Aluminum Box Rarity?

[sku_u]

I'd love to get my hands on that Asteroids controller (pictured top right)

[Ferris]

BTW, you know that we can use the screen-printing technique with real silver color (CMYK+silver), we won't get the exact offset quality but very close colorwise and much cheaper. If we get real nostalgic and have nothing to do...

 

Indeed! I have a really great printer guy who can make this happen. I'm very familiar with the whole CMYK+silver deal. Thing is, it wasn't cost effective to print those labels just so I could have one cartridge made. Maybe I'll go in on it with ya once you get your hands on an Asteroids Repro.

 

 

 

You actually saw VSX in as a kid?

 

Lol not in person! I remember seeing it in the old magazines as "Atari's New Next Generation SuperSystem" before it was titled the 5200. It was that same picture you always see of the Video System-X with the blue background and all of the games in the Red boxes that never came out like Skiing, etc. I remember thinking way back in the 1980's "boy I sure would like to get my hands on one of those prototypes that no one else has that would be cool to have a system named "Atari Video System-X" I thought that was just so badass lol.

 

But no... not in person.

[Henry Lee]

 

Indeed! I have a really great printer guy who can make this happen. I'm very familiar with the whole CMYK+silver deal. Thing is, it wasn't cost effective to print those labels just so I could have one cartridge made. Maybe I'll go in on it with ya once you get your hands on an Asteroids Repro.

 

 

 

Hell, after this Infogrames thing cools off and if we have some free time, we should do a very very limited edition boxed asteroids and trying to come as closely to the aliminium edition. Seriously, count me in. can do the scannings and the seperations on Quark.

[Ferris]

I'd love to get my hands on that Asteroids controller (pictured top right)  

 

You know... I bet it wouldn't be too hard to build one of those out of an old 5200 joystick cable and $15.00 woth of a trip to Radio Shack. Just get a nice little project box and some buttons. Or you could go all out and build a larger setup using coin-op buttons. That would be beautiful. I'll have to try that sometime.

 

 

 

Hell, after this Infogrames thing cools off and if we have some free time, we should do a very very limited edition boxed asteroids and trying to come as closely to the aluminum edition. Seriously, count me in. can do the scannings and the separations on Quark.

 

Well Henry as much as I would have LOVED to do that I don't think it will happen. Maybe we can make some limited labels or something but doing repros again, at least on the open market, has been nixed by Infogrames and I don't really want to piss them off anymore than I already have.

 

I was lightly involved with George Reese and his attempt to complete and release 5200 Asteroids. (I worked with him on some box issues in 2001 and talked with him about the labels... not sure whatever happened to George he was a great guy.) The ones sold thru AtariAge were brilliant even though I preferred the original label design. It's a shame those had to be pulled, at least for the time being.

 

But who knows.. maybe the two of us can brew something up between us and have fun with it ourselves.

[sku_u]

I'd love to get my hands on that Asteroids controller (pictured top right)  

 

You know... I bet it wouldn't be too hard to build one of those out of an old 5200 joystick cable and $15.00 woth of a trip to Radio Shack. Just get a nice little project box and some buttons. Or you could go all out and build a larger setup using coin-op buttons. That would be beautiful. I'll have to try that sometime.

 

If I were to build my own, I'd definitely go the arcade route and try to set up the buttons in a way that would also benefit game play in Decathlon, Frogger. Frogger II and Defender.

 

To tell you the truth, the prototype controller in that picture looks like it is a project box with standard Radio Shack buttons which wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Ferris]

To tell you the truth, the prototype controller in that picture looks like it is a project box with standard Radio Shack buttons which wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

You're absolutely right. I *think* Gary Rubio assembled that in an effort to make the whole Asteroids project fly with the intension of further developing it into a 5200 controller that would be packed-in with Asteroids just as Track & Field did. Don't quote me on that though because I'm not positive. I do know that it came from within Atari and was constructed just for 5200 Asteroids.

 

I'd definately head in the direction of the arcade board. Try www.QuarterArcade.com for buttons and accessories.

[orrimarrko]

My Choplifter is Atari, Inc 1984, but what I was curious about is, are all of these you've listed Atari, Corp re-releases?

 

I've taken out Gremlins, BallBlazer and Rescue on Fractalus because they were only released as Atari, Corp.

 

The 1985 titles I have include...

 

- Galaxian

- RealSports Soccer

- Pac-Man

 

The 1986 titles I have include...

 

- Space Invaders

- Dig Dug

- Moon Patrol

- Choplifter

- Centipede

- Countermeasure

- RealSports Baseball

- Star Raiders

- Missile Command

- Mario Bros

- Kangaroo

 

I think, print quality wise, we can devide in three distinct section : The alimunium boxes, the silver boxes and the later grey boxes.

 

I'm not sure I see the "aluminum" box distinction that you're talking about. Does anyone have a side-by-side photo comparison?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[the 5th ghost]

I'm not sure I see the "aluminum" box distinction that you're talking about. Does anyone have a side-by-side photo comparison?

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

Steve, the first run of 5200 boxes had a very reflective sheen to them, giving them a sort of "brushed aluminum" appearance. Even the blue stripe and Atari logo are reflective. Very nice looking IMO.

 

Here's a side by side shot of Super Breakout. The "aluminum" version on the left, the standard silver version on the right.

 

I only have these games in the 1st style box:

 

Super Breakout

Missle Command

Star Raiders

Space Invaders

Galaxian

[orrimarrko]

I'm not sure I see the "aluminum" box distinction that you're talking about. Does anyone have a side-by-side photo comparison?

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

Steve, the first run of 5200 boxes had a very reflective sheen to them, giving them a sort of "brushed aluminum" appearance. Even the blue stripe and Atari logo are reflective. Very nice looking IMO.

 

Here's a side by side shot of Super Breakout. The "aluminum" version on the left, the standard silver version on the right.

 

I only have these games in the 1st style box:

 

Super Breakout

Missle Command

Star Raiders

Space Invaders

Galaxian

 

Ooooh!

 

Thanks for the side-by-sides Ghost. Totally different.

 

Now I have something else to look for!

[orrimarrko]

Got my hands on the "aluminum box" versions of Galaxian and Super Breakout in a crappy boxed lot I won.

 

The interesting thing is that the cart labels are different than the "non-aluminum" counterpart carts.

 

The "ATARI 5200" at the top is definitely bigger, and there is no "TM" to the left of the last "0" in the 5200.

 

Just wanted to mention.

[the 5th ghost]

Got my hands on the "aluminum box" versions of Galaxian and Super Breakout in a crappy boxed lot I won.

 

The interesting thing is that the cart labels are different than the "non-aluminum" counterpart carts.

 

The "ATARI 5200" at the top is definitely bigger, and there is no "TM" to the left of the last "0" in the 5200.

 

Just wanted to mention.

 

You are correct. I just checked mine and verified the same thing.

 

However, the "Atari" at the top is not bigger, but rather the letters are just spaced farther apart.