Joey Kay Posted April 19, 2002 Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hey gang! My grey-label Robotron 2084 cart is in the 1984 casings that Atari manufactured cartridges in (the rom connecters were still covered by springloaded plastic, but unlike the original 2600 carts, you could push the plastic part back with your fingers to expose the ROM). - incidentally, the box is the glued top with the tab flap (like Swordquest and 1986 Taz to name a few), not like the later folding box tops with shrinkwrap. I'm just wondering if Atari manufactured this cart in 84, and Tramiel's Atari slapped on the label in 86, or if the first batch of 7800 games manufactured by Tramiel's Atari still used the springload mechanism in the cart to cover the rom connectors... Anybody know? Cheers! Joey Kay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted April 19, 2002 Share Posted April 19, 2002 I don't know for sure but I have one of those too. I imagine it was from the first run of carts in 86/87. Mitch http://atari7800.atari.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 12, 2002 Share Posted June 12, 2002 I've asked Gary Rubio this very same question as I noticed this as well, Robotron carts seem to be the only carts I've run across that were packaged in the spring loaded, more higher end carts with the edge connector enclosure which was a standard feature of Atari cartridges in the Warner Comm. Atari days. He didn't know and noone else seemed to have an answer to this interesting question... Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted June 12, 2002 Share Posted June 12, 2002 I have a copy of Food Fight and Pole Position that are the exact same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viso Posted June 12, 2002 Share Posted June 12, 2002 To add to the list, I have a copy of Asteroids and a copy of Joust that also have the spring-loaded protector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 I have a Galaga like that as well. Mitch http://atari7800.atari.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 So it appears that the stockpile of existing spring loaded cart cases were used up and then replaced by the less costly versions.... I would guess that most likely you will only find spring loaded carts for the original 10 games finished in 1984 which most likely were already being assembled and readied.... However the interesting issue at hand is... I have about a 1/2 dozen 1984 Pole Position II labelled games including the one packed in an original 1984 box that I received in the summer of 1984.... yet they are NOT in a spring loaded game cart case, but the later (and lesser costly) version more popularly seen Hmmmmmmm Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 7800.com Posted June 13, 2002 Share Posted June 13, 2002 You know this is really one of the most intriguing issues with the 7800. The 7800 had a really weird beginning... it was designed as the foolproof answer to the 5200, brought into this world under warner, and then neglected by the Tramiel dictatorship at Atari. The deal with these "spring-loaded" cartridges has been bugging me for about 15 years, and the only thing Ive been able to come up with is that Atari, under Warner Communications, didn't have enough "standard" 7800 cartridges made up for the launch of the system.... (or maybe there was just a glut of 2600 cartridges, which could very well have been the case at Atari in Spring 1984) so they used existing 2600 cartridge shells to house the 7800 games. If you take a look at one of these games, you will see that the cartridge bung was not made to fit the 7800 cartridge pinout. All they did to modify these things for the 7800 was to slice off the small plastic areas which sat between the 2600 cartridge pinout opening, and the tooth-holes on the cartridge which allowed the 2600 cartridges to be unlocked and opened by the system. They just made more room for the 7800 cart by cutting away these plastic bridges, and taking out the backing mechanism that can be found on all pre-1984 2600 games. These were HAND CUT! ...why? That's the real question. The only games I have *ever* seen for the 7800 that feature this cartridge bung were the first ten or eleven 1984 release games for the 7800. These games include: Pole Position II Centipede Asteroids Dig Dug Joust Robotron: 2084 Ms. Pac-Man Food Fight Galaga Desert Falcon What is interesting is that its not a consistent rule of "all pre-Tramiel games had the spring bottom" or anything like that. I have a few mint 1984 7800 units in the box and all of them feature a regular 1984 Pole Position II. I also own some of the original pre-release "holoptic label" 7800 games, and again, all of them had the regular case design. I hope maybe this helped spread a little bit of light on the matter. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me directly : ) Justin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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