What are the odds that Air Raid is hoax?

[jahfish]

Because they did not program one single VCS game themselves, except for MegaBoy.

 

 

... which totally makes sense, as the main business was copying games that had already been out there (80-90% of all games) by the time brasil started their own "atari market" ... it only started in the mid eighties ...

 

and not that much of the "company names" you see on the labels were actually real companies or just rental chains ...

 

it still doesn't mean people were unable to program games ...

[jahfish]

Brazil uses PAL colors for their color pallete and a NTSC scanline count. So the colors would be "off" if the cart was from down, and be worse of a fit then the US. Fish, all off the Brazilian collectors that have commentedin the past have said this cart is not Brazilian, and they have never seen it. I believe them. These are being found in the US and Mexico only, and Mexico can produce alot of stuff cheaply.

 

Since there seems to be a bit of confusion. The PAL-M 2600s modify the colors from NTSC to PAL-M. The carts are just standard NTSC.

 

Mitch

 

thanks! the good thing about this useless Air Raid discusssion is that we learn some usefull things on the side

[Omegamatrix]

Since there seems to be a bit of confusion. The PAL-M 2600s modify the colors from NTSC to PAL-M. The carts are just standard NTSC.

 

Mitch

Yes, and the PAL-M color pallete is the PAL color pallete, or very close to it, correct?

 

So Air Raid played in Brazil on a PAL_M 2600 would look like this:

 

 

Instead of this:

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Since we know that Air Raid is using Space Jockey code, I analyzed other existing variations of that game.

 

Now I found out, that "Time Race (AKA Space Jockey) (Rainbow Vision - Suntek - Sunteck Corporation) (SS-001) (PAL).bin" which is a 4k ROM, actually is a 2K ROM in a weird disguise.

 

If you split the game into 2K parts, both parts won't run, because the startup vector is at the end of part 2 and the game (except the startup vector, which looks intentionally changed) is in part 1. You just have to change the two startup vector bytes at the end of part 1 to make it run (see attachment).

 

The 2nd 2k seems to contain remains of the development system.

 

"Time Race (AKA Space Jockey) (1983) (Goliath - Hot Shot) (83-212) (PAL).bin" is doing something similar, just even more complicated. Here the valid code is partially in the 1st 2k and partially in the 2nd 2k. The code seems shifted six pages (6*256 bytes). The now free first six pages contain data which can be identified as trace of the development system, e.g. 6507 opcodes.

 

For programmers:

To make it even more weird, non standard names are used for several opcodes (e.g. BGE, probably "Branch Greater Equal" which officially is called BCS). Have a look.

Time_Race__AKA_Space_Jockey___Rainbow_Vision___Suntek___Sunteck_Corporation___SS_001___PAL_.001.bin

Time_Race__AKA_Space_Jockey___1983___Goliath___Hot_Shot___83_212___PAL_.bin

Edited November 8, 2008 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Yes, and the PAL-M color pallete is the PAL color pallete, or very close to it, correct?

I am not 100% sure about that. Anyone from South America around?

[+Mitch]

Since there seems to be a bit of confusion. The PAL-M 2600s modify the colors from NTSC to PAL-M. The carts are just standard NTSC.

 

Mitch

Yes, and the PAL-M color pallete is the PAL color pallete, or very close to it, correct?

 

So Air Raid played in Brazil on a PAL_M 2600 would look like this:

 

 

Instead of this:

 

I don't own a PAL-M 2600 or PAL-M TV so I can't say 100% for sure. I would assume it should look very similar to what it looks like on an NTSC console/TV. I remember an Atari engineer posting an explanation on one of the newsgroups a few years back.

Probably the easiest way to tell for sure is to have one of our brazilian collectors take a picture of his TV using a more common game.

 

Mitch

[Omegamatrix]

Yes, and the PAL-M color pallete is the PAL color pallete, or very close to it, correct?

I am not 100% sure about that. Anyone from South America around?

I would like to know for certain too. I've read alot of different things on these boards about it so I'm not sure what to think. Here LS_Dracon is talking about it:

 

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1489269

 

 

I remember some of my old Brazilian carts having their colors changed. They played the normal speed and did't roll, so I was pretty sure they were pirating the NTSC roms. The colors were pretty sick though and I remember thinking it must have been to adjust it to the PAL color pallete.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Omegamatrix

[LS_Dracon]

I'm from Brazil.

 

PAL-M Atari 2600 consoles are different than PAL consoles.

 

First, PAL-M is NTSC Resolution (262 scanlines) running at NTSC speed (60 fps)

The odd, televisions uses PAL colors.

 

The PAL-M Atari 2600 send the correct value for television, that is, the colors information is send by hardware, not software.

If you plug Air Raid, will looks exactly like the ntsc version. Blue sky, green aircaft etc...

 

Unlike european PAL, PAL-M dysplay all 128 atari colors, using the same NTSC value for each color.

This means brazilian carts always will work on NTSC televisions, but brazilian console/hardware ONLY works fine on PAL-M TV.

 

So Air Raid isn't brasilian stuff, becouse I never see this game in cart, and never see one t-shape case here, and if this was programmed here, at least, the screen resolution must be 262 scanlines.

 

This cart looks like Taiwanese stuff.

Edited November 9, 2008 by LS_Dracon

[Shawn]

I never see this game in cart, and never see one t-shape case here,

 

You don't have any of those little "TRON" company carts? They are Brazilian and are T-bar carts.

Edited November 9, 2008 by Shawn Sr.

[jahfish]

i'm sure he is speaking of the blue t-handle cart shells ... and knows about the tron carts ... which obviously have nothing to do with air raid ... rather the funvision carts because of their label design kinda similar to the one on the air raid label

 

taiwan sounds very probably ... one of the options i would think about ... air raid reminds me much more of a funvision/goliath cart than any tron cart ... and it's the cheapest place in the world to produce (unusual) cart shells ...

Edited November 9, 2008 by jahfish

[LS_Dracon]

Even the "brazilian pirate carts" come from Taiwan, or most of them.

Edited November 9, 2008 by LS_Dracon

[jahfish]

Even the "brazilian pirate carts" come from Taiwan, or most of them.

 

didn't dynacom, cce and polyvox produce their carts in brasil?

Edited November 9, 2008 by jahfish

[Zap!]

I personally think before anyone jumps on the OP, there really are some strange things about this game. I'm not saying it's a hoax, as I do not know. But there are some questions to be asked. Why have no original owners come out, saying where it was bought and when? Why has a box or instructions never been found? Why was it never in any magazine/media ads? How come no one remembers it? Finally, if it was a commercial game, why do only around 12 exist? If 20-50 were released in every state, that would be an extremely limited run. But 12? Granted, some must be lost, thrown out, or unaccounted for, but that would still put the original released number at around 80-100, way too low for a commercial release. Like I said, I'm not convinced it was a hoax, but it certain should not be thrown off the table.

[Dino]

I personally think before anyone jumps on the OP, there really are some strange things about this game. I'm not saying it's a hoax, as I do not know. But there are some questions to be asked. Why have no original owners come out, saying where it was bought and when? Why has a box or instructions never been found? Why was it never in any magazine/media ads? How come no one remembers it? Finally, if it was a commercial game, why do only around 12 exist? If 20-50 were released in every state, that would be an extremely limited run. But 12? Granted, some must be lost, thrown out, or unaccounted for, but that would still put the original released number at around 80-100, way too low for a commercial release. Like I said, I'm not convinced it was a hoax, but it certain should not be thrown off the table.

 

There's probably a stash of these in a warehouse somewhere in Mexico, that's why so few are in the wild

[accousticguitar]

If it's a hoax, it's an old one. There is some documentation in this thread from 1992.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=142290

[Pitfall Harry]

Sylabys opening Air Raid with no results is leading me to start to wonder if this was ever commercially released. In fact I am starting to believe that this was actually some kind of hoax by some homebrewer or programmer in the early 90's. Lets look at all the strange evidence shall we.

 

1. Air Raid is an Eprom game. Meaning almost anybody with a little technical know how could of made it.

2. Air Raid has a strange story given to it by Pitfall Harry who claims that a friend of his had the box and the game. Yet Pitfall Harry as well finds Air Raid in a thrift store.

3. The manual and box have never been found ( Pitfall Harry's "friend" has never surfaced.)

4. Pitfall Harry has been known for elaborate contests. He has the knowledge to probably program for the Atari 2600.

5. Could it be possible the homebrewer decided to place Air Raid in 10 different thrift shops in different areas around America.

6. Unlike almost any other cart Air Raid has no original owner. In fact there is no direct link to this game at all. Almost all of them were bought off Ebay.

 

 

So there you have it. I am starting to believe that Air Raid was an elaborate hoax. And if it was a hoax I think Pitfall harry had something to do with it. Really what are the odds that his friend would find the game boxed and he himself would also find the game in a thrift store. Put the pieces together people.

 

 

I never claimed I had a "friend" who owned a boxed copy of Air Raid. What I did say is that I knew of another collector who claimed to have found Air Raid with its box. I never met him, personally. I found out about this other collector (sorry, I have since forgotten his name) very shortly after I found a copy of Air Raid myself, which was in 2000 or thereabouts. At that time there was precious little information available about the mysterious, powder blue T-handled cartridge. All I really knew about Air Raid then was that it was listed as a "10" on the VGR rarity list (out of 10), which was the bible for cartridge rarities in those days. I was naturally curious about what the box and the instruction manual looked like. So, I scoured the internet in search of anything I might uncover about Air Raid. That search eventually led me to an old user net post from a collector who claimed he found Air Raid years before I did. He identified himself by name and he left his e-mail address in that post, so I sent him an e-mail in hopes of finding out whether he knew anything more about Air Raid.

 

He wrote me back to tell me he had found his copy of Air Raid when he was living in California. He had since moved to Chicago. He also mentioned in that e-mail that when he found Air Raid he also found it with its original box, and that his find is the only reason why anyone ever knew that the title of the game is indeed Air Raid. The name of the game (according to him) is printed on the box. He also took the time to brag about having been a really huge, huge Atari collector back in his active period, and that he had found more rare Atari games than most people see in a lifetime.

 

I begged him for a scan of the box. He promised he would make a scan and send it to me, just as soon as he located the game. But the catch was this: In the intervening years that followed his amazing find, he had since gotten a really good job and had moved and he didn't have the time or inclination to actively collect old video games anymore. He said his Air Raid was in storage in his garage or somewhere -- he wasn't sure where -- but he would look for it and send me a scan when he located it. I sent him e-mail reminders periodically for over a year, but he never came through and I finally gave up and stopped e-mailing him about it.

 

His story seemed plausible to me, but I'm sure it seems less plausible to you since you're getting it second hand. Oh, well.

 

Yes, I am known for elaborate contests. It is also true that I possess some knowledge of programming for the Atari 2600. What does that prove, beyond the obvious fact that I am an Atari 2600 enthusiast? If you ever took the time to read through my posts (or asked anyone who knows me), I am also known for being a champion of uncovering heretofore unknown information about video games. Many of the instruction manual scans that appear on this website are courtesy of my efforts. This, in part, explains why I was so driven to obtain a scan of the Air Raid box. I wanted to share that scan with the collecting world. I still do. It is patently unthinkable that I should ever launch a deceitful campaign involving video games, or about anything else for that matter.

 

Collectors had found copies of Air Raid years before I ever did. And they've been found since. I don't believe its existence is owed to a spurious EEPROM genius with time on his hands. 15 years have come and gone. If Air Raid was born of an elaborate hoax, its progenitor would have come forward long ago to have claimed his infamy.

[homerwannabee]

Sylabys opening Air Raid with no results is leading me to start to wonder if this was ever commercially released. In fact I am starting to believe that this was actually some kind of hoax by some homebrewer or programmer in the early 90's. Lets look at all the strange evidence shall we.

 

1. Air Raid is an Eprom game. Meaning almost anybody with a little technical know how could of made it.

2. Air Raid has a strange story given to it by Pitfall Harry who claims that a friend of his had the box and the game. Yet Pitfall Harry as well finds Air Raid in a thrift store.

3. The manual and box have never been found ( Pitfall Harry's "friend" has never surfaced.)

4. Pitfall Harry has been known for elaborate contests. He has the knowledge to probably program for the Atari 2600.

5. Could it be possible the homebrewer decided to place Air Raid in 10 different thrift shops in different areas around America.

6. Unlike almost any other cart Air Raid has no original owner. In fact there is no direct link to this game at all. Almost all of them were bought off Ebay.

 

 

So there you have it. I am starting to believe that Air Raid was an elaborate hoax. And if it was a hoax I think Pitfall harry had something to do with it. Really what are the odds that his friend would find the game boxed and he himself would also find the game in a thrift store. Put the pieces together people.

 

 

I never claimed I had a "friend" who owned a boxed copy of Air Raid. What I did say is that I knew of another collector who claimed to have found Air Raid with its box. I never met him, personally. I found out about this other collector (sorry, I have since forgotten his name) very shortly after I found a copy of Air Raid myself, which was in 2000 or thereabouts. At that time there was precious little information available about the mysterious, powder blue T-handled cartridge. All I really knew about Air Raid then was that it was listed as a "10" on the VGR rarity list (out of 10), which was the bible for cartridge rarities in those days. I was naturally curious about what the box and the instruction manual looked like. So, I scoured the internet in search of anything I might uncover about Air Raid. That search eventually led me to an old user net post from a collector who claimed he found Air Raid years before I did. He identified himself by name and he left his e-mail address in that post, so I sent him an e-mail in hopes of finding out whether he knew anything more about Air Raid.

 

He wrote me back to tell me he had found his copy of Air Raid when he was living in California. He had since moved to Chicago. He also mentioned in that e-mail that when he found Air Raid he also found it with its original box, and that his find is the only reason why anyone ever knew that the title of the game is indeed Air Raid. The name of the game (according to him) is printed on the box. He also took the time to brag about having been a really huge, huge Atari collector back in his active period, and that he had found more rare Atari games than most people see in a lifetime.

 

I begged him for a scan of the box. He promised he would make a scan and send it to me, just as soon as he located the game. But the catch was this: In the intervening years that followed his amazing find, he had since gotten a really good job and had moved and he didn't have the time or inclination to actively collect old video games anymore. He said his Air Raid was in storage in his garage or somewhere -- he wasn't sure where -- but he would look for it and send me a scan when he located it. I sent him e-mail reminders periodically for over a year, but he never came through and I finally gave up and stopped e-mailing him about it.

 

His story seemed plausible to me, but I'm sure it seems less plausible to you since you're getting it second hand. Oh, well.

 

Yes, I am known for elaborate contests. It is also true that I possess some knowledge of programming for the Atari 2600. What does that prove, beyond the obvious fact that I am an Atari 2600 enthusiast? If you ever took the time to read through my posts (or asked anyone who knows me), I am also known for being a champion of uncovering heretofore unknown information about video games. Many of the instruction manual scans that appear on this website are courtesy of my efforts. This, in part, explains why I was so driven to obtain a scan of the Air Raid box. I wanted to share that scan with the collecting world. I still do. It is patently unthinkable that I should ever launch a deceitful campaign involving video games, or about anything else for that matter.

 

Collectors had found copies of Air Raid years before I ever did. And they've been found since. I don't believe its existence is owed to a spurious EEPROM genius with time on his hands. 15 years have come and gone. If Air Raid was born of an elaborate hoax, its progenitor would have come forward long ago to have claimed his infamy.

Well, thanks for the info. I am glad I now have a clearer picture of the story. I always thought you knew him personally. Sorry about that. Back when I had my theory I had no idea that it had been known to exist since the early 90's. Even if this was programmed by someone else, it would be one of the first homebrews ever and still really really valuable, but I do not believe this is the case anymore. Sorry for implicating you at the time. Oh, and by the way, welcome back!

[Stan]

Maybe K-Tel and Air Raid (MenAvision)were all tied together and just wanted to make it look different? Anyone could dye the plastic a different color couldn't they?

 

This is something I commented on in a similar thread. South American unlicensed game companies had this thing about blue carts and such for some reason, and it's doubtful any trickster would know that. Here are two now well-known examples from the SMS and the NES below. And as far as I know, War in the Gulf is pretty forking rare. I own only one of maybe a handful of complete copies. No one has really 'come out' about it either, it just seems to be something that was lost over time. I don't think it's odd that there are only twelve, heck it might have been some loser in his basement messing around and he made a few and that was it, or perhaps something similar to the NES Huge Insect release (the green one, at least).

Edited July 20, 2009 by Stan

[Pitfall Harry]

Well, thanks for the info. I am glad I now have a clearer picture of the story. I always thought you knew him personally. Sorry about that. Back when I had my theory I had no idea that it had been known to exist since the early 90's. Even if this was programmed by someone else, it would be one of the first homebrews ever and still really really valuable, but I do not believe this is the case anymore. Sorry for implicating you at the time. Oh, and by the way, welcome back!

 

Hey, thanks! I'm not really "back," though, I just haven't been posting as much as I thought.

 

I have an Air Raid update that may be of interest. I stumbled across "The Air Raid Registry" post in the Rarity Guide forum today. The name Terry Rutt leaped out at me right away. I could not recall his name before. But Terry is definitely the guy I was in email contact with for over a year, the guy who said to me that he had found Air Raid with its box in a thrift store in the early 1990's. How his name turned up on this registry I do not know. But if whoever it was who put Terry's name on that registry knows how to get in contact with Mr. Rutt, I do believe he is the best lead this hobby has of tracking down the elusive Air Raid box.

 

Also, for the record, Rick Weis indeed got his Air Raid cart from me.

[IHATETHEBEARS]

Well, thanks for the info. I am glad I now have a clearer picture of the story. I always thought you knew him personally. Sorry about that. Back when I had my theory I had no idea that it had been known to exist since the early 90's. Even if this was programmed by someone else, it would be one of the first homebrews ever and still really really valuable, but I do not believe this is the case anymore. Sorry for implicating you at the time. Oh, and by the way, welcome back!

 

Hey, thanks! I'm not really "back," though, I just haven't been posting as much as I thought.

 

I have an Air Raid update that may be of interest. I stumbled across "The Air Raid Registry" post in the Rarity Guide forum today. The name Terry Rutt leaped out at me right away. I could not recall his name before. But Terry is definitely the guy I was in email contact with for over a year, the guy who said to me that he had found Air Raid with its box in a thrift store in the early 1990's. How his name turned up on this registry I do not know. But if whoever it was who put Terry's name on that registry knows how to get in contact with Mr. Rutt, I do believe he is the best lead this hobby has of tracking down the elusive Air Raid box.

 

Also, for the record, Rick Weis indeed got his Air Raid cart from me.

 

TERRY RUTT - not a very common name.

 

TERRY RUTT LINKS

 

In the upper right there's a link to a Terry Rutt on Facebook. Perhaps someone might want to send him an Email to see if it's him.

[moppetkid]

TERRY RUTT - not a very common name.

 

TERRY RUTT LINKS

 

In the upper right there's a link to a Terry Rutt on Facebook. Perhaps someone might want to send him an Email to see if it's him.

 

The Terry Rutt who used to post on r.g.v.c is "Terry E. Rutt" and he worked for HP in the Texas (Houston?) area. (traded with him years ago)

[eyg2181]

Hmm... If I didn't know any better, I'd say were on to something?