Giant photo site (can you help?)

Philflound · July 8, 2015

I was originally going to post this in the Giant Photo thread but decided to start a new post to possibly get some fresh eyes in what I'm doing, and actually what others are too. Sometimes people see a thread with 24 pages and just skip it, so hopefully someone who is new to AA or even some of us old timers can see all the great things going on with our hobby. I'll post every person I know towards the end that seems to be a help with the hobby.

I'm going to go die hard on the site this summer. Since my research on the box printings seem to be accurate as to the dates, I'm going to rearrange all the Atari boxes in the order of their releases. The only exceptions to this would be the multi-language boxes. Since I don't have many of them and can't verify the exact printing dates of the boxes, they will most likely go towards the end of the regular releases before Atari Corp 1985-1988 versions. If I can verify a box printing on any of the multi-language, then I'm 99% sure I'll place them in the correct order. Since doing this rearranging takes some work, this will probably take me a few weeks. I'm also checking to see if there are any boxes that have come to light that I don't have on the site. I'll update everything if I can.

I'm also making a list of boxes that should exist due to the fact we have cartridges and manuals with later dates. This will usually refer to the Atari Corp releases. I had someone who helped me intensely a couple of years ago, but that person has decided not to help any longer. He must have his reasons. I thank him for everything he did.

Like I wrote many years ago, I've created this site for the community to have something to reference. I lose money in the long run with the cost of the domain names each year. I just ask others to help out where they can. I can't tell you the amount of time I've spent over the past 7? years I've had the site, along with the past 20 or so I've worked on the giant list. I've taken the site to a whole new level, especially researching the box dates. What I've discovered is sometimes different companies actually printed the same box with no difference short of the printer name/date. I guess Atari retained the dies and when they didn't want or like one company, brought the dies to another to print the exact box. I've also seen boxes printed at the same exact time (month/year) by more than one company. My guess to this is they needed a certain number of boxes at a particular time and one printer couldn't produce the quantity required, so they went with 2 or 3 at the same time.

Random Terrain has been trying to put together official release dates of games by looking at the printer dates on the tiny flaps also. I don't have the time to send him the info, but if you're reading this RT, feel free to browse each of the games in my list and read the printer and date printed of the boxes. Every single name/date on my site has been confirmed by me. I held the boxes in my hand. The sad part is when I started putting the printer in the descriptions of the variations, I neglected the printer date. The whole printer concept came about with Superman, Home Run, and Adventure where each of those titles had identical boxes both front, back, sides, top and bottom, but the tiny flap with the printer was different. So I first described in those 3 titles about multiple printers with the same box variation. I then began putting the printer for other titles. Somewhere along the line I added the date the box was printed. But I can't tell you how many of those boxes I sold without documenting the printer/date. I wish I had them back just to get that info.

We are a community. It is important to document our hobby. Most of us grew up with this, and probably the majority had the Atari 2600 as their first real video game system. So I ask all of you out there, even if you can help just a little, there are many of us building a knowledge base for everyone to use. We sacrifice because we love our old systems. What many of us are trying to do is show the history behind the whole video game industry. I'm a teacher, at least when I can get a job. These young kids barely know what an Atari is, let alone even later systems like Nintendo and Sega. I don't want to see that knowledge die. So below are people I know who have been working on getting us the great info we use. If you can help any of us, I'm sure we appreciate it. I've sent info and scans to several of those listed below and have been trying to help any way I can personally. Thanks for all your help.

Phil

My site: www.videogamevariations.com (also .net and .org)

Rom Hunter: www.atarimania.com (scans and roms)

Schitti: www.atariboxed.com (PAL scans)

Derek Slaton: Atari 2600 Encyclopedia book (great effort and info, even if it was a rough start)

www.atariguide.com (I've gotten many scans I couldn't find elsewhere from here)

Albert: www.atariage.com (thought I'd mention it)

Random Terrain: trying to build initial release of games. Send him a pm to see if he needs your help

PS: If there is someone else working on any type of project, feel free to mention yourself here.

PS PS: Exactly how I update the site and what I'm working on, or asking for I'll post in the original thread.

You can find it here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/147027-giant-label-variation-photo-website-check-it-out/

Edited July 8, 2015 by Philflound