Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Get the Atari Advantage

Sorry for the radio silence, folks: wrapping up my scanning spree, after which there will literally be nothing left for me to do with the scans but post them up here (or somewhere at least -- it's come to my attention that however high-quality my source scans, these invariably display at some heinously degraded resolution. Would it be that way on Wordpress? I'll be exploring some options, but will keep you posted, my presumably faithful and silent masses.)
What this ad isn't telling you is that this apparently spontaneous demonstration of brand celebration is running on a collision course with the contemporary explosive US launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (itself fuelled by the Atari veterans at Worlds of Wonder, of Lazer Tag / Teddy Ruxpin fame). Silly Atari, you can't use the Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong to fight Nintendo! I do, however, appreciate some of the surreal mash-ups this collectible poster results in: basketball player takes on Millipede with the only weapon at his disposal, where rockets fail; Centipede chases Joust knight out of Dodge (right behind a radio-controlled Red Baron model airplane); Mobster arrives at concordance with Pete Rose, as Robin Hood officiates.


GET THE ATARI ADVANTAGE!
Collect Games * Win Prizes
Buy Atari game cartridges for your Atari system and become eligible to win valuable prizes.
COLLECT 5 GAMES - Get a Free Atari T-shirt
COLLECT 15 GAMES - Get a Free Atari Game Cartridge
COLLECT 25 GAMES* - Get an Atari 7800 system for only $25 or get an Atari XE system or disc drive for only $50.
* Collect 25 game cartridges and you will also become eligible to enter an essay writing contest to win the Grand Prize - An expense-paid trip for you and a guest to California, including a visit to Atari headquarters to see how Atari games are designed.
See your Atari Retailer for Details and Get Your FREE Collector Poster - Today!
I don't know how nice the T-shirt was, but at this point in time and for quite a while afterwards the Atari Game Cartridges and the 7800 system would be entering or already firmly entrenched in what Jason Scott coined as the Trough of Zero Value, from which it would only emerge relatively recently for collectors and weirdos such as (cough) your humble narrator. The computer hardware discount sounds good, but I'm wary of the "system OR disc drive" distinction, supposing that they may not be of much use without each other, and getting discounts on both would involve buying 50 cartridges -- presumably not all essential items for a discriminating library.

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