Atari 2600
Atari Video Computer System
Sought After?
Very. Common cartridges (Pac-Man, Combat) are cheap, but rarities like Air Raid (with its box) have sold for over $30,000, and sealed complete-in-box units command strong prices.
Downsides
Primitive graphics even for its era by the end of its life; joystick was a single-button design with no fine control; RF switchboxes give notoriously fuzzy picture on modern TVs.
Why It Faded
The 1983 video game crash, caused partly by market flooding with low-quality third-party titles (most infamously E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), tanked consumer confidence and nearly killed the industry. The NES eventually replaced it in the market by the late 1980s.
Trivia
Millions of unsold E.T. cartridges were reportedly buried in a New Mexico landfill in 1983 â an urban legend confirmed true when the site was excavated in 2014.