2600 Giant list Labels, boxes, manuals, UPDATED!

[the 5th ghost]

I can't remember if someone told me this, though I remember reading it. It may have been in this thread, or another, or someone PM'd me, but I'm putting this down as an official box variation. This version at the moment is for the Sears games, but will most likely also pertain to the Atari made games.

 

There seems to be three types of boxes in existance. The first is for the original releases, which is the book opening type of box. The other 2 I can't seem to figure out which came first. One version has a full flap across that tucks into the top or bottom, depending on which flap it is. The other version has the flaps glued, and there is a glued hang tag on the back of the box at the top. The example I'm showing is for Missile Command. The version I personally own is the tucked flap, no glue. The bottom small side flap has Rev 1 on it. If anyone owns a glued version which has come loose on the bottom flap, do me a favor and see if there is a Rev 2 or no Rev at all on it. This would sort of verify which version was made first. I'm sure there will be others. If anyone knows of any other Sears variations like this, please send me scans. Box scans of Sears games are difficult to obtain. When I get to the Atari, I'm going to look at what I have.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Phil

 

That was probably me that told you that some Sears boxes have regular flaps, and can also have the glued style flap.

 

The glued on flaps were the later ones. I know that there are several titles with both versions:

 

Adventure

Stellar Track

Missile Command

Pong Sports

Speedway II

Breakaway IV

Space Combat

 

and on...

 

The Tank-Plus box with the 49-75101 printed on it (with the 49-75124 sticker covering it) is very odd. Must have been an error maybe? I've never seen a cart or manual with that # for Tank Plus, only the 49-75124 version. Seras made a few errors along the way though that weren't caught, like the # on the Spelling manual for instance.

 

Philfound, if I had a scanner, I would scan my entire collection for you. Maybe I'll put it on my CHristmas list

[Christophero Sly]

You can get good results with a decent digital camera. That's what I use to "scan" things. It's faster too. Use natural lighting though, not a flash.

[Philflound]

Look at the scans that are on AA. This will give you a very good idea of what I'm looking for in the way of details. If I can see the same detail using a digital camera, I don't see it as a problem. I've been finding the most minute differences on some of the labels. The biggest concern I have with Sears is the definition of the Gold/Yellow letters. There are many that look orangish, or faded gold, or mustard Gulden's Brown Yellow. I added some labels that I had both a very "gold" version and a somewhat yellow version.

 

The strange variations occured with my thicker/thinner fonts. The thicker fonts almost seem smeared as the example I have of Golf. When I measure it, the thicker font seems to be slightly larger. So if I measured the Sears and Roebuck line, I may get 35 mm on the thinner font and 35 1/2 mm on the thicker font. I'm seeing that the "bleeding" labels are different than the regular ones. Bleeding means that the white text have a purplish hue to it while the non-bleeding ones are solid white. I'm writing these as variations, but they are subtle enough to just pass by and not collect. I wish there was a definitive way to seperate them besides these minor subtleties.

 

What I believe is that the die begins to break down. It starts out very fine and prints very neatly with thin lines. As the printing continues, the die begins to wear and the letters on the die begin to get flattened, creating a "wider" font. This also pertains to color. When something is printed say using red, after awhile, the red may begin to run or thin out. You will see this with your color printer at home if you have one. One particular color begins to run lower and you get a lighter version of it, or eventually no color of it at all.

 

Anyway, I may not be able to finish going through my Sears stock tonight. It's my father-in-law's birthday so we're taking him out, and it's new show night. Can't miss Smallville, CSI, and ER.

 

Tomorrow I'm taking off from work because I have to take my wife to the doctor. I'll have some free time and hopefully finish it all tomorrow.

 

As for Phitter's Combat boxed variation, I may ask him to re-peel the label since he said he did it already, and then scan what is printed. It would probably be the best way to dispute or not dispute exactly what is underneath.

 

After I'm done with the 3rd party software, hopefully within a week, then I'll do a quickover to see if Rom has acquired scans that I'm missing or maybe I can get it from Atariguide. If not, those are the ones I'll be very interested in acquiring asap. Then comes the monster, the Atari made section. That I presume will take me the better of 3 months to scan, download photos, and go through each with a fine tooth comb. I can almost guarantee some new variations will surface.

 

So everything is up to date on the website. Even more so than my last emailing. Check it out for the most up to the minute info. Talk to you soon.

 

Phil

[Christophero Sly]

As for Phitter's Combat boxed variation, I may ask him to re-peel the label since he said he did it already, and then scan what is printed. It would probably be the best way to dispute or not dispute exactly what is underneath.

What is this?

[phitter]

Tank-Plus box spine with sticker in place:

 

Tank-Plus box spine with sticker removed:

 

This sticker is found on both sides. I did not remove the other one but I assume the same incorrect product number is printed on the box there, too.

 

-phitter

[Philflound]

Thanks John. I actually added the variation prior to you posting the pic verifying it. I personally do not even own a box for Tank Plus. That is part of the reason I have holes with the scans. I only own 21 boxes for the Sears games, and am still missing Cannon Man after all these years. It's the only Sears game I'm missing.

 

So now the poor 5th Ghost has to seek this variation for his collection.

 

Phil

[the 5th ghost]

So now the poor 5th Ghost has to seek this variation for his collection.

 

Phil

 

LOL

 

You got that right! Now I'm tempted to peel back the little stickers on the boxes I have with stickers...

 

Hey phitter, what are the numbers on the Tank-Plus cart and manual? Are they 49-75124 or 49-75101?

 

And while I'm at it, interested in trading or selling it?

Edited September 29, 2006 by the 5th ghost

[phitter]

Hey phitter, what are the numbers on the Tank-Plus cart and manual? Are they 49-75124 or 49-75101?

 

And while I'm at it, interested in trading or selling it?

 

 

The cart and manual are imprinted with the standard 49-75124 product number.

 

And thanks for the offer...but I think I am going to hang onto it for now.

 

-phitter

[Philflound]

Ok, some new variations with the Sears labels. This one is going to be tough to find unless you have lots of duplicates. I was looking at my Maze Mania, one from my collection and one duplicate. It was originally listed as orange letters. I changed it to orange-yellow letters (meaning the 16) and end label orange letters. The other one is gold number and gold end label. The difference, which I thought I spotted on another cart is with the size of the "16". This is where the problem is going to arise when comparing carts. If you don't own more than one, or even so many to have a variation you won't notice this.

 

The orange version I measured the height of the "16" on the main label. It is 15 mm high. The gold version it is 16 mm high. The one looked bigger than the other and that is why I pulled out the ruler. I can't remember what other label I thought may have had a height difference on the number.

 

So 5th Ghost, or anyone else who owns many many Sears games, do me a favor and take a look at the height of the numbers. If there is a discrepancy, I'm going to need them to be added to the list. Right now I'm updating the website with the Maze Mania variation. I'm going to attach them here so you can have an idea. The smaller one, which is orange-yellow seems to be a little fuzzy with the printing.

 

Good luck and thanks in advance for helping again.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Ok, folks. Sears is now officially finished. Every label variation known is now on record along with every box variation known. I've scanned everything in my possession, so now if you have something that does not have a * next to it, now is the time to scan those and get them to me. I've added many variations, so please review what I've written against your old list if you're on my email list. If you aren't, you may want to get on it.

 

I'm going to work on trying to get the 3rd party software finished altogether by the end of the weekend. It may be asking too much, but I'm updating the website while I'm going along. When the 3rd party stuff is finished, I'll email everyone the complete list. Then it's on to the hard stuff, the Atari. I'll try and get everything done by the end of the year. This time I promise I'll work hard this year. I've been saying this each year and then something comes up and the list gets put on hold.

 

One thing I did not do in Target Fun was seperate the plastic yellow label. I own 9 of these. Just looking at the end labels, 3 are yellow and 6 have a greenish tinge to them. I'm going to keep this as one listing. Though you may notice I added a variation where the ® is higher than the "S" in Telegames and slightly lower than the top of the "S". It seems the yellow may also have this variation. I'll consider putting it as a seperate listing in the future. I don't know if Sears actually stamped the ® seperately from TELEGAMES since it varies in height.

 

Anyway, feel free to contact me with any scans of main and end labels. Make sure you send me both, even if they look just like another variation. Many times the end labels are the same, and the main labels change. I'd like to verify it for myself.

 

Oh, and don't forget the all important boxes. The Sears boxes are extremely scarce with scans. Also, I'm still looking to fill in scans for the front and back of the various Activision boxes.

 

Thanks again.

 

Phil

Edited September 30, 2006 by Philflound

[Christophero Sly]

Ok, folks. Sears is now officially finished. Every label variation known is now on record along with every box variation known. I've scanned everything in my possession, so now if you have something that does not have a * next to it, now is the time to scan those and get them to me. I've added many variations, so please review what I've written against your old list if you're on my email list. If you aren't, you may want to get on it.

 

Is the list on your website up to date or is it just the list you're emailing? I didn't receive an updated list through email.

[Philflound]

The website is the one up to date. I'm not sending a new emailing till I finish the 3rd party software, hopefully by tomorrow, but may not be able to finish it by then. I don't want to bombard people's email boxes with this large file more often than need be. So feel free to look at everything listed from 20th century up till Sears. The only things I need to definitely do scans of are the M Network and the Star Wars ESB labels. I have pretty much almost all of them, but have not gone through my stock yet with that. The SW ESB is confusing, so I'm going to have to look at each carefully to make sure I'm scanning the correct ones. So hold off on sending M Network and the ESB labels that I don't have. Otherwise, you can scan and send me anything else.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

I'm getting there. It's taking me a lot longer than I thought. I've been adding even more variations and am now done through Starpath. I'm slating the end of the week to have all 3rd party software finished completely. I'm trying to do 1 or 2 companies per night, depending on how big they are. Last night was Spectravision, tonight was Starpath. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do Sunrise and Telegames and maybe squeeze in Telesys. I'm not working tomorrow since I have to go to the doctor's, so I should have a few extra hours.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Alright folks. Update time! I'm almost complete with the 3rd party software. I need to do US Games and Xonox, along with finishing up the M Network and Star Wars ESB. I thank everyone who have sent me scans. I've added a few more variations with I think Telesys and Tigervision. I'm guaranteeing that by Sunday, all 3rd party software will be complete to my ability. Anything new to be added will have to be submitted by me, unless of course I find a ton of games over the weekend that are new variations. When I'm done with the 3rd party software, there will be an emailing of the list again, so everyone on the update list will be receiving their MS Word email soon.

 

I originally had my "sellable" cartridges seperated from all the duplicates. This meant that I had put aside one copy of every variation and put that on the sale list on my website. I'll be recombining all my copies and noting how many of each I own. By doing this, I'll be comparing all copies against each other to make sure I didn't miss variations that I didn't catch before. I'll also be scanning everything as I go along.

 

Depending on how long the Atari section takes is going to determine how often I will email updates. I figure I'll either send 2 or 3 updates. If it takes awhile to do, I'll probably do 3, breaking them down from like A-F, send update 1, then from G-R and send update 2, and then S-Y and send the final update. I can't see too many more variations being discovered than what is on the list. I know I need to differentiate between the comma and period variations, and of course mark anything I get or have a scan of with a *. Other than that, the list should not change too much.

 

After everything is marked with a *, that is when it becomes an open market. I'll need scans of anything not marked. So feel free to then send me scans of main and end labels, and front and back of boxes. I'll then send an update once every few months, or if I see there was much updating on the list, I may email the update at that time to keep everyone current.

 

Also, if you don't see something on the list that you own, feel free to send me the scans and describe what is different about the variation. Though I'll try and remain on top of things, I don't have an infinite amount of time to keep scanning Rom's site to see what he's added. I may have him contact me with new additions once I'm complete.

 

Also once the Atari list is done, I'll be getting back to work on the Intellivision list. I began that awhile ago, but put it on hold to try and finish the Atari list. After Intellivision, I'll be hitting Colecovision. Not sure if I'm going to do any other systems besides those. Many of the smaller systems wouldn't have too many variations. I know for sure the Intellivision does since I started working on the beginning titles and came across usually 3-6 label/cart variations alone for the more common titles. When I make my announcement of doing these other systems, anyone who would like to participate and/or receive the lists should contact me at that time. But that'll be in the future, most likely after the new year. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Ok everyone. The list is done of all the 3rd party software. From 20th Century Fox to Zimag, everything I own (hopefully), along with all scans I could get from the various Atari sites has increased the list even more. As promised today with 15 minutes to spare!

 

Everything with a * next to it I have a scan of. I'm looking mainly for the Activision boxes, Sears labels and boxes, Starpath cassettes, some more M Network, and anything else with no * next to it. I'll probably begin the Atari section during this week, but it is going to be extremely slow when it comes to this. There are just too many variations to be rushing through this. Plus I own a good 1000+ Atari made carts alone, probably more like 1500, especially if you include my personal collection. Anyway, if you own anything that I don't have a scan, please scan both main and end labels of carts, and front and back of boxes and email me or send them through the Atari Age PM. Also, if you see something you own that isn't on the list, or you think is a new variation, get me the scan so I can review it and tell me exactly what you think or see is different about it.

 

Remember, if you wish to be on the email to receive the list instead of viewing it on my website, PM your email address and I'll send it. I will probably update the other site that I show you the physical cartridge variations side by side. This will be done during the week. I found a new variation with the Xonox cart copyright info molded on the back. This was discovered with Ghost Manor/Spike's Peak, since that was only 1 of 2 doubles I own.

 

If I come up with about 20-25 more additions to the scans, and a few new variations, I may email another update sooner than expected. I'm going to keep the website current, up to the minute. Any time I change the list, I will change the site at the same time. This will keep everyone up to date so they can see what new scans I am acquiring and save themselves the time of not duplicating the same work. Contact me with any questions. Thanks.

 

Phil

Edited October 9, 2006 by Philflound

[A.J. Franzman]

Phil, I'm going through my M-Network carts to see if I have any variations that you don't have scanned yet, and I'm having difficulty telling the differences between the v5 through v9 carts from your descriptions, and I can't find your page with the example scans of label and cart differences (did you delete or rename it?)

 

A. In the v5 - v9 M-Network/INTV cart descriptions, they all say something like, "This cart has '© MATTEL INC' on the back, and is XXmm long." Mine all seem to be longer than the longest figure you give; so it seems that your measurements not include the "©". If this is so, IMO it would be less confusing if you wrote, "This cart has '© MATTEL INC' on the back, and the words are XXmm long."

 

B. Your v5 description says, "© is even with 'MATTEL INC', and v6 says, "The © is almost level with the words 'MATTEL INC'. I did not understand these descriptions until finding these styles of carts. For the benefit of newcomers, IMO you should clarify v5 to say, "© is the same height as 'MATTEL INC' and level with it." The description for v6 should read, "© is taller than 'MATTEL INC' and in line with it at the top".

 

C. For v7 - v9, the alignment between the "©" and the words should also be mentioned, to easily differentiate them from v6, such as by "The middle of the © is in line with the bottom of the letters", or, "The top of the © is slightly below the top of the letters."

 

EDITED: Changed B. and C. above when I finally found v5 and higher carts.

Edited October 9, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[A.J. Franzman]

If you can confirm or correct my interpretations of the points above, I believe I have a few carts which I can scan for you to confirm those that you don't have scans of, and even add several new variations:

 

Astroblast (new), '82, Philippines, black label, v8, M-Network molded on base

Astroblast (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

BurgerTime (new), '82, Singapore, black label, v9, M-Network molded on base

BurgerTime (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

BurgerTime (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v9, M-Network molded on base

Dark Cavern (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

 

*it seems like you might have a scan of one of the variations below, but your description does not mention whether the M-Network logo is on the base or not. I have both of these.

Frogs and Flies (new or b), '82, Korea, black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

Frogs and Flies (new or b), '82, Korea, black label, v4, no M-Network on base

 

Kool-Aid Man (new), 1983, Singapore, black label, v9, M-Network molded on base

Lock 'n' Chase (d), '82, Philippines, black label, v1, no M-Network on base

Lock 'n' Chase (new), '82, Singapore, black label, v7, no M-Network on base

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man (new), '83, Singapore, black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

Space Attack (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v4, M-Network molded on base

Space Attack (new), '82, U.S.A., black label, v8, M-Network molded on base

Super Challenge Baseball (new), '82, Singapore, black label, v6, no M-Network on base

Edited October 11, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[Philflound]

The bottom link of my signature is the cartridge variation site. If there is a * next to the variation, then I confirmed its existance myself. The exception to this would be a v? which I have a scan of the label, but do not know which cartridge mold it is.

 

I made the mistake and am going to clarify this after I get done with this post. I don't include the © when measuring the MATTEL INC. That is why your numbers are bigger. It reads wrong and I apologize for that confusion.

 

V5 is the easiest to distinguish. The © is extremely smaller, much smaller than the MATTEL INC.

 

So review the mold variations on the bottom link in my signature. I'm only adding the variations that anyone verifies. Pretty much all the labels on black Singapore, or black Philippines, etc will be exactly the same. The difference is in the cartridge. But I want proof positive that the cartridge mold exists with these labels.

 

Let me know what you find. Thanks.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Actually looking at the website of the cart molds, I did mention there that the measurement of mm was from the M in Mattel to the C in Inc. I did change it on the giant list of variations though too, just to remain consistant. I'll be adding more to the mold variations soon. I may try and start tonight.

 

Phil

[A.J. Franzman]

The bottom link of my signature is the cartridge variation site.

OK, for some reason it seemed to be taking me to a different page last night. Or maybe I just didn't click in the right spot.

 

If there is a * next to the variation, then I confirmed its existance myself. The exception to this would be a v? which I have a scan of the label, but do not know which cartridge mold it is.

 

I made the mistake and am going to clarify this after I get done with this post. I don't include the © when measuring the MATTEL INC. That is why your numbers are bigger. It reads wrong and I apologize for that confusion.

 

V5 is the easiest to distinguish. The © is extremely smaller, much smaller than the MATTEL INC.

Actually, if you look at the entire symbol, including the the circle around the c, it's exactly the same height as the the letters in the MATTEL INC text. On the v6 and higher carts, the entire © symbol is taller than the other letters, and the middle of the © pretty much lines up with the bottom of the text. Also, the top of the circle of the © is slightly lower than the top of the letters (by different amounts). Anyway, the main reason for my confusion was that I couldn't find your page with the scans (maybe you could link to the page with the scans from the giant list page.)

 

So review the mold variations on the bottom link in my signature. I'm only adding the variations that anyone verifies. Pretty much all the labels on black Singapore, or black Philippines, etc will be exactly the same. The difference is in the cartridge. But I want proof positive that the cartridge mold exists with these labels.

 

Let me know what you find. Thanks.

OK, every variation I listed in post #167 above is now confirmed to me. Do you want scans of all of them?

 

 

BTW, I tried to tell you this before but you haven't made any change: The reason why bits of the text that you added to your scans don't show up on the web page, is that the image sizes specified in the page's HTML source code do not match the actual dimensions of the images. When most browsers encounter this situation, they resize the image by cutting out or doubling rows/columns of pixels. To fix it, you must make sure the image size in the HTML code is the same as the actual image dimensions by either cropping or resampling the images to the correct size, or changing the HTML HEIGHT and WIDTH to the correct dimensions for each image.

 

EXAMPLE:

<img alt="mnetcartdiffb.jpg" border="" src="sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mnetcartdiffb.jpg" vspace="0" hspace="5" width="560">

Actual dimensions of your original "mnetcartdiffb.jpg" image: 600 W x 576 H. So, since the HTML source specified the width but not the height, the browser will leave the image's height alone, but must cut out 40 columns of pixels (evenly distributed across the image) to shrink the image from 600 to 560 pixels wide. This is why parts of the text are missing (including almost all of three "1"s). To fix this, you should either crop or resample your image to 560 pixels wide, or change the 'width="560"' to 'width="600"' (I recommend adding a correct "height" specifier too). If you're using a "site builder" feature, you may not have direct access to the HTML source code, so cropping the image to 560 pixels wide and re-uploading it would probably be the best option.

 

Another way to fix it (not recommended) is to remove the HEIGHT and WIDTH specifiers from the HTML code completely. The problem with doing this is that the page layout keeps changing (the page is said to "reflow") as each image loads. This is not only ugly, it can also cause problems if there are links to anchors low on the page -- every time a new image loads, the page gets longer and everything below the image shifts down, so by the time the images are all done, the user may no longer be looking at the part of the page that you linked to. AA suffers this defect, noticeable when following links to individual posts low on pages which contain many thumbnailed images above them.

[Philflound]

Yes, I would like scans of both front and back of the M Network cartridges. Just easier for me.

 

I'm adding more cartridge mold variations and will try and complete all the 3rd party soon. Since I haven't touched this in awhile, I'm going back to review if anyone pointed out others that aren't there. I'll work on the rest of the label variations soon enough too so people can actually see differences.

 

I may not fool around with the image sizes and reupload the images at this time. For now it still works. People can see what is going on. When and if I get some free time, I may do this, but I'd rather get new scans up for people to see, rather than mess around with old ones.

 

Phil

[the 5th ghost]

Phil,

 

I just discovered a new Sears Steeplechase manual variant!

 

There is also a Rev.2 version that can be added to the list as:

 

B) Manual ©1981 Atari, Inc., black with red title, C015739-14 on back, 49-75126 on front, 12 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in USA, Rev 2

 

I looked all through both manuals to see what was revised, then I found it on page 6. The Rev.1 manual pictures Driving Controllers! The Rev.2 manual correctly shows the paddle controllers

[Philflound]

Good work. I'll get it updated some time over the weekend. I took a small break from the list this past week, but will start the Atari section this coming week. I did more mold variations, though I did not finish that section. I also have to add the scans of the label variations for everyone to see on the other 3rd party companies. I keep praying you get a scanner so I can get all those Sears games and boxes.

 

Phil

[the 5th ghost]

Good work. I'll get it updated some time over the weekend. I took a small break from the list this past week, but will start the Atari section this coming week. I did more mold variations, though I did not finish that section. I also have to add the scans of the label variations for everyone to see on the other 3rd party companies. I keep praying you get a scanner so I can get all those Sears games and boxes.

 

Phil

 

Well, as long as I make the picture large enough, you can still see all the details, right? I think my digital camera does a decent job. You can read all the numbers on the manuals and such.

 

Or do you need scans for another reason?

Edited October 21, 2006 by the 5th ghost

[Philflound]

No, what you gave me is fine. I don't do scans of manuals. I usually need it for the info, because many people will not give as much detail as I put in the description. You did great. Scans are for boxes and carts, which I am keeping.

 

Phil