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Who wants to help build the elusive PAL rarity list then?


Spirantho

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Not so bad, not so bad.... we've got a pretty reasonable database of PAL stuff now.

 

As for not playing Atari games, hey, we all have times when we don't play it for a while. I hadn't played anything for a little while before last night, when I realised that there were 4 of us, and that I had a Warlords cart and 2 sets of paddles handy.

 

Don't know what the neighbours thought from the shouting that ensued for the next hour or so....

 

I won, BTW... my years of practise with a paddle paid off. :)

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  • 1 month later...

Ok, as you guys probably have read, it seems another Playaround PAL double-ender has surfaced -- http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...p=780929#780929

 

As there are only two copies known at this moment (mine and Pongbeat's) i would suggest a high rarity for this cart (9 or 10).

 

I was thinking however that maybe we should 'reserve' rarity 10 for games that only saw limited (or no) distribution. E.g. games that were never available in shops, or were given out as prices or whatever, and thus have an extremely low production number.

 

Assuming these Playaround double-enders have been available for purchase in shops the highest rarity number they could get is 9.

 

In contrast, i think that Pengo should remain a 10 as there is no proof that this has ever been available for purchase. The carts found are rumoured to be trade-show prototypes. There are however 4 known copies of this game. (compare this to only 2 of each Playaround double-ender). In theory my idea makes sense, but Pengo with 4 copies a 10 and these double-enders a 9 with 2 copies each doesn't sound to convincing though...

 

Would this make any sense to you? Comments? Ideas?

 

Cheers,

Raymond

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First off - congrats on a great find! That's certainly one thing that all this PAL cataloguing is doing - helping us to find more new carts! I wonder how many decades it'll be before anyone has a complete Homevision collection....

 

I agree with your principle, but unfortunately we have no way of telling what was officially released and what wasn't! Therefore, I think we're probably safer just using rarities based on proliferation rather than provenance. At least we can be more sure about that!

 

Now, who's going to update the database? Will you do the honours? A photo would be nice too. :)

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I added it to the database. I'll ask if Pongbeat can make a picture of the cart, since mine has a rental sticker on the label. At the moment there are only 2 known copies of it, so i've set the rating to 10 (just like the other Playaround title)

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In contrast, i think that Pengo should remain a 10 as there is no proof that this has ever been available for purchase. The carts found are rumoured to be trade-show prototypes. There are however 4 known copies of this game.

 

Do we know where these other copies were found?

 

In the UK, Pengo saw a very limited release through Silica Shop (thought to be only a few hundred). This information came from Chris Hind, who used to buy all the games as they were released at the time. When he visited the shop, they had sold out.

 

Maybe Atari sent Silica a test run of Pengos or something?

 

At the time, Silica were well into the VCS. Frogger II, Gyruss and Star Wars Arcade Game were imported exclusively by Silica Shop when Parker pulled out of the video game business in the UK.

 

Anyway, all that said, it deserves a 10! 8)

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In the UK, Pengo saw a very limited release through Silica Shop (thought to be only a few hundred).  

At the time, Silica were well into the VCS. Frogger II, Gyruss and Star Wars Arcade Game were imported exclusively by Silica Shop when Parker pulled out of the video game business in the UK.

  8)

 

I can verify that in the UK "Big K" Magazine Number 2 (May 1984)

a Silica Shop advertisement lists "Pengo" as one of the "Recent Releases" (priced at 27.95 (pounds))

"We stock a range of over 200 VCS Cartridges"

 

Has anyone done the exercise of going through other old UK Magazines and checking out all the Silica Shop ads (in C&VG, BigK + others) to see if there were any other oddities.

I know people (Chris Hind) have copies of there catalogues and the VCS Owners Club magazines they listed?

 

This ad alone lists some rarities (Missile Control, Surgers Paradise, Infernal Tower) + obscure pirates... (mainly Goliath titles?)

Sea Master, Dream Flight, Felix Return, Time Machine, Hot Shot titles like Overkill.

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Never have i seen a Pal Pengo or Gyruss...

 

I do have a PAL Gyruss (at least i think it's PAL). It's pretty hard to get, but not impossible. I would say maybe rarity 7 or 8. It seems it's not in the PAL rarity database yet, so i'll verify my copy and add it later...

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AFAIK, Silica sold:

 

- Pengo

- Frogger II, Gyruss, Star Wars Arcade

- Hot Shot (not Goliath)

- Video Gems

- Carrere

- Supervision

 

Cheers,

Marco

 

If that shop would still be open today, it could make quite a good living :) Anyway, Star Wars Arcade in PAL is that rare? (as your post seems to imply)

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Im taking a guess that both PAL gyruss and Pengo may only be a europe release? Speaking of PAL, I wonder if New Zealand is a PAL country, im sure we havent any members from there.

 

I have traded with someone from New Zealand once and the Atari 2600 carts i got were PAL, so i assume it's also PAL territory...

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Ok, heres one for you all. Is there proof of a PAL burgertime release? Ive only got it on a multi cart and cant work out if its pal or NTSC.

 

AFAIK there is no PAL burgertime cart, but i have noticed that 'clone' consoles and multicarts sometimes have games on them that were not released in cart form in PAL territory. NTSC games usually run fine on a PAL setup, only the colors are different, so most of the time the games are not converted to the PAL standard. You can compare a screenshot of your copy with the screenshots of a NTSC game to see if this is the case...

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Unfortunately i can't check my own copy of Mangia right now, but it could be possible that the screenshot at AA is PAL. Another option is to get an emulator with a confirmed PAL rom of the game and start it in PAL and/or NTSC mode and see what the differences are...

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