[Which US Zelda II gold version came out first: the one that says "1985" on the back, or the one that doesn't?]

The earlier version would be the one without the 1985 date.  That was added to all the back labels circa '89, right around the same time they switched from the black round Nintendo Seal of Quality to the white oval one.  Examining a selection of random NES cartridges will demonstrate this.

 

In regards to these two carts specifically, you can always open them up and check the date codes on the chips to be sure.

[Chase the Chuck Wagon PCB]

Production copies most likely had Spectravideo/Bondwell PCBs inside.  That one that just sold on eBay two weeks ago in the Apollo shell with the Avery style label on it is either a prototype or an early bootleg.  Probably the latter.

[TechnoVision Save Our Ship Question]

32 minutes ago, theking21083 said:

I never would have expected this game to show up at a small game shop in the Midwest.

 

I have all three TechnoVision cartridges but mine were sourced from Europe.  Those games turning up in the wild here in the U.S. is virtually unheard of.  Nice find for sure and in great shape too.  👍🏻

[TechnoVision Save Our Ship Question]

That's an original PAL cartridge you have there.  There's no region lock on any of the older Atari systems, so it really depends on the television that you're using.  Some PAL games will indeed work but the colors will be off.

 

I don't have Save Our Ship handy, but I just tested the other two TechnoVision games on one of my NTSC TVs with the following results...

 

Nuts displays the wrong colors and the TechnoVision logo at bottom of the screen is chopped off, but the game is playable. 

 

Pharoah's Curse unfortunately is not due to the video display jittering like crazy but it might be playable on a different TV, especially an older one with a vertical hold adjustment.

[US games carts]

I guess nobody here except me saw this.  Someone posted here about owning one years ago but never posted a picture as proof.  I do know of at least one other cartridge out there though.

 

Anybody else own Picnic in a standard square case?

 

 

[Does anyone make 2600 box protectors that fit 20th Century Fox games?]

The ones that jimpoleshuk sold for years here and on eBay were great, but they don't seem to be available anymore.  😕 

[MUNCHER for the Bally Astrocade - now available for sale!]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:27 PM, timdu said:

You can contact Brent H (  AKA   "bah"   ) here on AA...   He will be able to answer for sure if he is still currently selling MUNCHER.

 

I just noticed that he sold a bunch of repros on eBay back in May.  It looks like his more recent copies of Pac-Man were sold as "Munchie" and used the artwork that was intended for the commercial release.

 

[Tooth Protectors original 1983 order form]

On 5/13/2023 at 8:25 PM, Random Terrain said:

Did you ever get a chance to scan and post the color version? I'd like to link to it from the Tooth Protectors entry on the 1983 page.

 

I didn't...I have several items that I've been meaning to scan.  Part of the problem with this one is that the ad is too large to fit on the bed of my scanner.  I have to find someone with a larger one or scan it in sections and piece them together.

[Cubicolor - Who made this one?]

On 5/25/2023 at 11:13 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Again, the seller didn't show the back of the PCB as that would show it is an eprom and not a masked ROM.

 

When this cartridge turned up on AtariAge FB Marketplace back on April 30th, several people including me identified it as a reproduction and the listing was pulled within hours.  It subsequently reappeared on eBay a week later.  There's no doubt that the seller knows what he has and is being dishonest.

[Tooth Protectors original 1983 order form]

On 5/6/2023 at 1:53 PM, Random Terrain said:

This Johnson & Johnson Tooth Protectors Atari 2600 ad was in newspapers all over the USA on August 7, 1983...

 

Yes, that's the ad I have which I mentioned above in post #4.  It's in color and very large.

[Brand New GCE Vectrex TEST CART Rev.4 Scopetrex]

Thanks for the explanation.  To be clear, I wasn't implying that anyone was doing anything wrong or that there was some sort of a "problem" with the auction, as our torch-bearing friend seems to think.  If someone wants to pay that much...more power to you.  I just thought it was odd that it went so high.

[Atari 2800 - Japan Import 2600 Games]

19 minutes ago, dyonadi said:

Even though the box branding belongs to 2800, the cartridge's labels still have 2600 branding, right?  Does the cartridges in the photo I'm sharing look OK in your opinion?

 

Yes to both questions.  Since they were produced in such limited quantities, the Japanese releases had North American NTSC cartridges inside.  It's ultimately just a packaging variation.

[Atari 2600 Jr. - any known compatibility issues?]

On 3/22/2023 at 4:45 PM, ubersaurus said:

I'm not sure what the error looks like, but mine seems okay? I didn't notice any graphical issues.

 

Interesting.  So your unit has no issues with any games whatsoever, including Cosmic Ark and Journey: Escape?  What's the serial number and where was it made?

[Atari Buys Rights to Berserk & Frenzy]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:37 AM, Flojomojo said:

Weren’t the Stern and Exidy brands held by someone in here? 

 

Last I knew, the rights to the Stern arcade games were held by Gary Stern and his daughter.

[Atari 7800, Made in USA?]

Okay, that makes more sense.

[How many boxed color bar generator carts are there?]

I would say at least a dozen or more (possibly many more).  I've seen 3 or 4 of them surface just in the last few years.  I think there's still potentially quite a few of them out there sitting around collecting dust in the hands of old TV repairmen who have no idea what they're worth.

[Atari 7800, Made in USA?]

Yeah, Curt isn't here anymore to answer for that claim but I don't know where he was coming from with that.  It certainly appears they were all made in Taiwan, unless some of the labels are blatantly false.

[So...I found a copy of Cat Trax today for the 2600]

15 hours ago, Blazing Lazers said:

Speaking of which, are there any advertisements or brochures or company papers that have surfaced which mention the VCS Cat Trax?

 

I'm not aware of them being mentioned in any original literature or in any of the collector lists that first circulated on Usenet in the 90s (which contained plenty of vaporware titles).  As far as I know, the first evidence of the UA titles existing was when Cat Trax turned up on a pirate multi-cart as "Cat & Mouse", but complete with an intact UA copyright.  This was prior to all three turning up as prototypes.  People like @rolenta or @bfstats who've been around a lot longer than me might know more.

[How is the Coleco Gemini?]

On 3/13/2023 at 5:34 AM, alex_79 said:

Remember that the left difficulty is used to freeze the game when in "A" position (which is "B" position on the Gemini, as they labeled the switches backwards!)

 

Thanks...I forgot all about the difficulty switches and didn't realize Kool-Aid Man had a pause feature.  I tried it again and the game runs fine, which makes sense since I didn't experience a problem with Thunderground when testing these the first time.

 

On a related note, while testing out my Juniors, I thought one of them had an issue with Wall Ball as described here on Scott Stilphen's site.  But then I realized the pause feature had been activated via the color/b&w switch, which caused the game to load up exactly the way it does in this video.  Therefore, I wonder if certain TIAs really are incompatible with this game or if Scott just experienced the same thing I had.  It's definitely an easy enough mistake for anyone to make.

[How is the Coleco Gemini?]

I did notice and I should mention that although all of the titles listed above except Pink Panther are known to have other TIA incompatibilities, some of the issues that I witnessed were different from the usual behavior (and seemingly unique to Coleco's TIA clone).  Specifically...

 

Kool-Aid Man is unplayable due to being frozen at the intro screen.

 

Pesco lacks the stray dots but has some kind of vertical sync issue that causes the display to pulse or jump every few seconds.

 

Spider Fighter suffers from a rolling display at the attract mode.  Upon starting the game, it pretty much crashes or resets at the completion of one clock cycle.

[Birthday Mania - Unwrapped]

It doesn't seem like anyone noticed, but the game's programmer Bob Tokar passed away last year.

 

https://fcfreepresspa.com/robert-anthony-tokar-obituary-19412022/

[How is the Coleco Gemini?]

On 9/5/2020 at 8:28 AM, T.A.P. said:

Are there any games it can't play?

 

After investigating some incompatibilities with the 2600 Jr., I decided to pull out my Gemini and mess around with it a bit.  I just tried the games that are already known to have issues on this list and experienced problems with Kool-Aid Man, Masters of the Universe, Pesco, Pursuit of the Pink Panther, and Spider Fighter.

 

But since it's a knock-off console with a clone of Atari's TIA chip, there could be any number of minor problems that would be unique to this chip.  So the titles I just listed are not likely to be the only incompatibilities.  If someone were inclined to investigate further, I'm sure more could be found.

[Atari 2600 Jr. - any known compatibility issues?]

There's a full list of known TIA incompatibilities listed here.

 

In addition to the titles given there, I've recently found that the game Entombed seems to have issues as well.  The left side counter for the "make/breaks" has partially corrupted score digits on both Junior models I own ('86 Taiwan small rainbow & '89 China large rainbow).  I should note that both of my consoles also have the known problems with the score counter in Kool-Aid Man, Spider Fighter, and Thunderground.

 

Does anyone  except @ubersaurus own a Jr. that doesn't have problems with the titles listed?  They happen whether using a Harmony or original cartridges.

 

[The Official 2600 Easter Egg and Programming Mysteries Thread]

On 7/24/2010 at 4:48 PM, gamme said:

Picnic: Set both difficulty switches to B and set TV Type to b&w. Power the game up and play variation #1. When the game ends, push LEFT on the Right joystick. The player 1s score will change to DAVID J. and player 2s score will change to DONNA F. It's unknown whose names they are.

 

David Johnson and Donna Fisher, the game's two programmers.

 

On 4/6/2015 at 1:17 AM, shadow460 said:

River Raid II won't run on a six switch console.

 

Not entirely true as we discussed here, but I don't think the root cause of this was ever determined.

 

On 4/28/2019 at 9:09 PM, rorysl said:

I've been buying and testing Missile Command carts forever and have NEVER found the no-easter egg version. So I'm definitely curious too!

 

Probably pretty rare, like the original copies of Activision's Bridge with the bid 8 bug.

 

[Extremely Rare 9/10 Color Bar Generator Video Soft Cartridge on aucion on Ebay #204238996218. What is it worth?]

I'm glad you ended up with instead of our gender-bending friend.  Although I wonder who the original buyer was who got screwed out of that initial $199 Buy It Now.  Had there been no interference, that would've been quite the steal.