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Almost got a 2600 Meltdown prototype for $1


joesmooth

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I was in Las Vegas for some business and decided to take a trip around to some of the local videogame stores. At the first one I went to, I was sifting through some of the boxes of junk, and in one of the 2600 boxes pulled out an interesting looking cart with a handwritten label. It was in a 20th Century Fox case and looked nice and clean like it hadn't been touched in years. I set it aside and finished digging through the boxes.

 

I brought the cart up to the guy at the register and said "Just this.." - the stuff in the 2600 box normally sold for $1 a piece. He looked at the cart and said "This looks interesting" and took it into his back room office. 15 minutes later, after some phone calls and Web searching, no doubt, he comes back and says "Sorry, I can't sell this. It looks to be some sort of prototype and I could probably get $70 for it". I couldn't be sure that it was a prototype without looking at the board and the guy had done this to me in the past with other games (not prototypes, but he bases a lot of his prices on eBay after-the-fact - like, if you look like a "collector"). So I walk out and call Curt Vendel for a second opinion.

 

After talking with Curt, we realized that it was most definitely a 2600 prototype of Meltdown, which was previously only released for the 7800. I knew the game was a 2600 version, as it didn't have the additional fingers on the PCB for the 7800. So, I went back into the store and asked to look at the cartridge. It turns out that when the guy was in the office, he broke the handwritten white sticker to access the screwhole of the cartridge. He showed me the PCB which was a great looking, flawless EPROM board with an EPROM (I can't remember if it was 2K or 4K) that looked like it came right out of a package - it was totally unscratched and the entire cartridge was in flawless condition. He then said maybe he could sell it for $50 to $70, thinking it was a prototype of the 7800 version.

 

So, after talking for a while (turns out he is a big collector in Vegas, I guess), I offered to give him cash for it. But then he balked again and said he couldn't sell it at all! He changed his tune now and said he thought it was for the 2600 and could "get $200" for it. Not having that kind of cash, I left. Pissed off and having wasted 30 minutes.

 

That's the story. Has this ever happened to anyone before? I guess I shouldn't really expect to get bargains at videogame stores, but if the cartridge is in a box of other stuff for sale, it should be for sale, and not have the price jacked up once a customer is interested in the product. The dude says "If I wasn't here and it was just my partner, you would have gotten it for $1" - meaning his partner knew nothing about videogames. The crappy thing is is that I don't think that even Tempest has a copy of this game and it would have been great to image the ROM and preserve it for the community. It was in my hands and then got snapped away. It ruined the rest of my visit to Vegas. I was fuming. :x

 

Anyway, at least I can positively confirm that I saw a 2600 Meltdown prototype and can provide other visual details if you are curious about it.

 

Joe

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If you can round up the posse, I'll supply the pitchforks. :x :x :x

 

What an ass this guy is! Don't put it out in the box if you aren't going to sell it, and don't keep jacking the price when you see someone with interest just because you think it might be worth something. What an ass. I hope he chokes on it. :x :x :x

 

Sucks that such a thing happened to you Joe. Maybe you could reveal this douchebag's place of business and we can all boycott him. I'm not saying he had to sell it to you for $1, but he was honor bound to sell it for the $70 he then jacked it to. Swine. :x

 

However, cool find, and now we know a Meltdown is floating around out there!

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Here's what you do next time you're in that store....

 

Grab a whole lot of those carts and take them up there to that register and claim "Just these...". Just as he's giving you the final price...yell out..."Wait a sec...I forgot something....". Go pick up several other items and bring those back. "Whew! I almost forgot about these." you'll exclaim. Again, wait until he has it rung up and it telling you the final price. Then with a straight face, look the guy straight in the eye and inform him "Sorry, I can't purchase these. I can't get them for $1 elsewhere.". Promptly turn around and leave. :twisted:

 

Cap

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If this is such an important proto and the guy wants $200, surely a bunch of the members (not me :D ) could get together and purchase it together to get it dumped or whatever it is they do with it.

 

However, I forsee the possible problem ala Bart/Milhouse/Martin when they bought that rare Radioactive man #1 ;)

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That sucks! Sounds like a flea market seller that does not put prices on games and if you walk up to them in nice clothes the price is higher. I have been shopping before and asked how much and the seller looks up and down at me and says $10 then the next day i will wear shorts with holes in them and a junk tshirt and then they say $5. Assholes

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$200 is not too, too bad: if a) no one (even people from GCC) have a copy of it and b) everyone helps out a-little.

 

If 10 people at $20 each…

Or

20 people at $10 each…

 

Or buy it and have people buy the dumps from you.

 

If you are still in Las Vegas, you should go for it. Says me.

 

If Curt Vendel thinks it is worth $100 or $200 offer him that.

 

Do people think this is worth $200 and do you think he can get his money back/ would you pay to preserve it?

 

Does he read this board?

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$200 is not too, too bad: if a) no one (even people from GCC) have a copy of it and b) everyone helps out a-little.

 

Given that the guy jacked up the price from $1.00 to $70.00 to $200.00, what's to stop him from trying to get $1000.00 or $2000.00 when he sees someone come to him with $200.00 for it? This is one of those things that will probably end up on Ebay with a ridiculously large reserve that gets pulled and never seen again.

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$200 is not too, too bad: if a) no one (even people from GCC) have a copy of it and b) everyone helps out a-little.

 

Given that the guy jacked up the price from $1.00 to $70.00 to $200.00, what's to stop him from trying to get $1000.00 or $2000.00 when he sees someone come to him with $200.00 for it? This is one of those things that will probably end up on Ebay with a ridiculously large reserve that gets pulled and never seen again.

 

Sad but true... another stupid person thinking he can get like 5k for something like that.

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Yeah, screw this guy for actually being informed and not letting you buy a priceless piece of history for $1... who does he think he is actually doing research on his stuff, and attempting to get a fair value! What an ass!

 

--Zero

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I bet that proto is lost forever now.

 

I doubt it. If that guy knows where to look for info about Atari protos then you can be sure he can also find out how to sell it for $$$. As said before, it will probably show up on ebay with a huge reserve. It probably won't sell for that, but he will be persuaded by a side-offer eventually...

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It's a shame that CGX isn't in Vegas this time--I bet a batch of y'all could go down there and harrass this guy.

 

On a different note, my job sends me to Vegas a lot and I've never seen game shops there. Where's the shop in question?

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The lesson here is that if you find a game with a handwritten label, tear that label off before you take it to the counter. Talk about how you buy useless unlabeled carts to rework into homebrews.

 

I don't understand how a shopowner puts something on the shelf in the first place without checking it out, but I've seen it happen.

 

I'd like to hear the missing piece of the story. What information did you recieve that took you straight from

interesting looking cart with a handwritten label. It was in a 20th Century Fox case

to

After talking with Curt, we realized that it was most definitely a 2600 prototype of Meltdown

 

Curt knows his stuff, so I'm not doubting you guys. But I'd love to know how you could have figured out what it was. Did you get to see the game plugged in? If not, and if this is just based on a label that reads MELTDOWN then who knows what it is. We know all about mislabeled Fox protos don't we?

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Yes, coincidentally I was looking at that just last night, around the time that I realized Fox's "Fall Guy" was actually "Sewer Sam."

 

Why the tears, C? Lamenting the proliferation of nuclear technology? I live right between two nuclear reactors so I know the feeling.

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