Original Pac Man concept painting

In an interesting move, noted art & antiquities auction house SOTHEBY’S has extended the scope of its offerings to include vintage video game ephemera, which will make its first appearance on the block at this week’s Thursday morning auction in New York. Up for grabs (and projected to fetch somewhere between $150,000—250,000 USD), is “an extensive archive of original marketing materials from the “Golden Age” of Atari, ca. 1981 to 1983, comprising more than 2,000 items of widely varying sizes and formats, including manuscript memorandum, internal specification guidelines, original sketches, blue lines, mechanicals, proofs, color separations (including acetates), and screen diagrams; the archive is mostly related to marketing materials for Atari games and game consoles, especially boxes and manuals, but includes some early design and graphic work for specific game characters and components.” Classic titles represented in the lot with original artwork include Pac Man, Dig Dug, Bezerk, Asteroids, Defender, Space Invaders, Mario Bros, and Pong. Looks like 8-bit just became blue chip…

Original Dig-Dug concept artwork

Original Indy 500 concept art

Original Pong box samples

SEE for yourself…

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