just saw the atari 2600 on the antiques road show

[homerwannabee]

Just about twenty minutes ago I saw the atari 2600 spotlighted on the antiques road show. I was excited to see the system on tv, but the guy seemed to say a couple of misleading things like the center piece for any atari collection is quadrun, there are probably atleast 10 other games that are more wanted like magicard or eli's ladder. Another was that the atari 2600 system goes for around 100-200 dollars . and that games like pac-man go for about 5 to 10 dollars . What makes me laugh is knowing that there are probably two or three people who watched this show that will try to sell pac man for about 5-10 dollars on ebay dont be suprised if you see a couple of $200 atari 2600 systems on ebay during the next week.

[JB]

I think that might be a rerun.

[Rob Mitchell]

That "expert appraiser" is known for jacking up the prices of his common stuff. The episode originally aired about one year ago.

 

Another media reference:

 

Heard on WSB Radio (Atlanta, GA) by Clark Howard, Consumer Advisor and Radio Show personality:

 

"Alot of companies are bringing back 'feel good' products and tradenames for these troubled times. Consumers want to feel comfortable about buying products that they grew up with .. so retro names are coming back. For example: Atari. That name is equated with video games which adults relate to. Another is Breck shampoo which hasn't been sold in a long time. The name and look of the Mini-Cooper is making these small cars popular again. So look for these 'feel good' products and tradenames in a store near you."

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[ATARIeric]

i hope they bring back hungry hippo or mister mouth

[NovaXpress]

Generation X (generally accepted as those born between 1961 and 1981) has always been extremely resistant to marketing. The advertisers tried to use the same tricks on us that worked on the baby boomers and it totally failed. While the next generation (1981-2001: the Doomed Generation) has fallen for new advanced and quickly-adapting marketing tactics, the Xers still kept that cynicism.

 

But one marketing trick works on every generation when they start hitting 30. Nostalgia will always sell.

[Albert]

Yes, that is very much a rerun. If you search the forums for "antiques roadshow" you'll see quite a few threads on this subject.

 

..Al

[krisjohn]

I work for an educational organisation. Three of our current students were born in 1987. This means they never knew a time when the NES didn't exist. Windows 3.x was released when they were 3. Windows 95 and the Sony Playstation when they were 7. They've probably never used DOS except in a box in Windows. They've most likely never heard of Amiga. I think I've got newsgroup postings older than them. They never would have dialed into a BBS, in fact they may never have used a dial-up modem at all. They've probably never used a 5.25" disk or a 3.5" 720k disk. They may not have ever bought a 1.44MB floppy (they sure as hell don't know how to fit a Powerpoint presentation onto one).

 

They've only been exposed to a pre-spindoctored reality. While we watched the mistakes being made by the next generation of marketers, they've only seen the fixed version of the marketing machine. Many battles were fought and decided before they come on the scene, history has been revised and they're none the wiser.

 

It's a worry.

[Room 34]

I'm not sure our generation really has the wisdom and savvy to warrant that smug attitude. The generation that preceded us looks at our experience in much the same way we look at that of the "post-Crash" kids.

 

You think advertising now is more polished compared to the 1980s? Well in the 1980s it was pretty polished compared to the '60s... and in the '60s compared to the '40s... etc.

[NovaXpress]

Study up on marketing. Gen X has been a nightmare for advertisers. The Boomers and Gen Y have been a cakewalk for those who wish to sell products.

 

Forget about polish. I'm talking about the psychological effectiveness of advertising. Gen X didn't believe the hype, it took a few years for markerters to figure out that they were wrong. They studied dreams, brainwaves, sent out "cool hunters" to invade youth culture, and have figured out how to get inside the kids' heads.

 

But nostalgia will get everyone. People always want a taste of their past, some small connection to their childhood. That's why it was brilliant to bring back the Atari brand. It really means nothing but it gives us a good feeling to see that Mt.Fuji logo.

 

Anyone who hasn't read Douglas Rushkoff's books on modern day marketing is hurting themselves. Read them and see how it all really works.

[Room 34]

I suppose you're right. I'm part of what they unfortunately call "Generation X" and I think advertising is complete bullshit!

 

But the point I was just trying to make is that every generation tends to look upon the world it grew up in as some kind of mythical "golden age." And that affects Gen. Xers as much as anyone else... actually I think perhaps even moreso. There are a lot more 30-year-olds obsessed with buying Atari games and He-Man action figures than there are 50-year-olds collecting Howdy Doody or whatever shit they liked back then...

 

One thing I know for sure... this topic is inciting a much higher amount of profanity in my posts than normal!

[NovaXpress]

You are totally right, every generation goes through the same nostalgia kick. It was the one marketing tactic guaranteed to break through our cynicism.

 

And that affects Gen. Xers as much as anyone else... actually I think perhaps even moreso. There are a lot more 30-year-olds obsessed with buying Atari games and He-Man action figures than there are 50-year-olds collecting Howdy Doody or whatever shit they liked back then

 

Not so. The 50 year olds have ALREADY finished their nostaligia trip, so of course its Gen X doing much of the retro purchasing. The Boomers are more concerened with their retirement funds and prostate than with Howdy Doody now. The years in our 30s is the time for nostalgia. You aren't a kid anymore but you still don't feel old, so these childhood memories feel very comforting.

 

In 20 years we'll be over it and the younger people will begin their expensive nostalgia trip for Yu-Gi-Oh or whatever.

[Room 34]

You may be right. What I should say is that when I was a kid I did not NOTICE my parents' generation obsessing over obtaining massive collections of the toys they played with as kids. Then again, I DID notice that when I was a kid, my parents' old childhood TV shows were all over the networks that preceded Nick At Nite and Boomerang.

 

(I suppose my avatar tells you all you need to know about my interest in the latter...)

[Godzilla]

well, to me quadrun is rarer than any of those other 'rare just cause they are games that sucked that no one bought' games, because it is a rare game that is actually awesome to PLAY which is a very rare thing indeed. Of all my rares, Quadrun is the one I am most proud of, the cornersone of my rares, and probably the only one I really care a lot about.

[Room 34]

I agree...

 

Rare is rare, but rare and WORTH OWNING is truly valuable.

 

(BTW, I can only DREAM about owning a Quadrun... unless I stumble on one in a dumpster or something.)

[Mindfield]

I guess I fall into that Gen X "don't believe the hype" category. Though I didn't have the savvy when I was a kid to separate the crap from the treasure, I grew into an unbelievably jaded opinion of all forms of marketing. Probably because as an adult, I can see the psychology at work behind them and realize just how high they pile the BS. Everything is "the best." Everything is "new and improved" (when previously it had already been the best.) Everything is "the leading" product. Everything is good for you, will make you a babe magnet, will get you a cool job, will get you lots of lots of money and stays crunchy in milk.

 

Funny thing is, that part has never changed. I was looking on the side of my Sega Master System box and even it said, "The Best Video Game System." No competitive comparisons and, other than some specs on the rear, no hype, just a plain statement of manufactured fact from post-crash arcadia. But somehow, advertising these days just seems sneakier, more insipid, targeted more specifically to things kids are likely to connect with laced with supposedly factual statements that, when you get right down to it, couldn't really be proven right or wrong. It's all been a gradual stretching of the truth, making bold statements that have become increasingly misleading and at the same time, more vague so as to avoid the spectre of false advertising by slipping through hairline fractures in factual product representation. They even make it look like products do things they patently do not, getting by the false advertising by printing, in small letters at the bottom of the screen that virtually blend in to the surroundings, a disclaimer stating that the product does not do what it appears to be doing on TV. Y'know, the sort of things kids would probably never catch and would just ignore if they could because it's less interesting than what's going on above.

 

I dunno. Advertising was just as slippery when we were kids, I think, if a little more obvious and a little less controvercial. We just appear to have been born of a generation that was introduced to the concept of questioning the establishment and never taking anything at face value.

[Brad2600]

You talking about MY generation? The "Doomed" generation?

 

No offense..but Generation X and all these cliched generations make me want to puke.

 

And hell, I'm still pretty hard to sell to.

 

Eh well.

[JB]

You talking about MY generation? The "Doomed" generation?

At least you HAVE a generation.

I was born in 1981. If GenX is between 1961 and 1981, and your generation is between 1981 and 2001, I'm in a year with no generation.

[Room 34]

You talking about MY generation? The "Doomed" generation?

 

No offense..but Generation X and all these cliched generations make me want to puke.

 

And hell, I'm still pretty hard to sell to.

 

Eh well.

 

So would you say that marketing's attempt to sell you the "Gen X" identity has failed as well?

[Dolt]

"Generation X" is a term that was used by Douglas Coupland when he titled his incredibly sh---y novel of the same name. Coupland is a Baby-Boomer. He derived it from the name of Billy Idol's first band. Billy Idol is a Baby-Boomer. "Generation X" didn't ask for the name; it was forced upon us, much as the Baby Boomer-controled media has dumped a lot of other stuff on us.

 

For instance (and my favorite bone to pick among many in this topic), according to the Boomers, the Eighties were all about greed and money; I recall it being about really creative music. But of course, since I'm a dumbass Gen Xer, I don't REALLY know about music--no, the ONLY good music was in the Sixties. Great, a bunch of loser stoners like the Doors are in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame (another Boomer artifice) so that everyone can be made well aware that only the Boomers' music is/was worthwhile.

 

The Boomers had and continue to have their nostalgia trip--how many more TV specials do we need about Woodstock? Boomers go on about how Woodstock '99 ended with riots and fires, destroying what Woodstock was about. Yeah, well, people burned down the vending area at the original Woodstock, but you never read about that anymore. Why? Because the Boomers were all about peace. After all, they stopped a war. OK, if you're so good at stopping wars, do me a favor and stop the one that the "President" you bought started. Oh, of course you wouldn't want to--you have stock in Halliburton.

 

Ah, but I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah: There's no worthwhile music today (except for that yummy new James Taylor CD, oh boy!). The reason no Gen Xers really 'get' music must be because there's no one to lead the way--the spokesman of my generation shot himself in the head in Seattle in 1994. Who the hell made a talentless heroin addict like Kurt Cobain MY spokesman? The Boomers--because he died in part from drugs just like all their useless hack heroes, so the Boomers could, like, relate, man.

 

Yeah, get out of my face and go relate all the way home in your shiny black BMW SUV, listening to bad/any Janis Joplin and eating low-salt Doritos at stop lights while talking on your damn cellphone and debating on whether to TIVO tonight's wacky "Will & Grace" rerun.

 

These people make me want to puke.

[Sanriostar]

Funny, I kinda feel the same way.

 

I'm gonna say this right here, right now. Consequenses be damned:

 

The Beatles are overrated!

 

As much as I love Classic Games and 80's pop, I hope I never do to the 80's what the 60's were done to us.

 

Peace Out, MotherF*ck*rs.

[Room 34]

(A)ccording to the Boomers, the Eighties were all about greed and money; I recall it being about really creative music.

 

WHAT???

 

I grew up in the '80s (as I'm sure you did)... and if there EVER was a decade that had the shittiest music in human history, it was the '80s.

 

Of course, part of the problem is that the corporate "entertainment as product" machine has successfully squashed all mainstream knowledge of the once-popular progressive rock of the early 1970s... probably one of the most creatively-expansive time periods in popular music history.

[Brad2600]

So you say GenX was born between 1961 and 1981? I recall it being between 1967 and 1979. So if the 1981 thing is correct, then I'd be neither Gen X nor Gen Y.

 

Not that I care

 

I do despise modern boomers and at least my parents aren't afraid to get hip once in a while. I'd still classify them as the "anti-Boomers" because they don't feel the need to act like real Boomers. Sure, my mom drives a PT Cruiser but from what I remember, we put up with 10 years of menial jobs and commodities from food shelves just to get where we are.

 

 

I know this topic has gone so far off the edge.

[Canuck]

I just wanted to comment on the original point of some "expert" in the field of classic video games spitting out outrageous $$$$ figures of systems and games. The one thing that gets me is when I've been out on a "in the wild" search and finally find a system or game the person selling it wants way to much for it. Now they might say in responce to my haggling on the price, "Well on the ANTIQUE ROADSHOW......`

[ApolloBoy]

I was born in 1989, and advertising has almost no effect on me. Why? My parents actually brought me up right instead of acting like those idiot slacker parents that are around today. Plus, even though I wasn't around during the heyday of Atari, I collect old systems because they're cheap and they're still fun to play.

[chrisbid]

wow, im not the only one that thinks the baby boomers are the most self-righteous generation. Now since their parents are starting to die off, theyre declaring their parents "the greatest generation". UGH.

 

I totally agree, Woodstock was just a concert