What's the rule of thumb for Atari games?

[BetaWolf47]

There's a place near me that has a bunch of Atari games sitting against a wall. I can't tell which Atari they are for, or even if they're for the same system. Some are standard box shaped, some have slanted tops, and some have special labels. I know there were no manufacturing standards, and companies could make their own cartridges, correct? So those may all be different 2600 or 5200 games? How can I tell?

[MASTERWEEDO]

you could ask, or buy them.

[BetaWolf47]

I doubt the guy would know. He's a pawn shop owner who actually does more of tools and jewelry.

[Steve W]

Atari 5200 games are much larger than Atari 2600 games. 5200 carts are almost as wide as an NES cartridge. And if they're Atari 7800 games, they should distinctly say that on the cartridge along with having a silver label.

If the cartridges are actually made by Atari, there's a pretty good chance they aren't rare. If they're made by Imagic, there's very little chance it's rare. The same with M-Network carts, which look like an Intellivision cartridge (smaller than an Atari cartridge) but has an odd shaped large bottom attached to the cart port. Activision? Also not going to be very rare. You want to look for oddball manufacturers, companies you've never heard of. Those are the really interesting games to collect. Sure, a whole lot of them sucked, but there's some good ones out there too. The trick is in finding Atari cartridges for sale nowadays, before the eBay reseller assholes snatch them all up.

[theChad]

Well for one thing, 5200 cartridges are way bigger than 2600 or 7800. Many times Atari 2600 games will say on them "For the Atari Video Computer System" or "Atari 2600 VCS" as well.

[Soviet Conscript]

the ones with slanted tops may be intellivision games

[Rickstilwell1]

Also keep an eye out for ColecoVision games which are the same size as Atari 2600 carts, except their labels are almost always black and almost always say ColecoVision on them. The connector pins also have a longer board.

My stepdad gave me a bunch of Atari 2600 games once and there was a ColecoVision Donkey Kong in there while we had no ColecoVision to test it at the time. I ended up trading it in for another Atari game and got another copy of it when I actually bought a ColecoVision.

Actually if you look in my signature and go to the link containing my myspace pictures, I have all my games for all the systems listed in their own albums. Here you can see what certain different kinds of game cartridges look like.

[Pantechnicon]

Also keep an eye out for ColecoVision games which are the same size as Atari 2600 carts, except their labels are almost always black and almost always say ColecoVision on them. The connector pins also have a longer board.

...plus, the side of the cart which plugs into the console is going to have a slight hexagonal angle to it, as opposed to 2600/7800 carts, which are rectangular.

the ones with slanted tops may be intellivision games

Yes...and no. They'll probably be M Network games, which were made by Mattel (Intellivision) for use on the Atari 2600.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Most of them will say what system they are for.

[cyberfluxor]

If you found some Atari 7800 or 5200 stuff then you'd know. Just Google Image "<system>+cartridge" and you'll get sample images of those.

The VCS is another beast all in of itself. There's a reason it has a large following including many odd rarities, label variations, various cartridge shell designs, homebrew scene, and ease of collecting (many commons) for the standard classic gamer. Plus the 2600 offers many "arcade" style games so it's very casual pick-up and turn-off without heavy learning curves or long gaming sessions for a save point.

[MachineGex]

Take a quick picture or two if you have a camera-phone& post them here. You never know what goodies my be hidden in there.

Also, make sure the guy is asking a buck or two each(and not twenty). Sometimes people who dont know what old games are worth tend to price them like they are made of gold.

[A Black Falcon]

Yes...and no. They'll probably be M Network games, which were made by Mattel (Intellivision) for use on the Atari 2600.

They're Intellivision if they don't have that wider extension thing on the end; they're 2600 games if they do.

[Xian042]

The rule of thumb is its a lot easier to pick up Atari carts if you use one.