86 Re-Releases. Why?

[roadrunner]

Hey, cut him some slack; I've been a label hound forever and I only learned about this a couple of years ago:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of these sold dirt cheap, see this thread

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258614-rare-1978-flag-capture-label-sold-cheap/?hl=%2Bflag&do=findComment&comment=3627374

 

 

[Supergun]

No, Tempest is right.

 

A few years ago, I actually contacted the guy who bought the entire sheet of Sears tank plus pic labels to ask if I could buy just one. It didn't end well.

 

And, technically, there is also the Sears target fun pic label as well.

 

The problem with collecting variations, (or anything really) is that it's a very slippery slope. You get to a point where you finally realize that the line between what could have been, and what actually was, can be manipulated to satisfy your own personal OCD needs.

 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Supergun

[Rom Hunter]

And, technically, there is also the Sears target fun pic label as well.

 

What do you mean by technically?

 

[SoulBlazer]

I probably should have said in my original post I think there's a difference between games being MADE for a market and being SOLD in a market.

 

We've seen plenty of cases where a company or store wants to dump off their remaining inventory of something which they deem worthless, and they just offload it in another country regardless if anyone can play the game there or not. I think that's what happened here with a lot of these late Atari games.

 

They were produced on the cheap to bring in some money to the company, and the remainder I suspect were shipped to places like Brazil and Europe. To help that, it looks like the multi language manuals were included but they were still getting NTSC games for PAL systems.

 

Atari DID make games for the PAL market even later then this 86-88 time frame....I've seen examples dated 1990, and Ferg reported a case in his podcast of one from 1991!

 

It's very confusing, and I think there's a few factors going on at once here which don't help to clear up matters.

Edited April 9, 2017 by SoulBlazer

[Tempest]

No, Tempest is right.

 

A few years ago, I actually contacted the guy who bought the entire sheet of Sears tank plus pic labels to ask if I could buy just one. It didn't end well.

 

And, technically, there is also the Sears target fun pic label as well.

 

The problem with collecting variations, (or anything really) is that it's a very slippery slope. You get to a point where you finally realize that the line between what could have been, and what actually was, can be manipulated to satisfy your own personal OCD needs.

 

IMG_5021.JPG

BTW the name of the horse in that picture is Pandora. It belonged to one of the Atari employees.

[Flojomojo]

Regarding those thick multi-language manuals in the re-releases ...wasn't that a (then new?) requirement for distributing software in Canada?

[SoulBlazer]

Regarding those thick multi-language manuals in the re-releases ...wasn't that a (then new?) requirement for distributing software in Canada?

 

The requirement is just for French, not for 5 (or 6) language ones. That was already a thing at the time, as I've seen bi language Activision games, for example.

[BassGuitari]

...It didn't end well.

Sounds juicy!

 

I've fortunately been able to stay within the boundaries of what actually existed, as far as variant collecting and repros go. My OCD is more related to condition--I would not be above replacing even decent original labels with minty repro labels (at least on commonish carts; I wouldn't do that to an R8 or something--I'd just get a repro cart in that case ). Especially on text labels, where coloration and can be so uneven from cart to cart anyway, even in good condition but especially after a little fading has occurred.

 

 

The requirement is just for French, not for 5 (or 6) language ones. That was already a thing at the time, as I've seen bi language Activision games, for example.

Yeah, I think the bilingual Canadian requirement goes further back. My Odyssey 300's box (and manual IIRC) is both English and French.

[jhd]

Regarding those thick multi-language manuals in the re-releases ...wasn't that a (then new?) requirement for distributing software in Canada?

 

In addition to the huge multi-lingual manuals, at least one of the earlier releases (Maze Craze, IIRC) included a separate French-language manual. There may be other examples, but I suspect most Canadians simply pitched the manual in their non-preferred language, so few copies have survived.

 

It is not uncommon to find a PS 2 game with a separate, French-language manual shrink-wrapped over the original case (which obviously includes the English manual). Somewhat ironically, many of the examples that I have seen are for RPGs, for which a sold grasp of English is a requirement to play the game.