Polaris Proto?

[Supergun]

Greetings,

 

I happened to find a green 2600 polaris cartridge in the wild just a few days ago, and because my personal cartridge is the blue label, coupled with the fact that I have never found a tigervision cartridge in the wild, and last but not least because it felt peculiarly heavier then normal, I just went ahead and bought it for the hell of it.

 

Anyhow, when I got home, I compared the weight to all my other tigervision cartridges (I have all ten releases so it's a pretty complete comparisson) and long story short it weighs twice as heavy as all of them.

 

Absolutely nothing in regards to the labels (main & end) gives me any reason to believe that they are not standard production labels. Granted, the green end label versus the blue, and also larger font sizes were used for all the text on the main label when compared to my blue version. But I assume that is also normal.

EDIT: (just checked the atariage scans of both carts and yes apparently this is normal)

 

The exposed part of the internal circuit board does look normal as well, at least as far as my eyes can see, having contacts that are similar to 4 out of the 10 carts I have.

 

So I guess the question is this, could it have been a pre-production and/or proto cartridge that simply had production labels slapped on it at the factory and was thrown onto the assembly line and out into the regular population of released cartridges? Or is this extra heavy weight common among the green label polaris cartridges and/or some select tigervision releases? (I wouldn't know as this is the first one I have held/seen.)

 

If someone here can tell me how to do it, I would be happy to post high rez pics if needed to help determine this.

 

EDIT: (I just did a quick gameplay comparisson...not sure why I did not think of this sooner...and there are in fact differences in the title screen. I looked up the atariprotos.com entry of the polaris proto and that's what it does)

 

The question however becomes wether or not this is unique to a proto of polaris...or could it be that 'tempest' did an unfair comparisson (or incomplete would be more accurate) when he comparred the proto to the final release...meaning that ALL green polaris carts do not give credit to c. 1980 taito...and by coincidence his comparisson utilized the rom version of the blue polaris cartridge?

 

Could this be why Polaris was forced to be re-released by tigervision?

Have I opened Pandoras Box?

Sorry if I did...

 

I guess we can confirm / deny this whole thing by having members here plug in their cartridges and report which versions (blue vs. green) have which copyright screens?

 

Best Regards,

Billy

Edited May 22, 2010 by Supergun

[Rom Hunter]

This is interesting, Billy.

 

There have been a few questions about a certain Polaris ROM (that is believed to be a proto) in the past.

 

I will dig into this.

 

Thanks for mentioning.

 

A scan of this cart would be great.

 

From your description, this could be a unique release or perhaps there are really two versions of the game released (hence the difference in label).

 

Someone owning the two versions as well should compare them too.

 

BTW: is it possible for you to dump this cart?

 

[Omegamatrix]

Hello Billy,

 

I own a green label Polaris (NTSC). I plugged it in, and it said "Taito © 1980" while the text scrolled. So yours is different.

 

 

Also the text "Polaris By" flashes on my cart. I checked the NTSC Polaris rom in Rom Hunters collection, and it flashed too. The PAL rom however does not flash. So Tempest has this part backwards in his write-up.

 

 

Jeff

[Supergun]

Ok,

So I took some pictures of this heavy cartridge today

and I will try to post them on here now.

 

Also, yes, I would be more then happy to dump the rom image for the database.

The problem is I don't have an easy direct plug in "cartridge" reader per say,

(assuming they exist) rather just eprom readers and such. Wether the eprom is

socketed or not does not matter either as I could just desolder it from the board,

and resolder in a socket and replace the eprom afterwards.

 

However, in order to do this I have to ruin the cart sticker to get to the screws

so that I can open the cart case. I don't really want to do that. I have heard rumors

of using hair dryers or heat guns to successfully remove stickers, perhaps I could

experiment with another common cart laying around here.

 

Hell, I am willing to build or buy a direct cartridge reader and do it that way if

someone here instructs me on how to do it.

 

Alright so here are the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Billy

 

This is interesting, Billy.

 

There have been a few questions about a certain Polaris ROM (that is believed to be a proto) in the past.

 

I will dig into this.

 

Thanks for mentioning.

 

A scan of this cart would be great.

 

From your description, this could be a unique release or perhaps there are really two versions of the game released (hence the difference in label).

 

Someone owning the two versions as well should compare them too.

 

BTW: is it possible for you to dump this cart?

 

[+Wonder007]

Ok,

So I took some pictures of this heavy cartridge today

and I will try to post them on here now.

 

Also, yes, I would be more then happy to dump the rom image for the database.

The problem is I don't have an easy direct plug in "cartridge" reader per say,

(assuming they exist) rather just eprom readers and such. Wether the eprom is

socketed or not does not matter either as I could just desolder it from the board,

and resolder in a socket and replace the eprom afterwards.

 

However, in order to do this I have to ruin the cart sticker to get to the screws

so that I can open the cart case. I don't really want to do that. I have heard rumors

of using hair dryers or heat guns to successfully remove stickers, perhaps I could

experiment with another common cart laying around here.

 

Hell, I am willing to build or buy a direct cartridge reader and do it that way if

someone here instructs me on how to do it.

 

Alright so here are the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Billy

 

This is interesting, Billy.

 

There have been a few questions about a certain Polaris ROM (that is believed to be a proto) in the past.

 

I will dig into this.

 

Thanks for mentioning.

 

A scan of this cart would be great.

 

From your description, this could be a unique release or perhaps there are really two versions of the game released (hence the difference in label).

 

Someone owning the two versions as well should compare them too.

 

BTW: is it possible for you to dump this cart?

 

 

If I am not mistaken, some of the Tigervision games have eproms in them which will cause the weight to increase; anybody correct me if I am wrong.

 

Besides, you have a released Polaris sticker on the cart in question which leads me to believe that your cart is not a proto....it is not consistent to the Tigervision protos that I own.

[Wickeycolumbus]

If I am not mistaken, some of the Tigervision games have eproms in them which will cause the weight to increase; anybody correct me if I am wrong.

 

Besides, you have a released Polaris sticker on the cart in question which leads me to believe that your cart is not a proto....it is not consistent to the Tigervision protos that I own.

 

I recall hearing about EPROMs in some Tigervision cartridges too.

 

About the label, other Tigervision protos have been found with production stickers, like this jawbreaker:

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/jawbreaker/jawbreakerproto.htm

 

There is also a Polaris proto with box art on it.

[Omegamatrix]

If I am not mistaken, some of the Tigervision games have eproms in them which will cause the weight to increase; anybody correct me if I am wrong.

 

Besides, you have a released Polaris sticker on the cart in question which leads me to believe that your cart is not a proto....it is not consistent to the Tigervision protos that I own.

 

Yeah, some Tigervision games did have eproms! This doesn't seem uncommon in Tigervision games. Here is a pic of a King Kong and Miner 2049er that I had loose. The extra chips make them heavier. I felt my Polaris and it felt heavier too. None of my carts are protos.

 

 

I recall hearing about EPROMs in some Tigervision cartridges too.

 

About the label, other Tigervision protos have been found with production stickers, like this jawbreaker:

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/jawbreaker/jawbreakerproto.htm

 

There is also a Polaris proto with box art on it.

 

 

I guess the difference is this Polaris has a white shell, and not the purple shell shown for that Jawbreaker. I'm really leaning to this not being a proto, but an alternate released version.

[CPUWIZ]

The one on the left actually has an epoxy blob, not an EPROM.

[Rom Hunter]

Hello Billy,

 

I own a green label Polaris (NTSC). I plugged it in, and it said "Taito © 1980" while the text scrolled. So yours is different.

 

 

Also the text "Polaris By" flashes on my cart. I checked the NTSC Polaris rom in Rom Hunters collection, and it flashed too. The PAL rom however does not flash. So Tempest has this part backwards in his write-up.

Yep, Tempest must correct this in his site.

 

Perhaps Billy owns the same version as the NTSC 4K 02-17-83 proto ROM?

 

A dump could indfeed confirm this.

 

[Tubular Gearhead]

Sorry for bumping up a thread from last summer, but...

 

I just compared my green Polaris last night, and it also weighs more than my other Tigervision carts. Can anyone confirm that they have a green Polaris that doesn't weigh more?

 

Maybe it is just a characteristic of all the green versions?

 

Anyone have any other thoughts on this?