Page 27 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #1

A Guide to Rating By Mike Genova
Your Classic

Collection
fairly easy to find. Examples are:
Video Pinball, Food Fight, Brain
W Games, or Battlezone. You may
have to look a bit harder, or pay
hat defines a rare
slightly more money for these, but
cartridge? All collec-
where.
tors have different interpretations of they can generally be found some-
the word, but to me it has a simple Rare (R) - A rare game isn't always
meaning: “A cartridge that is what it seems to be. A rare game
harder to find than most carts.” in one area may be an uncommon
Here we’ll examine the many fac- game in another. I suppose that
tors that can make a cartridge rare. could be said for all rarities, but
(Examples cited are for the Atari “rare” is sometimes misinterpreted.
VCS/2600.)
Games such as Millipede, Othello,
Video Checkers, or a Basic Pro-
gramming cart are rare. These will
1. Low Production Run/ Poor be somewhat harder to find than
Sales - A good example of this commons and uncommons, but
would be the cartridge "The Music I have yet to obtain one of them. shouldn't take more than a few
Machine." This cartridge was pack- This just goes to show that once months to acquire. Most respect-
aged with a record and "poor sales you find a rare cartridge, you could able collectors will have these for
caused many of these to be re- possibly be holding a one of a kind sale or for auction for fairly cheap
called and destroyed" as quoted in in your hand. Who knows, ten prices, but that will vary from one
the Digital Press Guide Fourth Edi- years from now, you may have the dealer to the next.
tion (DPG). Also, if a game was only remain-
distributed in isolated areas around ing, legiti- Extremely
the world, it may be a tough find. mate copy of Rare (ER) -
that cartridge. An extremely
2. Limited Availability - A rare cart is
game which was made available Next are one that most
only through special offers or by definitions of people will
joining a club. Some games made the various have some
available these ways are: Quadrun, types of rarity difficulty find-
Crazy Climber, Atari Video Cube symbols clas- ing. Buying
and Purina Foods’ Chase the sic gamers one on the
Chuckwagon. These factors make place on car- Internet from
it less likely that you will ever find tridges. They a collector
these carts in thrift shops or flea are listed from most com- Dukes of Hazzard would not be the smart-
markets. mon to most rare: Atari VCS est idea because you

3. Prototypes - A prototype is Common (C) - Common will more than likely
defined as being a game which games, such as Missile Command, pay a substantial amount of money
was never released or is still in its Pac-Man, Combat, Space Invad- for it, or you will be forced to trade
pre-production stages. Prototypes ers, or Pitfall! were cartridges pro- something of value from your own
aren't generally fun to play because duced in large quantities and en- collection. Finding them at garage
of bugs and glitches in the unfin- joyed mass distribution. You will sales, thrift shops, flea markets,
ished product, but would highlight most likely find plenty of these at friends or second-hand stores
anyone's videogame collection. various garage sale/thrift shop/flea would be less costly, but those
Examples of prototypes include markets runs. tend to only have your average
Grover's Music Maker and Dukes Uncommon (U) - An uncommon commons or uncommons. Ex-
of Hazzard. tremely rare carts would include
game is slightly more rare than a Crazy Climber, Chase the Chuck-
Of the games mentioned so far, common game, but can still be wagon, Pengo, Rubik's Cube, Pigs

Classic Gamer Magazine Fall 1999 27