Looking thru old catalogs is fun

Postby **VideoGameCritic** » April 27th, 2013, 1:10 pm

I was just doing some Spring cleaning and come upon a box with a lot of miscellaneous video game catalogs, inserts, and promotional materials. Most were from the 80's and 90's.

If you ever want to get psyched up about games, just look thru some of these old catalogs. They tend to be colorful, glossy, and really play up the games. I noticed a few games I had never heard of and took note of them.

Of course, just because a game is in a catalog doesn't mean it ever came to be. In the 1983 Parker Bros catalog they had previews and (fake) screen shots for games called McDonalds, Lord of the Rings Journey to Rivendell, and James Bond 007 (which features an action packed train chase in the screenshot).

In a Capcom catalog they feature D&D Tower of Doom (a game I would have loved but never got released in the US) and Fox Hunt (a FMV game that was apparently cancelled).

I think I'll keep this stuff.

steephen1 · Postby **steephen1** » April 27th, 2013, 2:19 pm

I had a mattel Catalog with unreleased Aquarius material. I need to dig it up. It might be where my intellivision stuff is. But when you own nearly every INTV game, digging is tough.

Teddybear1 · Postby **Teddybear1** » April 27th, 2013, 5:27 pm

I totally agree - and am glad I kept them (the catalogs)!!!!

This keyboard attachment for the 2600 grabbed my attention. I wanted it. Forget the home computers of the day.....even after buying several $9.99 games (Super Breakout, Krull, Galaxian) from the discount bin at K Mart I had no idea that the Big Crash was fully under way in 1983.....

Oltobaz1 · Postby **Oltobaz1** » April 28th, 2013, 2:01 pm

Kept all of my catalogues as well. Lots of doubles, was actually able to sell one last year to someone, it can be pretty valuable to collectors!

Irenicus1 · Postby **Irenicus1** » April 30th, 2013, 12:44 am

Back in the early 90's my dad got an advertisement from Turbo Technologies. It stated that World Class Baseball II & TV Sports Basketball II was comming soon. I'm still waiting to buy those games.

Algus1 · Postby **Algus1** » April 30th, 2013, 6:47 pm

I used to have a TENGEN catalogue I plowed through regularly, even years after the SNES came out. When I was younger I actually regretted not getting more TENGEN games

Wish I still had some of those in decent shape actually

Luigi & Peach · Postby **Luigi & Peach** » November 1st, 2015, 9:38 am

Sierra games used to send out a catalog of upcoming games in the mid-90's, I remember. I also love seeing ads for old games in the back of older comic books ( along with the sea monkeys and xray glasses, of course).

Postby **scotland** » December 22nd, 2015, 12:35 pm

This jives with topics on the NES we have had.

I was looking at a 1986 Sears catalog. For $150 or so, you got the NES console, zapper, ROB, two controllers and the pack-in games. This was the same price the Colecovision or 5200 had been in 1983, or the Commodore 64 in 1985 and 1986 (without the disk drive that was another $200).

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From several perspectives I can see how the NES was both priced well and was a good value for that price. Couple that with other factors, such as $30 games, being in the Sears catalog as the only console (the Commodore was still there, but in a different section), the Mario/Jumpman character, and word of mouth about the quality of the games, and I can see better why Nintendo did well.

Compare the NES ad, in with the toy section, to the Commodore page, in with the telephones and typewriters. As kid or parent, which would you choose?

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