Founded in 1931, Zellers is a Canadian discount department store that sold Atari
games in the 1980's. All their games were knock-offs manufactured in Taiwan and
sold without license from Atari. Packaging was very plain, with a simple red box
featuring some unusual artwork, the title of the game, and the words "2600
Compatible" in large white letters. The only thing to indicate their origin
was the name 'Zellers' in small letter in the price square on the top right corner
of the box. All the Zellers games were existing Atari 2600 games given new names
and packaging - Radar is Cruise Missile, Busy Police is Keystone Kapers, although
some titles had slightly altered graphics. The cartridge labels themselves are
also different with a very simple end label and the same artwork that is found
on the box. Atari eventually put a stop to this and Zellers quit selling 2600
games. These games were only sold in Canada, and therefore they are quite hard
to find in the US but not too difficult to locate in Canada. While the cartridges
themselves are not as rare as they were traditionally thought, boxed Zellers games
are quite hard to find. Since there are no Zellers catalogs, it is not entirely
certain what their full lineup of games was, and historically many more games
have been attributed to them than we include here at AtariAge. If you have evidence
of any other Zellers games that we do not have listed, please
contact us (box scan preferred). Today you can find Zellers at www.zellers.com. |