A Look At Some Of The Rare 1984 Packaging

[nosweargamer]

As some of you know, Atari had a small test market launch of the 7800 in southern California in 1984 right before Warner sold Atari. After the sale, the 7800 was locked away until 1986. 

However did you know that the 1984 games had different boxes, manuals and cartridge labels than the post sale releases?

I take a look at a very small sample I have of '84 items in the following video:

Edited December 29, 2016 by nosweargamer

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I commented on your YouTube channel about this...but I will do another here.  

 

Those package differences are what separates the quality that Atari did under the Warner ownership compared to the Atari that Jack ran.  Under Warner it wasn't just about the games, it was about the entire overall package experience.  The 7800's packaging seemed so generic that is really isn't any wonder that no one took it seriously.  It's a shame that the original package designs didn't get to stay.  The 7800 really could have used that personality to seal the deal.  

 

The package that we got with Joust was copied from the 5200's port of Joust with only the name at the top changed.  Same blue and everything.  The 7800 was a really good system...it's a shame that Jack treated it the way he did.  

[nosweargamer]

  The package that we got with Joust was copied from the 5200's port of Joust with only the name at the top changed.  Same blue and everything.  

 

Actually, that box, the 7800, has a purple stripe. Some people figured it out like this:

2600: Red stripe

5200: Blue stripe

7800 = 2600 + 5200 = Red + Blue = Purple stripe

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I guess I missed the purple stripe with the Joust on the left (the one that went into production).  But that blue background behind the game name makes me think "5200".  I didn't see the purple stripe on that box.  I see it on the short-run box on the right which is very sexy for a game console.