Comments on: The Video Game Systems of the 1983 Sears Wishbook

By: Video Game Accessories

Video Game Accessories — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:23:34 +0000

Good post, good memories.

By: The Retroist

The Retroist — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:56:38 +0000

Exactly Joey?

By: Joey Noland

Joey Noland — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:37:41 +0000

Old Store Catalog

By: tedb

tedb — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:02:03 +0000

RIP Sut

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 03:38:54 +0000

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.

By: Mark O'Brien

Mark O'Brien — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:57:53 +0000

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.

By: Brandon J. Mendelson

Brandon J. Mendelson — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:07:19 +0000

I feel so old, but thank you for posting this!

By: Iminay

Iminay — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:18:30 +0000

Hehe, this brings back memories, especially when looking and comparing these prices to today’s prices.

By: kris northern

kris northern — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:05:11 +0000

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

By: giveAfrank

giveAfrank — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:57:10 +0000

its one thing games did learn me if it piss me off its serious hammer time1!

By: Matthew Rosenblum

Matthew Rosenblum — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:21:22 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:57:13 +0000

$29.99 in 1983 dollars is about $62 today. So imagine paying **$62** for E.T.

By: Lepodsky

Lepodsky — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:45:45 +0000

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.

By: Fnordius

Fnordius — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:34:52 +0000

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!”

By: Tommy Day

Tommy Day — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:22:32 +0000

It’s just you :)

By: Metal Misfit

Metal Misfit — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:22:48 +0000

*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?

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:08:03 +0000

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!

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:35:56 +0000

I have the Donkey Kong game somewhere in my basement.

By: Ashwad

Ashwad — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:01:30 +0000

I still have my Galaxian and Defender games, along with two others. i can’t remember which ones cause they are in storage.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:52:37 +0000

Oh wow, I want that Vectrex system badly. Thanks for this!

By: Tommy Day

Tommy Day — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:49:04 +0000

Thats awesome! I wish I could find my 90s JC Pennys catalogs :(