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Atari 2600 Catalogs Back in the heyday of the Atari 2600, most reasonably-sized game companies
produced catalogs to promote their games. It seems this is a lost art, as companies
rarely package in catalogs with console games these days. But back in the early
80s it was always a blast looking through the latest Atari
catalog to see what new
games you could convince (beg) your parents to buy for you. As the largest producer
of games for their systems, Atari also produced the greatest number of catalogs.
And, in our opinion, the greatest catalogs. Atari's catalogs were filled with
wonderful
art that made them a joy to leaf through. And their catalogs could take
a while to browse since some of them were quite
large. Activision also produced a good number of catalogs, from their early
days as the first third-party publisher with only six
titles, to their later times when they were also publishing Imagic
titles. Most other third-party companies only produced a single catalog, such
as Parker
Brothers. It's interesting to note that several third-party catalogs depict
games that were never
released, whereas Atari and Activision were much better about not picturing
vaporware.
We're someday hoping to build a complete library of catalogs. If you have any
catalogs that we're missing and wouldn't mind scanning them in, please
contact us as we'd love to hear from you! |
| 20th Century Fox | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 14
This catalog features Fox's first four games for the Atari 2600, which were
the Sirius games that came in red
cartridges. Later Fox releases were based mostly on Fox television and movie
properties. The Coming Attractions page lists several games that never saw the
light of day, including 9 to 5, Six Pack, Entity, Tough
Enough, and The Day The Earth Stood Still. This catalog also features
an offer for a free MegaForce movie poster (not that we're sure you'd want a
poster of this movie hanging in your room!) |  | Model Number: 83-FOX-6004
Year: 1983
Titles: 14
This 1983 20th Century Fox catalog features 14 titles, which is nearly all
the titles Fox released for the Atari 2600 (the missing titles being Crash
Dive, M*A*S*H, and
Porky's). This catalog
contained five coupons good for $5 each on the titles The
Earth Dies Screaming, Revenge
of the Beefsteak Tomatoes, Flash
Gordon, Bank Heist,
and SpaceMaster X-7. |  |
| Activision | | Description | Image | Model Number: AG-940-02
Year: 1980
Titles: 6
This is one of Activision's earliest catalogs, and the earliest we presently
have on display at AtariAge (if you have an even earlier one, please
let us know!) This catalog displays Activision's initial six titles and
depicts the boxes with the black "A New Game Cartridge" stripe on
the bottom right corner. It appears when this catalog was released only four
of the six games were available, with Bridge
and Skiing
listed as being available in early 1981. Unlike Atari, Activision actively promoted
their designers, as evidenced by portraits and bios in their catalogs and game
manuals. In this catalog, Alan
Miller, David
Crane, Larry
Kaplan, and Bob
Whitehead are featured. Gotta' love how those guys on the cover
are holding those Atari joysticks! |  | Model Number: AG-940-05
Year: 1981
Titles: 10
This Activision catalog features ten games, with two of them listed as "Coming
Soon" (Freeway
and Kaboom!).
The games at this point still all sport the "A New Game Cartridge.."
stripe at the bottom right corner of the boxes. The tag line for this particular
catalog is, "Beats The Real Thing." Hmm, you'd think they were competing
with Coca-Cola! This is the first Activision catalog to sport the rainbow Activision
logo. At this point, Activision still only has four game designers, Alan
Miller, David
Crane, Larry
Kaplan, and Bob
Whitehead. |  | Model Number: AG-940-06
Year: 1981
Titles: 12
In this catalog Activision's lineup increased two titles to ten, the new entries being Ice Hockey, and Stampede (both listed as "Coming Soon"). Unlike Activision's's previous catalog, on the cover of this one they include the two "Coming Soon" games. In this catalog the game boxes no longer have the black stripe at the bottom right corner of the box depicting, "A New Game Cartridge..." By this time Activision added a fifth designer, Steve Cartwright. |  | Model Number: AG-940-08
Year: 1982
Titles: 14
This purple Activision catalog would be the last to display the stylized artwork
for each game on the cover. This catalog contains fourteen titles, the newest
additions being Grand
Prix and Barnstorming
(both listed as "Coming This Spring"). The tag line for this catalog
is We Put You In The Game. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 2
This is a strange Activision catalog in that it only describes two games: StarMaster and Chopper Command. Both games get a fair amount of attention devoted to them, certainly more than in most other Activision catalogs. The catalog itself is black, with "HERE." printed in large red letters, underneath which "Prepare Yourself." is presented in a smaller, white typeface. We're not sure if this was included with another game, or a brochure available at stores. If anyone has additional information about this catalog, please contact us. |  | Model Number: AG-940-8
Year: 1982
Titles: 16
Activision must have decided at this point that the front of their catalogs
was getting cluttered, so with this catalog we have a much simpler cover. This
catalog is titled Spring 1982 and features the Activision logo, an additional
rainbow stripe and the tagline We Put You In The Game. This catalog contains
descriptions of 16 titles, the newest being Chopper
Command and StarMaster
(both listed as arriving in June 1982). |  | Model Number: AG-940-9
Year: 1982
Titles: 18
This catalog is very similiar in outward appearances to Activision's previous
catalog, except that it is titled Summer 1982. Internally we are
presented with two new games, bringing the total Activision title count to 18.
The new titles are Megamania
and Pitfall!,
both slated for a September 1982 release. This is the first Activision catalog
to feature the Activision
All-Stars Patches (nine patches are displayed in this catalog). |  | Model Number: AG-940-10
Year: 1982
Titles: 18
Activision moved from a black cover to red with this catalog, titled Fall,
1982. This catalog also features Activision's entry into the Intellivision
market, with Pitfall! and Stampede listed as titles for that system. The number
of 2600 titles available remains constant at 18, with Megamania
and Pitfall!
listed as coming October and September 1982, respectively (Pitfall! slipped
a month from the previous catalog). Two pages of Activision
All-Stars Patches (for eleven games in total) are listed in this catalog.
This is the first Activision catalog without portraits and bios of the Activision
designers, although they are still credited individually in the description
of each game. Between this and the previous catalog Activision's address changed
from Santa Clara to Mountain View, California. |  | Model Number: AG-940-10
Year: 1982
Titles: 22
Titled Winter, 1982, this catalog is similar in appearance to the Fall,
1982 catalog. It features four new games, Seaquest
(February 1983), Spider
Fighter (January 1983), River
Raid (December 1982), and Sky
Jinks, for a total of 22 games. The two pages of Activision
All-Stars Patches now highlight 14 different games. This catalog contains
two Intellivision games, Pitfall! and Stampedes. |  | Model Number: AG-940-11
Year: 1983
Titles: 25
Activision's Winter/Spring 1983 catalog and is blue in appearance, a
change from red of the previous
two catalogs. This catalog features 25 Atari 2600 titles and two Intellivision
titles. New games in this catalog are Dolphin (April 1983), Keystone Kapers
(April 1983), and Oink (March 1983). In addition, Activision
All-Stars Patches for 18 games are featured. |  | Model Number: AG-94-05
Year: 1983
Titles: 12
|  | Model Number: AG-940-05
Year: 1983
Titles: 13
We're not quite sure how Activision derived their catalog numbers, as this
particular number was also used for this
catalog in 1981. This catalog, titled Winter/Spring 1984, only contains
listings for thirteen Activision Atari-related titles, nine for the 2600 and
four for the 5200.Contained within are descriptions for several ColecoVision
and Intellivision games as well. Activison's five Intellivision titles are relegated
to the back cover of this catalog. |  | Model Number: AZ-940-00
Year: 1984
Titles: 13
This is a simple, single sheet, black and white catalog produced fairly late
in Activision's support of the Atari 2600. This catalog proclaims games for
the 2600 and 7800, but in actuality there are only 2600 games featured, which
of course also work in the 7800. The exception is Space
Shuttle, which has a note stating 2600 Only. The back page has information
that can be used to order titles through a toll free number or through the mail
(the address being one for a company called Triton Products, in San Francisco). |  | Model Number: AG-940-05
Year: 1984
Titles: 11
This later Activision catalog covers a wide variety of systems Activision was producing games for at the time, including the Atari 2600, 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, Apple II, IBM PCjr, Commodore 64, and Colecovision. While many of the titles were produced for several systems, this catalog only contains four 2600 titles and six 5200 titles. Graphically this catalog bears little resemblence to Activision's 2600 catalogs, although it does share the same model number (AG-940-05) with two other catalogs (no we don't know why, but it is confusing!) |  | Model Number: AG-946-103
Year: 1988
Titles: 18
One of Activision's latest catalogs featuring Atari games, the title of this
1988 catalog is simply, Video Games For Atari 2600/7800. There aren't
any 7800-specific games listed in this catalog, although Activision would later
release 7800 versions of some of the games in this catalog. At this time in
Activision's life they were also releasing Absolute Entertainment and Imagic
games. Only a few of Activision's original slate of 2600 games are featured
in this catalog. This catalog also features an ad
for VideoGames and Computer Entertainment Magazine as well as a sweepstakes
for $250 and 5 games from the catalog. |  |
| Apollo | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1981
Titles: 2
This appears to be Apollo's first catalog, judging by the fact that only two
games are listed in it. Those games are Skeet
Shoot and Space Chase.
A full page is devoted to each of these games, plus another page that contains
screenshots for both of them. Another page states that additional games are
coming in the future, which would turn out to be a true statement (this wasn't
always the case!) |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1981
Titles: 6
This is Apollo's second catalog and contains the title Lochjaw,
which Apollo was forced to quickly rename to Shark
Attack. It contains six titles, an increase of four over Apollo's previous
offering. The color of the background behind the description for each game
is the same color as the label the cartridge was produced with (these are Apollo's
original labels).
Because Lochjaw was quickly replaced by Shark Attack, an updated catalog was released to reflect the game's name change. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 6
This is Apollo's third catalog, released as an update to their second catalog to replace Lochjaw with Shark Attack. The name was changed due to a lawsuit over the name’s similarity to the movie "Jaws". Outside of this change, the catalog is very similar to Apollo's previous offering. Additional changes include the removal of a star border around the Limited 90-Day Warranty box and a change of the copyright year from 1981 to 1982 on the back cover. The color of the background behind the description for each game is the same color as the label the cartridge was produced with (these are Apollo's original labels). |  |
| Atari | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 8
What is probably Atari's earliest catalog, it doesn't even have an Atari part
number, which is unusual because nearly everything produced by Atari
had a part number. This catalog features only eight Atari 2600 titles and is
one of the smallest (in page count) catalogs Atari was to produce for the 2600.
This catalog makes no mention of the 2600 by name. On the back cover under the
Atari logo and name is the text Innovative leisure. Under that is the
phrase, More games. More fun. Artwork used in this catalog would survive
many iterations until finally replaced several years later in the CO16725-Rev.
D catalog. This artwork was expanded upon as new games were added to the
Atari lineup in later catalogs. If anyone has additional information about this
catalog, such as confirming that this was the original catalog for the 2600,
please drop us a line! |  | Model Number: CO-12737
Year: 1978
Titles: 15
This catalog uses the same cover artwork from the earlier Innovative
Leisure catalog, but with a red background. It features 15 titles (nearly
twice as many as the previous catalog) and has a chart on the back cover listing
all the games and the controllers each game requires. The Atari logo on the
back cover also features the text Innovative Leisure and the front cover
has the phrase, More Games. More fun. |  | Model Number: CO12737-02
Year: 1978
Titles: 20
This catalog continues the Innovative
Leisure theme, and is very similar to Atari's previous
catalog.. It features 20 titles, an increase if five titles over the previous
catalog. The back inside cover has a chart listing all the games and what controllers
each game requires. The Atari logo on the back cover also features the text
Innovative Leisure and the front cover has the phrase, More Games.
More fun. |  | Model Number: CO14356-Rev. C
Year: 1979
Titles: 32
The cover art from previous catalogs is used again here, although this would
be the last catalog it makes its appearance in. This catalog is very similar
to CO12737-02,
except the cover is yellow instead of read and this catalog contains 32 games
as opposed to 20. Also, the chart listing all the games has moved to the inside
back cover, with the back cover containing a picture of Atari's releases to
that point and the phrase, Nobody offers you as many different games to play. |  | Model Number: CO14356-Rev. D
Year: 1980
Titles: 38
This catalog features new cover artwork over its predecessor,
even though it is similar to Atari's earlier catalogs. This catalog features
38 titles, an increase of six over the previous catalog. The new titles in this
catalog are 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe,
Adventure,
Circus Atari,
Golf,
Night Driver,
and Space
Invaders. Strangely, two games were also renamed: Basic
Math was changed to Fun
With Numbers and Hunt
& Score was renamed to A
Game of Concentration. The back of this catalog features a large white Atari
logo against a solid blue background. |  | Model Number: CO14356-Rev. E
Year: 1980
Titles: 40
This catalog is nearly identical to the previous
catalog. The primary change is the addition of four new games to the Atari
lineup: Championship
Soccer and Dodge
'Em, Maze
Craze, and Video
Checkers. In addition, the games Slot
Machine and Star
Ship were dropped. Other than these title changes there is very little to
distinguish this catalog from the previous one. |  | Model Number: CO16725-Rev. A
Year: 1981
Titles: 42
With this catalog Atari changed the part number as well as the cover artwork.
This catalog features a red cover and each page has a thick red border at the
top. Four new titles were added and two removed over the previous
one, bringing Atari's title count up to 42. The new titles were Asteroids
and Othello,
Video Pinball,
and Warlords.
The titles removed were Space
War and Miniature
Golf. This is the first Atari catalog to proclaim the number of "Game
Program Cartridges" on the front cover. |  | Model Number: CO16725-Rev. B
Year: 1981
Titles: 43
The cover artwork on this catalog is unchanged from the previous
catalog, although the background color is more orange than red this time
around. The number of titles was increased from 42 to 43, with the addition
of another arcade classic, Missile
Command. Championship
Soccer was also renamed to Pele's
Soccer. It is interesting to note that the inside
cover of this catalog features a screen shot of Space Invaders that does
not match the game eventually
released. |  | Model Number: CO16725-Rev. C
Year: 1981
Titles: 43
Once again Atari left the cover artwork the same as the previous
catalog but changed the background color, this time choosing green
(which is also carried over to the top of every page). The title count remained
unchanged in this catalog, with no additions or subtractions to Atari's 2600
slate of games. There are only minor changes to this catalog. One of them was
to the inside
cover, where a mockup
of Space Invaders was changed to Asteroids. Atari also added the Game
Program Case to the back of the catalog, to supplement the Game Library
storage unit in previous catalogs. |  | Model Number: CO16725-Rev. D
Year: 1981
Titles: 45
Atari introduced an entirely new style with this catalog. Not only is the familiar
cover artwork from previous catalogs gone, but all new artwork was created for
Atari's games for use with their Picture
labels, and this artwork was used in this catalog as well. This catalog
contains 45 titles, an increase over the previous
catalog by two. This catalog introduced six new titles while removing two
from Atari's lineup. New titles include Defender,
Haunted
House, Pac-Man,
Space War
(which had previously been removed in the CO16725-Rev.
A catalog), Super
Breakout, and Yars'
Revenge. Blackjack,
Flag Capture,
Fun With
Numbers, and Surround
were removed. Atari introduced a Game
Center storage unit that would hold the 2600, controllers, 27 cartridges,
and manuals. |  | Model Number: CO16725-Rev. E
Year: 1982
Titles: 49
This catalog is very similar in appearance to the previous
catalog, with the exception that the front proclaims "49 Game Program
Cartridges" instead of 45. The titles added to this catalog were Berzerk,
Demons to
Diamonds, Math
Gran Prix, and Star
Raiders. The introduction
and table
of contents was also changed a bit over the previous catalog. There's also
a page describing future Coming
Attractions, including Combat
II, which was never released. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 55
We're not sure exactly when this poster catalog was released in relation to
other Atari catalogs, but it appears to have been produced after (or around
the same time as) the CO16725
Rev. E catalog. The front of this catalog is in the same style as the 16725
Rev. D and E posters, although the colors are a bit different. However, this
poster makes references to several games that are not mentioned in either of
those two catalogs, including Frog
Pond (never released), Adventure I and II (we assume these are the Swordquest
series), and Baseball, Volleyball and Football (the upcoming RealSports line).
This catalog features 55 titles, including those shown on the last page in the
"Coming Soon" section. |  | Model Number: CO16725
Year: 1982
Titles: 45
In an effort to thwart future catalog collectors, this catalog, CO16725, was
produced after all the other catalogs that have "CO16725" as part
of their model number. This catalog is titled A Guide to the Atari Stars
and is a booklet style format, unlike the later
Atari Stars catalog which is a poster. This may be the last of the large,
booklet style catalogs from Atari. Although the cover proclaims "70 Game
Program Cartridges" we only counted 45. We'll have to assume that Atari
meant there were 70 titles available at the time the catalog was printed and
they chose to only highlight 45. This catalog is pretty unique in appearance
compared to previous Atari efforts and introduces many games for the first time,
such as the Swordquest series and the Atari Kid's Library. There's
also a page of Coming Attractions that talks briefly about Swordquest Airworld. |  | Model Number: CO16725 Rev. F
Year: 1982
Titles: 73
This catalog is a revision to the previous booklet-style Atari Stars catalog. This catalog boasts the largest assembly of Atari 2600 titles that Atari would put together in a catalog. In future catalogs the 2600 would need to share space with Atari's newer systems, such as the 5200. There are many interesting things to note in this catalog, such as the section that describes the infamous Swordquest contest, a section about the Atari Kid's Library that includes information on several unreleased Sesame Street titles, and a mention of the unreleased game Swordquest: Airworld in the Coming Attractions section in the back of the catalog. Another interesting facet of the catalog is that the screenshot shown for Combat is actually a screenshot of the game Combat 2 that Atari would never release. And to top off the list of games in this catalog that would never be released, RealSports Basketball also gets a mention. |  | Model Number: CO21776-Rev. A
Year: 1983
Titles: 88
Titled, "Atari Stars", this poster catalog features titles from both
the Atari 2600 and the 5200 SuperSystem. This catalog sports 88 titles, 61 for
the 2600 and 27 for the 5200. This catalog was released at the height of Atari's
silver-label
period and contains many games that never saw the light of day, such as Realsports
Basketball, Donald
Duck's Speedboat, Dumbo's
Flying Circus, Good
Luck Charlie Brown, and Miss
Piggy's Wedding for the 2600 and Realsports
Basketball, Sport
Goofy, and Tempest
for the 5200. Additionally, the Atari 2600 Keyboard and Voice Commander peripherals
make an appearance in this catalog but these two items would would never see
the light of day. |  | Model Number: CO25618-001 Rev. A
Year: 1984
Titles: 75
This is an unusual catalog from Atari in that it features games and hardware for the 2600, 5200, and 7800. While there are several Atari catalogs that feature multiple systems, it's unusual to see three generations of Atari hardware depicted in the same catalog. There are over 70 titles pictured in this catalog, 32 for the 2600, 30 for the 5200, and 13 for the 7800. There are many titles shown that never saw the light of day, such as Dr. Salk's "Peek-A-Boo", Elevator Action, Garfield, The Last Starfighter for the 2600 and Rescue on Fractalus! for the 7800. Also, at this point Asteroids for the 7800 was still listed as 3D Asteroids. Some unreleased hardware is also described, such as the Computer Keyboard, High Score Cartridge and 7800 ProSystem Game Adapter that would allow you to play 2600 and 7800 games on the 5200. The last page of the catalog features a description and a picture of the unreleased MindLink accessory for the 2600 and 7800 that would allow you to control games by sending "electronic impulses from your brain to the game console". |  | Model Number: CO34003 Rev. A
Year: 1987
Titles: 133
Yet another poster catalog from Atari (these seemed to be the norm in Atari's later years), this one features games from the 2600, 7800, and XE Video Game System. This catalog lists 133 titles in all, including 16 from the 2600, 20 from the 7800 and 87 titles for the XE Game System (of which many of these are third-party). Roughly the same amount of space is devoted to each system, with the XE Game System touted as "The Ultimate System for the Advanced Game Player." The 2600 is listed as the, "World's Most Popular Video Game System" and the 7800's tag line is, "The State-of-the-Art Video Game System." Some hardware is also depicted, although nothing out of the ordinary. |  | Model Number: C300592-001W.F. 03-1989
Year: 1989
Titles: 40
This catalog, titled, "The Atari Advantage", was produced when Atari
introduced the 2600 Jr. in an attempt to capitalize one last time on the 2600's
early 80s popularity. This is the period that produced all the red-label
Atari 2600 games, including some licensed from Coleco (such as Mouse
Trap). Only one of the 40 games pictured never saw the light of day, Realsports
Basketball. This catalog featured a contest with the grand prize being a
7-day trip to California including a day at Atari Headquarters to "see
video games designed." But in order to become eligible to enter an essay
writing contest to win the trip you first had to purchase 25 game cartridges.
In addition, purchasing games could net you free Atari T-shirts, game cartridges,
and discounts on Atari hardware. |  |
| Coleco | | Description | Image | Model Number: R78286
Year: 1982
Titles: 9
There are two different versions of the Coleco catalog, one printed in Hong Kong and another in the US. This particular catalog was printed in Hong Kong. The only differences between the two catalogs are some changes in the game descriptions, and this catalog does not depict ownership of the original game as part of the title (for instance, "Zaxxon by SEGA"). The same nine titles are depicted in both catalogs. Of those titles, six were released and three were not: Lady Bug, Cosmic Avenger, and Turbo. All the games in this catalog are shown as being available for the Intellivision. It's interesting to note that the labels for the games on the front cover of this are obviously mockups, as they don't resemble the final artwork used for the production carts. |  | Model Number: R78216A
Year: 1982
Titles: 9
There are two different versions of the Coleco catalog, one printed in Hong Kong and another in the US. This particular catalog was printed in the US. The only differences between the two catalogs are some changes in the game descriptions, and this catalog depicts ownership of the original game as part of the title (for instance, "Zaxxon by SEGA"). The same nine titles are depicted in both catalogs. Of those titles, six were released and three were not: Lady Bug, Cosmic Avenger, and Turbo. All the games in this catalog are shown as being available for the Intellivision. It's interesting to note that the labels for the games on the front cover of this are obviously mockups, as they don't resemble the final artwork used for the production carts. |  |
| Data Age | | Description | Image | Model Number: MP13701A
Year: 1982
Titles: 5
This appears to be Data Age's first catalog and only contains their first five releases for the 2600. This is a pretty plain catalog, with a simple page devoted to each game, featuring the same artwork that appears on the label and box. Their motto in this catalog was, "Up to now, you've had it easy." |  | Model Number: 136
Year: 1983
Titles: 7
We're impressed that Data Age actually released a second catalog given the
small number of titles (8) they produced for the 2600. It's strange that given
their small library that they completely neglected their first five titles that
appeared in their first
catalog. Perhaps they were trying to improve the quality of their games
and didn't want to look back? This catalog only contains three games that were
released and four games that were never released (although the binary for at
least one of those games, Secret
Agent, has been found). Given the titles that never saw the light of day
(Smokey Bear, Mr. Bill's Neighborhood, and Mr. T) it appears that Data Age set
their sites on getting the licensing rights to hot properties. Unfortunately
this proved disastrous for them after Journey Escape did so poorly that they
couldn't afford to pay the licensing fees. |  |
| Imagic | | Description | Image | Model Number: 700500-1 Rev. A
Year: 1982
Titles: 7
This appears to be one of Imagic's earlier catalogs, although we suspect there's
an even earlier version out there. This catalog features Imagic's first seven
titles as well as Imagic's Video
Storage Center that allowed you to store your 2600 or Intellivision console
with games. There's also an offer to join Imagic's Numb
Thumb Club, which promised a poster, wallet card and the first issue of
Numb Thumb News. |  | Model Number: 700500-1 Rev. C
Year: 1982
Titles: 12
This Imagic catalog contains twelve titles, seven of them for the 2600 with
the remaining five being Intellivision titles. In addition, Imagic's Video
Storage Center is displayed, as well as an offer for joining the Imagic
Numb Thumb Club. |  | Model Number: 700500-1 Rev. D
Year: 1982
Titles: 15
This Imagic catalog contains fifteen titles, but only eight of those are for
the Atari 2600. The remaining titles are for the Intellivision (and many of
these were quite good!) One new Imagic title over the previous
catalog is present, that game is Dragonfire.
In addition, Imagic's Video
Storage Center is displayed, as well as an offer for joining the Imagic
Numb Thumb Club. |  | Model Number: 700194-1A
Year: 1983
Titles: 4
This is a single sheet describing four of Imagic's later releases for the 2600.
Two of the titles, Solar
Storm and No
Escape!, are listed as Available Now. The other two titles, Moonsweeper
and Fathom,
are described as being available in July and August respectively. |  |
| M Network | | Description | Image | Model Number: 0007-4290A
Year: 1982
Titles: 11
This catalog is virtually identical to M Network's 0007-4290
catalog, with one exception. The last
page contains a white box for a dealer stamp, whereas the 0007-4290 catalog
contains an M Network Purchase
Seal. This catalog was available at dealers who sold M Network games and
therefore pretty hard to come by these days. |  | Model Number: 0007-4290
Year: 1982
Titles: 11
This is the more elusive version of M Network's Atari catalog. Why is it more
elusive? Because this version has a screenshot for International
Soccer that doesn't even closely resemble the game that shipped. Apparently
they believed they could do a side-scrolling soccer game, but it probably proved
too challenging a task for the 2600. The next
version of the catalog corrects that error with a shot that matches the
final game. There are some other minor differences between the two catalogs,
such as the coloring of the M Network logo and the copyright/trademark text
used. This catalog features eleven M Network games. |  | Model Number: 0151-0050
Year: 1982
Titles: 11
This catalog is nearly identical to M Network's first
catalog, except that they replaced the screenshot for International
Soccer to reflect what the actual game looked like. Other minor changes
include color changes to the M Network logo and some copyright/trademark wording
changes. This catalog features eleven M Network titles. If you have a later
catalog that features additional games, please drop
us a line! |  | Model Number: 0151-0920
Year: 1982
Titles: 14
We're guessing that this is M Network's last catalog for the 2600, but we'd
love to be proven wrong. This catalog, which is more visually appealing than
M Network's previous efforts, features 14 titles. This is an increase of three
over the previous two catalogs. New games in this catalog are Adventures
of Tron, Air
Raiders, Burgertime,
and Star
Strike. Sea
Battle, which appeared in the previous two catalogs, is missing in this
time around (and has only recently been released by Intellvision
Productions). Burgertime is listed as Coming Soon on the last page of this
catalog, with a mocked up screenshot. |  |
| Parker Brothers | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 9
This Parker Brothers catalog features nine games for the Atari 2600. Of the
two Parker Brothers catalogs that feature 2600 games, this catalog is much harder
to come by. Nine titles are featured in this catalog, five of them listed as
Coming Soon. Each game is pictured on its own page, complete with artwork unique
to this catalog. There are some differences in the boxes shown in this catalog
versus the actual released games. For instance, the artwork on the Star Wars:
Jedi Arena box is completely different from the released
game. Also, on the Sky Skipper box the gorilla looks like he's holding a
banana, whereas the released
game shows him holding a coconut. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1983
Titles: 21
Of the two Parker Brothers catalogs that feature Atari games, this one is by far the most common. It features games for the Atari 2600, 5200, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Vic-20, and IBM. It's a fairly large catalog as far as third-party catalogs go, showcasing 21 games. This catalog is quite interesting from a collector's point of view, because it contains several 2600 games that never saw the light of day. These include McDonalds, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Ework Adventure, and The Incredible Hulk. Of these games, only The Incredible Hulk has yet to been found in prototype form. |  |
| Sears | | Description | Image | Model Number: CO18940 Rev. 1
Year: 1981
Titles: 34
Sears catalogs are fairly uncommon and this is the only one we've been able
to acquire a scan of thus far. It features 34 titles spanned over eight pages
(they really crammed 'em in!) The games in this catalog are categorized in the
same way many Atari catalogs are organized, Sports, Combat Games, Strategy Games,
etc. Each game is depicted with a single screenshot and a brief, single sentence
description. This catalog features two of the three Sears' exclusives, Steeplechase
and Stellar
Track. The last page displays a system organizer, storage cubes and replacement
parts. If anyone has additional Sears catalogs they'd like to scan for us, please
drop us a line. |  |
| Spectravision | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 5
This is Spectravision's first catalog featuring Atari 2600 titles. It only
includes their first five titles for the 2600. Later catalogs would contain
a better sampling of Spectravision's released 2600 games, minus Chase
the Chuckwagon since that game was only available through a special offer
with Ralston-Purina. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 9
This Spectravision catalog, titled "Meet the Challenge Vol II 11/82",
contains nine titles, an increase of four over their previous
catalog. The new titles introduced in this catalog are Challenge
of Nexar, Mangia,
Master
Builder, and Galactic Tactic. The last title, Galactic Tactic, which had
a release date of "Winter 1982" was never actually released. The only
released Spectravision title not in this catalog is Gas
Hog (and Chase
the Chuckwagon, which was only available through a special offer with Ralston-Purina).
This catalog also features a page advertising the QuickShot joystick controller. |  | Model Number: CA-021
Year: 1984
Titles: 50
This is a fairly simple single sheet catalog that Spectravideo released in
1984. It features games for the Atari 2600, Atari 400/800, Commodore Vic-20,
Colecovision, and the Spectravideo Personal Computer System. Not surprisingly
the system with the most titles listed is Spectravideo's Personal Computer System.
All of Spectravideo's 2600 games are represented here, with one exception: Chase
the Chuckwagon, which was only available through a special offer with Ralston-Purina.
The reverse side of this catalog features Spectravideo's QuickShot controllers. |  |
| Starpath | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 12
This catalog was produced before Arcadia changed their name to Starpath. This
catalog contains 12 SuperCharger games, although many of them did not find their
way to store shelves with the name as depicted in this catalog. For instance,
there's a page dedicated to a game called Excalibur,
but it would later be released as Dragonstomper.
This catalog contains a special
offer for a full color Communist
Mutants from Space poster, along with a detailed explanation of the benefits
the Supercharger brings to the Atari 2600. The last two pages contain a "Coming
Soon" section, listing Frantic, Killer Satellites, Jungle Raid, Clone Attack,
Sword of Saros, Labyrinth, and Last Line of Defense. Only Killer
Satellites and Sword
of Saros were released with those names. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1982
Titles: 7
This Starpath catalog was produced after Arcadia changed their name to Starpath.
The cover of this catalog loudly proclaims, Featuring 3 New Games! This
catalog displays the first seven Supercharger games. It also contains a special
offer for a full color Communist
Mutants from Space poster, along with a detailed explanation of the benefits
the Supercharger brings to the Atari 2600. |  |
| Telegames | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 18
If you think this Telegames catalog looks suspiciously familar, well, it could
be that it was lifted almost wholesale from the M
Network catalog. Telegames licensed the rights to many of the M Network
titles, some of which they renamed for reasons unknown to us. There are also
several titles that don't appear to have been released in the Telegames label,
such as Burgertime
and Star
Strike. If you can confirm the existence of Telegames titles that appear
in this catalog but aren't listed here,
please drop us a line! In
addition, we'd also like to hear from you if you have additional Telegames catalogs. |  |
| Telesys | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: 1983
Titles: 6
This is the only Telesys catalog we've come across thus far, and it contains information on all six games Telesys released for the Atari 2600. From Coconuts (probably the most common Telesys games) to Stargunner (one of the harder to find Telesys titles), each game occupies two pages of space in this 16 page manual. The first two pages of the catalog contain a brief note about how Telesys was about to start releasing games for home computers, followed by a message from Telesys' president, Richard Taylor. Given that the catalog's date on the back (1983) coincides with the start of the video game crash, it's unlikely that Telesys produced any later catalogs. Also, we believe this catalog was not included with games, but instead sent by mail only those who requested it, making it one of the rarer third party 2600 catalogs. |  |
| Tigervision | | Description | Image | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 5
This is Tigervision's second Atari 2600 catalog, and it features seven games
versus the original's five. The games making an appearance for the first time
in this catalog are Springer and Polaris. Other than these two titles and the
back page, this catalog is nearly identical in appearance to Tigervision's first
catalog. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 7
This is Tigervision's first catalog featuring games for the Atari 2600. Tigervision's
first five 2600 releases are featured in this catalog, and can even be ordered
directly from Tigervision with an order form on the back page. Future Tigervision
catalogs would not feature this order form. The artwork and layout of this catalog
would be repeated nearly verbatim in future catalogs, with the addition of new
titles, of course. |  | Model Number: [none]
Year: [none]
Titles: 10
We assume this is Tigervision's last catalog for the Atari 2600, since it features two games that were never released. Those games are Intuition and Scraper Caper, which was to be the third game in the Bounty Bob series. Only one new game appears in this catalog over the previous one. That game is the famous Miner 2049er, the first of the games featuring Bounty Bob and a game that saw wide distribution on many systems. This catalog is nearly identical in appearance to Tigervision's previous catalogs. |  |
| Xonox | | Description | Image | Model Number: 6000-005
Year: 1983
Titles: 3
This is the only Xonox catalog we have a scan of at this time, so we're not
sure if it's the only catalog Xonox produced or if there are others. Certainly
they created games not listed in this catalog, including many standalone titles.
This particular catalog describes only three of Xonox's double-ender titles,
for the Atari 2600, Vic-20, and ColecoVision. If anyone has information about
other Xonox catalogs, please drop
us a line. |  |
|
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