VCS/2600 Game Rarity by Number of Known Copies

[+stupus]

Just saw your new post billy. The non cat trax version has just 2 cart storage spots with no cat trax button.

I can try and open the bases of both unless there are already pics available...

If so maybe somebody could link to them.

[Supergun]

Regarding the 4 Super Sketch Cartridges, as you know, I did extensive research on them. I hunted down & acquired them. I opened, dissected, analyzed, and tested them. And they are not all completely equal, not just in how they operate, but more importantly in where they stand for their systems. (official status as a cartridge versus as an accessory)

 

I wrote up a very nice report on them, and will be more then happy to post it up here, but I have that saved on my home computer & I can not access it from where I am at the moment.

[+stupus]

Yep, I know we discussed them. And yes oddly they are quite different from each other. Would love to see your write up on them when you get a chance.

Thanks again!

[+Wonder007]

 

Bit Corporation released it on a 4-in-1 multi-cart, too:

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-4-in-1-keystone-kapers-air-raiders-super-challenge-baseball-cat-trax_24901.html

I need to recheck my BitCorp unit to see if there is anything connected to Cat Trax. I know that the seller of the unit I bought a few years ago supplied an ad for the Bit Corp games but it did not have Cat Trax on it but I believe there was other pieces of documentation that was not scanned. I am going to check it out after I finish my remodeling project at home.

[+stupus]

I need to recheck my BitCorp unit to see if there is anything connected to Cat Trax. I know that the seller of the unit I bought a few years ago supplied an ad for the Bit Corp games but it did not have Cat Trax on it but I believe there was other pieces of documentation that was not scanned. I am going to check it out after I finish my remodeling project at home.

Look forward to what you find! Do you mean you bought the bit 60 computer with this flyer from the member fmh here around 2012?

 

 

[+Wonder007]

Look forward to what you find! Do you mean you bought the bit 60 computer with this flyer from the member fmh here around 2012?

 

 

bit_corporation_ad.jpg

Yep, I acquired that. I even took it to CPUWIZ's house so that he can have a look at it.

[+stupus]

Oh man, I wanted that thing bad!

Glad it's got a good home anyway!

[Rom Hunter]

There are more Taiwanese carts wit Cat Trax on it:
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-4-in-1-cat-trax-atlantis-freeway-air-raiders_25712.html

And I'm sure there are more mult-game combinations like that with Cat Trax on it.

Looking at the serial numbers, we haven't even scratched the surface of the Taiwanese cart releases.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Rom Hunter

[Blazing Lazers]

So, I assume that we can now consider Red Sea Crossing to have 3 known copies, given the recent Ebay listing?

[+stupus]

4 copies total now.

[Blazing Lazers]

Updated the list in light of this new, 4th RSC turning up:

 

1x copy: Birthday Mania / Gamma Attack
(*) 2x copies: Cat Trax (if it wasn't just a commercial sample)
2x copies: monogrammed Space Chase
3x copies: Ultravision Karate
4x copies: Red Sea Crossing
5x copies: Extra Terrestrials
6x copies: Gauntlet

15x copies: Eli's Ladder
20x copies: Air Raid
23x copies: Magicard
28x copies: Pepsi Invaders

[lazzeri]

Great job!

 

Any ideia how many copies of Mangia and Asterix NTSC are there? I think theres around 10 Mangia, but have no clue of how many Asterix.

[+stupus]

For gauntlet are we only counting the full production copies with color labels? Or does this include the ones with a generic sticker or the ones in imagic shells with real answer chips too?

I was lucky enough to find last week I had a real gauntlet I didn't even know I had in my collection.

 

[Blazing Lazers]

Great job!

 

Any ideia how many copies of Mangia and Asterix NTSC are there? I think theres around 10 Mangia, but have no clue of how many Asterix.

No idea, and I'd love to know where you sourced that number of 10 from, if anywhere. It sounds familiar to me. It could be some bit of assumed collector lore that nobody has thought to track down the origin of yet. I might put a poll up in this section asking if anyone owns one- that might at least provide a lower-end amount of known copies.

 

For gauntlet are we only counting the full production copies with color labels? Or does this include the ones with a generic sticker or the ones in imagic shells with real answer chips too?

I was lucky enough to find last week I had a real gauntlet I didn't even know I had in my collection.

 

20181004_202101.jpg

Whichever was sold at retail and/or which somebody, somewhere, somehow could have actually purchased back in the day.

 

Amazing find, btw- congrats!

[lazzeri]

No idea, and I'd love to know where you sourced that number of 10 from, if anywhere. It sounds familiar to me. It could be some bit of assumed collector lore that nobody has thought to track down the origin of yet. I might put a poll up in this section asking if anyone owns one- that might at least provide a lower-end amount of known copies.

 

Ouch. Really don´t remember, I wrote an article for a magazine last year (Brazilian portuguese) about R10 games and did a lot of research around. Somehow I got this number on my head.

 

I´ll try to double check it later.

[+stupus]

Well the ones with the color label were sold by mail order directly from answer. Then they sold the rest of the chips to a videogame dealer that put them in imagic boards/shells and sold them to the piblic.

[+stupus]

I would think there would have to be more than 10 ntsc mangia. I have seen at least 2 on ebay in the last year or so.

[FOX2600]

4 known copies of Red Sea Crossing? Apparently the first 2 copies were sold in the same listing, and the one that sold recently on eBay last week was the third (that one has yet to be confirmed as legitimate by anyone reputable on AA btw)

 

Which one am I missing?

[Supergun]

4 known copies of Red Sea Crossing? Apparently the first 2 copies were sold in the same listing, and the one that sold recently on eBay last week was the third (that one has yet to be confirmed as legitimate by anyone reputable on AA btw)

 

Which one am I missing?

The 3rd one was sold by rare earth video games a couple years ago.

[+stupus]

If the rare earth one was the 3rd, then this 1 is the 5th.

The 1 I thought was 3rd was found this summer. It has no end label and the finder has not yet resold it. Which may be a mistake now that this newest 1 was found and sold for so much less.....and it does have an end label too.

[+bfstats]

Also isn't video life more rare than magicard?

 

 

When the guys from Digital Press acquired all rights and materials from CommaVid founder John Bronstein, Joe Santulli told me that Dr. Bronstein claimed only 20 copies of Video Life were made. I would think that makes Video Life worthy of Blazing Lazers' list.

[+stupus]

It would only make sense it's more rare since you had to own magicard to have the option to buy video life.

If only 20 are made you would think at least some are also not saved....I wonder how many still exist.

I guess you could label it as 20 or less...

[Supergun]

The other issue is the unknown element involved with these lists & so called registry threads that began years ago in the collectors corner / rarity sections of these sites.

 

And I am a perfect example of this.

For instance, I have Video Life.

And I also have Magicard, Air RAID, etc.

As well as NES Stadium Events, Genesis Outback Joey, Turbografx Magical Chase, etc.

I own the grails for almost every system I collected.

But I am NOT on ANY of those lists & registrys. I have never really cared to be. My point being none of this stuff is completely accurate, nor ever will be!

 

Its purely for entertainment purposes. Slightly informative & accurate, YES. But 100% factual, NO.

 

Since the mid 90s Atari newsgroup days, during the era of the VGR (Craig Pell for you historians) master list, I have always felt that dollar values DO NOT BELONG on lists. The C,U,R,ER, & UR ratings were & still are perfect & all that is needed for any list for any system.

 

(maybe adding + & - ratings to them as we see fit would be ok to do) but thats it.

[Blazing Lazers]

 

When the guys from Digital Press acquired all rights and materials from CommaVid founder John Bronstein, Joe Santulli told me that Dr. Bronstein claimed only 20 copies of Video Life were made. I would think that makes Video Life worthy of Blazing Lazers' list.

 

 

This is exactly the sort of background lore sourcing I was hoping this thread would bring up- thank you so much for relating that! Consider it added! It's really good and useful to be able to track bits of info back to their origins.

It would only make sense it's more rare since you had to own magicard to have the option to buy video life.

If only 20 are made you would think at least some are also not saved....I wonder how many still exist.

I guess you could label it as 20 or less...

Even though this thread is about trying to establish minimum numbers of known surviving copies, we'll include maximum number of possible/probable copies where it can be determined. Joe Santulli hearing 20 or less directly from the source that would know best is more than enough for me to roll with it.

 

The other issue is the unknown element involved with these lists & so called registry threads that began years ago in the collectors corner / rarity sections of these sites.

 

And I am a perfect example of this.

For instance, I have Video Life.

And I also have Magicard, Air RAID, etc.

As well as NES Stadium Events, Genesis Outback Joey, Turbografx Magical Chase, etc.

I own the grails for almost every system I collected.

But I am NOT on ANY of those lists & registrys. I have never really cared to be. My point being none of this stuff is completely accurate, nor ever will be!

 

Its purely for entertainment purposes. Slightly informative & accurate, YES. But 100% factual, NO.

 

Since the mid 90s Atari newsgroup days, during the era of the VGR (Craig Pell for you historians) master list, I have always felt that dollar values DO NOT BELONG on lists. The C,U,R,ER, & UR ratings were & still are perfect & all that is needed for any list for any system.

 

(maybe adding + & - ratings to them as we see fit would be ok to do) but thats it.

Same here- I own several Grails for various platforms and am not on any registries. With threads such as this, we at least manage to have a bare minimum number of known copies that is also up to date. We'll likely never know exactly just how many of any particular game existed originally, and never how many still exist in total anywhere in the world. But at least we have some idea, and for several of these titles it isn't an unreasonable assumption that a few other copies are just waiting to turn up. We'll just never be 100% sure on anything.

[Blazing Lazers]

Updated the list:

 

1x copy: Birthday Mania / Gamma Attack
(*) 2x copies: Cat Trax (if it wasn't just a commercial sample)
2x copies: monogrammed Space Chase
3x copies: Ultravision Karate
5x copies: Red Sea Crossing
5x copies: Extra Terrestrials
6x copies: Gauntlet

>10x Copies: NTSC Mangia
15x copies: Eli's Ladder

<=20x copies: Video Life
>20x copies: Air Raid
23x copies: Magicard
28x copies: Pepsi Invaders