Thanks to a nice sale from Crazy Climber, I now own a cartridge of Submarine Commander, the very last game I needed for a complete collection of Atari games from the black-label era. I still hope to track down some variants, such as the gatefold-boxed launch titles I don't yet have, but now I can finally claim ownership of at least one cartridge of every game Atari and/or Sears published between 1977 and 1982.
Looking at my checklist got me to thinking about the catalog numbers Atari assigned to their games. For the most part the catalog numbers got higher over the years, but some games are decidedly out of order, chronologically speaking. Finally it hit me: In the beginning, Atari assigned catalog numbers based on the game's genre, and then at some point abandoned that practice. The genres:
The 00's - Action Games
01 - Combat
02 - Air-Sea Battle
03 - Starship
04 - Space War
05 - Outlaw
06 - Slot Racers
07 - Canyon Bomber
The 10's - Racing Games
11 - Indy 500
12 - Street Racer
The 20's - Sports Games
21 - Video Olympics
22 - Breakout
23 - Home Run
24 - Basketball
25 - Football
26 - Miniature Golf
The 40's - Strategy/Board Games
41 - Surround
42 - Hunt and Score
43 - Codebreaker
44 - Flag Capture
45 - Video Chess
The 50's - Gambling Games
51 - Blackjack
52 - Casino
53 - Slot Machine
The 60's - Learning Games
61 - Basic Math
62 - Hangman
64 - Brain Games
It's difficult to see exactly where Atari stopped cataloging by genre and simply started doling out numbers as games were marked for development, but it seems to be somewhere in the 1980-1981 time frame. That's when a lot of newer games started getting lower catalog numbers, perhaps so that the numbers could still give a fair representation of how many games had been released. This would explain why a relatively new game like Defender could get a relatively low catalog number like 09, and why Breakout could end up with a higher catalog assignment than its sequel, Super Breakout (22 vs. 08).
Some trivial-but-still-interestion questions remain, though. Did Bowling, Human Cannonball and Sky Diver get their catalog numbers because they're considered sports games, or because Atari was just filling blanks by then? That could make interesting fuel for one of the endless debates about whether bowling, parachuting and cannonballing are "real" sports! Another question: Why were no games initially assigned numbers in the 30's? Was the sports category expected to hold more than 10 games? Was there a planned genre that Atari ended up delaying or shelving? Or did someone just think the 30's were bad luck? And finally, what happened to 63? Brain Games obviously belongs with the other early 60's games, so why did it get 64 instead of 63? And what kept 63 open for so long that it didn't get a game until the red-label era, many years later?
For all I know this has been discussed and all these questions answered already, but, it didn't all click for me until just recently. Having time to kill at work will do that for you!
Looking at my checklist got me to thinking about the catalog numbers Atari assigned to their games. For the most part the catalog numbers got higher over the years, but some games are decidedly out of order, chronologically speaking. Finally it hit me: In the beginning, Atari assigned catalog numbers based on the game's genre, and then at some point abandoned that practice. The genres:
The 00's - Action Games
01 - Combat
02 - Air-Sea Battle
03 - Starship
04 - Space War
05 - Outlaw
06 - Slot Racers
07 - Canyon Bomber
The 10's - Racing Games
11 - Indy 500
12 - Street Racer
The 20's - Sports Games
21 - Video Olympics
22 - Breakout
23 - Home Run
24 - Basketball
25 - Football
26 - Miniature Golf
The 40's - Strategy/Board Games
41 - Surround
42 - Hunt and Score
43 - Codebreaker
44 - Flag Capture
45 - Video Chess
The 50's - Gambling Games
51 - Blackjack
52 - Casino
53 - Slot Machine
The 60's - Learning Games
61 - Basic Math
62 - Hangman
64 - Brain Games
It's difficult to see exactly where Atari stopped cataloging by genre and simply started doling out numbers as games were marked for development, but it seems to be somewhere in the 1980-1981 time frame. That's when a lot of newer games started getting lower catalog numbers, perhaps so that the numbers could still give a fair representation of how many games had been released. This would explain why a relatively new game like Defender could get a relatively low catalog number like 09, and why Breakout could end up with a higher catalog assignment than its sequel, Super Breakout (22 vs. 08).
Some trivial-but-still-interestion questions remain, though. Did Bowling, Human Cannonball and Sky Diver get their catalog numbers because they're considered sports games, or because Atari was just filling blanks by then? That could make interesting fuel for one of the endless debates about whether bowling, parachuting and cannonballing are "real" sports! Another question: Why were no games initially assigned numbers in the 30's? Was the sports category expected to hold more than 10 games? Was there a planned genre that Atari ended up delaying or shelving? Or did someone just think the 30's were bad luck? And finally, what happened to 63? Brain Games obviously belongs with the other early 60's games, so why did it get 64 instead of 63? And what kept 63 open for so long that it didn't get a game until the red-label era, many years later?
For all I know this has been discussed and all these questions answered already, but, it didn't all click for me until just recently. Having time to kill at work will do that for you!