Did Spy Hunter come with some weird "Controller holder" thing?

[+Propane13]

I seem to remember reading that Spy Hunter came with some sort of thing where you could put two controllers in it side-by-side.

 

Am I mistaken? I haven't seen one of these on ebay, so I'm wondering if I'm mis-remembering.

[JamesL]

You are not mistaken. I've never seen one in person, but I have seen a picture and description of it in the manual for the game.

[+Propane13]

Interesting. Does anyone have a picture that they could share?

I'm wondering why these would seem to be so rare if they were packaged with every game.

[+save2600]

I had the box to 2600 Spy Hunter and it was a regular styled box, like Tapper. No room for and no mention of a joystick coupler, but...

 

-edit-

 

Looking at a scan of the back of the box, guess it does mention that it includes an exclusive "dual control module". Hmm... so the module must have fit in the box then. Just didn't seem like it would. Box isn't any thicker and don't remember there being special cut outs for it. Could be mistaken of course, or wonder if it's possible later revisions of the game omitted it?

 

 

Have only ever seen pictures of it. Looks really cheap to me, but one thing's for sure... there's a hell of a lot more Spy Hunter carts floating around than these couplers!

[Mayhem]

I've got one for the C64 release of the game. I've never been 100% convinced though it came with it heh.

[CPUWIZ]

My coupler is in the box with the game.

[Zwackery]

The cartridge sits in the coupler, and the coupler slides into the box.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-spy-hunter_8373.html

 

People probably hated the coupler and pitched it, hence the rarity.

[+Propane13]

Perhaps we need an "unboxing video"

[+sramirez2008]

Have only ever seen pictures of it. Looks really cheap to me, but one thing's for sure... there's a hell of a lot more Spy Hunter carts floating around than these couplers!

 

That's the fact, Jack!

[+sramirez2008]

Perhaps we need an "unboxing video"

 

There's an unopened copy that's been sitting on eBay for a while. Can't understand why, as the Seller is only asking $399.99.

[jhd]

 

There's an unopened copy that's been sitting on eBay for a while. Can't understand why, as the Seller is only asking $399.99.

 

Flip it for $500, easy.

 

Seriously, though, that coupler looks really fragile, especially now that the plastic is 30+ years old. I can see them not surviving too many frenetic game sessions. That may explain their relative rarity, as compared to the cartridges.

 

Defender II/Stargate should have included one of those as well. It is very challenging to play with only two hands.

[fiddlepaddle]

Back in the 80's and 90's, when I did most of my acquisition of 2600 games, I likely would have seen one of those sitting in a box with a bunch of carts and just thought it was a throw-away piece of plastic, like blister-pack plastic, and just tossed it with all the other worthless crap you get when buying a box of stuff second hand. Probably did.

[Supergun]

I bought my Spy Hunter bran new at Lionel Playworld in 1984 during the great video game crash liquidation era. Paid $3.99 or whatever it was on clearance. It came with the coupler, and I still have it to this day. Very sturdy & solid, feels quite comfortable in your hands while playing. Still have it to this day.

 

Back then it was a frenzy of going to Lionel PlayWorld & Zayre's at the Westchester shopping plazas in Miami, Florida every Sunday after church & lunch at Grandmas house, who lived close by. I will never forget that time in my life. Atari cartridges were littered all over the floors of those stores, overflowing & bursting out of the clearance bins & falling off the shelves. All priced at $1.99 - $4.99. I would literally inadvertently step on games in the mad rush of trying to locate any & all titles I didn't have.

 

Years later, during the mid 90's "rec newsgroups thrift store / flea market / garage sale era" I found a coupler in the wild tossed in an old box at a thrift store in Gainesville, FL. I immediately bought it, paid like 50 cents, knowing full well it's trade bait potential! I ended up finding a top ten most wanted list on Jerry Greiner's website which had the coupled listed as number 3 or 4! Needless to say, I traded it to him.

 

2600 Spy Hunter & Tapper are incredible games for the 2600. I was blown away back then at the graphics & sounds, and still am impressed today. I play them in almost every 2600 session I have.

[high voltage]

I like Tapper too, good effort.

[+FujiSkunk]

I got one of the couplers before I even realized what I had. Thankfully I was smart not to throw it out. I don't even remember how I acquired it, though I assume it was from one of the bulk eBay Atari bundles I bought back in the day. I think when I noticed it was the right size for a controller, I decided to hang onto it, maybe figuring it was some kind of packaging that was necessary for something to be "complete in box". I didn't know it was for Spy Hunter, and in fact didn't even own a Spy Hunter cartridge, until much later.

[CPUWIZ]

I still have it to this day. Very sturdy & solid, feels quite comfortable in your hands while playing. Still have it to this day.

 

 

You still have it now?

[vitoco]

I've used it once or twice with the game. It was only used to hold the second joystick in a way that two red buttons were placed near the left thumb and could be pressed together to do different actions at the same time during the game play. No need to be a very strong plastic device.

[JamesL]

Do any AA members have the means to reproduce these? If so, I'd be first in line to buy one.

[EdwardK]

if it's a thin plastic that doesn't have to take alot of stress it could be vaccu-formed pretty easily.

[high voltage]

maybe even printed?

 

[Mountain King]

I used to use mine all the time. Not only was it great with Spy Hunter, but it works well with any game that requires the second joystick. I used to use it with Solaris, Stargate, Star Voyager, and Raiders of the lost Ark.

[EdwardK]

maybe even printed?

 

have any measurements on the thickness?

[high voltage]

No sorry, maybe a couple of mm's?

[EdwardK]

No sorry, maybe a couple of mm's?

Close enough to give me a basis to test some things. If it's close to 2mm, I could probably manage that with the vacuum I have, if it's closer to 4mm I might need a bigger one, or a couple of shop vacs. I'll look in to it. Been thinking about building a new vacuu-form table anyways for some other projects. I'll bump this in a couple of months when I have the time to really mess with it. Might be able to make some viable reproductions on a small scale.

[high voltage]

That's awesome, I'd buy one for sure.