Malathion5

Well it sounds like a lot of collectors are willing to pay big bucks for a game, and are happy to do so. It's been said, if you're happy with the game then the price doesn't much matter.

What is the number pressed into the end label of most Atari games (as opposed to Activision or others)? For example, Missile command has 234 stamped in the upper left corner of the end.

That's funny! I insulted his typing one time and felt really bad about it afterwards. (Sorry man!) He does have a good point or two from time to time if you can read his post. Maybe you can excude him (#&*@&, there I go again....Sorry man!) I can't use a real typewriter for jack. I use backspace bar as easily as the space bar, I can hit it without missing a beat. A regular paper typewriter, forget it!

If we find a label variation not covered by the guide, should we let you know about it, even if it's a rarity 2 or 3 game? I found a Basketball the other day with a different copyright and a * thinggy on the end label.

I have the same one, it's a 3. It is the Super challenge football by Intv,,, with the note "football", white label. I was hoping for the same thing as far as being a real find. I have an unlisted label variation of basketball, the end reads BASKETBALL* with a different copyright date. I don't think it would be possible to chart all of the variations here. I can't imagine it's anything but a 2 or 3 in rarity. Dunno. Congrats on the good find tho, I just hope you don't live around me . The best I've found in the wild is a couple of 4's, Front Line was one that I can remember. I am satisfied just to find a label variation of a cart I already have.

Is there a source for the resistor pot used in the standard paddle controllers? I looked over Best Electronics and couldn't find anything. Will any 1M pot work?

quote: While it doesn't show up on the cart itself, many of the boxes these things come in have a small sticker on them that are printed with the name Mediagenic. That brings me to another question. The Imagic titles bought (used, pawned...whatever) by Activision, the blue labels in question, don't have a box scan with them. Is there any great difference in the blue label Imagic boxes?

Atari 2000, 2500, 2700, 2800? I have heard of a couple of these, but not all. Is there a pic of these in Atariage anywhere?

I am quite crippled in the spelling department and rely heavily on spell-check to clean myself up. Is it possible to add a spell check button to the boards?

Ok, confesion time here; I almost paid too much for a complete Adventure on Ebay this evening and was releived to watch it 'sniped' out from under me. This one has probably been already discussed at length on this board, but I'm fairly new here and would like to know that other people suffer that same affliction that I do. (My checkbook suffers more than I do sometimes) So here it is: What is the most you've paid for something? I'm talking Ebay, Goodwill, flea markets...what ever. I am looking for the embarassing/ flat out stupid purchases. Here's my 'personal best': I paid $57.00 for a new Starpath Supercharger, the same kind you can get at O'Shea's or someplace like that for $25.00. I console myself by saying that the box is originally Arcadia with the Starpath sticker, but I really know better.

quote That would have been my bestest friend of all. I have a cousing who always had the newest releases as soon as they came out, so he was the closest thing to 'an insider' that I knew.

I'll go with Albert on this one. I think that moving the blue labels to Mediagenic would be too confusing, especially since the name Mediagenic doesn't actually show up anywhere on the cart. A note about why there are Imagic carts in the Activision pile would be about all the list would need.

Maybe you can pull on your dad's heart-strings a bit. Find out how old he was back in the late 70's. Ask if he had one of these games or knew someone who did and if he liked playing it. If he did, plug him into your game and let him slaughter you in combat or something easy like that. If he doesn't bite on any of that, try to convince him that it's a collection, an obsession of sorts, and that these things don't follow normal logical lines.

That's it. I found the Demon Attack in the Activision catalogue section too.

Big fat ZERO here too folks. I have found absolutely nothing at garage sales. I don't hit the papers and canvas the neighborhoods on a weekly basis, but once every two or three weeks and I still get nothing. These machines have been out dated for so long that almost everybody thinks they are worthless and pitch them, probably years ago at that. "Atari? Yea I had one of those. I think I threw it away about 6 or 7 years ago." How many times have you heard that?

I just got a moonsweeper blue label today and was wondering why it showed up in an Activision case with the Imagic name on it. The rarity guide and label guide show it as an Activision cart but Imagic is clearly printed on it. It originally had the standard Imagic case and label of course but seems to have an identity crisis in it's late life. Any clues?

O.K. I'm going to show my ignorance here....but what in the world is 'Indenture'? I thought it was a play on words for the game Adventure, but reading on this game looks quite a bit more involved.

Was there a label difference in the two versions?

A reasonable time to finish it? Glad you asked. When I was deep into it as a kid I finished it in......no B.S. here.....11 seconds. That's eleven whole seconds. I even took a picture of it back then and tried to use it as evidence. Problem there is that the finished game looks like an unstarted game. Oh well. I had the pattern down, and I found out that you could just pop into the bridge screen for it to blow up which saved all kinda time, you could be changed into your cape just about the time it blew up. I can't remember the trick to Lex and his henchmen and I don't have the game now. (Pretty lame collection eh? No superman). 11 seconds...and that's the truth.

My best source for games has the nasty practice of writing the price on the front label with a STINKING Sharpie Marker. How do I get this abomination off of the label without damaging it? Some labels are easy to work with, Sears plastic and the old foil-backed, but the later/cheaper (silver, Imagic etc.) aren't so lucky. Taking the marker off often times takes off the label printing. Who knows a trick to getting this stuff off of delicate labels?

I keep my list on Excel and print out a copy when I go flea-marketing. I sit right there and compare carts to my list. Sure, it gets a look or two, and I am sure the seller thinks "this guy is hard-core, I'm going to rape him on these". The worst that can happen is that you might spend an extra .50 or $1.00 on a cart, but I wouldn't want a bunch of duplicates clogging up my collection. If the guy still wants $3.00 for Space Invaders (like I found today) just snicker a bit and walk away, you won't look so 'hard-core' then. Most of the sellers will come down when you bring him an arm full. You also put a big dent in your 'want' list when you do this. The worst that will happen is you'll find it someplace else in a month or two. Having a list is great for finding subtle differences like copyright dates or pictures spilling out of the borders, stuff that I can't seem to remember.

Just this very afternoon I found a Speedway II 49-75103 at a flea market, but can't find it in the rarity guide. Is this a common cart or did I find something special here? I also found a Missile Command with a 1982 copyright and the only thing I can find in the guide is a 1981 copyright. Now I KNOW this isn't anything special but I'm kinda curious why it isn't in the guide.

The local Goodwill is kinda high on their price for any Atari game.....$2.00. Combat or Front Line....$2.00. But Goodwill's gimick is their half price sales so I think that they price accordingly. They have one of these half off sales on something on a weekly basis.

The sears shooter Target Fun has three label variations, I think, but the rarity guide has each variation listed twice making it look like there are six label variations. I pulled up each duplicate and studied them side by side and could find no difference, in fact I think that the picures are the same for each of the doubled label var. Can anybody shed any light on this? Each of the six is only a "2" so I guess it really doesn't matter, but I'd kinda like to know if there is actually a need to hunt down six of these titles.

If you see no flicker at all when you turn the power on, then chances are the power supply. BUT, don't forget that you are using an old T.V. and the RF input of the T.V. might be marginal. I think that the mighty wood-grain might just deserve a hook-up into your regular T.V. If you do see the slightest flicker or spark at the power jack (very good tip btw) look around for the 3 / 4 switch. This is the switch that lets you choose which channel to play the game on. If you don't see the slightest flicker, move the 3/4 switch to the opposite position and try again. The first portion of the RF generating gizmos in the console might be toasted, so moving the switch to the other side gives the 'standby' portion of the RF generating gizmos a chance to work. If all of that doesn't give you anything, get a screwdriver, open it up and make sure the video cord is still hooked up and the connection is clean. That's one that I've found. Then buy the power supply and/or Rf switch. If none of that works, I'll give you a buck for it.***W***