Atari Night Driver test cart, plus EA QA test cart

[fiddlepaddle]

Found this Night Driver cart at the San Jose flea market sometime in the 1990's I think. It has a cut out and half the shell is painted and the label looks like it was passed around inside a game company. Just wondering if anyone has more information about it. Also, here is a similar EA Sports cart for the Genesis I got around the same time, same place. Any evaluation or opinion is welcome. Edited October 12, 2022 by fiddlepaddle
cant seem to insert picture

[fiddlepaddle]

Here it is.

[Turbo-Torch]

Games released 16 years apart by different companies with the same poorly applied yellow paint = bored kid with a can of Krylon.

 

 

[Crazy Climber]

9 hours ago, Turbo-Torch said:

Games released 16 years apart by different companies with the same poorly applied yellow paint = bored kid with a can of Krylon.

 

 

I don't know man, if they were legit purchased in the 90's I don't think people were faking prototypes/etc back then before ebay. If they were just painted yellow sure, I'd agree...but whats with the weird stickers?

 

Random flat out guesses...

 

 - Game rental company?

 - Some kind of game design SCHOOL with an inner "library" with old games you could check out?

 - Some kind of game design COMPANY with an inner library/etc...?

 - An actual library?

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Crazy Climber
forgot something

[fiddlepaddle]

The EA cart says "Quality Assurance" on it, and I got it from a guy with other EA stuff, so I believe it's legit. Yes, this was before ebay or really much value on these kinds of things.

[alex_79]

 

[fiddlepaddle]

Thanks Alex-79. Looks almost exactly the same (except my date has no year). I wonder what the difference between red and yellow carts was?

[jhd]

 

Some points to consider:

 

Does the cartridge have a ROM or EPROM?

 

Are there any differences in gameplay between this version and the commercial release? 

 

Is the shell molded in yellow plastic or just painted?  

 

 

[Crazy Climber]

17 hours ago, alex_79 said:

 

 

33 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

Some points to consider:

 

Does the cartridge have a ROM or EPROM?

 

Are there any differences in gameplay between this version and the commercial release? 

 

Is the shell molded in yellow plastic or just painted?  

 

 

In the above topic about them (painted atari games) they were all final ROMS if I remember correctly.

@Tempest never did chime in though

[fiddlepaddle]

I did play it; seems to play same as released version. The cart doesn't open easily, so I didn't try to force it... might be glued.

So based on these expert opinions whom I've come to know and trust (mostly in the other thread), it looks like the Night Driver is probably a production prototype (likely a ROM), for internal testing, evaluation, marketing. I'm guessing value maybe $50 to $100 (?).

[Crazy Climber]

13 hours ago, fiddlepaddle said:

it looks like the Night Driver is probably a production prototype (likely a ROM), for internal testing, evaluation, marketing. I'm guessing value maybe $50 to $100 (?).

With some kind of solid proof as to what it is this should be well over $100 IMO. These have gotta be pretty rare.

 

Problem is, as of now, there is no solid proof(?)  The fact that you have a sega genesis cartridge too just adds to the confusion. Had to be some constant that carried through into the 90s (same programming team? Same marketing team?) 

 

I think its without a doubt real, I dont know what it is but I think its authentic and had a purpose... but at its core, its just a common game thats been spray painted yellow with a sticker slapped on it. Very easy to fake and without a proper story, could be a tough sale... 

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, Crazy Climber said:

With some kind of solid proof as to what it is this should be well over $100 IMO. These have gotta be pretty rare.

 

Problem is, as of now, there is no solid proof(?)

That plus the fact that it has clearly been spray-painted reduces the value significantly below even $50 in my eyes.  We don't know for certain whether or not that was standard practice at the place where the game was undergoing test, but without any provenance it's just a Night Driver cartridge with some labelling and paint added to it.  An interesting cartridge, to be sure, but one that could just as easily be a test copy as it could be the victim of that bored kid with a can of Krylon.

 

Note that I am by no means saying it's not genuine; there is no reason for me to believe that.  But we can't say for certain at this point where it may have come from.

1 hour ago, Crazy Climber said:

Had to be some constant that carried through into the 90s (same programming team? Same marketing team?) 

My guess: same employee, different company.  The only thing we can say for certain that the cartridges have in common is that both have been spray-painted yellow.  This suggests that the Atari and Sega cartridges may have been painted at the same time, possibly even by the same person.  The Atari cartridge was almost certainly split in half before it was painted: only one half of the shell has any paint on it, with no overspray on the other half.

 

Given the timeframe that these Sega cartridges would have been in development, the approximate value of a Night Driver cartridge would have been around $0.00.  Maybe it was used as a testbed to see how the paint adhered to the plastic before going to town on the Sega cartridges?

 

Either way, it would make sense for someone who worked at Atari then moved on to Sega later to possibly have both in a collection, which would go some way towards explaining why both were found in the same flea market.

[Crazy Climber]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

That plus the fact that it has clearly been spray-painted reduces the value significantly below even $50 in my eyes.  We don't know for certain whether or not that was standard practice at the place where the game was undergoing test, but without any provenance it's just a Night Driver cartridge with some labelling and paint added to it.  An interesting cartridge, to be sure, but one that could just as easily be a test copy as it could be the victim of that bored kid with a can of Krylon.

 

Note that I am by no means saying it's not genuine; there is no reason for me to believe that.  But we can't say for certain at this point where it may have come from.

My guess: same employee, different company.  The only thing we can say for certain that the cartridges have in common is that both have been spray-painted yellow.  This suggests that the Atari and Sega cartridges may have been painted at the same time, possibly even by the same person.  The Atari cartridge was almost certainly split in half before it was painted: only one half of the shell has any paint on it, with no overspray on the other half.

 

Given the timeframe that these Sega cartridges would have been in development, the approximate value of a Night Driver cartridge would have been around $0.00.  Maybe it was used as a testbed to see how the paint adhered to the plastic before going to town on the Sega cartridges?

 

Either way, it would make sense for someone who worked at Atari then moved on to Sega later to possibly have both in a collection, which would go some way towards explaining why both were found in the same flea market.

Yeah, same employee makes sense. Or same procedure used by same company but different employees. The cutting of the cartridge has corporate written all over it which makes me think of some kind of management call. Like mentioned above (or maybe the other thread) it's very reminiscent of "not for resale" records getting notched or CD's inserts getting punched/clipped/etc...

 

The paint could just be the equivalent of gas stations taping a fork to their pens. Basically reminding you "this is not yours, do not take it home, it stays here!" I'm guessing they don't want employees selling these "whatever their purpose was" cartridges on the side. Depending on how many are made it could have easily been thousands of dollars in their era. It's easy to see them as worthless now but at the time it would be like having a bunch of copies of PS5 horizon/etc a few weeks before they were to be released...that would be big money lol.

 

I don't know though, really everything we are saying is purely speculative...but yeah, without a proper proven back story I can't see it selling for very much...

Edited October 14, 2022 by Crazy Climber
forgot something

[Turbo-Torch]

On 10/12/2022 at 8:35 AM, Crazy Climber said:

I don't know man, if they were legit purchased in the 90's I don't think people were faking prototypes/etc back then before ebay.

 

Not for profit, but for another reason.

Back when alt.atari and rec.games.video.collecting were active, many of us despised "someotherguy."  He was the guy who made multiple daily rounds to all the thrift stores and Goodwills beating others to all the good stuff.  Many theorized he was a jobless loser living with parents or on the gubment tugboat, therefore had all the time in the world.  Another possibility was the ruthless flea market vendor who always wanted $50 for a common 50¢ game.

 

Just for fun, some collectors would put bait into circulation.  Take commons (Combat, ET and PacMan), remove the labels, hot glue in nuts, bolts or pennies to add weight and then make a mysterious label on a typewriter (not a dot matrix printer!).  Then simply drop them off for donation at all your local haunts.  

 

Not sure what to think about the OP's games.  Night Driver has runs in the paint with a production end label.  Genesis game has yellow overspray inside by the edge connector and very obvious tape lines where the square was painted red.