Atari 2600 with Nolan Bushnell's Signature

[abrahamflores25]

I got this Atari 2600, it works and everything. I wondering how much it cost? I am not really a Video game guy but I found the Atari in a garage sale and Nolan just came to a Video Game convention to my city and I got his signature. I'm trying to sell it.

[byron]

Signatures of living people are not worth a lot, and neither is the Sears Video Arcade. It's worth whatever somebody's willing to pay for it.

[argyle]

To add to that, if you didn't get any documented proof that those are his signatures then it's worth whatever a Atari 2600 that someone scribbled on is worth. Which isn't much. 

[abrahamflores25]

I got a Picture with him

[atarileaf]

don't tell us, show us

[kr2nist]

Yeah,  I mean, nobody's saying that it wasn't Nolan Bushnell who signed it or anything, but you'd run into the same issue if you were to say try selling your system to a pawn shop.  Autographed items these days require some kind of documentation to prove authenticity....and just like it was mentioned before, items with signatures of still-alive people are worth less than signatures of dead folks.

And of course it doesn't help any that the signature is on an Atari clone...   

But still though, if you do have that picture with Nolan Bushnell, we'd love to see it! 

[byron]

The Sears Video Arcade isn't a clone, it's an Atari manufactured 2600 with a different face plate. I'm not too sure why or how this was done.

If anyone can explain to me what the deal was between Sears and Atari and why the Tele-Games brand existed, I would be very interested to hear it.

[kr2nist]

The Sears Video Arcade isn't a clone, it's an Atari manufactured 2600 with a different face plate. I'm not too sure why or how this was done.

If anyone can explain to me what the deal was between Sears and Atari and why the Tele-Games brand existed, I would be very interested to hear it.

I know I used 'clone' in the wrong context.  But basically Atari and Sears had this relationship back in the mid 1970s on through the early 1980s, where the Atari 2600s were rebranded with the Tele-Games name (as obviously Sears couldn't use the Atari name and logo, for copyright infringement reasons...).  Just like Atari did, Sears released several versions of the 2600, as the "Sears Video Arcade Series"....and Sears also released their own versions of Atari games with the Tele-Games name.  Atari even produced three games that were exclusive to the Tele-Games brand as well.

[byron]

obviously Sears couldn't use the Atari name and logo, for copyright infringement reasons...

Maybe I'm dumb, but that reasoning doesn't strike me as obvious. Why isn't it copyright infringement when Sears sells a Sony TV?

[kr2nist]

obviously Sears couldn't use the Atari name and logo, for copyright infringement reasons...

Maybe I'm dumb, but that reasoning doesn't strike me as obvious. Why isn't it copyright infringement when Sears sells a Sony TV?

Because Sears is selling a TV that's of a different brand name.  Sears could make a TV of their own like a Sony TV, but they wouldn't be allowed to use the "Sony" brand name, their logo, or anything.

And what started Sears' relationship with Atari was, Atari had released a home console version of their game "Pong" in 1975 after the arcade version of the same game did so well.  The home console version was an exact duplicate of the arcade game, just scaled down in size to require the use of a home television instead of its own built-in TV that was with the arcade version.  Sears ended up producing over 100,000 of those home "Pong" units for Atari, and that's what began their relationship.

[atarileaf]

The weird thing for me is we bought our Atari back in 1980 in a local Sears and I swear it was an Atari branded model, not  the Sears Tele-games model.

[byron]

Sears could make a TV of their own like a Sony TV, but they wouldn't be allowed to use the "Sony" brand name, their logo, or anything.

Of course not, but Sears did not make the Sears Video Arcade; it was manufactured by Atari.

[kr2nist]

The weird thing for me is we bought our Atari back in 1980 in a local Sears and I swear it was an Atari branded model, not  the Sears Tele-games model.

It's very possible.  Back when the 2600's had first come out, Atari made them both under their own brand name and also the Sears brand name in order to be sold in Sears stores.  I can even remember in the Sears Wish Books that came out every Christmas, I saw both the Atari and Sears machines!

[byron]

I can even remember in the Sears Wish Books that came out every Christmas, I saw both the Atari and Sears machines!

[kr2nist]

Exactly.  lol!  And the even funnier part to that whole experience was, the only difference I saw between the two machines (aside from the different brand names) was that the "Steeplechase" game was for the Sears console only....

...and I remember as a kid wondering what the hell was up with that....