Looking For Help Identifying a Potentially Rare Missile Command Collectible

[gamegurus0]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am hoping someone on these forums can help me with identifying a Missile Command collectible that I've had for years, but have never been quite sure just what it is.  When it was given to me 25 years ago, I was told that this is a one-of-a-kind "prototype" for the labels that were printed for Atari 2600 Missile Command cartridges, but I haven't ever been able to confirm if that is true.  I have scoured the internet, but cannot find anything quite like it.  Does anyone out there have something similar in their possession?  Can anyone positively tell me just exactly what this is?

 

Pictures follow.  To clarify, this is a two-dimensional image made from some sort of rigid plastic (flexible but not bendable.)  Its dimensions are 20x16 inches.  The frame-like border was added after the fact so that it could be hung on a wall, and can thus be removed.  As shown, it has lots of tape on the back, but I think it can be taken off without damaging the image on the front.  Hopefully this is enough info for someone to be able to identify this; if anyone has any questions I'd be glad to try to describe it further.

 

Thanks in advance for any help in attempting to identify if this is indeed something rare and unique, or just another run-of-the-mill cool collectible!

 

 

[BassGuitari]

Looks like someone just had a posterboard made of the Missile Command cartridge label; everything about this screams "home-made." One-of-a-kind, almost certainly, but whoever told you it was a prototype of anything was either mistaken or making things up. 🙂

[gamegurus0]

Hmmm OK, that sounds reasonable.  The thing that strikes me though, is the rigid plastic it's printed on.  This is not your typical posterboard.  I worked for a print shop in the late 1990s, and printing on something like this plastic was not necessarily easy (or cheap) to do at that time (and again, I acquired this in 1999, so it is certainly at least 25 years old, produced before the current age of digital printing.  If it is indeed "home-made," that just adds to the mystery for me; like, why was it even made?  Certainly regular poster paper would have been much easier to print at that time.

[Rom Hunter]

This is not a genuine item produced by Atari.

The fact that it's printed on plastic is interesting, though.

 

  

[Crazy Climber]

On 5/1/2024 at 10:33 PM, gamegurus0 said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I am hoping someone on these forums can help me with identifying a Missile Command collectible that I've had for years, but have never been quite sure just what it is.  When it was given to me 25 years ago, I was told that this is a one-of-a-kind "prototype" for the labels that were printed for Atari 2600 Missile Command cartridges, but I haven't ever been able to confirm if that is true. 

 

 

On 5/2/2024 at 12:19 PM, Rom Hunter said:

This is not a genuine item produced by Atari.

The fact that it's printed on plastic is interesting, though.

 

  

 

No, its not a genuine Atari item in the sense it was sold and distributed in stores, etc... Might be "something" though...

 

Could be a "mock up" made for some inner atari meeting to get some final approvals before fabrication, etc etc 

but I'm just pulling that story completely out of my ass...

 

The thing is, unless you have/know somebody who was there, for whatever it was used for, it's just a weird plastic poster that has no back story. I think it's cool and if I had to take a wild guess I'd say it probably is official in "some" context. 

Printing this thing on plastic probably wasn't cheap so I doubt it was just some random missile command fan doing it...especially since it's just the label of the Atari 2600 game, People were not doing that back then...I could totally see some office employee at Atari having it done before a meeting, something to do with the release of Missile Command so everyone can clearly see it, comment, etc... Video games were big money at this time and a LOT of stuff happened behind the scenes before a game was released that we'll never know. Cant you picture this thing sitting on a stand in a meeting room with a dozen or so people looking it over (who don't even want to be there) pretending to care so they keep their jobs? 

 

I doubt you would ever find any info on it though. Game programmers love to talk about "the old days" but some run of the mill office employees? They probably didn't even stay in the industry after the crash. They definitely aren't online offering information or answering questions about a mock up their assistant made for a meeting at Atari 40 years ago lol 

 

My guess would be it was used once then chucked in the trash. Maybe "Joe Blow" the office cleaner took it home for his kid and said it was a "prototype one of a kind" which would essentially be true, especially if the game had not even been released yet. Since Atari was pretty good about keeping secrets most of these would probably be destroyed, I mean the backs all taped up on this one...maybe "Joe Blow" the cleaner had to fix it up a little before he surprised his kid with it (again, if "this" is even a thing, like I said, pulling this out of thin air) 

 

Once me and a collector friend came into possession of a strange E.T. atari 2600 cartridge box. It was all taped together like a "mock up" and had a big heavy wood block inside of it. Looked TOTALLY fake and would have been easy to assume it was just that....but you could tell it was really old and I couldn't understand why someone would spend that much time and effort to make a fake ET box...I mean we all know the story of the extra ET carts right? Anyways, Long story short It ended up being the box they used to film the E.T. 2600 game commercial, the block was to add weight to it when E.T. throws the game to Elliot it "thuds" on the ground, etc... It looked "fake" because the real box didn't exist yet, it WAS the first prototype box! 

 

I guess what I'm getting at is this could very well be "something" but without a back story it will probably just be dismissed as "fake" or "fan made" etc... I bet it's the real deal, but not sure what that counts for since who knows what it was actually used for. Unless you could get some kind of authenticated back story or solid proof the value is probably pretty low (if that matters to you) I think its neat though!! Hang it on the wall!!

 

[schuwalker]

10 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

Once me and a collector friend came into possession of a strange E.T. atari 2600 cartridge box. It was all taped together like a "mock up" and had a big heavy wood block inside of it. Looked TOTALLY fake and would have been easy to assume it was just that....but you could tell it was really old and I couldn't understand why someone would spend that much time and effort to make a fake ET box...I mean we all know the story of the extra ET carts right? Anyways, Long story short It ended up being the box they used to film the E.T. 2600 game commercial, the block was to add weight to it when E.T. throws the game to Elliot it "thuds" on the ground, etc... It looked "fake" because the real box didn't exist yet, it WAS the first prototype box! 

I would like to hear more about this!

[else]

I agree with @Crazy Climber.  It's probably genuine Atari "something".  Could have been used by Atari for a trade show, could have hung on an Atari executives wall, could have been given to the artist as a proof or gift, etc.  It looks old enough to be from that time period, anyhow.  Now if that makes it valuable or not, I can't say....

[Crazy Climber]

2 hours ago, schuwalker said:

I would like to hear more about this!

It belongs to a collector friend of mine that lives in another country. He would often find stuff here in the US and ship it to me and I'd act as a middle man (a lot of sellers back then did not like to ship out of the country, no ebay GSP yet lol) It was pretty fun since he found a lot of neat stuff I'd never normally be able to see in person. I still talk to him occasionally so I'll ask for more of the back story since he was the one in contact with the seller and I can't remember the exact details. I do remember it being clearly obvious though it was legit once I saw the commercial again...

[Crazy Climber]

2 hours ago, else said:

Could have been used by Atari for a trade show

Thats a good guess too that I completely overlooked... that consumer electronics show (CES) could totally have something like this sitting on a stand next to a display, etc... After the show it would go straight in the trash can! 

 

Again, the fact that it's PLASTIC and that the OP has owned it for 25+ years tells me it's something special. I mean, back in the day printing something on a sheet of plastic was NOT cheap...and also, having a blown up image of an Atari cart LABEL is not typical of the time era back then. People didn't do that, seems like more of a current "hipster" thing... 

 

He has owned it for 25+ years, it's printed on PLASTIC (aka expensive), it doesn't match the style of "fan" art back then (blown up cartridge labels) pretty sure this is something legit... 

 

 

[Crazy Climber]

Now I'm thinking...the fact thats its plastic allows it to be backlit! This totally makes sense for a show like CES, etc... Atari always had CRAZY displays set up. 

 

This pic shows (in the middle) some kind of backlit box, looks like you load it from the slot on the top. The size is way too large for this missile command piece but it shows they did use stuff like this

 

It would also explain the lack of a real border around this missile command poster/item. They would want the picture pretty tight since the box itself already has a pretty thick border...

 

I'd say your best bet is to search through all the early 80s CES (and similar shows) that Atari attended and try like hell to find your Missile Command plastic poster in action. That would at least give it a back story, somewhat authenticating it 😃 

[Crazy Climber]

Yeah, looking at your pics again this was totally meant to be backlit... man, now I really want to know what it was used for!

[gamegurus0]

So, I have some more info that I've been able to gather since I created this thread...  When I posted a few days ago, I was under the assumption that the store I got this from had gone out-of-business many years ago.  But on a whim two days ago, I decided to google the store name.  Turns out, they had indeed closed their original location, but then they opened another location a few years later!  I remember doing an online search for them 10+ years ago and I couldn't find any info about them back then, but as of now, they actually do have a Facebook page!  

 

So here's the info:  I traded for this item back in 1999, at a store called "Video Game Connections" in Howell, NJ.  Like I said in the original post, I can't quite remember what the owner told me about its origins, beyond that it is "one-of-a-kind."  Well, since I've now rediscovered they are on Facebook, this past Friday I sent them a message about this.  Here is the text of that conversation:

 

Me:  " Hello, back in 1999 I bought from you an Atari 2600 Missile Command collectible... it's like a poster, except it's made from a rigid plastic material.  Do you recall this?  I do not remember what you told me about this item at the time; i.e. is it some kind of rare one-of-a-kind piece?  I'd be grateful if you can tell me just what this is, where it originally came from, etc.  I am attaching a picture.  Thanks for any help you can provide!"

 

Owner:  "I vaguely recall having a few of these but do not remember the source for them. We were dealing with a lot of Atari collectors from ‘95 through ‘03 so there’s a large pool of people that could have come from."

 

Me:  "OK thanks!  Do you know what its purpose was?  Like, was this something made by Atari for use in their manufacturing?  Or just something home-made?  I'm trying to determine if this has any collector value."

 

Owner:  "I don’t know for sure. When we had collectors meetings a lot of fan made items were passed around, as well as original Atari display pieces."

 

Now, obviously this doesn't quite clear up the mystery at all, but the scenario that @Crazy Climber theorizes seems totally plausible to me.  The store owner does confirm that he had some "original Atari display pieces."  And I think we can rule out that this was fan-made, for the reasons we've stated above (printing on plastic in those days was not something that a "fan" could easily do.)

 

I've got to say, this is getting quite exciting!  I really am eager now to track down its origin!  Hopefully this additional info might help someone remember seeing these somewhere in the 1980s?  Or maybe someone remembers being at a collector's meeting at "Video Game Connections" in the 1990s and seeing it or hearing a story about it?

 

Thanks again to all you sleuths out there who are helping me to get to the bottom of this!

 

   

[+McCallister]

I would add that the kind of tape job applied to the back is also an indication that this was put together in the 80’s. You can still purchase that type of packaging tape, but back then it’s use was practically mandatory, 😆 

[Crazy Climber]

1 hour ago, McCallister said:

I would add that the kind of tape job applied to the back is also an indication that this was put together in the 80’s. You can still purchase that type of packaging tape, but back then it’s use was practically mandatory, 😆 

Good point, I pretty much never see that stuff anymore...

[gamegurus0]

I've never tried this before, but working with @Crazy Climber's theory that it was meant to be backlit, here is a photo I took with a light directly behind the "poster," and another I took right after without the light behind it.  The pictures don't really do it justice, and I do not have a powerful light box like what might have been used at a trade show to really illuminate it well, but I can say that yes, light is definitely able to be passed through the plastic material.

 

 

[Rom Hunter]

On 5/5/2024 at 12:07 PM, schuwalker said:

I would like to hear more about this!

It can be seen here (7th and 8th scan):
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-et-the-extra-terrestrial_7300.html

 

Interesting theory about the Missile Command display.

Could very well be the case.

[Crazy Climber]

11 hours ago, gamegurus0 said:

I've never tried this before, but working with @Crazy Climber's theory that it was meant to be backlit, here is a photo I took with a light directly behind the "poster," and another I took right after without the light behind it.  The pictures don't really do it justice, and I do not have a powerful light box like what might have been used at a trade show to really illuminate it well, but I can say that yes, light is definitely able to be passed through the plastic material.

 

Oh this was totally meant to be backlit! The large amount of tape on the top/etc is probably hindering it a bit though. Like I mentioned though, someone probably literally took this from the trash/etc so it could have been damaged when they disposed of it.

47 minutes ago, Rom Hunter said:

It can be seen here (7th and 8th scan):
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-et-the-extra-terrestrial_7300.html

 

Interesting theory about the Missile Command display.

Could very well be the case.

NIce! Did I scan those for you or was it someone else? (I don't remember doing it if I did lol) I can confirm it was a wooden block inside as I opened it up and looked. 

The scans make it look a lot nicer, in person it had a real "homemade" quality to it...

 

[Crazy Climber]

18 hours ago, gamegurus0 said:

So, I have some more info that I've been able to gather since I created this thread...  When I posted a few days ago, I was under the assumption that the store I got this from had gone out-of-business many years ago.  But on a whim two days ago, I decided to google the store name.  Turns out, they had indeed closed their original location, but then they opened another location a few years later!  I remember doing an online search for them 10+ years ago and I couldn't find any info about them back then, but as of now, they actually do have a Facebook page!  

 

So here's the info:  I traded for this item back in 1999, at a store called "Video Game Connections" in Howell, NJ.  Like I said in the original post, I can't quite remember what the owner told me about its origins, beyond that it is "one-of-a-kind."  Well, since I've now rediscovered they are on Facebook, this past Friday I sent them a message about this.  Here is the text of that conversation:

 

Me:  " Hello, back in 1999 I bought from you an Atari 2600 Missile Command collectible... it's like a poster, except it's made from a rigid plastic material.  Do you recall this?  I do not remember what you told me about this item at the time; i.e. is it some kind of rare one-of-a-kind piece?  I'd be grateful if you can tell me just what this is, where it originally came from, etc.  I am attaching a picture.  Thanks for any help you can provide!"

 

Owner:  "I vaguely recall having a few of these but do not remember the source for them. We were dealing with a lot of Atari collectors from ‘95 through ‘03 so there’s a large pool of people that could have come from."

 

Me:  "OK thanks!  Do you know what its purpose was?  Like, was this something made by Atari for use in their manufacturing?  Or just something home-made?  I'm trying to determine if this has any collector value."

 

Owner:  "I don’t know for sure. When we had collectors meetings a lot of fan made items were passed around, as well as original Atari display pieces."

 

Now, obviously this doesn't quite clear up the mystery at all, but the scenario that @Crazy Climber theorizes seems totally plausible to me.  The store owner does confirm that he had some "original Atari display pieces."  And I think we can rule out that this was fan-made, for the reasons we've stated above (printing on plastic in those days was not something that a "fan" could easily do.)

 

I've got to say, this is getting quite exciting!  I really am eager now to track down its origin!  Hopefully this additional info might help someone remember seeing these somewhere in the 1980s?  Or maybe someone remembers being at a collector's meeting at "Video Game Connections" in the 1990s and seeing it or hearing a story about it?

 

Thanks again to all you sleuths out there who are helping me to get to the bottom of this!

 

   

I really don't think it's fan made... as far as figuring out it's original use, that could be pretty tough...

 

Without some kind of back story/authentication it would be tough to ever rule out completely its "fan made" to the average collector. "I think" or "I'm pretty sure" usually doesn't cut it enough to open the wallet up lol

 

Again, I really don't think it is but odds are it was some "one off" marketing thing that whoever had it made originally is long gone from the industry. For instance. my Wife worked for an AD agency, I found an old pair of computer speakers she helped design some trendy nonsense for 20+ years ago and she doesn't even remember them, I had to remind her and she still gave me a confused look haha

 

I'm really curious what it was too for some reason. If I were you I would continue to examine pictures of old trade shows and hope you find something similar to it, or maybe even a legit pic of it... I guess it more depends on how bad YOU want to know though, even confirmed legit I don't think it would be super valuable... 

[gamegurus0]

14 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

I'm really curious what it was too for some reason. If I were you I would continue to examine pictures of old trade shows and hope you find something similar to it, or maybe even a legit pic of it... I guess it more depends on how bad YOU want to know though, even confirmed legit I don't think it would be super valuable... 

Thanks again for your help and advice.  I am certainly continuing to look for and scrutinize old trade show photos and videos in the hope of finding something to prove your theory.  For sure, I really want to solve the mystery.  Or perhaps at some point someone will see this thread who either owns or has seen another one of these "plastic posters," since the video game store owner whom I got it from has confirmed to me that he had a few others of them in the late 1990s.  If I can find any more info, I will certainly update this thread.

 

I'm curious though about your opinion of its value.  If I can definitively determine its provenance, especially if it really was used by Atari at trade shows, you don't think this item would be valuable to a serious collector?  I bet it would look super-cool displayed on a wall in an actual lightbox!  If it's not really valuable that's OK too; I'll be happy enough just to finally be able to prove its origins.

[Rom Hunter]

Are you going to clean it up?

I mean: remove the crappy frame and tape?

[Crazy Climber]

8 hours ago, gamegurus0 said:

I'm curious though about your opinion of its value.  If I can definitively determine its provenance, especially if it really was used by Atari at trade shows, you don't think this item would be valuable to a serious collector?  I bet it would look super-cool displayed on a wall in an actual lightbox!  If it's not really valuable that's OK too; I'll be happy enough just to finally be able to prove its origins.

I don't think you would have trouble selling it or anything, I just don't think you would get that much... I can quote my "guess" at a price if you want but not sure you're gonna like or agree with it  

 

The proof is key at this point. I mean, I think it's pretty clear it's NOT a homemade item but it isn't necessary made by Atari either. Could be a large video game store, etc... who knows (although my money is on trade show)

 

It's not Nintendo so you don't have a line a mile long of people that will take out a second mortgage to buy anything rare lol. I'm not trashing Atari collecting or anything but if this was a proven first party Nintendo sign (mario, Donkey Kong, etc) then yeah, the price would be REALLY high...Atari has it's expensive stuff but things like this aren't it. Some people collect stuff like this, many don't...

 

The condition...all that tape has got to be on there for a reason? Maybe not but I'm assuming it's got some major damage to it. 

 

I don't want to make it sound like I'm knocking your item, it's super cool and I think if put up for sale (with some kind of authentication) you would definitely have interested buyers...I just don't think it's getting "Nintendo money" if you know what I'm saying  

 

Now if you found some bad ass picture of it hanging in Nolan Bushnells office or something.... 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Psionic]

On 5/5/2024 at 1:13 PM, gamegurus0 said:

So here's the info:  I traded for this item back in 1999, at a store called "Video Game Connections" in Howell, NJ.  Like I said in the original post, I can't quite remember what the owner told me about its origins, beyond that it is "one-of-a-kind."  Well, since I've now rediscovered they are on Facebook, this past Friday I sent them a message about this.

 

Video Game Connections was (and still is) run by Mike Etler, a video game collector and dealer going back to the 90s.

For what it's worth, I don't think this is a legitimate Atari piece of any sort.  The artwork looks blurry and pixelated to my eye, as if it was scanned and reproduced.  I also can't understand why they would have specifically used the label artwork as opposed to the box art or something even more simplistic (i.e. just the game title and graphic inset) for a transparency in a light box at a trade show.  That particular choice of art doesn't make any sense...just my opinion.
 

[else]

1 hour ago, Psionic said:

For what it's worth, I don't think this is a legitimate Atari piece of any sort.  The artwork looks blurry and pixelated to my eye, as if it was scanned and reproduced.  I also can't understand why they would have specifically used the label artwork as opposed to the box art or something even more simplistic (i.e. just the game title and graphic inset) for a transparency in a light box at a trade show.  That particular choice of art doesn't make any sense...just my opinion.
 

I too have some questions about the quality of the print, but at the same time color printing onto plexiglass probably wasn't as good in the early 80's either.  I guess for me I kinda lean towards 'why would anyone *besides* Atari make this'?

[gamegurus0]

Update:  Well, I guess I'm glad that @Rom Hunter convinced me to remove the tape and the "crappy plastic frame," because what it has revealed was something I was not expecting...  

 

Here are the results:

 

Pic 1:  tape and frame removed, front of the image.

 

Pic 2:  Back of the "poster" with tape and frame removed (poor lighting; it's actually a glossy yellow):

 

When I removed the tape and frame, I immediately discovered that it isn't actually one piece of rigid plastic after all, rather it is two pieces glued back to back...

 

Pic 3:  separating the front piece from the back piece:

 

It is now that I realize what this really is:  a high-gloss poster-board print, glued to another piece of yellow high gloss poster-board, back to back.  There are a few dabs of glue holding them together, so I decide to separate them completely.

 

Pic 4:  The two separated pieces laid side by side, glossy sides up:

 

Pic 5:  Here is the non-glossy side of the front piece image, now separated from the glossy yellow piece that had been its backing.  

 

So, now I know it was not in fact printed on plastic, but rather a high-gloss fairly thick piece of poster-board.  A bit of a bummer...

 

Still, it does leave some unanswered questions.  Because I acquired it in 1999, it is for sure at least 25 years old.  Maybe it wasn't printed in the 1980s, but maybe it was.  I worked at a shop that had offset presses in '98-'99, and I can definitely say that there was no color printer at that time which could have produced this image.  Although not plastic, this is still a fairly thick piece of poster-board, and the printed image is high-gloss.  So I believe it was probably produced on an offset press, which at the time was still just expensive enough that it seems unlikely that a casual "fan" would pay to have this done.  So I still think it could have been produced for use in some sort of promotional fashion, perhaps by an ad agency contracted by Atari and perhaps for use at a trade show, convention, or maybe just an internal meeting at Atari.  Now, I'm not sure if it was actually meant to be backlit, but I did just try shining a flashlight through the back, and it does actually light up and looks pretty cool.

 

As for the "blurry and pixelated" look that @Psionic mentions above, I think that is due to the fact that if you look up-close at the image, it is made of "dots;"  I'm not sure how to describe this properly, but it is reminiscent of how the Sunday comics were printed back in the day (as a series of colored dots printed one layer at a time and built up to produce different shades.)  It's a odd effect and I can't speak to why this piece was printed that way; perhaps to facilitate back-lighting?  I'm not sure. 

 

So yeah, I guess this piece is not super-valuable, but I would still like to solve the mystery of its provenance.  Even knowing now that it is printed on glossy paperboard and not (much more expensive) plastic, I still don't think it's fan-made, unless that fan perhaps worked at a print shop on offset presses, and produced it for their own personal use?  Perhaps that's all it is, but I am going to continue to search for any evidence that this was made for promotional purposes (maybe not by Atari, but perhaps for Atari's benefit at a trade show or some similar purpose.)  So at least for me, although the revelation of how it was constructed has changed things, it still doesn't explain why someone would want to have it printed like this in the first place... 

[Rom Hunter]

Either way, you now have a nice Missile Command display that can be back-lighted.