The History of Atari..

[video game addict]

Something I've never heard really explained much in detail, maybe someone here can clear up.

 

When Atari originally started selling the VCS, they had worked out a deal with Sears and sold Sears Tele-games versions of their system as well as games. This much is common knowledge, but the actual Atari branded heavy sixers & Atari branded games, where all were they sold?

 

Did Sears have Atari branded games side by side with Tele-games? And the same for the systems? If so how were pricing handled, any differences?

 

Or was Sears specifically for Tele-games, while Atari branded items limited to other department stores & chains back in the day?

 

 

And if they were segregated, how long did this stay in effect for? Were Atari branded items ever sold in Sears?

 

 

Atari released 4 variations of tele-games systems, starting with the heavy, then the light 6er, then 4 switch(which I've never seen in real life) & later the video arcade II (2800) That's several years of Atari makes, I'm wondering how many years were tele-games branded titles made, and if in later years they sold Sears systems side by side with Atari branded games, etc.

 

How exactly did this all work back in the day??

[NovaXpress]

At the time, Sears had a policy of selling ONLY Sears-branded products. RCA changed their TVs to "Sears brand" for example. So EVERY system and game sold at Sears was labeled as such. And Sears-labeled games were never sold anywhere else for obvious reasons.

 

Sears ended this policy in the fall of 82, and began to sell Coleco and Activision carts. The last "Sears" cart was Star Raiders.

 

Sears never sold their brand alongside Atari's except for that fall of 82, when there was still leftover Sears stock to sell.

[maibock]

Atari released 4 variations of tele-games systems, starting with the heavy, then the light 6er, then 4 switch(which I've never seen in real life)

 

I have our original tele-games 4 switch with box - We had a sears close by so all of our games were tele-games as well as the system

 

I'll let ya look at it, if you want, although the VCS has been broken since about '84 when I went to college