you could play two-button 7800 games with that particular configuration anyway; you'd have both thumbs on the buttons, but how would you control the joystick? Would have been great for single-button 7800 games and the 2600 titles though, IMO.

 

Thanks for sharing this man!

Edited by King Atari
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"Plays on black and white or color TVs." There's a statement that'll date you when you're showing this off to your kids, eh? (He says, knowing this from personal experience. :) )

Haha I didn't even notice that....I remember now that the 2600 had a B&W/Color switch when I was a kid, but just who the hell had a black & white TV in the 80's?? lol The Junior came out in the late 80's didn't it? & to those a little older than me was that really a thing in the 70's even ?! I can't say that I've ever seen one, as far as I know some old sitcoms in 60's & before were B&W ??

 

That said, just acknowledging that the 2600 was my first console is starting to make me feel old as s**t these days :D

 

I helped a friend of mine unpack these old boxes from his parents attic a while back that were lined with old newspaper from the 60's....Pretty hilarious seeing an ad for a TV that proudly stated "COLOR!!!!!" in huge fonts as it's main selling point

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That's definitely interesting about the TAC-2. I had no idea they were still selling it by 1988, though I'm glad they were because I've always loved that joystick. Putting it by the 7800 really gives the wrong impression; even if there was a 7800 TAC-2 (though it definitely seems to be the standard 2600 TAC-2), there's no way you could play two-button 7800 games with that particular configuration anyway; you'd have both thumbs on the buttons, but how would you control the joystick? Would have been great for single-button 7800 games and the 2600 titles though, IMO.

 

Thanks for sharing this man!

I'm not too knowledgeable about 2600 3rd party joysticks...Don't really remember seeing that one before at all....& yea, guess the fact that I've never seen or imagined a 2 button 2600 joystick & that I was so suprised to see this (seemingly) advertised by Sears as one for the 7800 , I overlooked how the configuration wouldn't work out..Does seem cool for strictly 2600 games though, I like it's design

 

Also I'm guessing the 2600 Baseball, Boxing, Tennis and most likely Football advertised are all from the "Realsports" series by that time, but for some reason they didn't list them that way?

Edited by Stevaside
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Thanks for sharing. Spent two hours going thru all the stuff we got as kids. Each year we circled what we wanted and grandma and grandpa got us it. Mom n Dad got something too but was a surprise. Usually a handheld video game, A star wars thing or a new 2600 game.

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Thanks for sharing. Spent two hours going thru all the stuff we got as kids. Each year we circled what we wanted and grandma and grandpa got us it. Mom n Dad got something too but was a surprise. Usually a handheld video game, A star wars thing or a new 2600 game.

Nice.....I just got a PS4 recently & my Aunt sent me money towards a game for Christmas...I was telling her what a trip it was how I could still remember being super excited sometime in the late 80's when the mailman arrived to our door with my birthday package from her, which turned out to be One On One Basketball :lol:

Edited by Stevaside
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That's definitely interesting about the TAC-2. I had no idea they were still selling it by 1988...

My dad bought one for our Commodore 64 around 1990 from Radio Shack. Either that or I'm confusing it with the Kraft/Tandy Deluxe-style joystick he got for our 386 a year or two later. I remember SOME old joystick being purchased at Radio Shack in the early '90s. :-D

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Haha I didn't even notice that....I remember now that the 2600 had a B&W/Color switch when I was a kid, but just who the hell had a black & white TV in the 80's?? lol The Junior came out in the late 80's didn't it? & to those a little older than me was that really a thing in the 70's even ?! I can't say that I've ever seen one, as far as I know some old sitcoms in 60's & before were B&W ??

They were still selling new black and white tvs in 1988.

 

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/1988_Sears_Wishbook/images/1988.xx.xx%20Sears%20Christmas%20Catalog%20P668.jpg

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Yeah, they were more of a 70s thing. Black and white sets were still some people's primary TVs in the 70s, but they hung around through the 80s as small TVs intended to be portable or as a TV for kids' rooms.

 

In the early 80s, I was one of the rare kids who had a 25 inch color TV in his room to play videogames on. Most other kids, if they had their own personal TV, had a 13 or 17 inch b&w set.

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Yeah, they were more of a 70s thing. Black and white sets were still some people's primary TVs in the 70s, but they hung around through the 80s as small TVs intended to be portable or as a TV for kids' rooms.

 

In the early 80s, I was one of the rare kids who had a 25 inch color TV in his room to play videogames on. Most other kids, if they had their own personal TV, had a 13 or 17 inch b&w set.

Hmm I would have guessed maybe early 70's, but I always imagined the 60's & before as the era of black & white TV......& you know yesterday I had a very fuzzy memory of seeing a portable B&W TV when I was real young, think a family member might have had one

 

& man in that catalog...$500 for a 2.7" portable TV in 1988 = more than I paid for a 50" HDTV in 2014!!! lol & I see the B&W Watchmans are CONSIDERABLY less...makes sense now

Edited by Stevaside
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When I got my first Atari for Christmas in 1983, it was hooked up to a 13" B&W. We didn't get a color set for it until much later.

 

Not everyone was rich enough to out fit their whole house with Color TVs in the early to mid 80's.

Well I wasn't aware of what seems like a huge difference in cost between B&W and color sets then.....All I know is I don't personally remember seeing a single B&W TV in someone's living room in that decade...& my family ....& neighborhood... was anything but rich, believe me. We were the last in the family to get everything from a microwave to a VCR & it was always donated from Grandparents...for all I know the 1st TV that I remember here was too :D , I do know our second one was a hand me down...& neither one had remotes.

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Edited by Stevaside
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Our TVs had remotes. My parents would tell one of us to change the channel.

Our 25" set had a 4 button remote. channel up/down and volume up/down. We had to turn the power on at the tv. Of course we only had 8 or 9 channels to choose from so it worked just fine.

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I bought my second TAC-2 well after 1990 (I suppose 93/94)in a (long gone) video game shop in Vienna. I think they were either clearing them out or it was the last one they had. Got it as a backup in case mine (bought 1985) should fail. Did not need it so far, so it is still in its box ;-)

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