A Few Atari Red Label Discrepancies - Thoughts?

[j0griffis]

Greetings all,

I've noticed a few discrepancies with the packaging of some of my Red Label games and was wondering if anyone could offer some insight.

 

 

1. Midnight Magic

 

 

I have two copies of Midnight Magic (both NTSC) and one of them does not have a UPC Code.

 

- Why?

- Is one worth more?

- Other than Jr. Pac-Man (see below), have you seen this with other games?

 

 

2. Jr. Pac-Man

 

 

My copy of Jr. Pac-Man does not have a UPC Code on the bottom of the box. Although I haven't spent a lot of time looking, I have never seen a Red Label Jr. Pac-Man with one.

- Why?

- Have you seen one with a UPC Code?

 

 

3. Double Dunk

 

 

I have two copies of Double Dunk and one of the copies has a "NEW" sticker in the bottom, right hand corner. I also have several other games with this "NEW" sticker (e,g, Dark Chambers, Road Runner, Secret Quest, etc.)

 

- Do you think all of the games in the Red Label collection were release at some point with this "NEW" sticker? If so, I think it would be neat to try and collect all of them with and without the sicker!

- Do you think the value is any different between the ones that have the "NEW" sticker and the ones that don't?

 

 

Thanks everyone for your time and input!

Joshua

[Supergun]

One thing I can say that may contribute here is that Atari was all over the map during this final time period with both the 2600 & 7800. The terms "new" and "super game" were practically meaningless as they were randomly applied to one games packaging but not another.

 

Barcodes are absolutely a US thing. Just ask Sega Master System collectors about them and you open Pandora's Box. The US practically required them on almost any retail product. However, companies were totally inconsistent on where they placed them.

 

Another example is that on the later 2600 & 7800 releases, Atari put the part numbers on the end labels of the carts.

 

I can't fault you for wanting to collect these variations. How could I? I'm a collector too, and I also have my own quirkiness. But geez, talk about ending up with tons of duplicates when your done!

[BassGuitari]

Discrepancies are the name of the game with Atari Corp. releases. Variations, errors, misprints, typos, alternate artwork layout, different fonts and colors, and general weirdness abound with Atari Corp. games, particularly the picture-label re-releases.

They were a little more consistent with the red label and 7800 titles. A little.

My understanding is that the 7800 "Super Games" were the computer ports and games that had onboard POKEY chips. Impossible Mission, Winter Games, Karateka, Ballblazer, Desert Falcon, and a few others. They stopped with the "Super Game" thing after the first year or two.