Did your collection survive the crash?

[high voltage]

 

. The "big three" in 1983 just didn't have the right product mix and business model, and they weren't big enough to weather the storm.

Atari did well (EG Nov 1983)

Edited April 4, 2017 by high voltage

[schuwalker]

Where I was, Kmart had games in 1983 but not the new Intellivision games I was looking for. At some point Kmart like all the department stores got out of video games. That could have been 1984.

 

Was Colecovision available anywhere for Christmas 1984 and 1985? Were they heavily discounted? I don't remember Intellivision games being discounted, they just disappeared. I did find a couple of new 1983 Intellivision games I was looking for, at a small electronics store; but they were regular price.

I don't recall getting Colecovision games as cheap as Atari 2600 games.

 

I found my boxed copy of Grog's Revenge with a big sales sticker for $19.99.

 

Edit: So I went on Ebay and looked for boxed copies of Colecovision games that were on sale *cheap*. Apparently, some stores did have them discounted. Never knew K&B had Colecovision games.

[schuwalker]

 

Yes. I remember buying Ultima III and Zaxxon there, and they still had the game counter. It had to be 84 or later, because I didn't own a disk drive until they got deeply discounted post-Tramiel. It was probably mid 85 to be honest.

 

Of course those were computer games, I can't recall about console games.

 

Game selection was dwindling though.

Yeah... I remember dad getting a couple of gamecarts for the TI-99 in that year, just don't recall console stuff.

[Flojomojo]

I don't recall getting Colecovision games as cheap as Atari 2600 games.

 

I found my boxed copy of Grog's Revenge with a big sales sticker for $19.99.

 

Edit: So I went on Ebay and looked for boxed copies of Colecovision games that were on sale *cheap*. Apparently, some stores did have them discounted. Never knew K&B had Colecovision games.

 

Fifty 1982 bucks for ColecoVision Zaxxon was a lot to ask. I completely understand why my parents were not into the game-buying scene when I was young.

[zzip]

 

Fifty 1982 bucks for ColecoVision Zaxxon was a lot to ask. I completely understand why my parents were not into the game-buying scene when I was young.

 

Holy Crap! $126 in today's dollars.

[Flojomojo]

Arguably way too much ... but we didn't have as much from which to choose back then, and "arcade perfect" was a lot more compelling back then.

[zzip]

I don't recall getting Colecovision games as cheap as Atari 2600 games.

 

I found my boxed copy of Grog's Revenge with a big sales sticker for $19.99.

 

Edit: So I went on Ebay and looked for boxed copies of Colecovision games that were on sale *cheap*. Apparently, some stores did have them discounted. Never knew K&B had Colecovision games.

 

Prices at Kaybee toys were so frequently marked down in red ink that I used to wonder if the price tags weren't just printed that was and it was just a psychological sales trick. Those do look hand-written though.

[zzip]

and "arcade perfect" was a lot more compelling back then.

 

or so they thought. Both the Colecovision and 5200 launched with the promise of 'near arcade quality' graphics, and neither exactly did well. And Zaxxon ended up in the bargain bin

[Flojomojo]

or so they thought. Both the Colecovision and 5200 launched with the promise of 'near arcade quality' graphics, and neither exactly did well. And Zaxxon ended up in the bargain bin

 

Everything ended up in the bargain bin. I distinctly remember thinking ColecoVision graphics were amazing.

[zzip]

 

Everything ended up in the bargain bin. I distinctly remember thinking ColecoVision graphics were amazing.

 

I did as well, but that doesn't mean we bought one. too expensive and computers seemed more compelling

[Flojomojo]

I did as well, but that doesn't mean we bought one. too expensive and computers seemed more compelling

 

 

But you know what? Waiting paid off. We didn't spoil our appetites for classic-style arcade games by having too many of them. Can't say that for the kids who had an infinite supply of pirated C64 or Amiga games, right?

[zzip]

 

 

But you know what? Waiting paid off. We didn't spoil our appetites for classic-style arcade games by having too many of them. Can't say that for the kids who had an infinite supply of pirated C64 or Amiga games, right?

 

definitely! My friend had a 2600 long before I did. Everytime he got a new game, we'd play the hell out of it, even if it was something really simple like Freeway or Fishing Derby- Would be hours of entertainment. We'd even sometimes make up our own funny narratives to explain what was happening in the game which provided even more fun.

 

When you have hundreds of games at your fingertips, you probably won't spend much time playing games like that.

[Flojomojo]

This was the one new, boxed video game my parents bought for me. Keyboard Creations! for Odyssey 2 (no, this is not my copy). Everything else I scrounged or earned on my own. Now I'm basically a heroin addict, but for games.

 

[Professor Gull]

I definitely know my collection did not survive the crash back in the early 1980's. I was the avid 2600 hoarder with probably 50 plus games. Moved from a 4 switch to a Jr when the 4 switch video cord got shewed off because dogs found it tasty. I pretty much dumped it all and forgot about games for a few years but then bought back into it with a 7800 which never played 2600 games so any spare games I might have come across went to trade ins for wonderful 7800 games like Food Fight and F-16.

 

I had friends with an NES and they loved it but whenever I would go over to play I would play something like Zanac or Arkanoid since Atari was still in the blood for game styles. It took awhile to learn to like Super Mario and Metroid but why play that when I got Xenephobe for my 7800 and blisters to boot.

[Keatah]

Arguably way too much ... but we didn't have as much from which to choose back then, and "arcade perfect" was a lot more compelling back then.

or so they thought. Both the Colecovision and 5200 launched with the promise of 'near arcade quality' graphics, and neither exactly did well. And Zaxxon ended up in the bargain bin

Everything ended up in the bargain bin. I distinctly remember thinking ColecoVision graphics were amazing.

 

I always held the ColecoVision and 8-bit Atari Computers & 5200 in high regard. Before, during, and after the crash. Next best thing to the arcades. And I was rarely disappointed. My interest was rather long lived. And of course now lives on even more through modern-day emulation.

[Keatah]

But you know what? Waiting paid off. We didn't spoil our appetites for classic-style arcade games by having too many of them. Can't say that for the kids who had an infinite supply of pirated C64 or Amiga games, right?

 

Not exactly. With massive repositories like:

ftp.asimov

ftp.pigwa

ftp.whtech

..and more! We have more than infinite supply of games. And they're far more accessible too. No fumbling through boxes of disks. It's all here in your face. But this time the numbers are so overwhelmingly large you can't even think about it. You can't absorb it all. You can't visualize it all. You just hafta' get going and play your favorites.

 

There is the opportunity to curate a small local library of say 50 or 100 of your favs. And it is here, right here, that you don't want to overdo it.

[Flojomojo]

Not exactly. With massive repositories like:

ftp.asimov

ftp.pigwa

ftp.whtech

..and more! We have more than infinite supply of games. And they're far more accessible too. No fumbling through boxes of disks. It's all here in your face. But this time the numbers are so overwhelmingly large you can't even think about it. You can't absorb it all. You can't visualize it all. You just hafta' get going and play your favorites.

 

There is the opportunity to curate a small local library of say 50 or 100 of your favs. And it is here, right here, that you don't want to overdo it.

 

 

Nowadays, of course we have this stuff ... but in ye olden tymes, we made do with the occasional trip to the pizzeria or arcade, or VCS at a friend's house. I didn't have a home computer that was any fun until 1988, when I went off to college, and even then, it was a monochrome Macintosh.

 

If by some odd miracle I had access to the untold riches of those FTP sites, I almost certainly would have burned out on them, and games would have lost their meaning and value.

 

Example: how you feel today about the bazillions of entertainment options in the mobile app stores. Yes, most of it is junk, but the best 1% is still enough to last several lifetimes of fun gameplay.