4 ms·

A couple of comments based off of the first ET poster/ad in the article: * Atari games like this cost $40? That seems expensive! * Why did Pennsylvania reside

A couple of comments based off of the first ET poster/ad in the article: * Atari games like this cost $40? That seems expensive! * Why did Pennsylvania residents have to call a different number? * Funny that a point of advertising was getting the game before everyone else. It reminds you that these were real games people wanted and not just nostalgic blasts, how I view them now. (Link to poster: http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1972/production/_88241560_976_etposter.jpg http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/1972/production/_...)

brandonmenc 11y ago
> Why did Pennsylvania residents have to call a different number? I remember seeing this sort of thing a lot back then. Probably a sales tax thing - maybe the fulfillment center was in PA.
- Hydraulix989 11y ago
  Long distance calls? Remember those? :) It was probably short distance in PA.
- drfuchs 11y ago
  Back in the day, AT&T had technological issues that meant that there were separate "in-state" and "out-of-state" 800 numbers, so every national advertisement always mentioned a main 800 number, plus a different one for the one particular state where they actually had their call center. Single-state institutions sometimes only had in-state 800 numbers, so, for instance, you literally couldn't call California's Franchise Tax Board (the state's IRS-like tax authority) from outside of California (as I learned from bitter experience). Look up "InWATS" in Wikipedia for more details. Now, get off my lawn.
  - brandonmenc 11y ago
    My mom worked at GTE and when I went to college in 1997 she got us a WATS line so I could dial 1-800 to call home. One of her jobs in the early 80s was to calculate the bills for WATS lines. There was a room full of mechanical counters, like odometers, that would increment while people were talking on their line. Every day she'd write down the new counts, subtract the previous day's counts, and they'd bill the difference.
sehugg 11y ago
It sometimes blows my mind that this would be $100 in today's dollars, or $12.50 per kilobyte.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  $100 is a normal (Xbox One/PS4) game price in Australia.
  - coke12 11y ago
    100 AUD is 71 USD.
    - junto 11y ago
      Wow. That's really expensive. Is it a 95% fun tax?
      - Buge 11y ago
        Where did you get 95% from? The normal new game price on Amazon seems to be $60. The Division and Far Cry Primal are both $60 for both systems. It's an 18% "fun tax".
        junto 11y ago
        It was just an observation that Ozzies seem to get screwed by both corporations and their own government these days. 95% I plucked out of my head, as an extreme percentual screwing value! :-)
      - NamTaf 11y ago
        It's a 95% Australia tax. We pay more for almost everything just because. It was originally justified by our exchange rates (which got down into the AUD$1 = USD$0.5x) but persisted at the same dollar values even when the rate went to AUD$1 = USD$1.2. Basically, we get screwed because there's precident establishing that we can. And it permiates almost anything that is produced overseas including phones and laptops but also all kinds of software, not just games. Here's an article from when it was a hot topic in the news: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/adobe-chief-dodges-questions-over-pricing-20130214-2eetr.html http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/adobe-chief... At the time it was literally cheaper to fly from Sydney to LA, buy the software in LA and fly home.
jonathankoren 11y ago
Yup. My grandmother bought me it for christmas, no doubt full retail. It was inordinately expensive. It would be inordinately expensive today with a retail cost of $100 inflation adjusted dollars. Best 2600 title screen ever though. No one ever mentions that about the game though.

brandonmenc 11y ago

> Why did Pennsylvania residents have to call a different number? I remember seeing this sort of thing a lot back then. Probably a sales tax thing - maybe the fulfillment center was in PA.

Hydraulix989 11y ago
Long distance calls? Remember those? :) It was probably short distance in PA.
drfuchs 11y ago
Back in the day, AT&T had technological issues that meant that there were separate "in-state" and "out-of-state" 800 numbers, so every national advertisement always mentioned a main 800 number, plus a different one for the one particular state where they actually had their call center. Single-state institutions sometimes only had in-state 800 numbers, so, for instance, you literally couldn't call California's Franchise Tax Board (the state's IRS-like tax authority) from outside of California (as I learned from bitter experience). Look up "InWATS" in Wikipedia for more details. Now, get off my lawn.
- brandonmenc 11y ago
  My mom worked at GTE and when I went to college in 1997 she got us a WATS line so I could dial 1-800 to call home. One of her jobs in the early 80s was to calculate the bills for WATS lines. There was a room full of mechanical counters, like odometers, that would increment while people were talking on their line. Every day she'd write down the new counts, subtract the previous day's counts, and they'd bill the difference.

sehugg 11y ago

It sometimes blows my mind that this would be $100 in today's dollars, or $12.50 per kilobyte.

voltagex_ 11y ago
$100 is a normal (Xbox One/PS4) game price in Australia.
- coke12 11y ago
  100 AUD is 71 USD.
  - junto 11y ago
    Wow. That's really expensive. Is it a 95% fun tax?
    - Buge 11y ago
      Where did you get 95% from? The normal new game price on Amazon seems to be $60. The Division and Far Cry Primal are both $60 for both systems. It's an 18% "fun tax".
      - junto 11y ago
        It was just an observation that Ozzies seem to get screwed by both corporations and their own government these days. 95% I plucked out of my head, as an extreme percentual screwing value! :-)
    - NamTaf 11y ago
      It's a 95% Australia tax. We pay more for almost everything just because. It was originally justified by our exchange rates (which got down into the AUD$1 = USD$0.5x) but persisted at the same dollar values even when the rate went to AUD$1 = USD$1.2. Basically, we get screwed because there's precident establishing that we can. And it permiates almost anything that is produced overseas including phones and laptops but also all kinds of software, not just games. Here's an article from when it was a hot topic in the news: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/adobe-chief-dodges-questions-over-pricing-20130214-2eetr.html http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/adobe-chief... At the time it was literally cheaper to fly from Sydney to LA, buy the software in LA and fly home.

jonathankoren 11y ago

Yup. My grandmother bought me it for christmas, no doubt full retail. It was inordinately expensive. It would be inordinately expensive today with a retail cost of $100 inflation adjusted dollars. Best 2600 title screen ever though. No one ever mentions that about the game though.