videotwit

Thanks Tempest. It is nice to know I'm not the only one. Usually I'm not so touchy about this. I guess this dry spell is getting the better of me. I guess I should reassure myself that an eighty-cent Turmoil isn't so bad, really. (I just wish I could find an eighty-cent Waterworld. Or even a two-dollar Spy Hunter... Which gives me an idea for a new topic...) ~Scott

The thrifts in my area have been painfully dry lately. Heck, for the past 2 years I have rarely spotted even a grungy Pac-Man or torn-up Combat at any of my usual haunts. Now, that's not to say that it NEVER happens that I find a goody or two, but those are few and far between. It probably has something to do with being an Atari collector for 8 years. There isn't much left that I need, and that I have half a chance of finding in the wild. But, I am not here to complain. I am simply wanting to ask a question of you all. That is: Do you ever just buy a cart you find in "the wild" that you don't need and you know you'll have a hard time trading just for the sake of actually buying something? I did today... On my way home from work, I decided to stop at a few thrifts, just for something to do. Well, at the second store I went to, there was a small smattering of 2600 titles back with the tapes. Great! Unfortunately the "best" game there (collecting-wise) was Turmoil, by 20th Century Fox. I bought it. It was 80 cents. Not bad, but I already have one, and how many times have you seen a "WTB" or "WTTF" message on any of the bulletin boards or newsgroups requesting Turmoil? I dont think I ever have... Why did I buy it? I really don't know - but it probably has something to do with simply making a 2600-related purchase. Does anyone ever have similar experiences? Do you buy that moderately-rare / little-better-than-uncommon cart just "because"? I want to hear stories. ~Scott

I'd do one of these two things: If the label is completely off, use a spray adhesive. The one I personally use is called "Super 77" and is made by 3M. It should be available at many different hobby / hardware stores. I think I've even seen it at places like Target, Kmart or Walgreens. Just lightly spray it on the back of the label, and carefully apply it to the cart. Once it is on, though, it's there for good, so be careful to line it up right the first time. If the label is only partially loose, and you don't want to risk trying to take it all the way off, I usuall just use a plain old glue stick. Just lightly apply it to the back of the loose area and hold it all together for a few minutes while the glue dries. That's about as easy as it gets. The only reason I warn against Rubber Cement is because of the solvents in it. Being it's applied in a relatively thick coat directly to the label, the solvents have a chance to soak into the paper fibers. Over the long term, this can lead to the label discoloring, becoming brittle, and all sorts of nastiness. ~Scott

Sounds interesting. I don't have any ideas of what its origin could be (besides thinking that someone slapped it together in a homespun attempt to reconstruct a broken Activision Tennis cart, or something along those lines), but it would probably help if you could post some pictures. It would give us a little more to go on, plus it's cool to actually see weird stuff like that. Thanks! ~Scott

Al- Have a GREAT time! (I'm sure you will!) I went several years back, in around '95 or '96 IIRC - in Atlanta, with my job at the time, and let me tell you, it was the most fun I've had on the job ever! Highlights included: -Nonstop "testing" of Rampage: World Tour -Free stuff from Nintendo -Several coin-ops on free play -and, best yet, the Sega after-party! I hope you'll post some pictures here when you get back! Hey- let me know what Game Boy Advance titles are announced (if you have a chance, that is!). That is one sweet little handheld! I've always wanted to go back, but haven't gotten the chance... yet. ~Scott

Here are mine: Asteroids: I'd play this one for hours on end. I think the furthest I got was rolling the score 3 times - then finally giving in to boredom and turning to this next game... Bermuda Triangle: This seems like a strange one to be hooked on, but I played it endlessly. Then there was... Donkey Kong: Sure it wasn't all that great of a conversion of this arcade classic, but I still played it like mad. Finally... Video Pinball: This is still one of my favorites. As a kid I played over and over. Now it's one of those "play until you roll the score a few times, become bored, and turn it off" kind of games for me. I love it! ~Scott

I guess I'll stick by my opinion here that "a variation is a variation." No matter how minor, I think it is best to keep it - even if just as a footnote in the list. ~Scott

OK- I know the answer to that one too. Break out your rulers, folks, because this is a REALLY SUBTLE variation. The small presents measures 5/16" (about 8mm) The large presents measures 6/16" (about 9mm) Trust me - this really is a variation, not just my imagination (I have my ruler and 2 carts right here for proof!) ~Scott

I think the cryptic codings in the list in this instance is talking about the cart casing itself. I know that Fox created games in (at least) 2 styles of cartridge. One has the 20th Century Fox logo embossed on the reverse, and 1 is a "plain" cart casing. I hope this is what you are talking about. ~Scott [ 05-10-2001: Message edited by: twit ]

My vote would go to CBS's Solar Fox - GREAT gameplay IMHO. ~Scott

I have mixed feelings about the PAL labels. On one hand, I think that the PAL variations probably don't belong on the list yet. There are SO MANY of them to start with, and so little is really known about them now they should probably be held off the list until more is known. And yet, if you are going with the "a variation is a variation" ideal, they probably should should be kept somewhere. I guess seperate lists would be the ideal here - kind of like version 5 of the DP Guide does it (Where if a game was released in the USA, it was listed on the NTSC list, but if it was a Non-US release, it was in a seperate section. This isn't actually NTSC vs. PAL, though - as most of the Taiwanese pirates were NTSC format, yet never released in the States, thus they were listed with the mostly-PAL non-US releases.) I don't know, though... With the 2600 Community growing as it is, this might be a too US-centric way of thinking. Thoughts? (Boy, am I being indecisive and generally all over the place today!) ~Scott

I'm not so sure about getting rid of the tiny details. I realize that most people probably aren't that picky, but I do think it is interesting. I guess I don't see attention to obnoxiously minute detail as clutter in this instance. Back in my label variation collecting days I was really into the cartridge variations - C1, C2, C3. Solid post vs. spring loaded post, vs. foam insert Activision cart cases, and on and on. If you decide to keep on with the detailed list, I actually have a ton of stuff to contribute if you want. I still have a 3-ring binder with about 300 pages of variation notes (painstakenly hand written - what was I thinking!). I'm willing to go through it again to extract items that are missing from the current list. Just let me know if you are interested. It all comes down to this: If there's going to be a list of label variations out there, it should be as descriptive as possible. Even though I decided that I'd personally rather concentrate on getting different games instead of doing the variation thing, I still think that there are people out there that DO collect minute variations. That's just all my opinion, though. Take it for what it's worth. ~Scott

I agree with Ben and Alex here. Now, I used to categorize all my personal collection lists by part number, but soon realized the error of my ways - no one could figure out at a quick glance what I actually had or needed, thus trading was difficult. I now organize these lists alphabetically by manufacturer, and all the games are alphabetized under their maker. I think it is just easier to make sence of. I also think it is important to strip out all non-label information. I don't see a need for playability ratings / etc. / etc. That's a different project all together, plus there are a ton of reviews available both in print (try Leonard Herman's "ABC to the VCS" - a great reference), and on the web. A completely different list is really needed for box variations, and a seperate one yet could be made for instruction manuals. Some way to cross reference these lists would be nice (yet difficult to implement). Then a collector who is building a collection piece by piece would have a guide to follow as to what cart variation came in which box variation, and with which revision instruction manual. WHEW! It wears me out just thinking of the effort that'd be needed for a project of this scale, but useful nonetheless. One more thing - It'd be REALLY nice to be able to reference a visual of each of these variations. It'd take a ton of disk space, of course, as well as the cooperation of many people contributing, but a scan of each variation would be an amazing resource. These scans could be referenced by a hyperlink, so the 56K surfer (like me) can load just the labels they need to see - small pop-up windows would work well here. Anyhow, now I'm just running on. ~Scott

There's probably not a ton you guys can do about this, but it seems that the site is starting to choke. It's Tuesday at around 7PM, so I am sure everyone and their brother are online now, but I couldn't get into the site through the "front door". I had to "sneak in" through a subpage I had in my history. Most of the errors reported on your front page were MySQL errors / too many user errors / and random PHP errors (there were 6 or 7 displayed, and I unfortunately didn't write them down.) I just thought that you should be made aware. Anyhow, I must say GREAT JOB and a hearty THANK YOU to both Alex and Albert for this fantastic resource. I know alot of people really appreciate all your work, myself definitely included. ~Scott

Robsterman- I have a list of my collection posted on my webpage. It's at: ULTRAtwit (http://www.geocities.com/soho/workshop/2663/collection.html) Thanks! ~Scott

Hey All! OK. I was emailing back and forth with a good friend of mine the other day, and he proposed a challenge for me to complete by the end of the year. As a "gentleman's bet," he challenged me to try to reach a count of 600 different Atari 2600 titles by the end of this year (I have 549 currently - with 11 more on the way because of a great trade with jah fish). So, does anyone want to put their 2 cents worth here? Do you think I can make it? I think my best bet will be to try to do as many trades (especially with non-USA based collectors) as possible. Does anyone have any other ideas? Ebay is not an option here, simply because I don't want to go that route. ~Scott

Just to play the devil's advocate here, but has it ever been shown that the numbers stamped in the end labels of Atari produced 2600 carts actually are production dates? Now, I have done some significant research into this area (as far as Pac-Man carts are concerned, at least), and have never seen a stamp that doesn't follow the "date" pattern - but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are truely dating codes. Does anyone have any carts with end label stamps that don't fit into the pattern? Or does anyone have any other hypothesis about what these stamps could mean BESIDES dates? Better yet, does anyone have confirmation that they are dates (confirmation from an Atari Employee in the area of production would be awesome, if anyone could ever be reached)? Anyhow, these are just some ideas. I guess that I do think they are probably dates, myself, but wanted to open this discussion up to other possabilities, or even the possability of proving this "theory" (for lack of a better term). Thanks! Scott