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SAN FRANCISCO — From archaic hardware to bizarre characters, you never know what you'll find when you go digging through the bins at thrift stores and flea markets. Here are some of the latest obscure gaming collectibles I've found in my Weekend Thrifting expeditions.

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Atari made a lot of different Pong machines, but Ultra Pong Doubles was the king. If you owned this gaming console, you could enjoy the ultimate video tennis experience. It boasted four detachable controllers, for goodness' sake. It stunned with crazy rainbow backgrounds. It delivered an array of variations with tantalizing names like Hyper Barrier Hockey that covered up the fact the games were all just Pong with slightly altered rules.

All this advancement was made possible because Ultra Pong Doubles was released in 1977, the same year as the Atari Video Computer System, which quickly rendered solid-state Pong machines obsolete.

I still probably wouldn't have bought this (these ancient pieces take up a lot of room) except for the fact that it came with--

Chris Kohler is the founder and editor of Wired.com's Game|Life, and the author of Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. He will talk your ear off about Japanese curry rice.
Follow @kobunheat and @GameLife on Twitter.

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