Looking for scans of old catalogs that feature video games

[SpriteCell]

I put together a collection of every catalog and circular ad I could find that features video games, but I really wish I could find more for some of gaming's earliest systems. My earliest finds are from 1975, a few years after the Odyssey was released, so there must be some more ads for it out there, and others like the Coleco Telstar and Atari 2600.

 

Does anyone here have know of some sources that I haven't come across yet, or own some old catalogs they would like to take pictures of or scan?

[Tanooki]

Wow what a flash back, don't care much about all the hours of metric reading but that analysis looks from what I skimmed to be quite informative.

 

But those ads, those lovely 1986-92(where I stopped so far) are just a flashback.  It gives you an idea what retailers like to push over the MSRP on stuff, others who ran sales, were fair, etc.  Also seeing how some ads were grabbed around the US you could also see variable pricing on games depending where you live that it could cost you another $5 or save you $5 or something of the sort.

[mr_me]

That website has lots of catalog scans for 1972-74.  My understanding was that initially, the Magnavox Odyssey was only sold through Magnavox television dealers.

 

Interesting to see the Intellivision in the 1979 JC Penney catalog along with six cartridges.  NFL Football being the pack-in made it seven, although I don't think Football made it as the pack-in.

[SpriteCell]

14 hours ago, mr_me said:

That website has lots of catalog scans for 1972-74.  My understanding was that initially, the Magnavox Odyssey was only sold through Magnavox television dealers.

If you're referring to the Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks site, none of the search results for "Odyssey" are relevant in that time frame, and I didn't see it browsing through.

And yeah, it looks like you're right about them not being sold widely initially.

[mr_me]

You're missing page 638 from the 1982 Sears Christmas catalog.

[SpriteCell]

6 hours ago, mr_me said:

You're missing page 638 from the 1982 Sears Christmas catalog.

Wow, nice catch. I've updated it.

[BassGuitari]

Awesome work! Thank you so much for putting this together! 👍

 

I see there aren't many Radio Shack scans from the '70s-'80s. Radioshackcatalog.com is a great resource, if you're not familiar. 😀

 

(Interesting observation: the 1979 JC Penney ad calls Atari paddles "Conventional Remote Controls," as opposed to the joystick controllers; and that you could order two different Atari systems: one that works on Channel 2/3, and one that works on Channel 4!) 

[BassGuitari]

Also, I forgot I had these on my hard drive. I can't remember where I found them, but they're from a 1977 Spiegel catalog, covering the Bally Arcade, Studio II, Video Pinball, and some other indeterminate dedicated system. Please use them if you'd like! 🙂