Poor guy. Thought he had a legit Eli's Ladder

[EricDeLee]

'Unboxing' an Eli's Ladder

 

Here's a guy who thinks his Eli's Ladder is a legit Eli's ladder.

Poor guy... I really hope he didn't pay a lot.

 

It's a Hozer Repro, and why is the image reversed?! Strange.

 

BTW... Is that how any of you would open an expensive cart if it really was a real cart?!

[EricDeLee]

On that note...

Who can provide me a BIG really nice scan of the label or at least the manual. I'm having photoshop nightmares right now. LOL The best I can find are these: (but I'm not sure that will help me. unless someone can make that first image bigger without distortion.)

 

Someone contact me via PM. I would exchange games or repros for artwork good enough for labels!

 

[Animan]

On that note...

Who can provide me a BIG really nice scan of the label or at least the manual. I'm having photoshop nightmares right now. LOL The best I can find are these: (but I'm not sure that will help me. unless someone can make that first image bigger without distortion.)

 

Someone contact me via PM. I would exchange games or repros for artwork good enough for labels!

 

 

Lately I have seen a lot of videos done on webcam that have the image reversed. The same thing happens when you try to take a photo on Facebook. I noticed it while I tried to take a new profile image of me holding a Space Invaders cart: The image was reversed.

[BDW]

I'd open an expensive cart to see if it was real. You HAVE to protect your investment, whether it is verifying that you have a legit cart or hunting down the bastard who sold you the fake cart.

 

Poor kid got hozed. I hope he learns his lesson, research before you buy.

[Cliff Friedel]

Man, it's not even close. If that kid spent more than $40, he got really hosed. I am imagining he did since he was proud about it being worth more than $1400. I ever go for something like that I will definitely be hitting the cart database and forums, unless it is in the wild and extremely cheap. Then you just take the chance...

[Blackjack]

So...... how do you tell between repro and real on this cartridge?

Edited September 11, 2010 by Blackjack

[Albert]

So...... how do you tell between repro and real on this one?

For one thing, it's the wrong type of cartridge and there are two labels:

 

Eli's Ladder Cartridge

 

 

 

The Hozer logo is also a dead giveaway.

 

..Al

[Cebus Capucinis]

Wait a second.

 

This game is RARE?

 

WTF?

 

I have a sealed CASE of these.

[Albert]

I have a sealed CASE of these.

Repros?

 

..Al

[Dr Manhattan]

It's a Hozer Repro,

 

I keep hearing people mentioning the name "hozer." Who is he? (I assume he makes repros.) And are repros frowned upon in the Atari community?

 

I understand that nobody wants to see an innocent person get ripped off, but what about people who know they're buying a repro, and they just want a chance to play a rare game on OG hardware? For that reason I kinda like repros. I can't afford the expensive stuff.

[sandmountainslim]

Wait a second.

 

This game is RARE?

 

WTF?

 

I have a sealed CASE of these.

 

Rare? Possibly.

 

Crap? Completely! This game sucks.

At least u can have fun playing Air Raid.

Wp

[Philflound]

People are fools.

[Rom Hunter]

'Unboxing' an Eli's Ladder

 

Here's a guy who thinks his Eli's Ladder is a legit Eli's ladder.

Poor guy... I really hope he didn't pay a lot.

It makes me sick to watch this.

 

Al, I really think you should add a link to a Hozer Warning page on all the game pages containing R9 or R10 carts.

 

Or somewhere on this page:

http://www.atariage.com/software_search.html?SystemID=2600

 

Most people use AtariAge as a reference for a cart's rarity.

 

Believe me, these things will happen more and more often, especially to starting VCS cart collectors.

 

Granted: the guy should have done his homework, but people can make mistakes.

 

Edited September 11, 2010 by Rom Hunter

[Pioneer4x4]

So...... how do you tell between repro and real on this cartridge?

See the gay (not that there is anything wrong with that) little head (hehe) on the bottom, HOZER

It reads "Cartridge Made By Hozer Video Games" or something like that.

[A.J. Franzman]

It's a Hozer Repro,

I keep hearing people mentioning the name "hozer." Who is he? (I assume he makes repros.)

Randy Crihfield. He's despised by veterans here for a multitude of reasons.

 

 

And are repros frowned upon in the Atari community?

Repros themselves are generally tolerated, if they're of rare and/or prototype games and clearly identified as reproductions. Randy (or whoever's shilling for him on Ebay) never does so in his item descriptions -- Ebay would pull the listings if he did. Sometimes an observant person can see his logo in the item photos. He does seem to always put it on his labels. These days he's even including a "made by" line so that anyone seeing the cart in person and knowing the original publisher will not be misled. But the ignorant new collectors are still being taken in by his fakes. Previously, he would make anyone a repro of just about any game for a low flat rate. I don't know if his website still offers this service. This included recent homebrew games which were still on the market by their authors. He even sold cartridges under contract to homebrewers and failed to pay their agreed-upon fee, or continued to sell them for his own gain after the agreed limited quantity had been met.

[Nukey Shay]

On that note...I dunno why anybody would want a reproduction Eli's Ladder *except* to try to sell it as an original. The game is absolute crap. Running it on original hardware isn't going to change that.

[Blackjack]

Ok on the ID now, Thanks Al & Pioneer.

[Deteacher]

I think the packing material that was used was more valuable than the cart.

[Frostbite Bailey]

Sucks to be him

[EricDeLee]

On that note...I dunno why anybody would want a reproduction Eli's Ladder *except* to try to sell it as an original. The game is absolute crap. Running it on original hardware isn't going to change that.

 

Well... I think there is nothing wrong with reproductions... as long as that is what you sell it as. If you pass it as being the real thing, then yes that is bad.

I for one want an Eli's Ladder in my collection that LOOKS like a real Eli's Ladder. That's why I modded a US Games Beveled case and slapped a pcb in it. I think it is cool to have for my collection because I won't buy the real one.

 

I think others out there would love to have one as well... that's my guess. Yes... the game still sucks. I spent a whole 10 minutes to get the little guy up the ladder just to see the word "WOW!"

LOL

[Philflound]

I'm personally against repros. If you're making a limited edition version of some prototype and make a nice package for it, with numbered edition on it like Al used to make for games like Bugs Bunny, RS Basketball, and Snow White, then that's cool to me.

 

But taking rare games and re-releasing them just causes problems to me personally. What stops someone from removing the repro label, creating a label from a genuine photo, aging it a little, then passing it off as the real deal? There have been many counterfeit items produced in many hobbies such as comics, cards, and toys. Nothing good can come from it. That's why I get upset when people want to make repro boxes too.

 

There is a reason why these items are worth the money they are, and that is the fact they are hard to find on the market. Getting a used, real shell that already has its age showing and then creating a fake aged label is pretty simple. I think it's sad. That's why I never spend any real money on this hobby. Back in the 1990s to maybe 2003 I would, but not any more. Technology gets too advanced and somebody gets screwed in the end.

 

If I can't own legitimate copies of rare games, then I'd rather not have them at all. I hope to find these things in the wild, and if I can't, oh well. It's just another reason why people get out of a hobby.

 

What's funny is that my wife asks why I would want lower grade copies of comics and such. I tell her I'm not in it to get rich, but to have a copy for myself that looks decent. It doesn't have to be perfect. If it happens to be higher grade, better for me. But I don't spend any real money on comics either. If you get burned for a lot of money, then you get frustrated with the hobby and it just gets a negative rep.

 

I mentioned this a long time ago in another thread, but will say it again for those new people here or those who didn't read it. There was a guy in Long Island or Staten Island about 20 years ago who used to "doctor" comic books. He'd trim the covers, touch up the colors, or marry books. Marrying a book means taking parts of 2 or more copies and making one better one. Say one has a very nice cover, but someone cut a coupon from one of the pages. Another has a creased cover, but real nice pages. Take the nice cover and put it with the nice pages and there you have a nice copy. He would then pass off these "doctored" comics as real, original, very nice copies and never disclose anything about what was done. Most experts in the field could recognize his work, but people who don't know too much were bound to get robbed.

 

It's pretty much the only hobby I know where the price of an item drops, or is worth much less restored, even by a professional. You can take boxes/instructions/carts and mix them up and call the complete and it's fine. You can repaint furniture, jukeboxes, Coke machines and it's fine. You can replace pieces of glass in stained glass and it's fine. You can match parts of toys to complete them and it's fine. But you can't mess with a comic book, even if disclosed, because people frown upon it.

 

I've been dealing with vintage video games for 15 years now. I own thousands of cartridges, tons of systems, and I probably could be fooled into thinking something newly made was original. Something blatant like the Hozer guy and info on the label wouldn't fool me, but if someone pulled what I mentioned above, I think it would pass the test of many collectors as being real when it's not.

 

Phil

Edited September 11, 2010 by Philflound

[Dr Manhattan]

Has anyone contacted the poor guy in the unboxing video to tell him he has a fake? I really feel bad for him now.

 

I guess I'm starting to understand the controversy that surrounds repro carts. I will admit that I still kinda like them, and only discovered them about a year ago. However people have expressed some really valid concerns in this topic. I hate to see people get ripped off by sleaze bags. I too am a collector, and honestly, I probably wouldn't be able to spot a fake from a real cart. I guess this is why products like the Harmony cart are so great. You get to play games on the OG hardware without all the worry.

[Nukey Shay]

A comment was added to the vid. If the guy is looking for props (what else are videos for?)...he already saw it. Given that Randy is cranking out carts a 10 bucks or so, it's certainly a shame if he paid somebody more that that to flip it to him.

 

I'd flip it to Randy for free

 

Hack'Em, Bottomless Pitfall, etc. by "unknown", indeed.

[Stan]

I don't mind repros so long as they're marked in a certain way so it's clear they're nothing special. But even then people fall for it. When some people first started doing NES repros an Earthbound "prototype" appeared on eBay that went for several hundred. Sad. I also don't mind them for unreleased games, but again, they should be marked in a way. Shawn has made me a few and I love them, but it's clear they're reproductions. Still, though, even then people fall for it if they're listed correctly. Correctly meaning in a sneaky way. You have to educate yourself.

[Miss 2600]

He responded to the post that he now realizes it's fake, but only paid $17 for it and is just happy it works (I guess he hasn't started playing it yet )