1983 was the year of the video game crash and that year’s Sears Wishbook was chock full of the detritus of a bloated dying industry. You got the handhelds, Vectrex, Gemini, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 in this issue. Along with some great games and accessories. My favorite is the Handsome Hassock storage system on Page 9. I would love one of those now.
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21 Responses to “The Video Game Systems of the 1983 Sears Wishbook”
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Tommy Day
December 17th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Thats awesome! I wish I could find my 90s JC Pennys catalogs :(
Matt
December 17th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Oh wow, I want that Vectrex system badly. Thanks for this!
Ashwad
December 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I still have my Galaxian and Defender games, along with two others. i can’t remember which ones cause they are in storage.
Rob
December 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I have the Donkey Kong game somewhere in my basement.
Justin
December 17th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Can you imagine paying $29.99 for an Atari game now? Granted, it was the coolest thing ever back then, but still. What if you spent $29.99 on E.T.? You’d stop gaming forever!
Metal Misfit
December 17th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
*makes notes for the next “History of Video Game Console” article*
Is it me or do those joysticks look like something you might find for sale on an adult website?
Tommy Day
December 17th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
It’s just you :)
Fnordius
December 18th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Well, consider how the joystick got its name. It was a control for aeroplanes that came up between the legs of the pilot.
So don’t be surprised. The things always had a phallic innuendo, and it doesn’t help that some adult toys are made to camouflage themselves as more innocuous objects. “Oh no, Mum, that’s just a wireless joystick!”
Lepodsky
December 18th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Sears was obviously feeling the effects of the ‘83 videogame crash.
I couldn’t help but notice all the price cuts on these pages. As much as half off on some items.
Anonymous
December 18th, 2008 at 10:57 am
$29.99 in 1983 dollars is about $62 today. So imagine paying **$62** for E.T.
Matthew Rosenblum
December 19th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Damn those pages bring back memories. I remember Sears having their own version of the Intellivision. All the games and the console were the same as Mattel’s, only the names of everything were changed (and were usually cheaper than the same games at Toys R Us).
I used to spend hours looking at these pages, dreaming of owning all upon ‘em. Ahhh…to be twelve again.
giveAfrank
December 19th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
its one thing games did learn me if it piss me off its serious hammer time1!
kris northern
December 21st, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I can’t wait till we look back in 25 years at the super primtive Wii and xBoxes and laugh at the low quality graphics we would tolerate and how much we paid for them
Iminay
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Hehe, this brings back memories, especially when looking and comparing these prices to today’s prices.
Brandon J. Mendelson
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I feel so old, but thank you for posting this!
Mark O'Brien
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Longtime friends of mine were sales execs for Mattel and Atari at the time. 2 weeks after the ‘83 Christmas, everybody in sales was fired, especially the guys with diamond pinkie rings and fat cigars. Some had made $500k the year before.
Michelle
December 24th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Frogger on Colecovision (plus four slices of buttered toast with cinnamon and sugar and a giant glass of milk)… I never understood what was supposed to be so tragic about being a “latchkey kid” in the 80s. It felt pretty damned okay at the time.
tedb
December 26th, 2008 at 12:02 am
RIP Sut
Joey Noland
January 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Old Store Catalog
The Retroist
January 11th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Exactly Joey?
Video Game Accessories
January 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Good post, good memories.