More than thirty years before achievements in video games became commonplace, Activision was already filling its followers' clothing with merit badges. Indeed, the company rewarded players for playing well, but not with ephemeral virtual medals—it sent real cloth patches that you sewed onto your jacket. This happened during the early 1980s, when consoles like Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Intellivision, and Colecovision reigned supreme. Nearly every game of those years had an associated patch, and kids were dying to collect them.
How did you claim your well-deserved free medals? It required some work. First, you had to read the game's manual to see the goals for each achievement. Once you met them, you had to take a photo of your TV screen, develop that photo, and mail it to Activision's offices. After a few weeks, your prize would arrive by mail. Each medal came with a letter of recognition from Activision's CEO congratulating you on the achievement. Below you can see the letter they sent with Tennis (you can read it as a PDF here).
As expected, these promotions were only valid in the United States, which makes these badges quite rare and sought-after collectibles today. They don't seem too difficult to replicate, in case some artisan wants to make some money.
Without further ado, below you will find some of the prettiest merit badges. They were taken from DigitPress, which has a beautiful archive full of collectibles that I recommend you visit. Enjoy!
