Stockton Storeowner Sell Classic Video Games to Enthusiasts.

By Reed Fujii, The Record, Stockton, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Sep. 8--Morgan Boyd was born about the time that the classic Atari 2600 video game system was introduced in 1977.

Boyd, a former Lodi resident now attending California State University, Sacramento, recalled playing Atari as a child, but he was too young to develop any real skill or passion for the game system before it passed into obsolescence. No, he had to wait until four or five years ago when he got hooked on games like Pac-Man, Gravitar and Yar's Revenge after playing at a friend's house.

"He had a ton of them, because they were so cheap," Boyd recalled "I just really got hooked."

"I don't really like the new systems," he said. "... They're just too complex, I guess. Plus the old games, the prices ... you can get 10 Atari games for like seven, eight or nine bucks."

And Boyd is not alone.

The recent Classic Gaming Expo 2001, an annual convention in Las Vegas for fans and dealers in old video games and game system, high a four-year high for attendance and participation by sponsors.

The inaugural affair in 1998 drew about 150 people, while the 2001 event was attended by more than a thousand people from across the United States and Canada.

Classic games and game systems, including such names as Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision and Odyssey, constitute a good portion of the business at Video Game Exchange in Stockton, owner Tom Martin said.

Martin, who keeps an Atari 2600 system on hand at the store (it's not for sale) to play Pac-Man or Pong when businesses gets slow, said he's built a steady trade through his on-line Web site, www.videogex.com

"It helps a lot, particularly in the slow months."

Perhaps about 20 percent of his sales are made on the Web and the bulk of that trade is in classic games.

When Martin opened the first Video Game Exchange store in Lodi about six years ago, he decided he would try to carry games and accessories for all the popular systems, from the Atari 2600 to the then-state-of-the-art Playstation.

"We've always had a loyal customer base as far as Atari goes," he said. "We have a very loyal customer base on the Internet, as well."

The old games have a wide appear, he added.

"It's funny because you'll get kids, 12 and 13 years old, get hooked on it," Martin said, As well as middle-age men and women.

That appeal is a mixture of nostalgia, simplicity and pure fun, classic game fans said.

"It's simple, one button and a joystick," Martin said. ... "They had to concentrate on making the game fun instead of blowing you away with graphics."

"I definitely like the simplicity of the games," Boyd said.

"The new (game-system) controllers, there's like six buttons and all these combinations you have to do.

..."It takes a lot more time to get into those games, unlike an Atari game when you sit down and within a couple of minutes you're on your way."

Renewed interest in classic video games has made them harder to find and somewhat more expensive, although they still come nowhere near the price of a new Playstation2 ($300) or Nintendo's next-generation GameCube, expected to be released this fall for $200.

Martin, who has no Atari or original Nintendo Entertainment System game consoles currently for sale, has waiting lists of customers for both machines.

If he has them, Martin said he sells Atari 2600 consoles for about $30, while they might go for $50 to $60 at other dealers.

"Atari, they're very hard to find," said Fred Karimi, who's operated the Tracy Game Exchange in Tracy for the past six years. "We get calls, maybe three or four times a month, from people looking for units."

"The best place you can find Atari games are flea markets or swap meets."

Karimi recalled he did sell an Atari system with a number of games about three months ago when a buyer offered him $100.

"I was willing to go even lower. I don't know why he needed it so badly," Karimi said.

Perhaps, he said, people will pay anything to bring back the memories.

Collectors have also driven up the price on rare game titles, even though them games themselves might not be worth playing. Such buyers ask for games in their original boxes, with certain types of labels or unusual items.

Rare games such as Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as some unauthorized adult titles, might fetch as much as $50 or more, Martin said.

He estimates there may be as many as 1,300 different game titles for the Atari console and occasionally new games continue to appear.

"There are still fans that learned to program for Atari. Every once in awhile, a new game will come out for ... homemade games," Martin said.

"Most people by the common games they played growing up."

Serious collectors might have as many as 300 to 400 different titles.

Martin, who opened his Stockton store in the spring, said the business keeps himself and his wife, Bridgitte (another Atari fan) very busy.

He has taken on a partner, David Flanagan, to continue to run the Lodi store.

Martin said another reason he likes the old games was than many of them were designed for more than one player, adding a welcome element of competition and unpredictability.

"My wife, Bridgitte, before we got together, she had a system," he said. "So we play together."

"I was a 2600 fan, he was a(n Atari) 5200 fan," Bridgitte Martin said.

"Pretty geeky, huh?"

Instead of trying to settle the debate about which game system was the best, the couple simply kept them both.

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(c) 2001, The Record, Stockton, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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