Ah, paper catalogues. They still make them, but they're not what they used to be. What are now glossy prints highlighting only a select few items from a store used to be informational tomes, full of almost everything you could ever want.


And we all wanted video games, right?

These catalogues, mostly from US retailer Sears, were at the time the frontlines in the battle for your hard-earned dollar. Aside from game mags, nowhere else could Sega and Nintendo's hardware and games square off directly opposite each other like they could in a massive catalogue.


The catalogues here range from 1982 to 1996, and are courtesy of websites HuguesJohnson and The Retroist (via Gamesniped).

Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.

You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at plunkett@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.


























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