Atari 2600
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: ~404–471 distinct NA titles — no canonical count exists; ~900–1,400+ rows once label variants count. Starting here would mean adjudicating the library before cataloging it.
This is not an encyclopedia of every video game ever made. The encyclopedias already do that, and that ground is theirs. Tangiblia builds something narrower and deeper: a collector list for one system at a time — a closed, completable list of the physical releases a collector can actually hold, researched to a single standard and argued in the open.
The object here is never the title in the abstract. It is the release on a system: Dig Dug on the NES and Dig Dug on the Atari 2600 are two different objects, because everything a collector needs to know — what counts, what is complete, which printing is in hand — is different for each.
What every list answers
The set
What counts as the library — legislated in the open, with every disagreement flagged on the row it touches.
Complete
What a complete copy consists of — disc, case, the correct manual, inserts — recorded per release.
Print states
Variants are their own records, linked to their base: editions, pressings, revisions, pack-ins.
Rarity
From documented production facts only, with the reason shown. Aura is not evidence.
Sale history
Recorded sales, gathered by sweeps over time — a trail that starts empty rather than invented.
7systems researched
1system cataloged
294records live
251base releases
43variant records
61rarity assignments
The generations
1977–1982The first cartridge era
Programmable cartridges arrive; the home library is invented.
Atari 2600
1983–1989The 8-bit era
After the crash, one console rebuilds the North American market — and the licensed set becomes a defined, chased thing.
Nintendo Entertainment System
1989–199716-bit & handheld
The console war years, and the handheld that made the library portable.
Sega Genesis
Game Boy + Color
Super Nintendo
1994–1999The disc dawn · 32/64-bit
CD-ROM replaces the cartridge as the collector object: print states, disc art and ringcodes become the variant evidence.
Sega SaturnPlayStation
The systems
Nintendo Entertainment System
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: 677–679 NA licensed titles (canonical to ±2); ~1,100–1,400 rows with variants. The flagship candidate — the market's center of gravity.
Sega Genesis
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: ~700+ NA titles — the NA count was never canonically fixed; ~950–1,150 rows with variants.
Game Boy + Color
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: ~950–975 NA titles; ~1,050–1,200 rows with variants. The GB/GBC filing rule must be legislated (by cartridge class) before row one.
Super Nintendo
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: 717 NA licensed titles — the crispest count of any candidate; ~900–1,100 rows with variants. Best variant documentation in the field.
Sega Saturn
Cataloged — live294 records — 251 base releases + 43 variants · rarity assigned on 61 (Grail 2 · Rare 4 · Scarce 11 at the top)
The North American licensed set, legislated in the open as a union of the Redump, Satakore, Wikipedia and RGPG lists — every disagreement flagged on the row it touches. Imports fenced as a later wave.
PlayStation
Researched — build queuedResearch estimate: ~1,278–1,335 NA titles; ~1,800–2,400 rows with variants — a phased program, not a starting build.