By request... 5200, 2600, & Vectrex

[Ballblaɀer]

Over in my introduction thread I was asked to show my 5200 collection. So, let's start there!

 

Until I get another stacker or better way to display things, the collection is temporarily in... a box. Quickly apparent is the 5200 cartridge library's biggest flaw: lack of end labels. Or, worse, the CBS games: backwards label! The CBS labels call to mind an older Brian Regan comedy bit. "I just did it as a joke, but I guess they're going out like that!"

 

 

At this point I'm missing five games, with a couple other label variations I'd like to add as well. As you can see, some labels aren't in the best shape. The ones in the worst condition (Star Trek, Popeye, Q*Bert, Frogger, Mountain King, others) are all my own from back in the day, and will be replaced when the right bargains present themselves. Onward... and starting with the cool stuff:

 

 

Tempest with the Trak-Ball is dynamite. Tempest is my favorite arcade game, and to have one of the boxed copies from AtariAge means a ton to me. I'm generally not one for homebrews or hacks, but this is a very special exception. Meteorites is a recent addition. The 1986 Atari Corp. title-less release of Vanguard just looks awesome. I think I actually prefer the clean artwork of this, Ballblazer, and Rescue on Fractalus, to the standard blue-bar-white-title design. Moving on... to Activision:

 

 

Missing two uncommon but not mega-rare: Beamrider and Zone Ranger. Just waiting for the perfect deal, or, even better -- to find them in the wild! Yes, I still look and prefer to build the collection that way. Eventually I'll look to replace River Raid with a nicer copy. I may have played that game more than any other as a kid. That and Joust tended to be my go-to games. Next up -- Parker Brothers (complete!):

 

 

Wish it was easier to find these with extra-clean labels, but if you collect 5200 you know what I'm talking about. Q*Bert, Popeye, and Frogger are all my own from 30 years ago and will get replaced when I find a deal I can't pass up. Return of the Jedi is the newest addition. Finally (skipped Atari, for now -- have 'em all) we have the CBS cartridges:

 

 

Just... yeah. Poor labels on Blue Print, Mountain King, and Wizard of Wor. Will upgrade 'em when I can. Still on the lookout for a sweet deal for K-Razy.

 

So, if you've been paying attention... I'm down to 5 remaining: K-Razy Shootout, Quest for Quintana Roo, Beamrider, Zone Ranger, and BBSB. Getting close!

 

Next post, Atari 2600 & Vectrex...

[Ballblaɀer]

On to the VCS... I didn't have one at my own house growing up, but thankfully my grandparents a few blocks away did. Top five favorites as a kid were probably Yars' Revenge, Crystal Castles, California Games, Mario Bros, and... E.T. Because it's a GOOD game!

 

Let's do picture labels and silver labels first:

 

 

Pretty common stuff here, except for...

 

 

Found Rubik's Cube in a shop a few years ago, and Gravitar was a bargain buy online. Moving on to text labels, red labels, and some others:

 

 

Highlights from this drawer:

 

 

Shuttle Orbiter I found at a yard sale a few months back for $2. Sale of the century! The double-ender I picked up at a going-out-of-business clearance of a game shop in PA. Just missed out on a copy of Crazy Climber there, too. Crap.

 

Last drawer for now, Activision and some others:

 

 

I figure there's no way I become a 2600 completist so I'm trying to stick to Atari and Activision only, with some third party titles if I ever run across them for cheap. You can see how well that's (not) going. A few of the more uncommon titles:

 

Meant to pull out River Raid II here but oh well. Still got a ways to go to fill out the Activision and Atari libraries but I'm more than 2/3 there, I think!

 

Last but CERTAINLY not least... *drumroll*... *fog and laser introduction* FOR...

 

 

I've wanted one for a long, long time, and found an amazing deal a few weeks back, finally. The wife loves how it looks sitting next to the PS3, and I can't say I disagree. It came with six common games that I'll likely eventually sell, as I do *not* want to start collecting for it. Shhhh, don't tell me how easy it is! Trying to figure out if I want to keep the overlays or not. Either way... I'm in love. I actually just purchased a VecMulti from the esteemed Richard H, but unfortunately mine is a Vectrex that just will NOT play nice with it. So... we're looking at other options. Anyway, yeah. I may or may not have got to Level 13 on Mine Storm in the first week of playing. So close to crashing it, DARNIT!

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Awesome collection and thanks for sharing!! The Vectrex is next on my list of systems thatbI like to own in my game room. Always admired it.

[AtarinDave]

Very nice collection.

[guitarmas]

Nice collection!

[+sramirez2008]

Awesome...thanks for sharing. I've been wanting to add a 5200 to my collection. Just missed out on a good one last month.

[Ballblaɀer]

Major updates have been made to each of my 5200 and 2600 collections in the last 4 months.

 

The more significant update has been to my 2600 collection -- I'm well on my way to my goal! Well, the new goal, I mean. No, the one *after* that one. Yeah, so I've moved my own goalposts a couple of times. Anyway, let's get on with it!

 

Picture labels now take up almost an entire stacker drawer:

 

 

Sharp eyes will spot my three biggest additions pretty quickly:

 

All three were plucked from the wild, amazingly. Well, for all non-zero values of "wild" where wild is also ≠ eBay, anyway. If you're playing along at home, this means I have only four more Atari picture labels with unique artwork that I'm after: Black Jack, Flag Capture, Miniature Golf (PAL), and Video Chess. Video Chess, I'm just waiting for a super clean label to come along. The others will take a little more doing, no doubt. PM me if you've got any spares of these laying about (hey, it's not impossible). I'm also always on the lookout for Sky Diver (white text), Berzerk (yellow text), Defender (PAL blue label), and Hangman (silver label), but because their artwork isn't really different from their regular picture labels they're a low priority.

 

Also in this drawer... roll that beautiful label footage!

 

 

Onward -- next drawer!

 

 

Need to get better lighting on this drawer next time around -- the end labels all look worse here than they really are.

 

Obvious highlights:

 

 

"Raiders Lost Ark" came from a Vegas pawn shop, no lie. Space Invaders (silver 1980 Atari Inc.) was much harder to find than I expected; it was far easier to find its gray Atari Corp cousins, with their varied end labels:

 

 

Still missing a good number of silver/gray and red label titles. The going is gonna start getting tougher now, for sure. Crossbow and Gravitar are probably the only two still needed that could reasonably be called common. Going to have to have some more of that picture-label-finding luck to snag much of what's still missing...

 

Next drawer!

 

 

Missing its end label is good ol' Fun With Numbers -- I may try printing off a replacement end label for it until I come up with a better option. Only need 02 Air-Sea Battle to round out the gatefold carts, and I'm holding out for a bargain. Still missing a fair number of text labels -- some very common, some not -- but the end is in sight for this group.

 

Shout out to the AA store for the awesome homebrew games:

 

 

One of my new/revised/made-up goals is to have at least one game from every major game publisher. Therefore:

 

 

In my mind, still missing from my collection are games from: Commavid, Froggo, INTV, Mystique, Panda, Telegames, Telesys, Tigervision, & Zimag. Two thumbs way up for that Zellers' Earth Attack label artwork. It's probably my favorite of all my non-Atari carts. I love the Mythicon games for how dreadful their gameplay is... so much so that I hope to eventually have these with nicer labels:

 

 

Like, at least as nice as these Epyx labels:

 

 

Can you tell I like really clean labels? Last drawer, here we go!

 

 

Seven more NTSC Activision games to go, and one of them should be in my mailbox any day now. Two others are very common (Robot Tank, Sky Jinks) but I'm holding out for really nice labels. Feels like I may be waiting forever for a Robot Tank sans Actiplaque! Speaking of really nice labels:

 

 

If only they all could be found in such good condition. A man can dream, I suppose. Speaking of dreams:

 

 

I'm super excited to have crossed off some of the scarcer Sears picture labels like Asteroids, Baseball, and Pong Sports. This is also as good a time as any to bring up my two Space Combat variations -- nobody seems to have ever discussed them before. 13 Sears pic labels remaining to collect, a few of them easy, most of them not.

 

More 2600 photos to come soon, plus an update on the 5200!

 

Edited to add: many thanks to those who've helped me build the collection to this point: AtariBrian, Rowsdower70, Emehr, atari181, and a few non-forum friends as well!

Edited March 10, 2016 by Ballblaɀer

[50TBRD]

If the VecMulti doesn't work, then try the Mateos Vectrex Burner/Dumper (MVBD). It's also programmable though not SD or menu-driven.

[Ballblaɀer]

If the VecMulti doesn't work, then try the Mateos Vectrex Burner/Dumper (MVBD). It's also programmable though not SD or menu-driven.

 

Thankfully I got this resolved when Richard had me exchange the VecMulti for a VecFlash, which works perfectly. Vectrex collecting crisis averted!

[Ballblaɀer]

Some completed VCS sets! All NTSC.

 

Atari text labels:

 

 

Activision labels:

 

 

Activision English/French labels:

 

 

Activision blue/white labels:

 

 

Epyx:

 

 

Mythicon:

 

 

Getting close on the other sets I'm after. 2 more Atari pic label carts to find (Black Jack, Flag Capture). 7 more Atari silver/gray (Asteroids, Asterix, Crazy Cilmber, Gremlins, Obelix, Quadrun, Track & Field). 4 more Atari red (BMX Airmaster, KLAX [PAL], Motorodeo, Yars' Revenge). 3 more Atari kids' games with nice labels (BBEC, CMM, OTR). And 7 more Sears picture labels (Basketball, Canyon Bomber, Gunslinger, Night Driver, Race, Superman, Warlords). Drop me a line if you have any of these as extras... thanks!