40 replies to this topic

[Rom Hunter]

Who owns this cart?

Tempest?

Any idea?

Edited by Rom Hunter, Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:48 AM.

[Tempest]

No idea.  I've never seen it.

Tempest

[Wonder007]

Wasn't that just the shell with nothing inside of it....I remember a few years ago that somebody was selling just the shell on e-bay.....I WONDER if that is the same one...??..?

Edited by Wonder007, Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:59 PM.

[Rom Hunter]

This is very well possible.

I wonder who owns that shell now.

[moycon]

Is it a "Rare Antiquity"??

[Rom Hunter]

I'm not quite sure.

I think it's a Pepper II situation.

I would love to have a better scan of it.

[Tempest]

Keep in mind that Mattel 2600 cart cases are just Intellivision cart cases with little adapters on them.  Any Intellivision game could have been 'turned into' a 2600 prototype by adding one of them.

Tempest

[Rom Hunter]

True.

The Intellivision one is even on Ebay right now.

[AtariRx]

The cart pictured is mine.



Been many years since it was last discussed.....  http://www.atariage....?showtopic=6784

It is a non-functioning cart.  Inside is a ROM (not EPROM), so unlikely it is more than a photo mockup.  I've had this for a long time and don't believe it is a "fake" just because there wasn't much of that floating around back in the late '90s, but I have turned down some nice offers over the years since I have no way to be sure and I am certainly not going to rip anyone off.  The label does NOT look like a typical M-Network prototype label (different font.)

[Rom Hunter]

Thanks for your reply!

Can you please make a better scan/picture of that cart?

I would love to add it to our database.

Are you sure that the ROM inside is VCS related?

Edited by Rom Hunter, Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:08 AM.

[Tempest]

Sounds like they just made a mock-up out of an Intellivision cart.  I bet if you took it out of its case and plugged it into an Intellivision it would fire right up.

Tempest

[AtariRx]

I don't have a scanner anymore, so I'm not sure if I could do much better than the pic above, but I'll try.  Rom, do you have a specific angle you'd prefer if using a camera?

Regarding the board, it is a 2600 chip with a ROM on it, but doesn't work.  We opened it up for a look several years back at a trade meet.

[Rom Hunter]

AtariRx, on Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:13 PM, said:

I don't have a scanner anymore, so I'm not sure if I could do much better than the pic above, but I'll try.  Rom, do you have a specific angle you'd prefer if using a camera?

Thanks for the info!

IMO worth adding to the database.

Please use the same angle as the picture above, but bigger and sharper, so we can clearly read the end label.

Do the inner works look the same as those of M Network or INTV carts?
  

Edited by Rom Hunter, Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:37 PM.

[AtariRx]

Rom Hunter, on Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:30 PM, said:

Do the inner works look the same as those of M Network or INTV carts?

Yes, it looks exactly like any other M-Network cart on the inside.  I'll send you a higher res pic soon, but it won't look as good as a scan.

[Rom Hunter]

Added:
http://atarimania.co...ERSION_ID=20654

Many thanks!

[Propane13]

Was the chip ever dumped?

-John

[Rom Hunter]

Interesting question.

AtariRX?

[Omegamatrix]

Worth a try. I think it was Spirantho that revived a dead Bomb cart once by trying to dump it. After he tried it started working again.

[Rom Hunter]

Even if the game doesn't work, the contents of the ROM are certainly worth a look.

[Omegamatrix]

Rom Hunter, on Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:30 PM, said:

Even if the game doesn't work, the contents of the ROM are certainly worth a look.

Yep, but unless it starts working I don't think you'll be able to dump the rom. At the very least it would be interesting to see the board. IIRC Mattel used a blob style on their boards. I only have ever opened up one though. If we are real lucky they might have marked all their chips differently with some sort of stamp and we could say "oh, that is Air Raiders that they just used for mock up as it has the same number, all they did was slap on a new label."

[Omegamatrix]

All right I took apart a Dark Cavern and found a regular prom. I suspect that the type of IC really depends on what country Mattel was using at the time (ie Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Phillipines, etc...). I don't remember what it was I took apart before. I saw the stamp and I was like AR, Air Raiders! Then I realized I had Dark Cavern. Anyhow maybe stamps mean something, but it would take a lot of carts opened and compared to say what.

[Wonder007]

very, very nice!!!!!

[AtariRx]

The chip has not been dumped.  Several attempts to get the chip to work had failed.  Last time it was opened up it looked like a regular chip with nothing to indicate it was any kind of proto, but can't remember exactly since it was so long ago.  I'll try to pry it open again sometime soon and take a pic of the insides.

[Rom Hunter]

Thanks again for everything, AtariRX.

[Propane13]

AtariRx, on Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:57 AM, said:

The chip has not been dumped.  Several attempts to get the chip to work had failed.  Last time it was opened up it looked like a regular chip with nothing to indicate it was any kind of proto, but can't remember exactly since it was so long ago.  I'll try to pry it open again sometime soon and take a pic of the insides.

I'm kind of curious about this.  Typically, this could fall into 2 camps-- hardware issue, or software issue.
If the hardware seems in-tact, even if it doesn't boot, it might be possible to still dump the software (even if it's bad).
However, if the hardware itself seems to be bad, then there's probably not much that could be done.
It would be interesting to know more about what was done to try to get it to work (resoldering or something?).  This particular cart probably has a really good story!

BTW, thanks for sharing!
  -John