Ballblaɀer
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Posts posted by Ballblaɀer
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F6 dumps of the three cartridges are here. Assuming I'm interpreting the debugger mode in Stella properly, there's data in four 4K banks for each.
Boom Bang (AKA Crackpots) (HES) (PAL) (F6 dump).bin
Pigs 'N' Wolf (AKA Oink) (HES) (PAL) (F6 dump).bin
Star Warrior (AKA Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back) (HES) (PAL) (F6 dump).bin
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I have the pictured carts two plus Boom Bang as standalone HES carts. I cannot get any of the three unadvertised games to play on my 2600 no matter what I do with the difficulty switches. Tried powering on and reinserting lots and lots of times, tried frying the carts a bit... nothing. Boom Bang and Pigs 'N' Wolf both play the advertised game no matter what position my right difficulty switch is in. Star Warrior gives me a black screen upon startup with the right switch in the A position. Not entirely sure how I was able to 4K dump Dolphin from the PNW cart, honestly.
I will try dumping these carts to F6 ROMs later tonight or tomorrow, sure.
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Attempting to plug the gaps for the last two needed HES "single game" cartridges, I did 8K dumps of each:
Pigs 'N' Wolf (features Dolphin in the other half of the ROM)
Pigs 'N' Wolf (AKA Oink) (HES) (PAL).bin
Star Warrior (features Frogger in the other half of the ROM)
Star Warrior (AKA Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back) (HES) (PAL).bin
Attempting 4K dumps of each cart multiple times, I was able to get working standalone 4K dumps of Pigs 'N' Wolf, Dolphin, and Star Warrior. The Frogger dumps don't work properly. I can post these 4K dumps if requested, but IMO they're all just partial dumps in the end... and having them in this thread would potentially just muddy up the water, so to speak.
Let me know if anything more is needed with these.
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I have the Sears set. Definitely don't see it around much.
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Cool — I’m interested!
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Here's a new ROM for everyone's
enjoymentcuriosity about the Argentina NTSC50 thing. Custer's Revenge from Artkaris, shown and discussed in my Twitter thread:-
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10 hours ago, alex_79 said:
AFAIK Argentina's analog TV system has always been PAL-N, so I guess all consoles sold there used that standard.
E.g. the "Edu Games 2600" clone console is PAL-N.
A PAL-N console with a NTSC cartridge will produce a non standard signal (PAL-N color encoding but at 60Hz). I don't know if TV sets sold in Argentina would display that signal or not.
I looked into the Argentina console/TIA/TV thing a bit not too long ago:
QuoteThe only in-depth discussion that I've ever seen about this subject (i.e. the 2600 in Argentina) is on the Retrogaming.com.ar forums, like in this thread, and this one. It is mentioned that most consoles in Argentina have NTSC TIA chips, and that many contain additional hardware that transcodes the signal to the proper PAL-N format for their televisions. One user states that only a few clones contain PAL TIA chips. It's also stated that some consoles have hardware to manually adjust the console's color output.
The reason provided for the existence of cartridges containing ROMs of both formats is that older TV sets in Argentina were 50Hz only, with no vertical/horizontal holds. For consumers with these older sets, cartridges containing PAL ROMs would have been necessary to play with a stable picture.
And just to clarify, when I wrote "cartridges containing ROMs of both formats", that was somewhat poorly-worded. I meant to convey that both PAL and NTSC ROMs exist in cartridges made and sold in Argentina.
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Datatech Enterprises Co. was another name/brand of 創宏科技股份有限公司 (Chuanghong Technology Co., Ltd.), also known as 香港创辉电脑有限公司 (Hong Kong Chuanghui ["Colorful"] Computer Co., Ltd.). They are the same entity as what became known globally as DTK Computer. According to a page on Baidu they were first formed in Taiwan in 1982. Sources compiled at Wikipedia say 1981. The (archived) company website says capital was first raised in 1981, and DTK Group was founded the following year.
They became a somewhat well-known PC hardware manufacturer. Here's their "dtk" logo on a motherboard, along with a 1988 BIOS setup screen.
Their oldest registration of the dtk trademark in Taiwan has an application date of 1/31/1986. The application for a USA trademark was filed in the same year.
An advertisement for PC hardware on page 192 of the November 1986 issue of Byte Magazine is what confirms that this is the same company behind the distribution of Seal To Whales; the ad mentions Datatech Enterprises, shows the "dtk" logo, and names the same Taipei PO Box address that is found on the back of the Seal To Whales box and on the cartridge label.
To be clear, this only outlines what Datatech Enterprises Co. was, and none of this should be taken as any kind of suggestion that DEC was the developer of Seal To Whales. I agree with @Rom Hunter that this is probably the same game as what Home Vision would have called "Whales".
@AdryMorci can you provide any additional information about Seal To Whales? Was it found in Spain or somewhere else? Has a ROM been dumped?
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Both photos: Atari Inc. release on left; Atari Corp. release on right. Atari Inc. labels are foil stickers. Atari Corp. labels are gray-colored non-foil stickers. Note also that the cartridge shells aren't quite the same; you can see where there are open areas in the shell behind the upper corners of the Atari Corp. main labels.
In general, you can assume anything marked "Atari Inc." was assembled on/before their sale by Warner in July 1984. Anything marked "Atari Corp." -- or, in the case of the Crystal Castles second label, without a marking -- will have been assembled after the sale.
For more information about 2600 variants, I recommend Atarimania, AtariBoxed, and @Philflound's excellent Video Game Variations site.
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Just like I created for V16, here's a WinMerge report showing what's new/changed in V17. Reminder: something may be listed because the filename was changed/updated, rather than it being an entirely new ROM. This is intended to be an overview only.
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On 2/19/2022 at 2:08 AM, S.BAZ said:
I wonder, which games are those silver labeled "Soccer" and "Baseball" ?
Those are Telegames re-releases of International Soccer and Super Challenge Baseball (M-Network titles).
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Yeah, Tank Mission is a Taiwan hack of Sega’s Thunderground.
You have a few carts I could use. Will send you a PM!
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On 2/11/2022 at 2:39 PM, vintagegamecrazy said:
Time to resurrect this thread with more questions. I do own a copy of condor attack. Really amazing how this was once considered and almost obtainable holy Grail 20 years ago and is now considerably more common. What is the origin of these t-handle cartridges? Was ultravision the developer of condor attack? This style of cartridge is turning up all over the place now k tel vision in Canada funvision wherever and also with Taiwanese labels as well as pal labels. Was ultravision just a pirate company in the US and did they create karate? Any idea and can anybody make any sense out of all of this? Really starting to get more confusing the further I go down the rabbit hole.
You are very right to call it a rabbit hole.
The T-handle cartridges made in this form factor were all manufactured for Funvision, the brand name of 徽和企業股份有限公司 (Huihe Enterprise Co., Ltd.) based in Taipei. This is the same company referred to in some other places as "Fund International Co., Ltd.". Headquartered in Taiwan, they seem to have contracted with factories in Hong Kong and mainland China to manufacture the cartridges for international sale. They produced games for both NTSC and PAL territories.
Ultravision, Inc. was an importer based in the Miami Free Zone (an FTZ) that, based on evidence I've gathered, seems to have been working directly with Funvision, if not actually acting as their USA sales arm. Ultravision-branded cartridges have also turned up in Taiwan, leading me to believe that Huihe Enterprise was calling the shots for the Ultravision company/brand.
K-Tel International, Inc. registered the K-Tel Vision trademark in Canada, and similarly imported games from Funvision. Here's a link to images of the June 25, 1983 Financial Post (Canada) that features an article which states that there was a test-marketing in Winnipeg (where K-Tel was headquartered) the prior Christmas of "a small lot" of video games from Hong Kong. This was almost certainly Funvision's Condor Attack and Inca Gold, renamed Vulture Attack and Spider Maze, respectively.
Condor Attack's original name seems to have been 太空大戰 (Space War), which you may have seen printed on one of the labels. Possibly the title was changed to Condor Attack when it was realized that using Space War as the title could cause problems/conflicts given the existing, well-known IPs of Space Wars (Cinematronics) and Space War (Atari). This bit is conjecture; I don't know for certain why the name was changed.
The development/programming of the Funvision/Ultravision/K-Tel Vision branded games is, for the moment, still a mystery. Karate's ROM has a partial Bit Corporation (also Taiwan-based) logo inside it; this is currently our best clue that the programming was not done by Huihe Enterprise themselves. My personal take on this is that the Funvision games may have been early Bit Corporation efforts that were unwanted/unused due to their, well, generally poor quality. So perhaps there was some type of partnership or licensing deal between the companies in Taiwan, but this is nothing more than a theory, at least for now.
There's some more that I need to write up about this, but until I get around to it, this should at least answer the questions posed here!
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Final bump... just over one hour left. If you love the picture labels and/or variants as much as I do, cross the hardest Atari picture label to find off your list!
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Quick bump. Ending tomorrow!
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Greetings all... I'm currently auctioning a rare Atari 2600 cartridge from my collection: the unknown-before-2006 Atari Inc. picture label variant of Flag Capture. It's tested, working, and is NTSC. The auction is slated to end this Sunday at 4:30 PM Eastern.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304346745387
It's my educated guess that somewhere between five and seven of these are currently known to exist. This is the first time one has been put up for auction. The closest comparison is probably the Sears picture label Superman; that title is more well-known, but I don't think it's quite at the same level of rarity as this one.
Thanks for having a look.
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2 hours ago, Jeff L said:
SELLING ENTIRE COLLECTION FROM 1980's. I worked as a sales rep for Activision in the early 1980's and have a LOT of prototypes (14 total - 8 for 2600, 2 for 5200, 4 for Intellivision), used games in boxes (40+ and mostly Actiivision titles), a 2600 and a 400 game console and even typed original drafts of instructions for 5 games. I want to sell it ALL IN ONE LOT. According to these blogs the protos should be worth about $80 each, no idea of the value of the instruction manuals, and we all know the value of the other games and consoles (not much...). I also have two unopened, sealed ROBOT TANK by Activision for the 2600. Check out the pics. I live in San Diego and YOU will pay shipping. First $600 (plus shipping) can have it ALL, right now! Or make your best offer. and highest bidder just may get this Collection.
I had trouble uploading the pics from Google so here's a link top the pics - just copy and paste... (Sorry, I am a salesman, not a tech!!!) LOL
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WN5DyyNTrGApAnec7
PM sent.
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An 18-year necrobump? Seems like a good opportunity to mention that Forest is apparently not an original game; it seems to be an adaptation/port of the (still undumped) SNK arcade game Yosaku, which is probably more well-known as an Epoch Cassette Vision title.
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1 hour ago, Asaki said:
So is it confirmed that it was him, then?
Sadly, yes. I was told that that the link to this thread would be passed on to the family.
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I sent a message to his nephew expressing condolences with a link to this thread. Hopefully he’ll pass it on to any other family who might be comforted to see how many people here appreciated him.
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I will remember him as kind, friendly, and endlessly generous with knowledge and time. It’s a person like him that can really make a community feel welcoming, and his contributions undoubtedly helped AtariAge grow and flourish.
I have to think that any community would have been made better by his presence. We were fortunate to have him here.
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Here are some not-great photos of Human Cannonball and Home Run -- they do exist.
I have a lead on a second Flag Capture manual. If I can acquire it, I'll loan one to be scanned. Failing that, I need to either repair or replace my scanner. One of these days...
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On 8/23/2021 at 11:19 AM, Rom Hunter said:
These Taiwanese mult-carts are from New Zealand and PAL.
They're almost definitely manufactured in Taiwan, yes, but... I've seen them pop up in Australia at times, whereas I've not seen them in NZ. Not at all saying that you're wrong, here, but I'd like to know where the NZ info originated, if you remember.
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3 hours ago, JayAre said:
Blazer, thanks so much for this information. I was reading online that there are shows, attractions and exhibits at the CNE. So it's possible that these stickers were give-aways at an Apollo exhibit at the CNE; I'm guessing maybe in 1982. And perhaps Videodome was the name of the venue where the exhibit took place. Then there's the possible tie-in with the movie, as you mentioned. Really interesting. Thanks once again for this info.
I totally misread “Videodome” as “Videodrome”! Looks like I need a little more sleep. Ah well, I think the CNE bit is still correct…
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2600 Rom Comparisions and Dumps
in Atari 2600
Posted
This was the part that I don't think I totally understood until now... the dumping software ignores/doesn't react to the startup code that otherwise tells a 2600 to jump to the correct startup/initialization bank, yes? This explains why I was able to dump Dolphin -- it randomly started reading from that bank -- but I wasn't able to get it working on my 2600... right?
Probably this is just a question of pragmatics, but... if the ROM being dumped is a 16K mask ROM, isn't the F6 dump the most "correct" dump regardless of what the Atari sees? The cartridge could randomly start in any of the four banks, but the startup code in each instructs the console to switch to the proper initialization bank, right? I realize that this is ultimately not important... but if an 8K dump is more correct than a 4K dump, here, doesn't that make the argument for a 16K dump being the one we want?