Just curious

[Mendon]

While going through a box of some 2600 & 7800 carts, I got to wondering: is there a reason that the 7800 cart lables used no color in them? Was this just a matter of doing things cheaply to save some $$$$ on costs or was it a way of trying put forth a difference between 2600 & 7800 carts?

 

Looking at the 2600 games, they had bright, colorful and attractive lables; the 7800 lables are....... are...... BLAH. Even XEGS & Lynx carts used colorful lables.

 

Just curious.

 

Mendon

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I am sure it was to save costs overall. Just another fine example of how the 7800 was and still is treated like a red-headed step child. (No offense meant to actual red-headed step children in today's world).

 

:wink:

[Ferris]

Yeah. Jack Tramiel was a cheap bastard. That's why.

[ApolloBoy]

Yeah. Jack Tramiel was a cheap bastard. That's why.

 

Amen to that!

[Agent X]

Only the early cartridges (the ones developed in 1984) have black-and-white labels. All of the later games (1987 and afterward) have full-color labels.

[Albert]

Only the early cartridges (the ones developed in 1984) have black-and-white labels. All of the later games (1987 and afterward) have full-color labels.

 

The original labels developed for 1984 actually are full-color and look quite nice, it's a shame that Atari decided to abandon that style when the system was eventually released. I've seen pictures of them before, but not sure where they are right now.

 

..Al

[Mendon]

Only the early cartridges (the ones developed in 1984) have black-and-white labels. All of the later games (1987 and afterward) have full-color labels.

 

Yer right! I was just looking at Dig Dug, Centipede, Food Fight, etc that were in the game box I was going through and they were all plain, bland, and boring lables. After your post, I looked and Dark Chambers and Tower Toppler (only two I looked at) are both in color.

 

Thanks for enlightening me.

 

Mendon

[Mendon]

So everyone is in agreement then that the first 7800 black & white lables were done as a cost cutting measure?

 

JT must have been a very strange individual; doesn't seem logical to bring out a brand new system that you want the public to buy but try to go cheap by cutting back on cart lable costs. Putting out bland cart lables or black & white boxes (like some of the 2600 titles) might be okay for when a system is winding down but when its launched?

 

But then again, it shouldn't really surprise me as he basically did the same thing with the plain blue & white ST computer boxes.

 

Mendon

[tyranthraxus]

Its possible that Atari finances were in much worse shape than we really

know around the time of the 7800 launch in 1986, then as thinsg improved

they went to colour. It was definatly a cost saving measure for what

ever reason. Too bad, otherwise I quite like the red 2600 cases and

the 7800 ones.

 

But I do HATE those annoying 'holes' in the cartridges. So many

labels are ruined because of that. What was the decision in that? To

save 0.1 cents by using less plastic?

[Albert]

But I do HATE  those annoying 'holes' in the cartridges. So many labels are ruined because of that. What was the decision in that? To save 0.1 cents by using less plastic?

 

I agree, I'm not fond of those carts either for the same reason. These same type of carts are also used with many later 2600 carts, most notably the Red label games and later Gray / Silver label releases. I'm sure this was simply a cost cutting measure, as the carts with a dust cover must be more expensive in terms of parts and assembly. I've never been fond of the dust cover, but the carts could have been redesigned to do away with it while avoiding holes at the top of the cart.

 

..Al

[DracIsBack]

I think the idea of the labels being black and white is less strange than releasing the 7800 with out-of-date games and no advertising in 1986 and then introducing a competitor in the form of the XEGS a couple of months later.

[Clock]

Most of my 7800 carts have bright colourful picture labels so I'm not complaining.

 

Looking through the AA list most carts have colour labels. So its not a Pal/NTSC thing.

 

What are you all talking about? If you mean why they all have silver/grey borders then that is to define the more powerful 7800 games from their 2600 counterparts. But the labels are still full colour and cost just as much to make so no cheapness.

 

[Mendon]

What are you all talking about? If you mean why they all have silver/grey borders then that is to define the more powerful 7800 games from their 2600 counterparts. But the labels are still full colour and cost just as much to make so no cheapness.

 

   

 

Its kind of a mistake I made. I was going thru a box of loose games and there were five 7800 games in there. They all had grey lables and looked pretty bland and boring compared to the colorful 2600 lables in the box. So I made this thread asking why the 7800 lables weren't in color. And as it was pointed out to me, only 9 games were done this way at the launch of the 7800; later releases were all in color. I was mainly curious if JT tried to cut costs on the launch titles by giving them non-color lables or maybe the reason was they were trying to give a big visual difference between 7800 & 2600 titles.

 

A list of non-color lables is here:

 

7800 Lables

 

Mendon

[Shannon]

Funny topic... I think the manuals on some of these games was black -n- white as well.

[ApolloBoy]

Funny topic... I think the manuals on some of these games was black -n- white as well.

 

All 7800 manuals were printed in black & white.

[Shannon]

Funny topic... I think the manuals on some of these games was black -n- white as well.

 

All 7800 manuals were printed in black & white.

 

Yeah.. it was a big turn off for me. I mean how cheap could atari have gotten.

[tyranthraxus]

In the early 90s I scooped a copy of the old dos RPG The Magic Candle

from a bargain bin for $10. The game came with a photocopied manual!!!!

I'm sure at one point there was colour printed version but it was a

surprise to is a 80 page manual photocopied and stapled

[Mendon]

I always enjoyed those bargain-bin games for $10 or less that came only in the CD case. You had to print out the instructions yourself. Wasn't bad for some games because you could figure out gameplay without printing but for RPG's that had spell lists, etc you could spend as much time printing out the doc's as you did beating the game

 

Mendon

[tyranthraxus]

Really? I hate those print out manuals. That is a new level of cheapness.

I had a friend buy a set just to get Harpoon, the super detailed, submarine game. He printed out hundreds of pages of documents to

play that game

[JB]

Really? I hate those print out manuals. That is a new level of cheapness.

I had a friend buy a set just to get Harpoon, the super detailed, submarine game. He printed out hundreds of pages of documents to

play that game

Yah.

Those suck.

 

But on the other hand, who needs a manual for, say, Quake?

It's just one more thing to keep track of. And in a bargain bin release, to bump the price.

 

 

And if you want REAL sucky, I have a bargin-bin release of a game that requires the manual to have any idea what you're doing.

And not only is there no manual in the box, there's no online manual either. So it's literally unplayable.

[Mendon]

And if you want REAL sucky, I have a bargin-bin release of a game that requires the manual to have any idea what you're doing.  

And not only is there no manual in the box, there's no online manual either. So it's literally unplayable.

 

I think some of the SSI games that required the manual for copy protection (Page 53, Paragraph 7, Word 9) had the same copy protection on their Bargain Bin games requiring you to print out the manual if you wanted to play.

 

Mendon

[JB]

And if you want REAL sucky, I have a bargin-bin release of a game that requires the manual to have any idea what you're doing.  

And not only is there no manual in the box, there's no online manual either. So it's literally unplayable.

 

I think some of the SSI games that required the manual for copy protection (Page 53, Paragraph 7, Word 9) had the same copy protection on their Bargain Bin games requiring you to print out the manual if you wanted to play.

 

Mendon

This was an SSI game. didn't have copy protection, but it was pretty complex, and there was no in-game explanation of anything.

 

Game was called Alien Logic.

 

 

 

For the record, SSI wasn't the only company to use that method of copy protection. Many did it in the floppy days. Beats the hell out of wierd "uncopyable" disks that deny you your legal right to make a backup. Especially when you're dealing with an inherently volatile media like floppy disks.

[Shannon]

Actually sierra on-line, origin, and empire deluxe all used manual copy protection.

[JB]

Actually sierra on-line, origin, and empire deluxe all used manual copy protection.

LucasArts did too. I've got an original TIE Fighter release to prove it.

[Curt Vendel]

I actually liked the Pole Position II B&W labelled carts that came with the 7800's when they first came out.... however the original 84' versions suffer from SEVERE antiplaquing and I've never seen one after all these years that isn't a mess... the 86' re-releases must've been done with a different adhesive and don't seem to suffer from that malady.

 

 

 

Curt