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Alex

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Posts posted by Alex

  4. Posted

    It's been mentioned before and mentioned in this thread, but I think there are two things that would satisfy most fans/collectors about unavailable prototypes.

     

    1) Confirm whether or not a cartridge has been dumped privately so that everyone knows the ROM is safe

    2) Capture some quality screen shots in an emulator so that people can get an idea of the game

     

    It would be nice if there were a public masterlist indicating whether an unavailable game has been dumped or not. The only drawback is the potential harrassment of those who hold the ROMs to release them, but there are certainly people who would be willing to put up with that (the actual prototype owners wouldn't have to be named). No, the prototype owners do not "owe" this to anyone, but it sure would be a nice gesture.

     

    I know a few of the games that have been dumped but aren't available yet. I'll check my notes and come up with a small list, although most of them I don't know about. If anyone wants to chime in with what they know, we might take a step forward in bringing all these viewpoints together.

     

    Thoughts?

  6. Posted

    My guess is that this box is really hard to find, and a couple of box collectors got into a bidding war. This can really escalate when an item is in good shape. A loose cartridge just finished for $9.00. So that makes it about $468.00 for a box and manual, heheh. Of course it could be a shill, but I've noticed sometimes games that will go for 10x the cost of a loose cart because it's really hard to find boxed.

  7. Posted

    Now that I think about it, I am more inclined to think Xante was more like Romox or Beagle Bros. I don't know so much about Sirius/Fox, but Dennis Koble was a founder of Imagic, so I'm sure they didn't farm Solar Storm out to Xante to develop it. Any protos or loaners probably would have just said "Imagic" on them.

     

    Those do look like dates, but I don't know if that tells us anything more. Hmmm, they do all appear to be dated after the copyright of the original title which lends weight to the pirate/rental/copy theory, as opposed to proto/loaner.

     

    I sent an email to the attorney of record for the Xante trademark filing, asking him for any information about Xante. He's apparently the CEO and chief attorney for some firm now, so I doubt I'll get a response but you never know. Digging up any info on Xante has been troublesome because there is another Xante that also produces computer hardware today, based in Mobile Alabama.

     

    Still wanna see some scans! Maybe we'll end up adding a new company to our lists.

  8. Posted

    I never saw 2600 games for rent either, but other people have reported that. Just depends on where you lived, renting games was a new idea then obviously, so it took a while for it to catch on everywhere.

     

    I had always assumed these were loaners of some type, but who knows. It would certainly be cool to discover a new company, even if they were just pirating the games. The mitigating factor to me is whether or not the games were available to the public. I'm very interested to see the scans though.

     

    I've never heard of McCartneys.

  9. Posted

    Well, I dug up some info on Xante. First off, I've seen a couple of Xante carts, and they were all Fox/Sirius games. The picture we have on our site is of Beany Bopper, with a Xante label in a blue Activision style case. I'll have to see if I can find those other Xante pics I have and see how they compare. My thoughts have generally been that they were a subcontractor for Fox/Sirius, like GCC or something. So these wouldn't be retail carts like Beagle Bros., but more like prototypes or loaners.

     

    In doing some trademark research, the Xante trademark was abandoned in 1984 but wasn't even filed until October 1983. Here is the Goods and Services info for Xante:

     

    (ABANDONED) IC 009. US 026 038. G & S: COMPUTER HARDWARE, NAMELY INPUT KEYBOARDS, CRT'S DISK DRIVES, PRINTERS, MODEMS AND PERIPHERAL PRODUCT INTERFACES INCLUDING ALL HOUSINGS THEREFORE; ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT, NAMELY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS SENDING AND RECEIVING DEVICES USED IN THE ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND OTHER INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA INCLUDING ALL HOUSING THEREFORE; COMPUTER SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, NAMELY PRE-RECORDED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PROGRAMS FOR USE WITH THE APPLICANT'S COMPUTERAND ELECTRONIC HARDWARE IN THE ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND OTHER INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA INCLUDING ALL HOUSINGS THEREFORE. FIRST USE: 19830608. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19830608

     

    So, not exactly clear, but I don't think they sold Atari games at the retail level even as pirate or copy games, but it's possible. Can you send me scans of the labels?

  11. Posted

    Yes, unless we're missing something, there isn't too much to the game. I think the graphics are very nice, and the gameplay that exists is on par with other Activision games. I would have liked to see the complete game. It would be fun if someone could take some of these unfinished protos and complete them.

  14. Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by san-d-2000:

    Here are two links for the funvision version,

    btw I have found k-tel carts named Spider-Maze and Spider-Monster, they are both the same game (just to let you know)

     

     

    Did Spider-Monster actually say K-Tel on the label like Spider Maze?

  16. Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by jahfish:

    funny, i must have missed the end. marc also ...

     

     

    Yeah, I was surprised it went that low. It was even the "Ebay Auction Highlight" on the front page of our site.

  20. Posted

    We should have more news on CGE ROMs shortly. The only one I highly doubt is Allia Quest, given that none of the Ebivision games are available. Great game though.

     

    And thanks, I fixed the ROM link. Vault Assault is a nice little game, I finally had the chance to play it tonight.

  22. Posted

    I looked at the Hangman cart - it looks like a pirate to me. The fonts are all wrong, and the color is off, and it just has an odd look to it. If it's Atari, that's the poorest printing job I've ever seen from them.

    As for the others, I'll have to go back and look at them, but I don't think it's anything we're going to add right now.

     

    I think we have those comics, I'll have to check with Al, but we don't have room to put them online right now.

     

    [ 08-31-2001: Message edited by: Alex ]

  24. Posted

    I think this will sell very well (I know I'll be buying at least two - one to play, one to take apart ) at only $20, and I hope it inspires more similar projects. Obviously it isn't ideal (only 10 games, no cartridge port), but it's a start. I don't think it will be the last of it's kind.

  25. Posted

    There are all different kinds of multicarts. Sean Kelly is the largest seller of them, and I think he will actually make a custom cart (you choose all the games). One of these days I will have to buy one, or maybe I'll just get a Cuttle Cart. You can pretty much get every great 2600 game there is on a 100-game multicart (IMO). Is 4Jays selling Sean Kelly carts, something of their own construction, or something else entirely? Just curious.

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