Did your collection survive the crash?

[Keatah]

A rather simple question. Did your collection survive the 1st crash back in the 80's? Or did you conduct purges (of any type) as the market went downhill?

 

The crash is what focused me onto Apple stuff more than ever. Videogames were suddenly seen as outmoded baby toys, and computers were the way forward. With nary a-care to how much money was sunk into them already. Everyone of influence was throwing them out, and trying to persuade me to do similar.

 

 

[Hyperboy]

Although my stuff didn't get used as much my mom kept everything stored that my brother and I had as kids. As I added consoles and computers and grew with the times my mom kept everything nice and neat. Handheld games, toys, video games, etc.. When I started collecting again it was all ready to go! She even kept my Pez collection I started as a little kid in storage bins without me even knowing.

 

Sent from my non beer holding hand.

[mbd30]

I was around 7 years old when the crash happened and that was when we got a 2600. All that the crash meant for me was cheap Atari games.

[Emehr]

At the time I didn't realize there was a crash. Still have my original console and games.

[Keatah]

My gramma, the way she used to throw away stuff, you'd think she was trying to date the whole sanitation department.

[Tanooki]

I only messed with arcade stuff then so it had no effect on me at all. My mom got us a test launch NES in 1985 for Christmas, so that's where my home start was officially though I had used a Fairchild Channel F2 and a 2600 before that, they weren't mine, just was there where they were. They were (sorry I know the membership here) too crude for me to request them at that age and we went to places that had arcade games once or twice a week so I got my fix in that way and otherwise was into awesome 80s cartoons and their toys, some movie toys (Star Wars) too. I still don't have much care for anything old, though I think the Colecovision edged into making an acceptable home system, and I did inherit that F2 system and used that off and on for years into high school but I mostly like the shooting stuff, blackjack, and dodgeball on that thing.

[+save2600]

Was not aware of the so-called "crash" BITD and I would have been 13. What I remember seeing around that time were 2600 games being sold everywhere, including grocery stores. Sure, there were bins of budget stuff and markdowns at places like Sears, Kay*Bee, Child World and Toys R Us years since, but I attributed that to the 2600 aging and making room for the newer systems - most of which seemed awfully popular at the time. And then witnessed the same thing in the late 80's and early 90's - this time, markdowns of the red label Atari, Activision and Absolute 2600 releases that were being sold everywhere, even music stores.

 

So yes, despite my strong interest in computers and other game systems all throughout the 80's, my original Atari 2600 and its games survived all of that. Was even purchasing stuff like Midnight Magic in 1990 to tide me over while I saved up for a Turbo-Grafx and Alien Crush.

[carlsson]

Back then, I only had a G&W (Snoopy Tennis) which I still have complete in box, even though the box is quite a bit worn. As an 8 year old, throwing away the only game you had because someone in the USA thought games were out of fashion would've been downright stupid.

[Zwackery]

Yes, it survived. A few years later my 2600 got donated to a yard sale, but I had the adapter for my Colecovision, so that was the only loss (minus the boxes for the games, those got pitched before my senior year as my family was moving to another house...sadness at those lost boxes, but they have since been replaced.)

[Eltigro]

I remember playing my original 2600 as late as about 1984. They probably would have survived, but a year or two later our house burned down and I lost it all. We briefly moved in with my grandmother after that and it was while living there that I got my NES.

[spacecadet]

I didn't much notice the crash. I kept playing my Intellivision stuff until I got tired of it. I may have been one of the type of people responsible for the crash, though, because at a certain point I lost interest in my Inty and then took up playing computer games on my Apple II instead. For a while I just didn't play anything; Intellivision games seemed old and maybe I did realize there weren't a lot of new ones coming out, but I didn't ask why. I just stopped playing until I got my computer.

 

I'm not sure if I can say my collection survived or not, because I lost track of it around that time. So technically maybe it did, but in the spirit of the question, maybe it didn't. My family was moving around and I just don't know what happened to all my original stuff. Probably my parents threw it away. They probably asked me first and I said it was ok, because I didn't care anymore at that point.

 

Then again, there is always the possibility that it's in somebody's attic or storage. I periodically find stuff I thought was gone forever at my stepmother's house or in my brother's garage.

Edited March 26, 2017 by spacecadet

[Mayhem]

We sold our Atari 2600 and games in late 1983 as the market appeared to slow down in the UK (of course we had no idea why until a lot, LOT later), and used the money to purchase a C64 a few months later. But we didn't have anything rare or valuable in today's market.

[+davidcalgary29]

What?! I built my collection during the crash! It was an excellent time for picking up

loads of carts for all systems (although I only collected for the A8 then) for .99 cents or so in toy stores. Perfect for us kids on an allowance

 

The Crash was pretty well covered in the media and computer magazines (Compute!) at the time.

[the_wizard_666]

The original crash happened before my time. That said, aside from a handful of sales/trades over the years where I pulled items from my collection to either help someone else or just get something I wanted for something I wasn't so keen on, there hasn't been anything remotely in the "purge" category. I still have my original NES Action Set (first console), my original carts, and every system I've acquired since then, save my original Game Boy unit, which crapped out on me at a time when I had a spare to replace it with and give the busted one to a friend for parts. Even if I haven't given a console any play time in years (my poor Dreamcast hasn't been played since '02, save as a CD player when my stereo crapped out, just as an example), I just can't bring myself to part with something that I highly enjoyed for a time and would like to revisit at some point in the future. It doesn't hurt that 95% of my trades and sales ended up being regrets, and only about half have been repurchased since then, so it makes me less inclined to do so.

 

Anyway, while technically my collection was nonexistent at the time of the crash, it has survived through my teen years and early adulthood, before I had fully committed to collecting games. Being that I'm probably younger than the median age range on AtariAge, I'm thinking that this is more or less in line with the intent of the topic, which is why I figured I'd post it. Plus, I'm new here, so I figure it couldn't hurt to share a bit of info about myself that might be relevant. Plus I haven't slept for a couple days and it makes me want to ramble for some reason. So yeah

[mr_me]

The crash was annoying. I had a hard time finding the new Intellivision games. I think I understood at the time people didnt want to buy video games anymore, but I did. That's about when I started high school and stopped playing video games. When I moved, the Intellivision went in its box and the cartridges in another and stayed there. Every once in a while at Christmas time, I would take it out to play some Intellivision.

 

Edit: And I don't remember any fire sales of huge discounts on cartridges. Everything just disappeared.

Edited March 26, 2017 by mr_me

[AtariLeaf]

I didn't throw anything out or sell it as I recall. I think my 2600 got put away and around 84 I started using the Tandy Coco. I think it was my evil stepmother that tossed pretty much everything when I first moved out on my own in 88 but like others have said, I wasn't even aware of a "crash" at the time. Everyone I knew just graduated to computers in the early to mid 80's

[Flojomojo]

The question itself is pure madness! The crash is only reason I have a collection at all! How else was I going to consume mass quantities on a kid's pocket money??

[Zap!]

I was around 7 years old when the crash happened and that was when we got a 2600. All that the crash meant for me was cheap Atari games.

 

Same here, although I was 9 in '83. I remember getting ET for just $1.

[7800fan]

I kept my Atari collection through the crash, it was all I had for entertainment until I got NES in '87 and SMS with 3D in '88 I did sell off some of the games recently but I still have the original Sears heavy 6 switch model that my family got for Christmas. Other stuff (Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssey^2, etc) were all post-crash yard sale stuff.

[spacecadet]

Edit: And I don't remember any fire sales of huge discounts on cartridges. Everything just disappeared.

 

I definitely remember reading about it in the newspaper or some magazine (not a gaming magazine, though; it'd have to be Time or Newsweek or something my dad would have had around). But I went down to my local stores after that and I remember not seeing any discounts, or at least nothing crazy enough to remember.

 

I think I probably did know something was going on but when you're actually in the middle of it, you often can't see it for what it is. I think I probably just thought the Intellivision and 2600 had run their course. If I'd had a ColecoVision or 5200 I might have been more suspicious. I did know someone right across the parking lot who had a ColecoVision and I played hers probably 5 nights a week for 6 months or so, but I had stopped by the time the crash happened.

 

I wonder what the last game I got was, pre-crash. All the release lists I've found for the Intellivision only show year, not month. So I think my last might have been something like Atlantis, but I'm not sure. I do remember playing that on my Intellivision II in the last place I ever remember having an Intellivision, so it was definitely at least close to the last new game I got for the system.

Edited March 27, 2017 by spacecadet

[mr_me]

Here you'll see the Intellivision 1983 releases. ( http://www.intvfunhouse.com/mattel/nonetwork.php) I remember getting Burgertime first, and I know Mission-X was available. Bump'n'Jump was the last game I bought. I looked but could not find Treasure of Tarmin or Locomotion. I could not find any Imagic games either. I thought the ECS computer module was never released and the Intellivision III was just a rumor. It was a confusing time and certainly was pushing me away from video games. I thought Mattel cancelled their Intellivision division and those games went unreleased. I was surprised in the 1990s when I started seeing some of these games that I thought were never released. [Where I lived we didn't have a ToysRus at the time, and I learned later they might have carried Intellivision games when the department stores stopped. But I would never go to a ToysRus even if it were there.]

Edited March 27, 2017 by mr_me

[BydoEmpire]

Yep, I still have almost all of the Inty games I grew up with. I don't remember exactly when I acquired my 2600 but it was right around the crash. I remember buying cheap 2600 games at Kay Bee - tables of them for $1-$10. I wasn't really aware of the crash in terms of the business and market, other than maybe Electronic Games talking about a shakeout, but I do remember the giant clearance sales. Most of my 2600 games I got at garage sales in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

I acquired my 2600 by trading a guy at school a pile of pirated Apple 2 discs for his 2600. He didn't want it anymore as he "moved on" to the Apple. Since I grew up with the Inty there were a whole bunch of 2600 games I read about, or had played at the neighbors, and wanted to get. It was awesome.

Edited March 27, 2017 by BydoEmpire

[+Atari_Warlord]

The crash allowed me to double my Atari 2600 collection. Previously it cost about one month of my income to buy a game, after I could get around 4.

[zzip]

A rather simple question. Did your collection survive the 1st crash back in the 80's? Or did you conduct purges (of any type) as the market went downhill?

 

The crash is what focused me onto Apple stuff more than ever. Videogames were suddenly seen as outmoded baby toys, and computers were the way forward. With nary a-care to how much money was sunk into them already. Everyone of influence was throwing them out, and trying to persuade me to do similar.

 

 

 

Like you, getting an 800XL computer in 1983 caused me to focus on all the possibilities of it and mostly ignore my 2600 after that. But I still have that 2600 and its games

 

I didn't even realize the crash was happening at first. I just noticed bins of $5 games appearing everywhere suddenly.

Edited March 27, 2017 by zzip

[Gentlegamer]

I was a child, and my father's Atari VCS collection grew because people were giving away the carts.

 

We kept them in a red velvet lined 8-track case.