My Rom Chip Collection

[foxglove9]

I've been meaning to do this for a few years now so here goes. It's a pics of all my roms (not counting dups) I had since my Atari playing days. The arrows on the chips relate to the switches on the cartridge you see. Unfortunately the cartridge you see in the pic has only one switch and can only play the games with the one arrow. The cartidge I used to have had 4 switches to play all these games. But my neighbor broke that in the mid-80's and I was never able to find a replacement.

 

The only reason I'm posting this is because there are some unlabeled games here, and some rare ones, and perhaps there were a prototype or 2 in the bunch. I don't even know if any of these still work as they've been sitting in a box in my closet for almost 20 years.

 

I know Alex gave a crack at trying to play these and couldn't find anything to read them. Maybe someone out there has something. Of the 8 "unlabeled" games I definitely remember them to be: Aquaventure, Spacemaster X-7, Earth Dies Screaming, Firefly, and Sorcerer. Octopussy was also one of the unlabeled chips. As for the others, I looked through the screenshot database on Atari Age and nothing came to mind as what they were.

[foxglove9]

here's the 2nd batch...

[foxglove9]

And the last...

[MattyXB]

Octopussy was also one of the unlabeled chips. As for the others, I looked through the screenshot database on Atari Age and nothing came to mind as what they were.

Octopussy is maybe Name this Game.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Those little arrows arranged like that really remind me of something. I think someone on eBay, or maybe here, was selling roms with a cart to play them, and it had 4 little switches, but I dont even remember where it was and how long ago (less then a year ago). Really intresting though...

[foxglove9]

Octopussy is maybe Name this Game.

 

Nope. I played all those games really often so if I saw a screenshot of a particular game I'd remember in almost an instant. And I have Name this Game on Stella, and it's not something I never remember playing before. It's very possible Octopussy could have another underwater game, but most of the games I looked at in the atari age guide, didn't look familiar.

 

But yes, some games are mislabeled slighty. For instance, Dig It = Bank Heist.

[Brad2600]

Maybe Octopussy is the lost Bond game for the 2600?

 

Highly unlikely but if it's not Name this Game, then I wonder what it could be.

[+Mitch]

The only reason I'm posting this is because there are some unlabeled games here, and some rare ones, and perhaps there were a prototype or 2 in the bunch. I don't even know if any of these still work as they've been sitting in a box in my closet for almost 20 years.

 

I know Alex gave a crack at trying to play these and couldn't find anything to read them. Maybe someone out there has something. Of the 8 "unlabeled" games I definitely remember them to be: Aquaventure, Spacemaster X-7, Earth Dies Screaming, Firefly, and Sorcerer. Octopussy was also one of the unlabeled chips. As for the others, I looked through the screenshot database on Atari Age and nothing came to mind as what they were.

 

I'd be happy to take a look at any you'd care to loan out. I should be able to read out anything on those chips if it hasn't succombed to bit rot yet.

 

Mitch

[CPUWIZ]

The only reason I'm posting this is because there are some unlabeled games here, and some rare ones, and perhaps there were a prototype or 2 in the bunch. I don't even know if any of these still work as they've been sitting in a box in my closet for almost 20 years.

 

I know Alex gave a crack at trying to play these and couldn't find anything to read them. Maybe someone out there has something. Of the 8 "unlabeled" games I definitely remember them to be: Aquaventure, Spacemaster X-7, Earth Dies Screaming, Firefly, and Sorcerer. Octopussy was also one of the unlabeled chips. As for the others, I looked through the screenshot database on Atari Age and nothing came to mind as what they were.

 

I'd be happy to take a look at any you'd care to loan out. I should be able to read out anything on those chips if it hasn't succombed to bit rot yet.

 

Mitch

 

Same here, thanks to Eckhardt.

[Bruce Tomlin]

So what's the story of how you ended up with these, and the cartridges to play them on?

 

Clearly, for the one-arrow games, up is 4K and down is 2K. The four-switch cartridge could have supported bank-switched games, but apparently none of those chips are. Most of them are up, up, down, up, and those are 4K. The blue-label ones are up, down, up, down, and are all 2K.

 

If Octopussy was a bank switched game, I would expect it to use Parker Bros's bankswitching which is quite different from regular bank switching. I wouldn't expect an 8K PB game to be in that set at all, considering how much more troublesome PB bankswitching is to implement. So if one of those chips is Octopussy, it's 4K.

 

I recommend you keep these inside a box in a DARK place at all times except when you're specifically doing something with them. Maybe wrap them all in aluminum foil too, to be sure they're kept in the dark. If they haven't rotted yet (usual time is 10-15 years, depending on factors like light exposure and probably temperature as well), this will help them stay readable longer. Once bit rot actually begins, it may be only a few months before the chip is completely erased.

 

You shouldn't have any trouble finding a collector in New York with an EPROM reader who can dump all these.

[CPUWIZ]

If Octopussy was a bank switched game, I would expect it to use Parker Bros's bankswitching which is quite different from regular bank switching.  I wouldn't expect an 8K PB game to be in that set at all, considering how much more troublesome PB bankswitching is to implement.  So if one of those chips is Octopussy, it's 4K.

 

Unless these aren't EPROM's.

[pmpddytim]

Where do you people get these wonderfull toys? Serious question, I don't even know what purpose these served or how you would go about aquiring them. Sorry for the dumb question.

 

-Tim

[Bruce Tomlin]

Unless these aren't EPROM's.  

I'm pretty sure they are. Look at the chips in the upper-right corner. They have raised portions where the quartz window goes. The rest seem to be gray. Ceramic is normally only used on chips that have to be mil-spec, the exception being UV erasable devices, because it isn't possible to hermetically seal the quartz window in plastic. Moisture gets in and messes up the chip.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Hmm. Some of them do appear to be plastic, but not many.

 

The most interesting one is Vanguard, which seems to have had four pins cut off. I presume there's a wire to bring power to the corner pin, but that's sure a wierd way to do things. (Not that I haven't thought of it myself, though.)

[bjk7382]

I have 165 rom chips all together right now, with some repeats. I also have some pretty crazy rom chips that I can't get to work. Like having 3 28 pin rom chips stacked up and soldered together.

 

I also have a couple that are marked prototype on the bottom (three pigs, and trick shot)

 

Most of foxglove's do look like rom chips, and some eprom.

[foxglove9]

Maybe Octopussy is the lost Bond game for the 2600?  

 

I think it's unlikely to be honest..but you never know.

 

So what's the story of how you ended up with these, and the cartridges to play them on?

 

I got these in the early 80's. My dad would get them from a friend of his who was a computer programmer and hacker. He also pirated software and had rom burners and knew people who had connections to sell copies Atari Roms/E-Proms.

 

So basically that's it. Every few weeks he'd bring home some chips for me to play. Sometimes if they were on Eproms he'd take them back to his friend and burn a different game on it for me, but the majority I kept.

 

The original cart was the one switch type which worked on the older games like Pac-Man and Defender. Then he took my Surround cartridge and said he needed it to convert to a 4 switch cart. But the interesting thing was...the guy who made the carts actually glue 2 carts together perpendicularly. I think it was because there were so many wires soldered inside, plus they needed room for the 4 switches and socket.. I remember opening up the cart when my friend broke it and there were probably around 10-30 wires in there. I remember also not all carts could be converted into rom players. Surround was one of them..not sure why that was.

 

There are probably a mix of Roms and Eproms mixed in. Some have the little window and some do not. I generally kept them in good shape. Always in a protective case, in the special black foamy stuff that the chips stick in. But they've also been in my closet, in probably some hot humid summers..so I don't know.

 

The most interesting one is Vanguard, which seems to have had four pins cut off.

 

It's true, the 4 pins are cut off. This is so the chip would fit into the socket. No additional materials were necessary, just insert the chip and set the switches and it worked fine. I don't know why it was even on such a large chip to begin with.

 

I ended up finding another game that can be added to the unlabeled section and that was "Thunderground". And perhaps "Fathom" is one of them too.

 

It would be great to bring these to someone local who had the skills to work with them. CPUWIZ and Mitch, I'd be willing to lend a few out to test. I'm real curious about these things myself.