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What Do You Do With 1 Million Atari Games?

gr8fulnded sent us a CNet story that will knock your socks of: this guy has over a million unopened Atari 2600 and 7800 games sitting in a limestone mine-turned warehouse for sale for a bug a cardtridge. If you still have a machine, check it out (at a buck a cartridge, its quite the deal). Or else you could get the cartridge and make your emulator legal! (michael: Bill Kendrick sent us the proper device on which to play these carts: a 2600/Nomad combination.)

11 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Old Games are more dangerous than new games. by R1chard+Gere · · Score: 5

    Someone should warn them of the potential pitfalls.

    Excellent choice of words... ;)

    --K
    ----

    --
    Deepthroat my submarine, swallow my seamen.
  2. Mr. Potato Head Foot Massagers? by StoryMan · · Score: 4

    Hey forget about the atari games. What interests me is the "Mr. Potato Head Foot Massagers" mentioned in the article.

    If this isn't a good example of marketing gone, well, awry, I don't know what is.

    I mean, ya gotta wish you were a fly on the wall when the marketing guy sat down and made his pitch to management: "Hey, I got this new idea. You're gonna love it. I'm pretty sure we're first to bat with this one..."

    1. Re:Mr. Potato Head Foot Massagers? by Fishstick · · Score: 5

      You do know that's "code" for a 'personal relaxation device', right?

      "Honey, what's this on the credit card bill?"

      "Oh, it's a foot masager."

      Yeah, right.

      --

      There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

  3. Beating a dead horse by plopez · · Score: 5

    Only a bug a piece? Having written about a million bugs, I could probably afford all of them....

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  4. CORRECTION: Emulators _are_ always legal by JimTheta · · Score: 4
    Or else you could get the cartridge and make your emulator legal!

    Please state the facts properly. Emulators are and always have been legal. What you meant were ROMs, which are potentially copyright infringing.

    IANAL, but I think that technically, it is illegal to distribute ROMs in any case. It is legal to dump them for yourself, but not distribute. Likewise, it isn't quite kosher to get the ROMs from someone else, even if you do own the cart. You have to dump them yourself. This isn't really a distinction to worry about; if you own the cart to a commercial game, you're probably okay. (Someone correct me if I'm not quite right)

    But the emulator is ALWAYS legal. And there are many freeware ROMs that you can play on them, strengthening the position that they will remail legal.

    -Grant aka JimTheta
    ---
  5. I have a cockroach. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Its a really big one. Can I get two games?

  6. Re:Only a bug per game? Sweet! by hedgefrog · · Score: 5

    I've got Windows2000, could I buy 65,000 games ?

    --

    I lost my copy of the green golf ball joke can anyone find it for me?
  7. The Atari Landfill, and the hidden shrine... by smirkleton · · Score: 5
    They didn't bury the cartidges in Arizona- they're in a landfill in Alamorgordo, New Mexico.

    There is a small but rather impressive shrine built on top of tomb #4, with an eternal flame burning bronze effigies of Tod Frye and Howard Scott Warsaw.

    Etched on the Warsaw bust, the words that Warsaw said to Steven Spielberg during the short development cycle of E.T., "Steven, this game is going to make your movie famous."

    And etched on the Frye bust, the words that Rick Mauer said to Tod Frye after hearing of his $1,000,000 paycheck for PacMan, "You ought to put a photocopy of that on your office door at Atari. I think it'll help programmer morale."

  8. Hrrm by Sheeple+Police · · Score: 5

    warehouse for sale for a bug a cardtridge

    A bug a cartridge, eh? Any bug? *rubs hands deviously* I knew that ant hill would come in handy... now how to figure out how to get them all out... <evil laughter>

    If you'll excuse me, I have work to do... bwa ha ha ha..

    --

    Information is the catalyst for revolution
  9. oops again for slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5
    they're not a bug a game,

    nor are they a buck a game.

    They're $2/game.

  10. Offtopic -- I know those mines by youngsd · · Score: 4

    My dad used to have an office in those mines. They have been coverted not only into warehouse space, but also into pretty cool office space (you have to put up with no windows, of course, but some of the walls are craggly rock -- which is a sort of cool effect).

    You may remember a few years back, when Reagan was in office, and it came out that the government had been hoarding cheese for years (to prop up dairy prices), and people were calling for the government to distribute the cheese to poor people. These are the mines where all of that cheese was stored (I don't know whether any of it made it to the poor, though).

    I know it's off-topic, but sometimes, you've just got to spout useless facts, and damn the consequences.

    -Steve

    --
    Democracy is a poor substitute for liberty.