electronicsibley
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Posts posted by electronicsibley
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The list has finally been updated. Apologies as always for the delay.
@Albert, I've been chatting with @Crazymoon67 and he has offered to take over responsibility for the 7800 Serial Number list maintenance and updating from me. I can vouch for his credentials as a Atari collector and all around fan. If it's ok, can you pass over administrative rights on the thread to him?
It's been a pleasure and an honor pitching in as much as I was able to. Thanks so much.
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2 minutes ago, zzip said:
I guess I did? Might as well add "Datamost" to the list then for the trifecta
Don’t forget Data Age!
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Nothing that hasn’t been said before, but Wade and crew should at least be putting out feelers to Warner to see if there’s room for any kind of deal on the Atari Games IP.
To my mind, Atari Games was just as much Atari as the consumer division ever was post-split.
Bringing that catalog of games back into the fold will really right a historic wrong.
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46 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:
I'll try to find some time over the next few days to make a video that shows the differences between the + and original Joystick.
That would be awesome. I’m curious as to whether the Atari logo will make it on to the new version. I’m a big fan of the diagonal offset placement on the originals. It was a unique feather of their industrial design at that time that also showed up in the XEGS.
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21 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:
Always fun comparing originals to freshly pressed pre-production samples
This is rad! The “Euro-Pad” finally gets a US release. I have a set from Best Electronics, so probably won’t be a purchase for me, but definitely a smart move to reproduce them.
My hat’s off to the team at Atari. This is a deep-cut from the vault that true fans will really appreciate.
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@Albert, would it be possible to pin this thread? It's pretty evergreen as far as 7800 content goes. A few people have asked, and I thought I'd check. Thanks either way!
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I just updated the list with 25 systems or so. Thanks everyone for your patience, and even more so for being active on the thread, and in the community! If you notice anything missing, just let me know. I'll jump back in to update things right away.
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9 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:
I wish we had a comprehensive library of all our packaging, key art, and marketing materials. We really don't. Too much was lost in the many transitions. The Strong National Museum of Play has a rather large trove of Atari documents that they have been cataloging for quite some time. The team at Digital Eclipse worked with Strong to get a lot of the assets in Atari 50. My goal is to go up there and look about next year. And Tim Lapetino has done an amazing job of tracking down and document all the old key art and marketing illustrations. Beyond what we have managed to save, we kind of rely on fans to scan originals and post them. AtariAge and MobyGames are as much a resource to us as they are to you.
I’m sure you’re aware, but The Ted Dabny Experience podcast is a great resource for experiential storytelling by key former Atari employees. Lots of nuggets and leads to follow up on from their library.
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9 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:
We get sooooo many questions about IP/games that we published at some point but don't own the license to, or that other people published for our hardware that we don't own the rights to.
Our hope is that the resurgence of retro hardware and games, including the new 2600+, will encourage more rights holders of games that have been out of circulation to re-release them, or assign the rights to someone else. We will see. It seems to be working for Nightdive, they keep getting their hands on great titles.Congrats on everything! I’m 100% behind this. It makes so much sense.
And on the topic of rights and IP, I’d love to see you guys bring the “Atari Games” collection of arcade IP back into the fold! I’m talking everything from Paperboy to Primal Rage. In my mind that would truly make Atari whole again.
Any chance folks there are thinking about this?
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A, B, and C - 100%! This collab is gonna’ be what they make of it. If they don’t generate some buzz, and back it with quality physical content, the whole thing will die on the vine. The same could be said for digital content on the VCS as is - but they seem to be picking up steam. I’m sure the homebrew scene will have the physical content covered either way.
Here’s hoping it’s a success, and it generates more business for Atari Age (Al), and all the homebrewers.
I’m a bit curious how receptive folks would be to a strategic investment by Atari to help grease the skids for key homebrew production and manufacturing. They seem to be making those types of investments anyway, and there’s a lot of expertise here that’s genuine and dedicated.
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With Atari already headed down the path of partnering with Polymega (and becoming an investor), I would encourage them to co-brand the 7800/2600 attachment they’re planning.
Polymega uses clever names for the attachments they’re producing for other past systems. They’re obvious, but not so “on-the-nose” that they might infringe on the respective copyrights. Since Atari is much more tied in on the effort, they should collaborate to add their logo to the hardware, and clearly indicate that it’s for playing 7800/2600 games, vs it being called the “xx00” module or something.
This may be burying the lead a bit, but I don’t think it would be wise for Atari to get any deeper into hardware on their own any time soon. I’m actually pretty impressed with the Polymega collaboration the more I think about it. It’s not perfect, but it leverages the hardware they have produced, and it spreads the risk.
Now, if they can get it ready for sale on the next 6 months, I’ll be surprised and thrilled! I do plan to pick up VCS and the accompanying Polymega kit once it’s available.
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51 minutes ago, darryl1970 said:
Thanks. Popeye was licensed by Parker Bros, before the 83-84 game crash. Parker Bros was no longer in the video game business by the time the 7800 was re-released. Nintendo had a exclusive licensing agreements. Popeye was also a Nintendo arcade game. Probably would have been tough to get that back into circulation. I doubt Atari would have sought out quality programmers.
Popeye is not a popular title amongst modern gamers. I have the arcade game, as does an arcade down the street from me. Guests rarely play my machine, and I am told the arcade Popeye gets very little play. I don't think people understand it. People don't understand why they can't punch Brutus at anytime. Some find it confusing that there isn't a jump, like the "Kong" games. It really caught my eye back in the day. The graphics were unheard of for the time, and Brutus was so "real" in his mannerisms. Modern day players take that kind of realism for granted, and they raise it 100x.
Overall, I doubt it would have sold very well, as it was an aging title. The nostalgia wave that we are riding now was not a thing then. Gamers were looking for more modern arcade ports. Furthermore, the "New Atari" had a very low budget. Once the licensing fee was finally paid to release the 7800, it appears that Jaclk's sole purpose was to liquidate inventory and try to make a buck off of budget software. Quality was not on Atari's radar.
I agree across the board.
It may have made more sense if the 7800 was released when it was intended to have been. But the Parker Brothers license would’ve been an issue. 3rd party, perhaps?
FWIW, I’ve cross-referenced the 7800 releases with the Atari arcade titles in that timeframe, and they did a pretty good job of covering the hits. This wasn’t kept up post-split, however. The Klax prototype is the only Atari “Games” title that comes to mind.
As for Nintendo, they certainly didn’t need to proactively license any more of their games by the time the 7800 did get released. My assumption is Atari got to publish what they had rights to, and nothing more.
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8 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:
I'm surprised this topic is not pinned.
Can it be?I was cross checking the serial # on the box that I bought recently to see if it maybe belonged to one of the consoles already in the tracker.
I maintain the list, but I don’t have the level of control to pin something. I’m blanking on who might, but maybe someone else can chime in.
BTW, I still need to add the 8 most recent submissions. Will try to do that this week.
Also, we’re you able to find a match?
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Awesome! Can’t wait to download this and give it a go.
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3 hours ago, Leonard Smith said:
If this tracker is still being maintained, I would like to add my recently acquired 7800 units:
(1): A1 76 5899562 (has expansion port / A/V modded)
(2): A3 05 5274218 (no mods / all original)
Yup, I maintain it. I have a few others to add and I’ll get yours along with them. Thanks for submitting your systems!
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20 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:
A1 78 5963769
Got it. Thanks, and BTW, congrats on the release of Wizard's Dungeon!
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20 hours ago, Avenger75 said:
This is my 7800, a PAL unit with a French Scart. w/ Asteroids built-in
Got it. Thanks!
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30 minutes ago, Silver Back said:
82 I believe.
Got it. Updated. Thanks again!
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On 12/30/2021 at 6:45 PM, Silver Back said:
And this is my daily driver with the expansion port, it’s got an av mod, the board has been recapped and had new tactile switches installed.
Thanks! Can you make out what the second blue-stamped number is? I see '8', but not the second digit.
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On 12/27/2021 at 1:16 PM, NISMOPC said:
So, I actually have four, but one is CIB and practically new, so I did not test it. They are all NTSC.
Four 7800s? That’s paydirt! If you haven’t already, feel free to post a few pics, serial numbers and any interesting info in the thread linked below. I’ll be sure to add them into the list.
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This is awesome! Seems like it should pair up quite nicely with the new physical cartridges being worked on (by Al, I think)?
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On 11/21/2021 at 9:59 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:
No...not that I've found. You have to simple open up the top cover so you can see if the port is off on the side or not. I've seen very few, but I have seen them, some A3 units with expansion ports on them. I serviced one not that long ago in fact that the date stamps on the ICs indicated it was a late '87 made unit but yet.. it had the port and I believe it had the extra timing circuit as well. I honestly don't know how many 7800s I've seen at this point but it is somewhere around 60 - 70 over the last 4 years now. The good news, is that while I might not take pics of the serial numbers (I don't..). I do take pics of the insides after I've serviced them and can likely go through my archive of photos to try and get some idea. But there still isn't a way to tell from the outside since the area of the port is covered by the bottom shell on units where they installed the port but did not place it into a shell with an opening for one like my A3 I have listed here.
That’s what I figured; there being no visual clues. No need to dig into it too deeply, but if you eventually come up with some data, I’d love to integrate it somehow. It’s an interesting production quirk in any case!
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5 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:
Well, do keep in mind that since I added the 2 I had at that time to this list, that my A3 unit with the DevOS BIOS in it, is actually an AT84 mainboard with all socketed chips and has the expansion port as well. I've seen several like this. So the A1 - A3 listing doesn't always mean an expansion port may or may not be present as it would seem Atari was throwing together anything they could fine (Or in my case I suspect mine was a return due to some issue as it shows some factory rework) and then sold out to the masses.
That reminds me, I have a 3rd 7800 to add to this list at some point and the initial A1 86 no longer has the LHE inside it. It now has an early rD UAV, with chroma fix circuit in place, UV power LED, RF modulator removed, and new Kiloparsec BIOS installed.
Wow, that’s interesting, and definitely worth noting. Is there any other detail that would indicate outwardly that the expansion port is present beneath the case, like with your system? The fact that you’ve seen several like this makes me think a non-trivial number of these systems were produced.
I’ll update your listings, and keep an eye out for your third system.
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And, that's a wrap! This list is officially up to date. I do want to go back and verify full-on expansion ports in the A1 units, but otherwise, things should be solid. FWIW, the count now stands at 307 working systems. And those are systems with owners engaged enough to submit them here. Definitely something to keep in mind for anyone developing a game for the 7800. I'll notify of general updates in the 'version history' of the post going forward. Any more systems? Send 'em my way!
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7800 Serial Number List
in Atari 7800
Posted
Just giving it another quick shot on transferring the list through @Albert. If anyone knows of another way, I’d be happy to follow up.