Attic search, disappointment but also......excitement !!!

[level42]

Today my brother and I helped our dad with removing his small pond in his garden.

After that I figured it was a great moment for finally getting that Atari 2600 from the attic. I've opened most boxes finding some really cool stuff all around but......not the 2600 !!!
I am pretty confused over that....maybe I've overlooked it or maybe I already removed it earlier and god knows what happened to it.......

Anyway.....I did find some awesome pocket books about planes that my son will love, an ancient Russion double-8 film camera (hand-wind) and plenty of other stuff.

However, all the stuff you'll see in the coming pics I had totally forgotten about and are IMHO totally awesome. Not just for the things that they are, but because they were mine BITD

It also proofs I really already was a big videogame fan then (as if anyone would doubt that... )

So here goes, ENJOY !!!

First: two books about ......Video Games !!

The first one is a US (Electronic Games magazine) translation, the second is a 100% Dutch book.


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The back side has a list of games. I used some codes to indicate games I owned (X), my cousin owned (the Videopac games, indicated with /) and some I probably rented or had borrowed maybe ? Pretty funny


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The second book:

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Yep....mine

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Some notes I made: First corrected the name of the game Galaxian and the note at the Atari 5200 says "will not come to The Netherlands".....how on earth I knew that is beyond me


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This books has some great pics...notice again some coding before "Combat"....


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Wait a minute .....what's this ??

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It's some negatives with Demon Attack high scores that I probably wanted to submit to some Dutch game magazine....looks like I need to do some scanning !

More later my friends.......

[level42]

Strategy guides....nice pic of a "selection box" and....a dreaded Spectravideo joystick. I think this picture inspired me to buy one after both original 2600 sticks had died. The Spectravideo looked ubercool, played like a nightmare and was dead within a couple of weeks. That was the moment I decided I needed a good stick....the Suzo of course


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Game selex:

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Some interesting addresses....well for me:

Atari was still in Breda then (Later moved to Vianen, which I visited one time), Imagic and Wico imported by Dunnet, which later became a big computer store in Rotterdam but in the end was probably blown away by internet competition.
Spectravideo was imported by Aashima (RobinHolland used to work there !) and this company later renamed itself to it's main product line name: Trust ( www.trust.com )
Like the later products the Spectravideo products varied from trash (the joystick) to average (some 2600 games)


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[level42]

There was more....I found this binder....


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"Activision video-games, you will never be bored again" (Pretty true really....


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Nice game stickers from Atari, all "Printed in the Netherlands".....


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Two "prisma" badges:


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You know, the kind that look "different" from another angle...

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Oh my.....:

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Maybe this should have said: "E.T. brings Atari down"


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Hey...more on the backside:

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Never understood why Atari made different artwork for the home versions of the Arcade games. Even though some of it is OK and some even nice, it never reaches the arcade quality of art IMHO:


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Kept digging in the boxes and some book-covering paper rolls came out. Not sure if this is done abroad too, but over here we used to cover our schoolbooks in some extra paper to keep them nice. Some people rented the books (I think I did) and some wanted to sell them after the year was over...
Anyway, there were some plane rolls, but suddenly I grabbed this:


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How cool is that ! Game inspired book-covering paper !


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Regretfully they only put Videopac and Vectrex stuff on it, but it is still very cool IMHO !!


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It looks like it is still the full roll. I probably refused to use it because there was no Atari on it


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OK that's it....I know...it's not like a ultra-rare 2600 cartridge but it's cool stuff, at least for me IMHO 

[Etienne MacGyver]

It is cool!, especially your notes from when you was young!

Thats always funny to see after so many years

the "kaftpapier" is also cool, would make a nice wallpaper in a gameroom  

I see also Swordquest !, did you participate also ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWltQ9UN5vE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordquest

[ckong]

Great pictures and short-stories, André. You really must have gone down memory lane yesterday. And the kaftpapier is indeed very cool.

[Q*ris]

Thanks so much for sharing.
I've always been an avid attic raider, I used to go there very often when I visited my parents after I "left the nest", hoping to find special toys/records/magazines.
You've some really cool stuff in there!

[DarthNuno]

great items! 

I also had similar things, but most of these have been trashed by ...my parents long time ago!  Damn it!

[anunaki]

Is great fun to search and find these kind of stuff

I have the complete 1st 4 years of the Power Unlimited game magazine lying somewhere at my mom's house

And I recently found my SNES box, in pretty good shape

[gyruss]

nice finds! Some of these articles would be cool to display in September... that also goes for the early PU issues.

[Ronald Reagan]

nice finds!! that kaftpapier is hardcore

someone should make a mash up of pictures with extremely happy families playing home consoles through the years. Look how exaggerated they are on the cover of Willem Bos' book

[atarimania]

Great finds!!

The cover book paper is simply amazing  and the Atari goodies great (I never had them when I was young but now I mad of them) 

You're really an "Atari guy" 

[Belike]

Cool stuff, I didn't know that "games selex" exists, I discovered it a few weeks ago on ebay.uk.

[level42]

It is cool!, especially your notes from when you was young!

Thats always funny to see after so many years

the "kaftpapier" is also cool, would make a nice wallpaper in a gameroom  

I see also Swordquest !, did you participate also ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWltQ9UN5vE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordquest

No I never played one of the swordquest titles. AFAIR the competition was US only...not sure though. The more I look at the stickers and badges on that binder the more I think I received those when I became 4th in the Dutch Centipede championships in '83. Being 4th I missed the "real" prizes but still got a nice blue Atari bag (one like this GOD I wish that was saved.....) full of this Atari promo stuff....

It is an interesting story isn't it. Especially the where-abouts of the sword and the stone are interesting....probably still in the Tramiel family I guess.

Imagine if that guy who won (and still owns) the Chalice of Light would put it on ebay....I really wonder what it would fetch.... It is definitely a unique Atari relic !

[level42]

nice finds!! that kaftpapier is hardcore

someone should make a mash up of pictures with extremely happy families playing home consoles through the years. Look how exaggerated they are on the cover of Willem Bos' book

Hey, they are playing Atari.....that isn't exaggerated at all ! 

What's funny about that picture is that son and dad are playing MC at the same time. Not sure, was there ever a co-op feature on the 2600 version ? I used to own it but I can't remember....

[Luigi]

Awesome stuff, André

I assume you had a few thoughts back to the time you collected all these items...