Atari Rescue Group Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 While looking at my Spectravideo/vision carts I determined while peering through the pcb slot that one of them (China Syndrome with a handwritten label in a Spectravision case) had an additional chip on it. So I peeled back the ends of the label to get at the screws and opened it up. Pictures below show the pcb and the label. After reading about CPUWIZ's find http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...ectravision+pcb I learned that (1) that was a cool discovery, and (2) there are people around here who can determine what this one is. The photos from that thread are gone, so I don't know what the writing looked like....It looks like there was never a regular label on it nor any residue from glue on the top or the end. I'm guessing that this is a copy but I don't know for sure. My brother found it somewhere in the bay area but he can't remember where or when. It was likely at a thrift store. If the experts would like to share any opinions or comments on this one I'd appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCroniger Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Looks like a proto to me. It has the EPROM and the hex inverter. Very nice find!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 That is definately a very unusual copy, every Spectravision board I've seen so far has either a mask ROM or a 2732 but never a 2532. Very interesting. Could very well be a preview copy/proto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Wow very cool. I've never seen a Spectravision proto so I can't say for sure, but that looks like it could be one. Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 From all the posts lately I get the feeling it´s getting more and more complicated to figure out what is a proto and what´s not. For example the parker proto´s, a bunch of proto´s but also a pacman which is not a parker game, so most likely they are pirate copies made by employees of parker, but there is also a LOTR and ewok adventure, so are these carts pirates or proto´s? Does the difference between a handwritten label or a printed label make the difference in value, like thousands of $$ or near to nothing? Tempest any thoughts? Sandy ps Also if you look at Best , people say they made a lot of the proto´s themself, but for sure they had some real protoboards when they bought the inventory of atari. So how do you tell the difference, or what is the difference, both probably look completely the same, the only difference is that one was put together 15 years earlier than the other Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 The Parker carts are definately employee pirates, I have analyzed 2 of them since I own them now. I am 100% sure about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 ok they are pirates, so what does that mean for the LOTR and Ewok adventure? value wise i mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 That is a good question, to me LOTR wouldn't be but Ewok would since the binary is not available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 But thats only a matter of time, and when the rom does become available, what whould this do to the value of this cart, would a copy with the regular parker proto printed label be more valuable. would a sticker make the difference between thousands or nothing? Like for example would you pay $2000 for a sticker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 would a sticker make the difference between thousands or nothing? Like for example would you pay $2000 for a sticker? Maybe not 2K but 1K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 you bought two of those carts why dont you erase the eprom and burn LOTR onto it, the handwritten sticker is peanuts to fake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 I could do that to one of them but the other one is soldered into the board. BTW, both of them are hand-soldered which is highly suspicious, my Frogger II proto is wave-soldered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 btw CPU i just sended you a private message, go and check Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Didn't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
san-d-2000 Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 did you receive it now the second time? otherwise email me your emailaddress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincYnoTi Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 I could do that to one of them but the other one is soldered into the board. BTW, both of them are hand-soldered which is highly suspicious, my Frogger II proto is wave-soldered. i have two parker bros "protos", frogger II and montezuma's revenge, only one has a small typewritter sticker. the other only has sticker residue. i'll try to make a scan this weekend. what is "wave-soldered"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 what is "wave-soldered"? http://www.protonique.com/unepstoc/electro...ps3/wave3_2.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Rescue Group Posted May 11, 2003 Author Share Posted May 11, 2003 Should I get it dumped? Or can this one be dumped? Who can do that so the code can be looked at by those who want to see it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 11, 2003 Share Posted May 11, 2003 Should I get it dumped? Or can this one be dumped? Who can do that so the code can be looked at by those who want to see it? What do you mean by that, you are dishing out the big bucks to buy Ewok ? It should be a piece of cake to do a binary comparison to the NTSC conversion of the PAL proto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Rescue Group Posted May 11, 2003 Author Share Posted May 11, 2003 Sorry, but I don't know about code or eproms or binary comparisons, and I'm not a protoype collector--I have enough trouble trying to get the last few Rarity 3's on my want list. I don't even know if this item has any value or not. Would it only have any value if it was a prototype? "Dumped" referred to getting the code off the chip. My understanding is that info on eproms eventually fades away, and I thought that some individuals here might want to see it to determine if it is different than the NTSC released version of China Syndrome. Perhaps my understanding of that is wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 11, 2003 Share Posted May 11, 2003 I thought you were referring to Ewok, sorry. I can dump that cart for you if you like, PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Rescue Group Posted May 12, 2003 Author Share Posted May 12, 2003 On one of my next adventures to the bay area to see a baseball game or something perhaps I can swing down to your neck of the woods. Not sure when that will be but hopefully not too long. (I put the cart back together and I'm please to say it still works. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 12, 2003 Share Posted May 12, 2003 Or you could send me the cart, I could also send you a modified 7800 to dump it if you pay for the shipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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