Atari is releasing all the old Atari 2600 Activision games — $1000 for all, $35 for one. But it’s worse than it sounds. And it sounds pretty bad.
The brand that owns the Atari name also bought out chief rival Activision’s IP some time ago. They also bought out their hardware rival, Intellivision. Since then, they’ve been re-releasing these old games in drips and drabs, sometimes updating them, sometimes not.
I always struggle with exactly who these games are for. They might be for me; I played many of them new, I saved up pennies and nickels to buy them. I bought River Raid, one of the titles on offer here, loved it, played it to death, and actually… still have it.
But let’s say I have never played it before and find myself with a new Atari 2600 repro console and without any games for it. (Not sure if original pack-in game Combat still comes with the newly imagined consoles). I can buy the game in a new cartridge and a redesigned box for $35.
Now, as a collector, this has no value. As a potential player, I can get a loose cartridge off eBay for $10, or the original game, complete in box, for $30. I see on PriceCharting that I can get the original game, sealed in the original box, for $45. You can also play the game online, for free, on the Internet Archive.
So, what’s the value to me on this? Well, Atari has also created some patches and enamel pins to go along with the re-releases… and they are pretty snazzy.
The catch: You have to buy all ten games in the “Treasure” collection to get the pins and patches.
I really struggle to find a reason anyone would buy any of these games singly. They have no value to collectors, and while many of these games were classics at the time, gaming as a hobby has long since moved on.
The most expensive package, the Superfan Bundle, includes four different boxed collections, as well as ten singles, the patches, the pins, and a dozen metal trading cards (but to whom would you trade them?). $1400 of 40 year old video games. I guarantee those boxes could be filled with wood and nobody would ever be the wiser.
Sometimes you just have to let things stay in the past.
I too was pondering that ad, which showed up in my inbox last night. While the Activision titles were mostly of high quality relative to some of the dreck Atari put out, they’re all so very primitive by today’s standards that I can only imagine that there is some ultra wealthy version of… me, mostly likely… that will buy them and put them all on display in a special room in their mansion, next to the pinball machine and arcade cabinet games they never play.
That said, I recall 2600 games being $30 a pop back in the day, so at least they aren’t much more expensive than the originals.