[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Atari 2600 Newspaper Ad
December 15th, 2008 by Benj Edwards
Click to see the 2600 ad in context.
Now here’s something you don’t see every day: a vintage video game ad from a newspaper. The subject in this case is the Atari 2600, and it appears in a “Howard BRANDiscount” advertisement from 1981. It’s especially amusing to see the Atari 2600 marketed in this particular context, peddled among such diverse items as spray paint, pocket t-shirts, picture frames, and disposable diapers (click on the image above to see what I mean).
Remember my grandmother’s cedar chest I talked about in September? Well, this is from the same chest, from a set of newspapers that my grandmother saved. I scanned many things from those papers, so you’ll probably be seeing more examples of vintage newsprint ads in the future.
Discussion topic of the week: What do you think this ad says about the state of the video game industry in 1981?
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December 15th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Brings back memories, that’s exactly how much I paid for mine ($150) by de-tassling corn for a summer. I played Combat for weeks till I could afford to buy Space Invaders.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I think it shows that video games were seen simply as another commodity, rather thatn the huge industry it is today.
And, being 1981, it’s just (technically) 2 years before the “Video Game Crash of 1983”, although the writing on the wall may have already been beginning to show even then. (It would be a few years still before I learned of computers/video games, so I can’t authoritatively comment 😉 )
December 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
prices sure haven’t changed much! of course $150 better than 20 years ago was the equivelant to buying a house now, but look what you got!!
December 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Around that time, grocery stores were selling carts and Big-box home improvement stores had the 2600 display, selling consoles and controllers.
December 25th, 2009 at 7:48 am
I see you got a game and 2 controllers with the system just like the NES’s release. Nowadays companies are definitely greedier-400$ for a new system and just one controller and no game.
April 27th, 2020 at 9:33 am
Awesome post from a long time ago!!! I can’t imagine $15 in a game nowdays, lol!