• Here are a couple of catalogs from Parker Brothers. I've always liked the Parker Brothers games simply because they were, for the most part, translations of really cool coin ops. There were, of course, some bad ones mixed in with the good, but the thrills I got out of Frogger, Empire Strikes Back and Reactor are just too good to forget.

Frogger: Ahh, hours spent playing this game. One of PB's arcade translations, this one is their most common and immensely popular. It is simplistic, has decent graphics, and is just captivating. A later sequel to this game, Frogger II: Threedeep! is far more rare and offers the player some additional challenges.

Amidar, Super Cobra, Jedi Arena

Super Cobra: This game is horrible. Horrible sounds, horrible graphics, simply a badly coded game. Pull it out and put in another.

Jedi Arena: This is a very fun game, even if the graphics aren't the best in the world. Developed during the period of the Return of the Jedi's immense success, it pits you against another light-saber wielding warrior. I spent many hours playing this with friends, and was often accused of cheating. It's addicting when played with others!

Reactor, Strawberry Shortcake, Sky Skipper

Catalog #2:

This catalog isn't nearly as colorful, but it has good writeups on some of their games with small screen shots and box art. The cool thing is that it contains ads for some of their unreleased games, and some that have only been found to exist in prototype form. Check them out!

1. The Cover
2. Inside the front cover
3. Frogger and Super Cobra
4. Sky Skipper and Tutankham
5. Reactor and Popeye
6. Q*Bert and 5200 Astro Chase
7. G.I. Joe Cobra Strike and Strawberry Shortcake

• G.I. Joe: Another one of Parker Brother's titles that was designed to cater to the younger market. This was around the period that the G.I. Joe action figures were VERY popular and fit right in with the action figures and the TV show really well. The game is fairly tedious and features no real gameplay value. Note: The cart has a significant label variation. It was released in a black and white text label with black stars, and then a colorful version with the snake and the Joes.

• The Incredible Hulk: A prime example of Parker Brothers vaporware, an attempt to release a game in the same line as Spider-Man. It never saw the light of day, and the manual shot is a fake.

• Ewok Adventure: This game was advertised and up until recently believed to be a pure work of fiction. However, a prototype was discovered and found to be complete!

• McDonald's: I have no idea what they intended, but a proto is rumored to exist.

• Journey to Rivendell: A game supposedly based upon Tolkien's world, a prototype exists, but that's as far as it got.

• James Bond 007: This game suffers from bad graphics and bad coding, and is just not fun. It's rare though, so don't get it unless you collect for completeness.