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My Atari (or Sears, or whatever) came with Combat. We got Asteroids separate, I think.
Chris
Chris
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From what I can see it was always target fun (for the Sears version) except for a period of time when Pac-man was also included.
The 1983 Sears catalog shows them selling the official version of the 2600 (probably after the re-branding of the VCS). Its packin games are Pac-man and Combat.
By this point they were also selling the official Intellivision (the redesigned unit, Intellivision II) with BurgerTime.
Prices in '83:
Intellivision II: $99.99
Atari 2600: $89.99 (with a rebate knock off $30)
Coleco Gemini (atari 2600 clone that came with Donkey Kong and Mouse trap): $59.99
Odessey 2 (comes with speedway): $49.99
Vectrix (comes with mindstorm. Awesome vector graphics, if you havent seen one, look it up) $99.99
Colecovision (with Donkeykong?): $149.99
Atari 5600 (with pacman?): $149.99Last edited by Figuremod73; May 29, '15, 3:08 PM.Comment
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The gemini is the best deal but the vectrix is rare now and is the most sought after.Comment
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My family has been really digging into the retro 8 bit world since we discovered a nearby games shop with a TON of 2600 carts for $1.Comment
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I liked the Gemini. Those controllers they had were cool,with the joystick and paddle together on it.Comment
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I had the actual Atari 2600, I think mine was the so-called "Vader" edition that was all black with orange printing on it, circa 1981 or 1982. But most of my friends it seems had the woodgrain Sears Tele-Games console. I owned quite a few of the Tele-Games versions of the games, though. The local mall (River Oaks in Calumet City, IL.) had a large Sears with a great toy and games section where most of us around here bought our video games, I guess.
I am not much of a modern video game guy, I've never owned or played a console newer than a Playstation 1, and even then it was minimal. I still play my Atari 2600 games pretty frequently, I still get lost for hours in games like Yars Revenge, Demon Attack, and Adventure.
And I do know that they did vary their game pack-ins from time to time. So it's possible that they might've offered Asteroids with the console for a time.Comment
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I think thats a good design to. I've heard the Gemini was cheaply made but I havent seen one in person to be able to tell. I think the Gemini was also sold in those videogame club similar to the old record/tape clubs.
My friend had the Atari vader 2600. I think by that point the black and white switch had been removed.Comment
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Back in the day, I actually won one of the Sears Video Arcade game systems in 1978 - it was the 'first prize' in the 5th Annual Kellogg's 'Stick Up for Breakfast' poster art contest (that I entered my drawing and actually ended up being one of the first prize winners much to my amazement). It came with a multi-game cartridge that included 'Pong', 'Super Pong', and other 8-bit wonders. In 1978, this technology was mind-boggling awesome - it was the hit of the neighborhood! I got the letter from Kelloggs saying that I won, but it took something like 2 months for it to arrive. Let me tell you, when you're 14 years old, two months seemed like 25 years! I mean, I was just like Ralphie in 'The Christmas Story' waiting for his 'Little Orphan Annie' decoder - I started looking for it the same day I got the letter! It was the loooongest 2 months ever!Comment
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I also had friends with the Sears version, but I had the woodgrain 2600, and still have it as a matter of fact. Anyone ever get a Starpath Supercharger? I still have mine, the games would load from a cassette tape. Pretty impressive games to be honest. Dragonstomper was one of my favorite games for it. I did a mail order for games they sold at the end of life for it as well. They came without boxes etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starpath_SuperchargerComment
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The supercharger had alot of potential. Its to bad that didnt catch on or something similar to it. Frogger on the supercharger looks close to the arcade version! I think one of the reasons it didnt catch on was that by '83 games on cartridge were already starting to get bigger and it was limited to 4k. Theres no telling what could have been done with a updated version. Few know that Atari 2600 games are really very small and the system was actually capable of doing much more. It was a hard system to program for though and I think that was partly why so many games are crap on it.
There was even computer addon planned for the 2600, but it never went into mass production. Another (low tech) version did, but theres not much to it. http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogame...600/a3000.htmlComment
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The low tech version that went into production:
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Heres a old gaming magazine article from '83 talking about computers on the 2600:
computer 2600 1.jpg computer 2600 2.jpg computer 2600 3.jpg
computer 2600 3.jpg computer 2600 5.jpgComment
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I remember seeing the Video-Plexer in a small store back in the day. It seemed pretty cool at the time.Comment
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