18 replies to this topic

[ricnight1977]

I've been collecting for the 7800 for several years now. During this period I've NEVER seen any of the PAL games Absolute issued for sale on Ebay UK. Yes, the HES versions sometimes crop up in Australia or Germany, but never in the UK. Can anyone give me some background on this? Were they actually distributed in the UK, because I'm starting to think they weren't. Thinking back to the late 80's when Toys R Us sold Atari games I have no recolection of seeing the Absolute titles for the 7800, only the 2600. If Kung Fu Master, Super Skateboardin' and the others actually appeared on Ebay UK in cardboard boxes (rather than HES clam) they would surely sell for a fortune. Does anyone know the true value of the 7800 Absolute games in PAL region. And were they distributed in the UK, or only Europe and Australia? The search continues!

[high voltage]

Only HES distributed Absolute games were and still are being sold in the UK


Those on the pic I purchased in UK

Edited by high voltage, Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:17 PM.

[ricnight1977]

high voltage, on Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:15 PM, said:

Only HES distributed Absolute games were and still are being sold in the UK


Those on the pic I purchased in UK

That's a very impressive collection. I'm jealous! Where did you get the 3rd party games from in the UK? I can't find them anywhere!!

[high voltage]

Don't be, it's all sold. Also in that pic (lower down) was a boxed Water Ski, Titlematch, and Klax

back in the days when UK still had decent computer and gaming shops. Also, Macro had 7800 games for sale, WHSmith would order them for you (All members of the software link chain actually) and plenty other places. Telegames UK still sells them nowadays I think.

Rampage (Activision) as you know did not have a PAL release.

Edited by high voltage, Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:50 PM.

[ricnight1977]

Okay, so it seems these games were actually distributed within the UK. However, the chance of me getting these games now seems very slim indeed. Telegames site is down, and I can't find anyone else that stocks 3rd party 7800 games. Surely I can't be the only 7800 PAL collector out there that's seriously struggling to find these games. Would love to hear from people that have completed the full collection of 7800 PAL games, and how they did it.

[high voltage]

Nowadays only ebay is your best 7800 friend 'fraid.
Telegames is just updating their site, it will be back. You can always phone your order.

Try and get the HES games from Germany, as they are sometimes plenty around.
Try http://www.videogame...deo_Game_Source, but just checked, even they are selling out. Looks like HES stuff is getting rare.
Try and get the US-only games first, like Baseball, Touchdown Football, Robotron 2084, Asteroids.

Early days it was more easy collecting 7800, in UK, as I said before, 7800 games were avaiable all over the place. Later on, Macro sold 7800 games in 5-packs for GBP 15. Imagine how easy that was to complete the collection that way.
I managed to buy Water Ski cheap back in the early 90s from USA ebay, never managed to get Tank Command though, my only missing title (next to the 7800 32 in 1 cart, which was just the 2600 version with a 7800 label).
Rampage was popping up on ebay US also all the time back then, but now, they seem to dry out. It's not so easy anymore. Klax I got from the ResQsoft website.

Although a friend of mine the in USA just managed to complete his 7800 collection, and he only started 1 year ago with 7800 collecting.

Edited by high voltage, Sat Apr 30, 2011 3:07 PM.

[ricnight1977]

high voltage, on Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:38 PM, said:

Nowadays only ebay is your best 7800 friend 'fraid.
Telegames is just updating their site, it will be back. You can always phone your order.

Try and get the HES games from Germany, as they are sometimes plenty around.
Try http://www.videogame...deo_Game_Source, but just checked, even they are selling out. Looks like HES stuff is getting rare.
Try and get the US-only games first, like Baseball, Touchdown Football, Robotron 2084, Asteroids.

Early days it was more easy collecting 7800, in UK, as I said before, 7800 games were avaiable all over the place. Later on, Macro sold 7800 games in 5-packs for GBP 15. Imagine how easy that was to complete the collection that way.
I managed to buy Water Ski cheap back in the early 90s from USA ebay, never managed to get Tank Command though, my only missing title (next to the 7800 32 in 1 cart, which was just the 2600 version with a 7800 label).
Rampage was popping up on ebay US also all the time back then, but now, they seem to dry out. It's not so easy anymore. Klax I got from the ResQsoft website.

Although a friend of mine the in USA just managed to complete his 7800 collection, and he only started 1 year ago with 7800 collecting.

Yes, I agree it seems to be getting more difficult lately. Only 3 years ago I was snapping up mint sealed copies of games such as Food Fight, Desert Falcon, Galaga and Joust etc for only 2 quid each! Strange that the collecting market has changed so much, considering Retro Gamer magazine ignores 7800 games completely. Yes, they did a dreadful retrospective on the console a few issues back....annoyed me no end! Thanks for the advice though.

[Mayhem]

I've got a full PAL set, although I don't have all the individual HES and Salu releases; for some titles I only have one of them. Trying to find the missing bits, but a couple will be a real pain to locate.

[ricnight1977]

People are always saying Dark Chambers is the rarest PAL game. This simply isn't true. I managed to get one pretty easily, and have seen further copies since. Without doubt the 3rd party games are by far the rarest. I've been informed that a PAL copy of Super Skateboardin' did appear on ebay UK last year. Must have been a buy it now, or I was on holiday, because I missed that. Damn!

[Mayhem]

Dark Chambers is hard to find though, on PAL compared to NTSC. It was one of the last PAL titles I got my hands on for instance. But no, it's not rare rare in terms of scale.

[ricnight1977]

Mayhem, on Sun May 1, 2011 10:44 AM, said:

Dark Chambers is hard to find though, on PAL compared to NTSC. It was one of the last PAL titles I got my hands on for instance. But no, it's not rare rare in terms of scale.

Do you have a complete PAL collection then? I'm probably going to go to my grave looking for these bloody games.

[Mayhem]

See above. I have a full Atari PAL set, most of the PAL Salu/HES releases (I have at least one for each title) and all the NTSC only games. All complete. And all homebrew. Yeah, I'm a 7800 freak

[ricnight1977]

Mayhem, on Sun May 1, 2011 9:52 PM, said:

See above. I have a full Atari PAL set, most of the PAL Salu/HES releases (I have at least one for each title) and all the NTSC only games. All complete. And all homebrew. Yeah, I'm a 7800 freak

Regarding NTSC only games. I have Winter Games, Water Ski(had 2, sold 1), Realsports Baseball and Touchdown Football. Rampage and Summer Games seem bloody rare and struggling to get these at a decent price. And we all know about Tank Command. Do you have any pictures of your 7800 collection?

[Mayhem]

Yeah... they're a bit old though, and it's before I got more stuff than I currently have. I'll have to go look somewhere...

[Jobf]

All my Absolute or Salu games came from Germany or Australia.

I just need PAL Baseball and F14 Tomcat for a 'complete' PAL collection. I could have bought them from Telegames UK for £39 each, but where's the fun in that? I have a few Salu AND HES (cardboard & Clamshell) releases like Super Skateboardin' but really I'm just happy with one or the other.

I have a spare HES Kung Fu Master & Double Dragon for trade. In an ideal world I'd like to trade them for the two I need


I got my Dark Chambers from Belgium because I never saw any appear in the UK. Seen a few since then though. Also Donkey Kong came from Belgium and Centipede from Australia. In my experience these titles weren't as widely distributed in the UK compared to most other Atari 7800 titles.

[Mitch]

Jobf, on Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:30 AM, said:

I have a spare HES Kung Fu Master & Double Dragon for trade. In an ideal world I'd like to trade them for the two I need

Figures, I still need a Salu cardboard box Kung Fu Master.

Mitch

[Mayhem]

I was just about to say I needed those two, and then I remembered those were the last two I managed to get my hands on. But that was quite a while back. I believe I still need HES Super Skateboarding and Baseball, and Salu F18 and Titlematch.

[high voltage]

I had my Dark Chambers and Centipede from UK, Makro.
Donkey Kong appeared in Kays (RIP) catalogue very early on (when the 7800 was released in UK), but it went rare as Mayhem already mentioned somewhere.

Quite rare is also the Tomcat with 2600 label (US only?)

Don't forget, Asteroids is a US release as a cart too.

Edited by high voltage, Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:29 AM.

[gambler172]

Jobf, on Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:30 AM, said:

All my Absolute or Salu games came from Germany or Australia.

I just need PAL Baseball and F14 Tomcat for a 'complete' PAL collection. I could have bought them from Telegames UK for £39 each, but where's the fun in that? I have a few Salu AND HES (cardboard & Clamshell) releases like Super Skateboardin' but really I'm just happy with one or the other.

I have a spare HES Kung Fu Master & Double Dragon for trade. In an ideal world I'd like to trade them for the two I need


I got my Dark Chambers from Belgium because I never saw any appear in the UK. Seen a few since then though. Also Donkey Kong came from Belgium and Centipede from Australia. In my experience these titles weren't as widely distributed in the UK compared to most other Atari 7800 titles.

Hi
I have one clamshell F14 TOMCAT left,for sale.I also have one clamshell TITLEMATCH.
greetings Walter
greetings Walter