Player One Podcast

Here’s the second pair of Atari pencils that 11-year-old Phil bought in 1986, and 35-year-old Phil is still hanging onto in 2010.

Series 1: Centipede

The cabinet art for Atari’s 1980 game, Centipede (as seen to the left), was some of the coolest artwork in the arcades at the time. Sadly, that trippy arthropod didn’t earn a pencil appearance. Instead, the art depicted here was lifted from the box art for the Atari 5200 and 7800 version of the game.

Still, a Hobbit-ish kid armed with a magic wand going up against a cartoony-looking centipede is pretty rad. Green, of course, is the obvious color choice here. I’ve held on to three of these pencils over the years.

Series 1: Haunted House

This is the first pencil that we’re looking at to be based on a console exclusive title and not an arcade game. Haunted House was released in 1981 for the Atari 2600, and the pencil artwork, not surprisingly, is taken from the game’s box art. In the game, the player is exploring a darkened haunted house, and only the walls and the main character’s eyes can be seen in the blackness. To find items, you must light a match that only burns for a short time. I know the game has its fans, but honestly, I could never get into it back in the day. And I played through the 2600 version of E.T., for crying out loud.

With its cool black color and cooler spooky design, this was a popular pencil among my classmates. I only have one in my collection. Does that mean it’s rare? Eh, probably not. I’ll just chalk it up to luck of the draw.

(Game screens taken from The International Arcade Museum and AtariAge)

Previous Entries:
Atari Pencils – Series 1, Part 1

Phil Theobald Atari Pencils, Video Games Atari, collectible, memorabilia, pencil, video game

Here’s a slightly odd video game collectible that I haven’t seen get much coverage online—24-year-old Atari pencils!

I first got these pencils when I was in sixth grade, all the way back in 1986. They may, however, actually be a couple years older than that. By 1986, the Atari era had been over for a couple of years thanks to the video game crash of 1983, and Nintendo’s reign was just starting up. This didn’t stop my junior high school from stocking our cafeteria pencil machine with seemingly outdated Atari pencils, though.

Even though nobody really played Atari systems anymore, that didn’t stop my classmates and me from going nuts over these pencils. At a mere ten cents each, kids were buying multiple pencils a day trying to get a complete set. Of course, ample trading took place as well, and highly dubious rumors of “rare” pencils led to all sorts of elaborate deals.

In total, there were 20 different pencils, each featuring a separate game.  The pencils were released as two “series” of ten pencils each, and each of the ten pencils within a series was a different color.

I was always an anal retentive sort of kid (a trait that has followed me to adulthood), so I could never bring myself to actually use any of these writing utensils. They were always viewed as a collector’s item. I’ve been hanging on to them for all this time, and I figured that I should take some pictures of them so that more people can learn of their existence. For the next few blog entries here, I will be showing off all 20 of these rare goodies.

Series 1: Asteroids

The shiny blue pencils were always the most desired back in the day, and it’s not very hard to see why. Out of all the pencils, their color was the most attractive. Even if you weren’t a fan of Asteroids, the metallic blue finish looked awesome in your pencil case. The blue pencils were the ones that my classmates claimed were the rarest. I don’t know if this was true or not, but I do only have one Asteroids pencil.

Asteroids was first released in the arcades by Atari in 1979. The artwork on the pencil, however, was taken from the marquee of Atari’s 1980 arcade game, Asteroids Deluxe.

Series 1: Battlezone

Although not as desired as the blue pencils, these shiny silver pencils were still pretty popular. I have four of these Battlezone pencils.

Battlezone was Atari’s 1980 arcade game that utilized vector graphics to create the wireframe world. I’m not sure where the artwork on the pencil is from, however. If you happen to know, please let me know in the comments section.

(Game screens taken from The International Arcade Museum)

Phil Theobald Atari Pencils, Video Games Atari, collectible, memorabilia, pencil, video game