Legendary Atari 2600 E.T. Landfill Excavated

[wp34]

My first Atari was the Sears version.  I remember BID Sears would let you return opened games.  We would take them back and exchange them for new ones once we got bored--or more often when we got the game home and realized it stunk.

[pbj]

That was a trick that never occurred to me.  My wife and her friends managed to burn through most of the SMS and NES libraries by doing that, though.

 

[ChadTower]

That policy pretty much put Software Etc and Babbage's under, IMO.  I knew people who would buy a game, play it for two days, return it, and repeat indefinitely with the same purchase.  Some clerks would stop doing it after a few returns but it wasn't long that they discovered that cleavage always equaled return with no questions.

[DaveMMR]

I think Nintendo's reign in the late 80's, they also put an end to accepting returns from stores of any open software (it wasn't for piracy concerns; it was just because they could), which in turn, put an end to stores accepting them.

[SavannahLion]

I think Nintendo's reign in the late 80's, they also put an end to accepting returns from stores of any open software (it wasn't for piracy concerns; it was just because they could), which in turn, put an end to stores accepting them.

I don't recall stores doing that until later, either just before or right at the introduction of the Genesis or TG16. I had friends who did that with NES and SMS titles. I never did because I always knew what to buy based on their purchases.

[DaveMMR]

Yeah, it was later in the NES' lifespan, around 1988. Below's where I happened upon that tidbit. But yeah, I remember I tried to return a game and was told "nope."  I was very careful with my purchasers from then-on.

Another Nintendo policy that made retailers furious was their return policy, or lack thereof. Because Nintendo's quality control was boasting a defect rate of 0.9% for hardware and 0.25% for software by 1988, Nintendo executives did not see a need for their previous 90 day guarantee. A new policy was announced to the retailers: no returns. Once a game cartridge box or system box was opened, a refund was out of the question. Concerning this, Sheff wrote:

"Pandemonium followed. One of the largest retailers in the country threatened to stop carrying Nintendo Systems and products. Nintendo refused to change the policy and the retailer refused the products. The retailer held out for three months; after that it crawled back and agreed to Nintendo's terms.

http://www.geekcomix.com/vgh/fourth/nesbad.shtml

[ChadTower]

Pretty sure people were still doing that at Software Etc / Babbage's as late as the Saturn.  That was store policy, though, not manufacturer.

Chad

[pbj]

You can still do it at Gamestop with used games.

Or you can do the customer is always right two step.  Take it back to the store as defective, get a sealed replacement, return sealed replacement for a refund.  Easy peasy.

 

[wp34]

In the 80's we had a place in Des Moines that sold a "Happy Chip" that let the Atari 800 be able to make "backup" of copy-protected discs.  They also allowed you to rent said discs.   I thought that was cool when I was a kid but in hindsight it just seems nuts.   Why buy a new game when you can just rent it and make a copy? 

[pbj]

Texas had a chain called Floppy Joe's where you bought a PC game for ~$80 and could return it within three days for ~$70.  They were always next door to a Kinko's so you could photocopy all the copyright protection.  Google says that one of them still exists in Plano... which I'm sure is the same location I went to 25 years ago.   

[wp34]

Texas had a chain called Floppy Joe's where you bought a PC game for ~$80 and could return it within three days for ~$70.  They were always next door to a Kinko's so you could photocopy all the copyright protection.  Google says that one of them still exists in Plano... which I'm sure is the same location I went to 25 years ago.   

Floppy Joe's.  That's Brilliant. 

[ark_ader]

That policy pretty much put Software Etc and Babbage's under, IMO.  I knew people who would buy a game, play it for two days, return it, and repeat indefinitely with the same purchase.  Some clerks would stop doing it after a few returns but it wasn't long that they discovered that cleavage always equaled return with no questions.

Lol.  I used to be a manager at software eft.  And they guys would buy 20 titles of a game and bring them back within ten days.  I would shrink wrap them and put them back on the shelves.  Then I contacted my local sheriffs office and told them I suspected the guy of copying software.  He didn't come back after that.  It was mostly Apple 2 and commodore software, and at the end of the day the guy was taking the piss.  One or two I could understand as those games were crap.

I heard afterwards they raided the guys house and he was selling the games mail order.  Mail fraud would be a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- test for every package sent.  It made the paper too.

[shmokes]

And like they did with Pac-Man, they made way more than they could ever expect to sell (even if every single 2600 owner bought the game.)

This sounds way dumber than it actually is.  In their aforementioned hubris, they expected system adoption to follow and surpass the numbers of the cartridges.  I.e. they expected the licensed titles to be "system sellers".  It was dumb for them to bank on these titles doing that, based on only the licenses, but that's apparently what they did.

Moreover, I expect there were powerful reasons for producing as many cartridges in a single run as you thought you could sell. I know, at least, that for companies that had to rely on Nintendo for cartridge production, this was the case. And as a result, many publishers found themselves sitting on huge inventories of unsaleable cartridges when sales didn't match estimates. Not sure to what degree this applied to Atari, who could produce their own carts, but I suspect that it was a significant factor.

[pbj]

I heard afterwards they raided the guys house and he was selling the games mail order.  Mail fraud would be a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- test for every package sent.  It made the paper too.

Link or it didn't happen.

Friend's dad worked at Electronics Boutique.  He had a literal filing cabinet full of copied games and manuals.  The employees would open the games, copy everything, and shrink wrap the boxes back up.  I think they had every title released between 1985-1995 in that thing.

[ark_ader]

I heard afterwards they raided the guys house and he was selling the games mail order.  Mail fraud would be a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- test for every package sent.  It made the paper too.

Link or it didn't happen.

Friend's dad worked at Electronics Boutique.  He had a literal filing cabinet full of copied games and manuals.  The employees would open the games, copy everything, and shrink wrap the boxes back up.  I think they had every title released between 1985-1995 in that thing.

Link for 24 years ago?    You funny.

We were able to take a game home and play it, so we could tell customers how the game played.  It never occurred to me to copy the game and sell it, probably due to the part about being caught and losing my job.  I'm sure the copying practice went on all over the place, and is a contributing factor for why we have so many software collections available on the net.