The Misleading World Of Atari 2600 Box Art

[GuardianAsher]

Four part series documenting the difference between the box art of some Atari 2600 games, and the reality of what the game looked like.

http://www.rundlc.com/news/the-misleadi ... xbox-live/

http://www.rundlc.com/news/the-misleadi ... xbox-live/

http://www.rundlc.com/news/the-misleadi ... xbox-live/

http://www.rundlc.com/news/the-misleadi ... xbox-live/

Alright, so being one of the younger members on the forums here, I was not alive when the Atari 2600 craze had taken over. So I just have to ask - When you were out buying these games, did you -really- expect to see what was on the box art displayed upon the screen, and were you disappointed when, alas, that poor little 8-bit, 1.19MHz MOS 6507 wasn't able to deliver?

I personally don't see the box art as misleading. I think the box art was supposed to give the players an idea of the pixels were supposed to represent. You still had to use your imagination when playing the game. That's another problem with this generation of gamers, there's not much imagination left. I still play MUDs on a regular basis, and I have a few friends that do, but most aren't interested.

"Where are the graphics? You mean it's just text? That's lame."

[FlyingPenguin]

Nope, no one (except imbeciles) ever expected it to look like that, not when the best high-end arcade game was a bunch of blocks as well.

Usually there were screen shots on the back of the box.

[Nitemare]

Yeah, I agree with FP. No one expected anything more than the pixels.

In the case of the Adventure, that one was more fun than the games I was playing before that because I was playing text adventures, like MUDS.

[normalicy]

It was kind of like a book. You used the cover to set a picture in your head of what it should look like & then play with that image in your head. I just remember being thrilled to make blocks move around on a screen. Fortunately, it wasn't too long of a wait for me before the NES came out.

[b-man1]

+1...it was all about imagination and pure fun in the 'ol days...not just flashy graphics and loud sounds. Adventure was great...i also really liked Air Lock or whatever the name was. absolutely terrible graphics, but so much fun!

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Pitfall for the win!