Has anyone ever attempted a complete Atari 2600 collection before?

[totallyterrificpants]

I'm talking every company, label variant, even region etc. I know it's basically impossible but has there been an attempt to see how far someone can get?

[SIO2]

I had one ... in 1978

 

So maybe the question you are asking is has anybody recently attempted it.

Edited December 19, 2016 by SIO2

[totallyterrificpants]

I had one ... in 1978

 

So maybe the question you are asking is has anybody recently attempted it.

Yes exactly . Has anyone with the power of the Internet attempted the crazy task of EVERY cart variant, no name company clones etc

[high voltage]

http://www.atarimania.com/atari-vcs-2600.html

 

8000 titles and rising, I think it is impossible

[Schitti]

No way!

Better ask for completed companies, there is certainly more feedback and maybe with a little bit luck some nice pics too.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Schitti

[Mayhem]

If anyone is closer than anyone else, it's probably Jose (Wonder007)...

[+Atari_Warlord]

The only way it will ever happen is when all of us die and donate our collections to a museum.

[+save2600]

I think many of us die hard collectors that have been around a long time have attempted such a feat or similar, but ultimately lost interest. I know I did.

[BassGuitari]

I suppose it depends on the definition of "complete." If you included literally *every* game (from any and all manufacturers, including pirates and protos), accessory, peripheral, or any other item directly related to the Atari 2600 worldwide, it would be absolutely impossible.

So I guess we all have to draw our own lines somewhere. Do you count prototypes? Pirates? Different regions? Esoteric stuff like Compumate software? Stupid shit like Grabber Balls?

Personally, my only "completeness" goals at the moment are complete loose NTSC libraries for Atari Inc. (text, pic, silver label games), Atari Corp. (red, gray, alternate font, and '86-'88 "error" labels), and Sears (text, pic). I still have some miscellaneous gaps in some of my third-party collections that I'll fill here and there if/when I think of it (still need Raft Rider by US Games and Star Strike by M-Network, for instance). And of course I'll pick up any other odd game I'm missing that I happen upon, funds permitting, but complete loose NTSC Atari, Atari Corp., and Sears sets are my only real goals for 2600 collecting now. Although I may append that with manuals for them, at least for text-label games that had no picture-label equivalent, so I can at least get a taste of that artwork.

Edited December 19, 2016 by BassGuitari

[Shawn]

Even if you thought you had them all there would still be more. The 2600 seems to be an abyss with no known cart depth.

[0078265317]

The only way it will ever happen is when all of us die and donate our collections to a museum.

 

Probably. I only have less than 30 carts maybe. It will never happen. Museum is the only way, haha.

[KaeruYojimbo]

I'll bet there are a lot of us who "attempted" it for a day or two when we started collecting, before realizing just how many games were made and just how mind-blowingly rare some of them are.

Edited December 20, 2016 by KaeruYojimbo

[fiddlepaddle]

I once thought I would, but eventually scaled it back first to "those I have", then to "those I like".

[jhd]

Aside from the issue of rarity and unobtainable games, there is the matter of acquiring games that one will never play (or wish to play), e.g. Strawberry Shortcake's Musical Match Ups, Big Bird's Egg Catch, some of the really early Atari sports games like Home Run. A "complete" collection will be clogged with many such titles. There are also numerous pirate hacks and re-releases of existing titles under a different name. Again, these add nothing to the play-ability of a collection.

 

I long ago decided that I was only going to collect games (for any system) that I like/will play; I am far from being a completest.

[spacecadet]

http://www.atarimania.com/atari-vcs-2600.html

 

8000 titles and rising, I think it is impossible

 

Think about the original value of that... If you assume an average retail price of $29.95, that's $239,600 worth of games.

 

I'll bet with the wildly varying prices these days, where some cost $1 and others cost $1,000, a complete collection probably still would be pretty close to that.

[totallyterrificpants]

There is probably a collector out there with 1000 Atari games and they're just pirates of Combat.

[ubersaurus]

If you're talking like a complete North American collection or something, I don't think so. There's too many games with only a handful of copies known to exist - to my knowledge there's what, five or six copies of Air Raid out there? like three known copies of Extra Terrestrials? One known copy of Red Sea Crossing? And only a couple dozen Mangias, Magicards and Video Lifes if that. So even though the what, 421 unique releases or so doesn't seem like an insurmountable number, it gets too hard in the higher echelons. And yeah, if you're going worldwide there's an absurd number of pirate releases.

 

For me personally, I focus on trying to complete specific publisher sets for the console. I'm closing in on a full Atari set, I've got full Activision, Imagic, M-Network, CBS, Parker Bros, Telesys, Epyx, Sega, Amiga, Selchow and Venturevision sets (I know, the last three only have one release each).I'm also aiming to finish out my Data Age, Apollo, Fox, Mythicon and US Games collections, but generally I don't go out hunting for specific titles so much as I grab them when I see them.

Edited December 23, 2016 by ubersaurus

[agb]

Aside from the issue of rarity and unobtainable games, there is the matter of acquiring games that one will never play (or wish to play), e.g. Strawberry Shortcake's Musical Match Ups, Big Bird's Egg Catch, some of the really early Atari sports games like Home Run. A "complete" collection will be clogged with many such titles. There are also numerous pirate hacks and re-releases of existing titles under a different name. Again, these add nothing to the play-ability of a collection.

 

I long ago decided that I was only going to collect games (for any system) that I like/will play; I am far from being a completest.

I always thought Home Run was s fun game. I played it a lot with friends 35 years ago and still play it at times.

Edited December 24, 2016 by agb

[Shawn]

 

Think about the original value of that... If you assume an average retail price of $29.95, that's $239,600 worth of games.

 

I'll bet with the wildly varying prices these days, where some cost $1 and others cost $1,000, a complete collection probably still would be pretty close to that.

 

But if you take inflation into account that $240k is probably closer to a million.

[TheVgaTv]

So out of curiosity, is there a definitive list out there for the US releases? A single file that lists every original release and the label variations?

[Rom Hunter]

So out of curiosity, is there a definitive list out there for the US releases? A single file that lists every original release and the label variations?

 

Every original NTSC release yes, label variations no.