Hi guys,
I recently came into a collection of Atari 2600 games through a friend. I was able to identify most of them, and their different label versions, but this one for Crash Dive is new to me, and research hasn't turned anything up. So I figure if anyone in the world can tell me anything about this, it'll be someone on this site. Unfortunately it's an incomplete label, but what's there is strange enough to have me curious as to whether or not it's some kind of prototype.
First things first: I tested it, and the game is definitely Crash Dive. The cart type is also correct for a 20th Century Fox game. So far so good. Here's where things get weird though. The top label has been mostly removed, but two things are obvious (please see the pics I uploaded):
1) The label is definitely not the one that came on the store-bought version of the game, and
2) The part of the label still there clearly says "Fox Video Games, Inc" and "Games of the Century", and has been put on sideways.
My first thought was that this was a rental, and somehow the label came off and was replaced. But for one thing, I don't think they rented Atari 2600 games. And even if they did, if what's on there is a replacement label, it really doesn't look like one. It looks like it prominently featured the production company (20th Century Fox) as opposed to the name of whatever store would have been renting it. And of course, there's no game name on it, and the label is on sideways.
So the rental thing doesn't seem like a possibility, but then who would have replaced to original label with this one, which still has the company info on it? It looks professionally printed to me.
As for the front label, that appears pretty clearly to be something someone printed out on an old label maker, so I don't think it's helpful, but I included a picture just in case.
My friend had no idea where the individual games came from; his dad got some of them on his travels for him and his brother when they were kids, and it was really his brother who played them more anyway. His dad and a couple of his older siblings work in programming, and do know some industry people, so I'm wondering if maybe this came to them through that connection. Unfortunately they're not all around anymore.
Or maybe it's just a really weird, professional-looking replacement label someone printed for this old game in the mid-80s, and it's nothing at all.
So if anyone has any opinions or ideas, please let me know. Thanks!
-AJ