Ferris

A few quickshot answers - 5200 Asteroids was never produced for the retail market. Never. Hence, there are no "ultra rare" 5200 Asteroids cartridges floating around as there are 2600 SwordQuest Waterworld, Video Cube, Crazy Climber, etc. No point in searching flea markets, goodwill, or ebay. A few lab-loaner cartridges are known to exist. Only one "finished" Asteroids is known to exist, which had a silver production 5200 label and artwork. The original box design was shown in early 5200 catalogues. 5200 Asteroids is nearly identical to the 400/800 version with analog control. It was the analog control that made the game so difficult to play. This is one of the major reasons it never went to full production. A special made Asteroids controller was found alongside the original production labeled 5200 Asteroids cartridge. It is a silver box created in-house at Atari as an answer to the analog sitiuation. Controls were nearly identical to what was in the arcade. 5200 Asteroids has been included in nearly every 5200 multicart on the market. 5200 Asteroids was created as a reproduction cartridge and was available for sale here in the AtariAge store for quite some time (at least a year) until the new Atari started tightening down on infringements. The reproduction was well made and complete with label. hope this helps!

Scored the M2 development console on ebay! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...8196392180&rd=1

The 5200 had a gorgeous design done by legendary designer Regan Cheng. The ColecoVision looked like a queer 80's PS2.

I'm very excited about the FB2 but I still do not aprove of the bastardized fuji.

I'm sure as hell working on it. Have the right people on board too :-)

I have a stack of those suckers. All of mine were assigned to Jack Tramiel and are maxed out for 100,000 shares of Atari Corporation. Hard to think that once upon a time this stack of paper was worth a few million. Very cool collectable for the Atari historian! Looks beautiful hung up on the wall.

I have a few complete development systems including the original Macintosh computers with all the software loaded. Whatever encription exists is on one of these hard drives as I have everything needed to develop games for a phantom console that never existed. Hey anyone up for playing some Panther??

Most M2 units you find are white because they are the dev systems. Panasonic had three other colors that varied slightly from the dev systems. The first was white just like the dev system except it only said "Panasonic" square in the center of the cd lid, and the power and open buttons were a misty blue. There was also a unit that was crayola blue and had the same "Panasonic R-E-A-L" badging on the system that the previous units had. This system was fairly ugly, to me anyway. The third and best looking unit was solid black and with all the lines of the M2 it looked like a stealth. Again it just said Panasonic on the unit but it looked serious. I think I may be able to get my hands on one of these black units but we'll see. Justin

Actually I should retract that last nomination. I was thinking that Knight Rider 2600 was a hack. Forgot Knight Rider 2600 was actually a home brew, it was "hard work" who was the hack. ~J

Yay for the Nukey Multicart!!! Put me down for like ten of those bad boys! That being said, I think we are forgetting the one hack that has been under development for so long its bound to become a masterpiece.... yes.... ofcourse.... Knight Rider 2600! What better game deserves to make it home on a cartridge release? After all, "hard work" has a business plan, and a guy who works in a print shop who is warm to basic! Sorry Nukey Shay, looks live youve been one-upped.

Actually try out this page, there is a ton of information on the M2 development, as well as some great crystal clear pics! http://assembler.roarvgm.com/Panasonic_m2/panasonic_m2.html D looked awesome. I'm trying to get my hands on a beta version of that title to play on my own. I may be posting a special M2 development page with software etc. for other M2 owners to download from and load to and share general M2 information. Justin

To say that M2 is "on par with PlayStation 1" is underestimating the M2's power. The earliest demos of D2 looked superior to Dreamcast and at very least on par with the early PS2 titles. The M2 was a powerful machine. Pictures of the machine and a demo of D2 from 1996 pictured here - http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/nietto2000/m2.htm I picked one up on ebay for $999.99 last week, complete with system, software, and Macintosh with dev card. Good catch, especially since we are working with technology similar to the M2, I thought we could analyze this little machine and see if we cant put it to some use. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW That should give you a rough idea of some value. Certainly not a $299 system by any measure.

If he is willing to sell it please have him get in touch with me. I am willing to pay a decent price for an M2 and any dev software. Justin

Whoa calm down there on the conspiracy theories, Frohike! I'm always up for legitimate conspiracy discussions but I think that may be taking it a bit overboard. I remember when it really WAS 1984 and some people thought that the Atari Mindlink was some sort of grand attempt at mind control on part of Warner Communications in an effort to sell more games, music, video and other media. Truth is it was just a silly idea for a paddle controller and nothing more. And why is it that any time Bill Gates sneezes its reported to be a diabolical multinational corporate conspiracy against joe schmo? No one bitched about conspiracies when Sony brought out the Eye Toy. No one thought Apple was out to overthrow the populous when we started plugging iPods in our years and iSight cams on top of our Macs. As it turns out, we have a great amount of control over our own lives no matter what Bill Gates had for breakfast. *sigh* where's Scully when you need her?

You may think this is bunk but I am very close friends with Dr. Gene N. Landrum who created Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre for Nolan after he launched the 2600. He created the first store in San Jose by hand and served as President of the company from 1977 through 1986 (coulda been 84) Either way, I talk with him every day as he is the Chairman of my company. He is a published author and professor of entrepreneurialism and I even did the cover of his last book for him, he's a really neat person. If you'd like I can put you in touch with him. You can visit his website at - http://www.genelandrum.com/ Hope this helps, Justin

WOW how big are those?

Okay so why is it that Atari has to go and put their jackassed new Fuji all over it? If they are so into creating something that is true to Atari's past they can start with the logo. The system looks great, the Fuji looks bastardized.

Haven't seen one on the 70's yet, but I do have the Coleco/Atari one from I love 1982 available here - http://www.atari7800.com/html/video.htm

Awesome site Karl! You have my favorite Atari site on all of the web! Keep up the good work!

Quick reminder to everybody about to dive into all this.... Do not confuse the 3200 with the 3600. The 3200 is the "Silvia" 10-Bit system that was to replace the 2600 in 1980.... from what I know Atari ran into issues surrounding programming and ditched the 3200 for the 400/800-based 5200. The 3600 was merely the original designation for the 7800, no major difference as far as I know. This is a mistake I see arise often when discussing the 3000 series vaporware systems. :-)

I have one mint in the box and I have cardboard spacers inside.

I agree about the logo. They need to go back to the authentic Fuji logo, what they have now is just a bastardized Atari logo that I frankly find insulting. Curt should get on top of that crap.

It absolutely did not make the market. There were a few prototypes, one of them was complete. Not sure who owns it but it is out there still. Few games were developed before people started getting headaches. Cool idea that turned out to be a bit gimicky, although I still woulda been into it for sure! Originally developed from the Atari Bionics medical systems that were being designed by Regan Cheng in 1981.

Wow... i've been collecting since way back before Atari was considered "collectable" and I have yet to find one of those, let alone in the wild. I'd love to see a scan.

I like "Scary Mansion II 3-D" ....that's gotta be a collector's item by now!