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Courtesy National Videogame Museum Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
In 1977, Rick Weis got a most treasured Christmas gift: an Atari 2600. His parents bought him the super-popular gaming console — the first to popularize interchangeable video game cartridges
— to keep him from spending too much time at the arcades. It worked better than expected. Within weeks, he started an obsessive cartridge collection, and today at 57 years old, he's one of
the top collectors in the world.
Of the more than 400 games that were released for the system in North America, Weis lacks only four, and those elusive games are so rare — and five-figure expensive — that a complete set
feels out of reach.
At his home in Portland, Oregon, Weis proudly displays the games, with their original packaging and instruction manuals, along with other treasures, including three Atari retail displays he
has acquired.
Like a music fan who digs jazz or a film buff whose remote thumb instinctively navigates to the classic movie channel, Weis is an appreciator of entertainment from a bygone era. And video
games have been around long enough to have spawned a culture of preservationists — players who still thrill over the simple beauty of games played with a joystick and single fire button in
this ever-more-complex world.
Rick Weis' massive collection of Atari games. Courtesy Rick WeisThrough gaming expos, museums and even new games for old systems (programmed by hobbyists and called “homebrews"), they want others to share in their appreciation.