Are These ColecoVision Proto Carts?

[boxpressed]

I just received these in the mail today: Smurf Paint and Play and Star Trek. They look like some kind of pre-production cart, maybe a lab loaner or a proto. Both of them weigh 8g. I just sold my two Star Treks too, so I can't compare weight. I do know that CV production carts go from 6g to at least 8g. If anyone could weigh their production carts, I'd appreciate it.

 

I haven't had time to compare these to the production dumps, but I'll try to see if there are any differences.

[Tempest]

They don't look like it, but you'd have to open them up to make sure.

[boxpressed]

I figured that I'd need to open them for proof. I'll probably hold off on doing that for now. I was hoping that others who owned similar-looking Coleco carts had opened theirs.

[NIAD]

They could be:

 

made by Walters Software Co. in the early '90's seeing as they acquired the rights to a large number of games and always printed generic labels like these although they used a Dot Matrix Printer and not a Daisy Wheel Printer... the text looks like it's from a Daisy Wheel which the ADAM Computer was supplied with as we all know. The only thing is, I don't recall Walters obtaining the rights to produce these games, especially since Smurf and Star Trek would be very expensive licsenses to acquire.

made by ADAM's House (now known as eColeco) although they used high quality label reproductions for the most part in their partnership with CBS Electronics. They did print generic labels as well, however.

made by a Homebrewer/Fan

could be final production carts made by Coleco and an employee took them and printed the generic label

could be a prototype and an employee took them and printed the generic label

 

Does the text look like it's printed by a Daisy Wheel Printer?

 

Anyway, the only way to know for sure is to open the carts up and then there are no guarantees as I'm sure you know. The PCB could be socketed or the chips could b soldered and the roms could be Eproms or Proms. If the PCB is socketed, then I would venture a guess that a Coleco employee simply took the loose (E)proms and installed in the PCB's sockets to make a cartridge for themself.

[boxpressed]

Thanks, Jim. The printing looks like it is from a daisy-wheel printer or a typewriter. The interesting thing about these is that whoever printed the label went to the trouble of adding the © symbol. I will open them soon because I want to know for sure. Comparing weights with production carts won't reveal much because production carts used a variety of ICs (including EPROMs), I learned.

[boxpressed]

I went ahead and cracked one open (Star Trek). The ICs are soldered onto the PCB, but they do look like EPROMs (which I know made their way into production sometimes). Look like a production unit? I didn't open the Smurfs, figuring it would be the same.

[+Yurkie]

I just received these in the mail today: Smurf Paint and Play and Star Trek. They look like some kind of pre-production cart, maybe a lab loaner or a proto. Both of them weigh 8g. I just sold my two Star Treks too, so I can't compare weight. I do know that CV production carts go from 6g to at least 8g. If anyone could weigh their production carts, I'd appreciate it.

 

I haven't had time to compare these to the production dumps, but I'll try to see if there are any differences.

 

What do you mean by 8g? Surely they weight alot more than 8 grams each.

[boxpressed]

One "g" = $1,000. JK -- I think I must have meant oz.