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*kicks tumbleweed aside* Scans of the box and manual are now available at Atarimania. Now back to your regularly scheduled 14,000+ replies about an "Atari" console that will almost certainly never be released (and still in the 2600 forum after all this time, for some reason)...

Ianoid found a few; I found a couple more for sale in Sweden. Nobody seems to know whether these are genuine Activision products. Nice find, regardless! Hoping to eventually add some to my collection.

I've not found much in the way of documentation about any inroads that the Atari VCS/2600 made into Mexico, and some photos from previous forum threads here have vanished, making research a bit more challenging. But I've tried to learn as much as I can after recently picking up this super exciting Atari/Sears(!) box for El Esquimal ("The Eskimo", a.k.a. Frostbite by Activision) from Mexico. To my knowledge this is the first box of this specific style to be documented. It's entirely plain except for the single-color-print Atari 2600 logos, stripe around the box, and some minimal text on the back, along with a drawing of a 2600 controller that matches those found on the backs of Atari-licensed Polyvox boxes from Brazil, among some others. The box "art" is simply an El Esquimal cartridge label stuck to the box. The blue strip with the Sears logo is a sticker. There's also an original Sears "IVA INCLUIDO" (value-added tax included) price tag that well illustrates that deep price-cuts happened to Atari games in Mexico, too. The box contents are of course very interesting as well! "Atari Cartucho Original" cartridges from Mexico are fairly well known and documented, but I've not seen anyone ever mention finding one complete with a box, tray, and manual. The manual is made of thin, lightweight paper, and the inner cardboard tray is also relatively flimsy. I've scanned the manual and box and will gladly make them available to atarimania, atariboxed, etc. A few words about Sears in Mexico as background: the first one opened in Mexico City in 1947. By 1981 there were 43 Sears stores in the country. A national economic crisis (or at the very least, severe stagnation) lasted through much of the 1980s, but Sears stores largely survived via general cost-cutting measures, as far as I can tell. In 1992 there remained 37 Sears stores in the country. I haven't yet been able to find any vintage newspaper or catalog ads, but there's this AtariAge forum post from 2006 where user SegaMasterMonster remembers purchasing (genuine) Atari games from Sears in Mexico. If anyone can share more information about Atari's partnership with Sears in Mexico I'd be very interested to learn about it. Getting back to the box, the key information gleaned from it (and the manual) is that this was manufactured in Mexico by Gradiente Mexicana S.A. As has been mentioned in a few discussions about "Atari Cartucho Original" carts found in Mexico (including the forum thread linked just above), the cartridge label style closely resembles those produced for Polyvox, the Atari-licensed distributor/publisher in Brazil. Turns out that's for a very good reason: Gradiente, a Brazil-based company, owned Polyvox at the time. Coincidentally, if you check out the scan of the back of the Frostbite box produced by Polyvox that's on Atarimania, you'll see a "Gradiente Industrial" sticker on it. Gradiente, a quite successful manufacturer (link goes to a Telebrasil Nov/Dec 1983 magazine article in Portuguese; requires Adobe Flash) of televisions, audio equipment, telephonic equipment, etc. was founded in 1964 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They set up a subsidiary company/factory in Mexico in 1974. This international expansion for Gradiente came during a period of great success and growth in Brazil, during which legal restrictions and "market reserve" policies in Brazil banned or otherwise strongly limited the import of electronics. The VCS had first made its way into Brazil largely through gray-market means, smuggled back home by tourists returning from the USA, or similar methods. With Gradiente seeking additional sales markets, as well as new reasons to produce and sell televisions, they entered the video gaming market in Brazil through their Polyvox brand label, and acquired official Atari licensing rights. What I didn't know prior to picking up this box & manual and digging into the history is that Gradiente *also* produced some official Atari products through their Mexico factory, too. Gradiente's reasoning behind expanding into Mexico can be learned to some extent through this 12/19/82 interview with Eugênio Staub (Google Translated to English), then-president of Gradiente (as well as the founder and 1st president of ELETROS (Brazil's National Association of Electronics Manufacturers). The long and short of it is that Gradiente wanted to grow their marketing capabilities in addition to remaining a frontrunner in A/V technology and development. I'm sure there's some good research to be done on historical Brazil/Mexico economic relations, but that's a bit beyond the scope of this post. With regard to the rise of Atari in Brazil, i.e. the precursor to its entry into Mexico, I strongly recommend this (English language) scholarly work (kinephanos.ca). I don't know exactly when the games in Mexico were manufactured and sold. I would guess based on the titles manufactured and from the timeline as we know it that this was around the same time as Polyvox was selling games in Brazil (i.e. late 1983 and onward). I suppose that it was likely around the time that 2600 Vader models were being made, though, based on this current listing for a Gradiente-manufactured Atari 2600 Vader system, complete with a manual/catalog (?) with a prominent Gradiente logo on it. If I had the available funds and space to properly store and display this I'd have tried to snap it up right away, but as of now it's available for anyone who wants a largely unknown piece of international Atari history. AA user javiero spotted it as well, and posted about it earlier this month, which is what spurred me to finally finish up this post. Of course, Gradiente has at least one additional, more well-known connection to Atari: they released the "Phantom System", a Brazilian Famiclone, that made use of Atari 7800 shells that Gradiente had on hand. Apparently Gradiente was prepared to go on to produce 7800 consoles, but decided against it due to the poor global sales of the 5200. The Phantom System was purportedly the most popular NES clone in Brazil. Timeline of Atari/Gradiente/Polyvox 1964 - Gradiente founded in Sao Paulo, Brazil (October) 1967 - Polyvox founded in Sao Paulo, Brazil 1974 - Gradiente sets up subsidiary Gradiente Mexicana in Mexico 1979 - Gradiente acquires Polyvox, their biggest competitor (December) 1982 - Gradiente partners with Warner to introduce Atari... somewhere (per Gradiente's current website, which may be wrong) 1983 - Polyvox officially introduces the Atari 2600 in Brazil (September/October; unlicensed systems and clones had already become popular in Brazil; Polyvox's advertising made clear that this was "Atari from Atari", the real thing) 1988 - Gradiente produces the Phantom System (NES clone in 7800 shell) in Brazil 1989 - Gradiente Mexicana closes (or, possibly as early as 1987?) 1993 - sales of Polyvox Atari consoles in Brazil come to an end

Atari Compendium has this: http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/swordquest_revisited/earthworld_playoff_rules.pdf

The only thing I had to notice at the outset was the different cover. Then it was just a matter of paging through the two catalogs side by side. No big feat.

It certainly could be a pre-production or sample catalog -- that's at least as good as any other theory I can come up with. I bought it from a seller in California -- and while that doesn't necessarily mean anything, I suppose it does at least slightly up the odds of it being something meant to stay in-house or at least be not meant for retail sale. As for the different Pac-Man artwork... yeah, I'd love to know more details about how decisions like these were made. The 2D character was used for the Rev. D catalogs and most (all?) of the Pac-Man boxes in NTSC land, while the 3D-lookin' one was used on all manuals and cartridge labels. Yes, PAL territories got the international-style boxes with the cool stylized Pac-Man, but it eventually made its way over to NTSC land on re-release boxes. Tim Lapetino's Art of Atari has a quote from James Kelly (art director at Atari) who said that the decision to go with the 2D Pac-Man was an "upper management" one; that they felt that Hiro Kimura was essentially doing too much with his stylized art and that they should instead go with something more basic. But supposedly time and expense considerations kept them from changing everything to the new 2D design. Perhaps this decision came relatively late in the production process? Sounds like a typical upper management move...

I've come across what appears to be an early revision of the CO16725 Rev. D Atari catalog (a revision of a revision, it seems!) that's different in some interesting ways from the catalog that everyone's familiar with. One obvious difference is the front cover design -- I bought it sight otherwise unseen, having recognized it as, well, odd-looking. Beside the unique cover layout, it's made with slightly thicker paper, and is about 1mm shorter than what I'll call the standard catalog. The next difference is apparent upon opening to the inside: the print quality is better in the early revision. IMO the overall contrast and image detail is improved throughout the catalog; I'd guess this is largely due to the higher quality paper used. The colors also appear different in some places, but it may just be due to different ink/paper/printers. Here's a page comparison that shows the difference in printing (early catalog on the left): Moving on to the introductory page, there's a small difference in the text. The standard catalog says: The early catalog instead says: Turning to the next page, the wizard artwork is not obscured by the left-hand border, and also extends over to the adjacent page. Looks cool! Otherwise no changes, and also no changes on the following pages. Then we come to the Super Breakout product pages. The artwork is shifted so that the ball is visible bouncing above the bricks. I think this looks better -- I never noticed that there's no visible ball in the artwork depicted in the standard catalog, but I strongly prefer the early catalog when comparing the two. There are four other changes: Super Breakout has a registered trademark symbol, its release month was named (January), the product number that shows up in the usual catalog is not shown, and the mock-up screenshot has a blue background instead of a black one. All minor differences, sure, but interesting. Product numbers are not used throughout the catalog. Next up is the most notable of all of the differences in the catalog: the Pac-Man pages. The most obvious difference is the artwork used; the early catalog used the more exciting, anthropomorphic looking Pac-Man, while the static 2D Pac-Man ended up used in the standard catalog. It's stated that the game will be available in March. The early catalog also uses a different mock-up screenshot, one that depicts the Pac-Man maze with a black background and tilted monsters (the same screenshot also appears in the not-so-common 1982 Atari poster/catalog). Finally, it's noted that the Pac-Man trademark is owned by Midway; the Namco-America license is not mentioned. In the Rev. E catalog, both companies are referenced. Anyway, I'd guess that Atari decided that it would be a mistake to use a Pac-Man screenshot that looks more like the arcade version of the game, but I do wonder what led to them using the (IMO) less-exciting artwork. The remainder of the catalog is largely identical. Game artwork is framed slightly differently sometimes. For example: There are other very minor printing differences, like thin black borders around the artwork and some of the text. The only other content differences that I could find: 1) Estimated availability dates are given for Defender (June 1982), Yars' Revenge (May 1982), and Haunted House (February 1982). 2) The early catalog revision has the title of Yars' Revenge spelled correctly. The standard catalog has it wrong (Yar's Revenge). How'd they go from right to wrong, here? 3) The "Cartridges and Controllers" back page mistakenly says that Canyon Bomber uses the Keyboard Controllers, that Outlaw uses Paddles, and that Warlords uses Joysticks. Oops. Fixed in the standard catalog. Anyway, yeah, I think this is pretty cool. Nothing all that surprising in here, but still an interesting find, I feel. Anyone else ever see one of these?

Bit Corporation released it on a 4-in-1 multi-cart, too: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-4-in-1-keystone-kapers-air-raiders-super-challenge-baseball-cat-trax_24901.html

I think 2600 clone systems are cool in general, but this one is unlike any others I've seen! A few more photos I took are over on Twitter if you're interested.

Me too. I've tried to figure out where the Home Vision Style artwork was "borrowed" from, but with no luck so far.

Pleased to see confirmed that my kinda-sorta-informed speculation was on the right track. Thanks for pretty much putting this issue to bed!

Some more unusual stuff! A pre-production/review copy of Star Voyager, which includes a smooth-shelled Imagic cart and rough draft instructions: Same thing, for Trick Shot: Two 2600 cartridges manufactured in Thailand: My Atari 2800, which I still feel is the most beautiful gaming console that Atari ever made: And one of my 2800 game boxes, to finish this post off!

If one counts label variants (some people won't want to, of course -- I get that) then the Atari Inc. 1978 picture label Flag Capture is right up there as well, with three known copies. I've got one, Supergun's got one, and I'm not sure where the third one ended up. On a related note, does anyone have a current count, or at least a good estimate, of existing Sears Superman picture labels in collectors' hands? I want to say that it's in the 10-15 range but... I don't remember why I have that number in my head.

A few more highlights: Super-Ray, in the "Home Vision style". Same game as Home Vision's Sky Alien. To my knowledge this is the only one of these known, so I'm interested to hear if you have one! The super cool SilverStar 2600 clone from New Zealand, with 64 games built in. Looks more like an answering machine, no? A rough draft manual for Atari 5200 soccer, with mainly minor revisions, but it also shows that the part number for Soccer was once 5218. Let's finish off the post with another unique silver box title from New Zealand. Man, I love these!

I grew up in the 1980s having an Atari 5200 at home, while my grandparents had a 2600 at their place just a few blocks away. So I suppose it's not too weird that those are the only two systems for which I collect today. (I added a Vectrex because I think they're incredibly cool, but I'm satisfied to use a VecFlash with it and not worry about collecting the library of games. That said, I'm always looking for loose overlays -- drop me a line if you have any to trade or sell!) If you'd like to follow my growing Atari collection bit by bit and post by post you should follow me over on Twitter, but I thought I'd make a thread here to post some of the more interesting and unique things I've picked up over the years. Let's start it off with the highlight of my collection: the 1978 Atari Inc. Flag Capture picture label cart! To my knowledge, only three of these are known to exist in collectors' hands right now. There's also the accompanying color international manual -- I've never seen another one of these (if you have one, please make it known!): How is it possible that more of these haven't turned up? Either the manuals OR the cartridges, I mean. Honestly, any theories would be welcome. Another crazy rare cart: the weird-lookin' Atari Corp. PAL picture label Pengo! I'm a sucker for collecting all the odd Atari Corp. variants, and this one was top of my list. Gotta love the random Cooper Black font sneaking its way on there. I'm one last title away from having every Atari Monaco (New Zealand) variant that I've hoped to collect. My favorite? The super bizarre gray-label Air-Sea Battle, with unique cartoon-y artwork. My theory about this: new artwork was commissioned to be used in place of the original ASB artwork, which was a little too WWII Pacific Theater-centric for Japan's tastes, as Atari was getting set to release the game in Japan for the launch of the Atari 2800. This same artwork is used on the Atari 2800 box for the game. (And, I mean, the original artwork does kinda resemble a Japanese flag...) I don't typically collect boxed games, but I couldn't pass on this silver box Dodge 'Em, also from New Zealand. The text label styled label that came with it is also unlike any other title, New Zealand-made or otherwise. International manuals are a big favorite of mine since they were often the only thing that differentiated international releases from a "normal" USA release. The most unusual one I've found is this Danish manual, from an Atari licensee called DanHope a/s. If anyone knows more about this Danish distributor (or has other examples of manuals) please let me know, as the internet has so-far come up empty when it comes to additional info, or even a mention of the company's name. More international manuals, these being Swedish-language manuals from licensed Atari distributors Cherry and Alga(vision): I just think these are super cool. Last item for now -- the only gray box Street Racer I've ever seen, except... strangely, it was cut down to fit in an Australian clamshell-style case. Just... really weird, and exactly the kind of weird that made it such an exciting find for me. [Edit: a second, intact gray Street Racer box has since surfaced.] Lots more to come as I get around to posting it, but feel free to check out my Twitter feed for over a year's worth of collection posts!

This one is a known issue with the game programming; see http://atariage.com/forums/topic/161840-how-is-it-that-all-3-of-my-buck-rogers-carts-roll/

Tried all three, all three worked fine for me with about the same frequency as any Activision carts, I feel like. They're not necessarily always going to work first try, or even first five tries. But I did get them all to run. H.E.R.O. and Beamrider both worked for me like most Activision carts, which is to say: not every time. Sometimes I'd get them fine a few times in a row, other times I'd get a black screen + tone or nothing like five times in a row. Your mileage may vary. Montezuma's Revenge is an E0-bankswitched Parker Brothers cart and is therefore not expected to play with the current situation. Riddle of the Sphinx and Kaboom worked fine for me every time. Don't have Espial to test, but I believe it's an 8K Tigervision cart that uses 3F bankswitching, which means it's likely a no-go for now. Montezuma's Revenge, Tutankham, Gyruss, and Popeye are all E0 bankswitched games, so at least for now they're not expected to work. Beamrider, Plaque Attack, and Jawbreaker worked okay for me, though as stated above Activision carts seem to be tougher to load at times than others, as is often the case even with 2600s. I haven't had the fire button issue (yet?) but you aren't the first to report this. The good news is that it appears to be fixable (as long as the hardware itself didn't fail) via formatting/resetting of the SD card.

Just did more testing along these lines, 8+ times each for the always-working carts just to make sure they were always-working, 12-15 times each for the trouble carts. Results: - Atari Inc. Crystal Castles loaded every time. - Atari Corp. Crystal Castles loaded 50% of the time. When it didn't load, it crashed out to the Retron GUI. - Atari Inc. Mario Bros. loaded every time. - Atari Corp. Mario Bros loaded just under 50% of the time. When it didn't load, it sometimes crashed out to the Retron GUI, other times displayed a black screen (sometimes with a typical single-tone sound). - Atari Inc. Dig Dug loaded 50% of the time. When it didn't load, it sometimes crashed out to the Retron GUI, other times displayed a black screen (sometimes with a typical single-tone sound). - Atari Corp. Dig Dug loaded every time. I also got my Stargate variants to load (not sure what I was doing the other night) in similar fashion: - Atari Inc. Stargate loaded every time. - Atari Corp. Stargate loaded just under 50% of the time. When it didn't load, it usually crashed out to the Retron GUI, but a few other times it displayed a rapidly rolling title screen. It'd be cool to see someone else run tests like these to help determine if some carts are simply less conducive to connecting/dumping properly (very possible/probable), or if there's something else more interesting going on here. I suppose if I get super desperate to learn more, I can crack open the Crystal Castles and/or Dig Dug carts to compare them...

Been having great fun playing with the 77 tonight and testing carts out at the same time. I'll test more as time allows, but here are some early results for a part of my collection, including some unusual stuff (everything NTSC unless otherwise noted): Carts that Failed for me (not unexpectedly, for the most part): - the M-Network games that use E7 bankswitching (Bump 'n' Jump, Burgertime, He-Man: MOTU), as well as Kool-Aid Man (which loads for me, but exhibits the player-stuck-in-upper-left glitch that happens with some 2600 TIA revisions, like with my 2600 Jr) - the three Konami titles (Marine Wars, Pooyan, Strategy-X) - many red label 16K Atari games -- tested and failed so far for me: Crossbow, Dark Chambers, Desert Falcon, Klax (PAL), Midnight Magic, RealSports Boxing, Solaris - some homebrews (Chetiry, Juno First, Zippy the Porcupine) - MegaBoy (64K, Dynacom)* - Fatal Run (32K, Atari, PAL) - three Tigervision titles (Jawbreaker, Marauder, Miner 2049er); I believe they all use 3F bankswitching** - Popeye (the only Parker Brothers cart I tested so far, but I imagine all the E0 bankswitched titles from PB will fail) - Rescue Terra I - Room of Doom (I think all CommaVid games will fail, not positive though) - Tooth Protectors (uses the same Parker Brothers' E0 bankswitching) Carts that Worked for me (again, largely as expected): - some homebrews: Halo 2600, Pac-Man 4K, Thrust+ Platinum - oddball CCE (Brazil NTSC) titles: A Misterious Thief, Immies & Aggies, Pizza Chef, Stone Age - most PAL carts that would roll or otherwise get cut off on my TV: Ghostbusters II, Hole Hunter, Schussel der Polizistenschreck, Ski Hunt, to name a few Most interestingly (to me), there are some unusual cases when it comes to 16K titles and Atari Inc carts vs. Atari Corp carts, it seems. Some examples: - The Atari Inc. silver label version of Crystal Castles worked for me, but the gray label version did not. Tested numerous times to be sure. Both carts work fine on my 2600 Jr. I'd be interested to know if others also experience this. On the other hand, Dig Dug (silver Atari Inc. label) failed, but Dig Dug (1985 Atari Corp label) loaded up fine. Mario Bros. (silver Atari Inc. label) worked, but the gray label version failed. Both the Inc. and a Corp. version of Stargate failed for me. Everything works normally when using my 2600 Jr. I'll do some more testing along these lines for sure. * My cart is extremely difficult to get seated just right to work in my 2600, so I can't say with 100% certainty that it won't work with the 77, but in all likelihood it'd fail regardless due to the unique F0 bankswitching. ** This includes Octopus, the PAL release (from Carrere Video) of Name This Game, which came in a Tigervision case. I'm not sure whether the Carrere releases use the same hardware as the original releases.

I just recently picked up the weird gray box clamshell Street Racer from Australia. I lean towards the cut-up job being done by a game rental shop and not Atari itself, but given that I cant recall having ever seen anything like it before (specifically, an Atari-produced title with a modified box in a HES-style clamshell case) I really cant say for sure! The cart is definitely PAL, and the sticker on the case is a Big W sticker, a discount department store in Australia. My original photos and post here: https://twitter.com/atarispot/status/1003762889877057536?s=21

Just saw this amazing coin-op pong console purportedly from a hot springs resort show up on Yahoo Auctions in Japan. I've copied photos over here for when the auction is over and the page inevitably disappears. The console appears to be manufactured by Hagiwara Electric (founded 1958, still exists) and distributed (?) by Toyo Bussan, but the chip inside appears to be Atari's original Super Pong chip (I'm guessing "L.S.I." refers to some kind of international licensing agreement). I can't seem to find any other reference to this unit on the internet, though admittedly I've not spent a lot of time looking on Japanese-language sites. Below the photos I've posted a (possibly bad?) online translation of the listing -- if anyone wants to improve it, please feel free. The opening bid is 100,000 yen... but I imagine one would recoup some of the final cost from the 100-yen coins still locked inside! Once upon a time, in a hot spring resort, was this nostalgic game machine to play a few minutes for 100 yen. I think that the game is decades old, but it's been kept in a really nice, clean state as seen in the photographs. A protective seal is still stuck onto the plate that explains how to operate the console. It powers on when 100 yen is inserted, and one is able to play for approximately 10 minutes (we did not measure the exact time). To play longer, add an additional 100 yen. (It seems like one can add up to 400 yen at once.) Plug it in, insert 100 yen, the power indicator will light up, and the game will be displayed. Four types of games can be played, and switching between games is possible while the power indicator is lit. Sound is output through a speaker in the center of the unit. Video is output through RF. We connected to an antenna terminal on a VCR, and its video was output to a TV screen. If you want, we'll include the VCR shown in the photo. There's no key, so we can't see/show the inside of the unit (and hundreds of yen are inside). One could possibly pay a locksmith shop to open or break the lock.

24,250 My first time in the 2600 HSC, though I previously participated in the 5200 HSC for part of a season.

Black Jack 1986 acquired! Still looking for everything in this thread that's not been crossed out, but let's add a few more loose carts to the want list. As always, labels in very good or better condition, please... - I Want My Mommy - Jawbreaker - King Kong - Marauder - The Earth Dies Screaming - Threshold And remember: if I wanted to pay eBay prices, I'd go to eBay.

Bumping the above, and adding a call for some of the last more-common carts I'm seeking. Looking for the following loose titles in near-mint condition or better (*no* plaque, blemishes, tears, etc): - Atlantis (day scene) - Canyon Bomber, Atari Inc pic label - Math Gran Prix, Atari Inc pic label - Sssnake (with manual, if possible) - Trick Shot (picture label) - Zaxxon If you can supply these at a fair price (or for trade), PM me with a photo or two, please!

Good_Times and I arranged a trade; not only did he volunteer to send his part of the deal first, it arrived quickly, well-packed, and included some unexpected bonus items too. It's been a pleasure chatting with G_T -- hopefully we can make another deal sometime in the future!