Why did Atari Corp not print manuals in colour?

[Robbins1940]

Uptil 1984 Atari Inc Printed the manuals in colour and the games look like some effort has gone into them.

 

But when Atari was sold in 1984, the games looked to be rushed to release.

 

Manuals printed in black and white or red and white. The cartridge door protectors were not used from 1986.

 

Was this a conspiracy to run Atari into the gutter?

 

What do you think?

 

David

[Tempest]

One word: Money. Printing manuals in color is much more expensive than printing them in B&W. New manuals were printed in as few colors as possible (red and white) to match the new box colors and to save money.

 

You've got to remember that when Atari re-released the 2600 it was as a budget system. They weren't going to go all out on expensive packaging for 10 year old games. That's why many of the boxes were in B&W as well.

 

Tempest

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tempest:

One word: Money. Printing manuals in color is much more expensive than printing them in B&W. New manuals were printed in as few colors as possible (red and white) to match the new box colors and to save money.

---

 

This is just like what Ford does to a car after introducing it. When I bought a 1998 SVT Contour, it had all sorts of great features and nice little details. I later bought a 2000 SVT Contour, and they had decontented (as people like to call it) all sorts of things:

 

- Removed Remote Fuel Release Door

- Much thinner Sun Visors

- Removed lights in driver sun visor

- Removed painted markings on door locks

- Removed painted markings on vents

- Right-side front vent could no longer be closed

- Removed separate clock and integrated it into stereo

- Removed heated side mirrors

- Removed light in glove box

- Removed large piece of plastic covering inside of trunklid

- Cheaper feeling window switches

- Removed wind deflector on wiper blades

 

..And so forth. And of course they didn't lower the price of the car.

 

..Al

[Tempest]

Mayb ein the UK, but in the US you could by Atari games in regular stores in the late 80's. The prices were reduced on the older games, but not on the new releases. Still, if I remember right they were cheaper than most other games out there.

 

Tempest

[smile_walle]

Alright....what Im finding that Atari Corp not printed manuals in colour....Last year, I bought Ms. Pac-man (factory sealed)by Atari Corp (made in Hong Kong)from ebay, when I opened the box and I found out there is only black and white, and I realized how poor printing on manual!! Later in the summer of last year, I found the orginal Ms Pac-man with mint box and color manual under Atari INC. (warner commuication company). I did realized with color manual look more nice color printing!!

 

Jason

[Robbins1940]

The prices didn't get reduced either.

 

Games like Super Football was about £19.99 in cagalogues(was the only way you could buy atari games in the late 80s).

 

David