Room 34

Hi all... this is just a vent of frustration over losing two rather rare items I was bidding on on eBay. I had winning bids on these items for several days, only to lose because I was out of town when the auctions closed! The items were both in excellent condition, complete with instructions and boxes. They were "Submarine Commander" and the "Back-to-School Pak" featuring "Brain Games," "Basic Programming," and two keyboard controllers! I just wanted to see if the lucky buyer of these items was reading this discussion group so I could express to them my deep frustration over losing these items! Oh well... congratulations, whoever you are!

Well, I criticized Pac-Man earlier, a criticism that is based on the past 20 years of experience. But I must confess my origins... I got my Atari 2600 in May 1982, when I was 8. I had NEVER played an arcade game before (too short). I had HEARD of Pac-Man, but I had never played it. The reason we GOT the Atari was to get Pac-Man. At the time, I LOVED Atari Pac-Man, but it was only because I didn't know any better! A couple years later, I finally got tall enough to play arcade games, and I was shocked when I played the real Pac-Man how much better it was than what I was used to. Of course, by then about 1984 even Ms. Pac-Man was already ancient history!

Thanks for the great tips! As for removing the labels, in this particular case I have NO reason to salvage them because they were already fairly destroyed. The carts themselves were really dirty, so I disassembled them and soaked all of the plastic pieces overnight in a mild soap-and-water solution. That of course ruined the already-ruined labels even more, but didn't make them any easier to remove! I think I'll use the glue spray approach to also apply my new replacement labels I made for a couple games (including Raiders of the Lost Ark) that came to me in broken cartridges. (Thank God for a stack of extra Combats with the easy-peel plastic labels!) [ 05-10-2002: Message edited by: room34 ]

I'd have to go with Q*Bert. I just got it recently, so maybe I haven't given it enough time, but am I not mistaken that you can't actually move the joystick diagonally in it? It seems like there's some arcane process of up-down-left-right that somehow determines which diagonal direction Q*Bert jumps. Incredibly lame! This now beats out my previous whipping boy for lamest arcade conversion, Pac-Man. (At least that game's playable.)

Now that I am close to completing my "basic" (i.e. one of each game, not all label variations) collection of the pre-silver-label-era Atari-made 2600 games (to me, the core collection to get!), I am beginning to focus on the condition of the cartridges, to preserve and, in some cases, restore them. The most common issue I have is loose end labels, particularly on the text label carts. Almost all of the end labels are curling back a little, and some are barely hanging on. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best way to reattach these, i.e. the best kind of glue to use, and techniques to get the label completely and securely attached without leaving visible glue residue? And as a follow-up question, I also have several duplicate carts that apparently were in a flood... the labels showed severe water damage. I decided to take these carts apart to perform some devious Frankensteinian experiments on (which I haven't really started), but I am finding the labels on many of them exceedingly difficult to remove completely. So, the other end of the spectrum -- what's the best technique to completely remove labels? Thanks! [ 05-10-2002: Message edited by: room34 ]

quote: Originally posted by Gunstar: But I do have a regular manual tv switch box hooked up to the 4port rf and have all my rf systems hooked up that way. So what you're saying is that a 4-port 5200 CAN use a regular manual RF switchbox? I am currently bidding on a 5200 on eBay that looks to be a 4-port that's missing the switchbox, because the seller says they couldn't figure out how to hook it up. Am I going to need to get a special cable, or does the 5200 have a built-in cable like the 2600, that I could just connect to one of my existing RF switchboxes?

OK, well I don't believe it's an NTSC/PAL issue... my 7800 system and carts are all NTSC, and I am having the problem. I think there must be something about the way carts for certain systems including Atari 7800, Colecovision, and NES were made that causes this sort of thing to happen. Does anyone else know more about this than I do (that is, anything)?

Are they actually characters, or just a bunch of scrambled graphics? I play all of my carts exclusively on my 7800 (why bother hooking up the 2600?)... All of my 2600 carts play with no problem (except some Activision ones that need a "jiggle" but then work), but I have some problems with certain 7800 carts. For instance, my Pole Position II cartridge always gets screwy about halfway through the "race" round. Some of the other 7800 games also go garbled after a while. I remember back in the early '80s, my best friend had a Colecovision that did this, and I had some friends with NES systems in the late '80s that also had these kinds of problems. What exactly is it about carts on these systems that causes them to malfunction like this? And how come it never EVER happens with 2600 carts? Anyone...?

Sorry if this is a topic that has been done before, but I'm new to the forum and I thought it might be fun. I have put together my own "top ten" favorite/best Atari 2600 cartridges list. I also wrote some commentary on my choices, which you can view here. Here's my list: 10. Frogger 9. H.E.R.O. 8. Defender 7. Space Invaders 6. Video Pinball 5. Adventure 4. Solaris 3. Kaboom! 2. Yars' Revenge 1. Pitfall! Let's hear your picks! Also feel free to flame me for my choices!

quote: Originally posted by KBeXpress: Oh come on now!! We all know atari 2600 is ment to be played on a 13 inch TV like we all had in our bedrooms with our atari hooked up to as a kid!! If only I had been so lucky. For several months around 1984 or '85 I had my Atari 2600 connected to a FIVE-INCH B&W TV in my bedroom! Oh well, at least it was IN my room... that was the exciting part. I could play Atari in bed at 2 AM and my parents would never know!

You all are making me feel good about my score with this red outline "03 star ship" cart I got. I had been bidding on a full flip-top box version on eBay but gave up long before it finally closed at almost $40! A couple days later I spotted this Star Ship cart in a lot with several other games, which I got for $12! Granted, it's just the cart, but I have so few of the boxes/manuals for my games that I didn't want the other ones getting jealous! Now the real question, as far as the actual game is concerned, does anyone think Star Ship doesn't suck? [ 05-02-2002: Message edited by: room34 ]

I'm fairly average in there... DOB 3/14/1974, making me 28. Got my 4-switch VCS in May 1982. (20 years ago this month!) Other tidbits... First computer was a Tandy 1000 EX in '87. First "real" computer (Mac... ha ha) was in '94. I got my 7800 in '97. My "AtariAge" is ONE DAY! (I just signed up last night. After I read the glossary definition of "Reef Store Dream" I KNEW I had to join this forum!)

Here is someone who beat it. His story doesn't say what happens at the end. Maybe if you e-mail him, he will tell you. I have never come CLOSE to finishing this game, but I still think it is one of the best ever. (Actually, I have just revived my Atari web site after a few years of dormancy... I just wrote an article on my top 10 2600 games. If you're interested, check it out.)

OK, never mind. That was my obigatory newbie stupid post. I was looking more closely at a cartridge variation list from Tempest and it explains these. Sorry! This is almost as bad as the time I got a new job as webmaster for a publishing company a few years ago, and on my first day I mistakenly sent a "reply to all" on a companywide message about the Christmas party. (Duh! I'm not an idiot... really! I just act like one... most of the time.)

Most discussion I see of cartridge variations deals with differences in labels (which is obviously worthy of being the primary focus), but I am curious about another thing... the variations in the way Atari manufactured cartridges for the 2600. Most of their games have the latching door (a pretty ingenious bit of engineering, which I only fully discovered last week when I took apart an old Combat to install the ROM from a Raiders of the Lost Ark with a broken case), but I noticed when I started picking up games from discount bins in the mid- to late-'80s that many were made with a simple spring-loaded door, and even later than that there were no moving parts at all, just the exposed ROM. Is there any sort of FAQ somewhere on the matter of the construction of cartridges? Thanks! (I should also add, I am aware of the true inconsequence of this topic to life in general, but for some reason I still care!)

As long as we're on the topic, does anybody know about the "odd" label for Star Ship? What year was it produced? What was the release history of this game? I can only go by what I know from catalogs, since I only got into Atari in 1982. It looks to me like Star Ship was discontinued in 1980 or early '81, prior to the debut of the picture labels. I am guessing that maybe they did a hasty re-issue of it later, hence the new hybrid label. It never appeared in any catalogs after 1980 though, did it?

Thanks, that's it! The subtle difference in the shade of the red ink is present too (between the all-red "03 star ship" and my red-and-silver "02 air-sea-battle". Thanks again! Now, should I be completely obsessive and try to collect the other variant too? (I think I can do without two copies of "Star Ship," honestly.)

I am attempting to put together a complete set of the text/number label cartridges as one of my first "goals" for my collection. I've managed to get 6 of them fairly quickly (granted, I somehow stumbled on an auction of 5 of them on eBay, which helped). The one other text/number label I have that was NOT in that auction is Star Ship. I am curious about my copy because I noticed that the border around the edge of the end label on it is RED instead of silver like on all of the other games. The copy shown on the AA cartridge scans is silver. Is a red border on the "03 star ship" label a known variant? Also, as long as I've brought up this game, what's the deal with the label that says "Atari 2600" in white text and "Star Ship" in yellow? It looks to me like a hasty re-release in '83 or later. Is that right? Are there any other games with labels like this? (I think I saw this in a thrift store once 10 years ago but I foolishly did not buy it.) Thanks...

I know that on some of the early picture labels, Atari used lowercase for the game title and then switched to all upper case. I am not an expert but I have seen, in particular, both Missile Command and Video Pinball with these variations. (Were they the first 2 picture label games? The timing seems right.) Anyway, I just got a copy of Video Pinball in an eBay auction that seems like it might be a bit more rare. It has a lowercase end label but an uppercase face label. Does anyone know of Atari shipping any cartridges with mismatched labels like this? Or do you think someone may have switched labels with another copy at some point in the past 20 years? (And if so, why bother?) The labels are both in very good condition, but the face label has a very small white band at the top... like the black ink didn't go all the way to the edge when it was printed. Also, the artwork looks murkier (with more visible "print dots" for lack of the technical term) than on another all-lowercase copy of the game I have. At this point I am wondering if this is some kind of home-printed replacement label. I can see a definite difference between the labels on the two copies of the game, but the one in question still looks too "pro" to be a home job. Any thoughts?

Have you received this cartridge yet? It is a poor-quality photo, but it almost looks to me like that label says "Defender II". Not sure why it would have the OLD Defender artwork though. I think Atari had discontinued the original Defender by the time the red labels were out. My Atari Advantage catalog from '89 lists Defender II but not the original.

I bought my copy of Ballblazer new from O'Shea a couple years back and it has the "rarer" red end label. In fact, 100% of the copies of the game I have seen have the red label! (OK, I am being a [email protected]$$... 1 out of 1!)