The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same (Switch 2 Pricing vs Atari VCS)

There is a layaway receipt from Kmart that's reposted to various subreddits or Facebook every few months. Amusingly everyone who posts it usually claims it is theirs, evidently unaware that just a few months before someone posted the exact same photo and made the exact same claim. People are weird like that. But anyway, here it is:

There are copies of better quality out there. Basically it's dated 1981 and lists an Atari and three games:

• Atari - $131.88
• Casino - $20.88
• Asteroids - $27.88
• Space Invaders - $20.88

For a total of $211.60 after tax.

Let's adjust this for inflation, from 1981 values to 2025 values

• Atari - $463.97
• Casino - $73.46
• Asteroids - $98.09
• Space Invaders - $73.46

For a total of $744.44 after tax.

This would have been the Atari VCS, later renamed to the Atari 2600. This was the system that dominated America before Nintendo sneaked in and took over. At the time, it blew everyone away. Unlike the NES that followed that aged relatively well and still has fans even among young kids who didn't grow up with it, the Atari VCS aged very poorly.

Consider those three games:

Casino

Asteroids

Space Invaders

Despite not looking so good, Asteroids is still a lot of fun, in a simple and mindless kind of way. You can play the original arcade version (which looked significantly better than the Atari VCS one) here if you want to give it a try. It doesn't work as well with a keyboard, but you can still get an idea.

While reading my feed on Mastodon, I came across some folks in Japan grumbling about the Switch 2 and its game prices. In the US it will be $449.99 without a game or $499.99 with the latest version of Mario Kart. The original release of the Atari VCS didn't include a game, but Combat was quickly added. So this 1981 version in the top photo receipt likely came with that.

Incidentally, in Japan there is a Japanese-only version of the system that is roughly $343. Which is weird since they are more than likely the same system, meaning this one just has a line of code commented out to disable other languages. But they probably did this to discourage foreigners from coming here and taking advantage of the weak yen.

That $449.99 price for the system-only isn’t far off from the $463.97 inflation-adjusted price of the Atari—it’s even a little cheaper!

And the games? Nintendo was suggesting a price of $69.99 to $79.99. I write was because evidently people threw enough of a fit that they are rethinking that and have announced that the price will be "adjusted due to market conditions". But let's just go with that original announcement.

I remind you, those Atari price-adjusted games were:

• Casino - $73.46
• Asteroids - $98.09
• Space Invaders - $73.46

Again, Nintendo's new prices seem pretty spot on to me.

I don't know. I'm not a gamer and while I probably will buy the Switch 2 eventually for my kids, I'm not really personally invested in these prices like gamers are, so maybe my saying the prices aren't too bad because they are the same as the Atari when adjusted for inflation sounds mocking.

I think there was an era in there, maybe from the PSX to, well, now, where games had gone down in price a lot, so a return to this price level feels onerous, even if there is precedent for this pricing level.

So there we go. Back in 1981, parents shelled out the equivalent of over $700 to get their kids an Atari and a few simple games like Casino.

Forty-something years later, the numbers haven’t really changed—just the graphics and the complaints.

Then again, if we could have been flies on the wall back then, we might’ve heard the same grumbling from parents handing over all that cash.