SpotAnime Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I can't peg the year, but I want to say around 1985-86. Definitely post-crash. It had been a couple of years since I moved on from my home consoles and onto the Commodore 64, but there was a period where I started to pull out my old consoles - Intellivision, Colecovision, and the 5200 - and I immediately fell back in love with the 5200. I remember looking around for games for the 5200 I didn't have, especially since bargain bins were full of cheap games after the video game crash - but I remember having trouble finding 5200 games in store. I stopped by my local Toys R Us and asked the kid behind the cage if they had any 5200 games left, and they said no, but he wrote down an address for me to write to where I may be able to mail order some games. This TRU was in suburban Chicago, BTW (Merrillville, IN, near Southlake Mall). So I wrote to this company (I *think* they were in California, maybe Texas?) and a couple of weeks later I got this multipage list of products they were selling for cheap. It wasn't a catalog, more like a Xeroxed listing of products. I mean, brand new factory sealed games for like $5, new controllers and accessories. I remember specifically, I ordered the Gremlins game for $8 and the roller controller for $15 (!). I think I spent $35 in total for a few games, a new joystick and the roller controller. Recently, I've been really curious who this mystery company was. It definitely wasn't Atari. Could it have been Best back then? And a bonus, if perhaps someone would have a copy of that mail order product list, it would be amazing to see that again. Oh, and extra kudos to that kid in the TRU games cage who actually knew, long after Atari stopped production of the 5200, where I could still buy games for that system! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick3092 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Telegames was out of TX I believe. And they bought up a lot of stock post system crashes and resold it. Hell, I bought plenty of COD stuff from them back in the day with my paper route money. Pretty sure no carriers even do COD any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 That sounds like Telegames. They had a warehouse in the Dallas area and also did game fulfillment for Radio Shack. They lost a lot on inventory in a tornado in the mid-1990s. The UK branch is still around. See http://www.telegames.co.uk/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 I can think of a couple of others you might try to look up, but I have no idea when they quit selling; They are G.A.M.E.S. and (this one's a long shot, but (where I got my ColecoVision in 1982)) Maxaron Home Entertainment. Those are just shots in the dark though 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohoki Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) i never had trouble getting old stock from kaybee toys but yea fro mail order it was probably telegames for new old stock there was a couple of companies that bought and sold so it was used and they mostly did just nes,gen,snes i too am a commodore maniac i got like 50 games for the 5200 but like 1500 disks of games for the c64 oh geez i just checked and its approx 2500 disks Edited February 14, 2019 by bohoki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) For me,if it weren't for Telegames in the UK I probably wouldn't have Spiker! Volleyball and Learning Fun 1 and 2 in boxed mint condition. Yes,for most after crash games it was Telegames UK and Texas, and Radioshack who did mail order as well. Edited February 14, 2019 by wolfy62 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I can think of a couple of others you might try to look up, but I have no idea when they quit selling; They are G.A.M.E.S. and (this one's a long shot, but (where I got my ColecoVision in 1982)) Maxaron Home Entertainment. Those are just shots in the dark though I remember stopping by G.A.M.E.S. every month after school to stock up on 5200 gear in 1983 when I first got my first unit, they were located on Valjean Ave. in Van Nuys, CA, (I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, around Northridge and Sepulveda) a dream for any videogame enthusiast, coin ops, computers, and every home unit put out back then, I was a 5200 loyalist and since I owned a non-asterisk 4-port, the VCS adapter was no option for us, even though they did carry them. Most of my carts (pre-1984) came from G.A.M.E.S. before they went out of business. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I remember stopping by G.A.M.E.S. every month after school to stock up on 5200 gear in 1983 when I first got my first unit, they were located on Valjean Ave. in Van Nuys, CA, (I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, around Northridge and Sepulveda) a dream for any videogame enthusiast, coin ops, computers, and every home unit put out back then, I was a 5200 loyalist and since I owned a non-asterisk 4-port, the VCS adapter was no option for us, even though they did carry them. Most of my carts (pre-1984) came from G.A.M.E.S. before they went out of business. That's Awesome! That's where I bought my Vectrex! I'm not sure which location, probably that one It was probably 1982, and we were on vacation. They had the Vectrex on display and it was half price!! ($99 IIRC)... Anyway I just threw those names out there in case it would help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpotAnime Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 Yeah thanks all. Telegames rings a bell, I'm going to write them and see if they have any archives they can pull for me. And great stories to hear from all of you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.E.R.O. Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I remember seeing the G.A.M.E.S. ads in Electronic Games Magazine. I sent however much it was for a catalog but never received it so presumed they had gone out of business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I bought some Intellivision stuff at GAMES for sure! I lived 15 minutes from the store,and I remember it closed when the crash happened in 1984. I remember getting an Inty2 brand new at Toys R US then for $69.99 for my Sisters Christmas present. I wish I had bought a spare and stuck it in a closet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I bought some Intellivision stuff at GAMES for sure! I lived 15 minutes from the store,and I remember it closed when the crash happened in 1984. I remember getting an Inty2 brand new at Toys R US then for $69.99 for my Sisters Christmas present. I wish I had bought a spare and stuck it in a closet. Or safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpotAnime Posted February 19, 2019 Author Share Posted February 19, 2019 A quick update - I sent out an email to Telegames inquiring if this could have been them, and got an email back that pretty much removes them from inclusion here. They wrote back saying they only did proper catalogs and not a xeroxed list of products, and that they didn't sell their products cheap just to recoup cost on their NOS investments. So, I guess we can strike Telegames from the list. Keep coming with your suggestions and I'll keep investigating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerG Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 I would take anything said by Telegames today with a huge grain of salt. Telegames did not only do proper catalogs. They partnered with others to sell inventory anyway they could. Here is a xerox copy game list (not mine): https://twitter.com/matteusbeus/status/995802359396782082 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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