Marco(2)

The reserve was already met by a zero-feedback bidder, but his bid got cancelled. The reserve is set at $1000. Cheers, Marco

hm, no replies... does this mean I answered the question that well, or does nobody reall care... Cheers, Marco

Hi Alex, Action Hi Tech released pirated games under their Hi-Score label. I know of the following titles: Aussie Rally (Enduro) Bank Heist (Bank Heist) Beasties (Catch Time) Chess (Video Chess) Condor Attack (Condor Attack) Cosmic Free Fire (Assault) Crab Control (Boom Bang) Dragon Attack (Dragon Defender) F-18 Vs. Aliens (Flash Gordon) Galaxy Invader (Worm War I) Learning Spelling (Basic Math) Ocean City (Curtiss) Pac Kong (Pac Kong) Panda Rescue (Panda Chase) River Battle (Bermuda) Ski Dodge'm (Ski Hunt) Space Grid (Turmoil) Spaidder Fight (Spider Fighter) Surround'em (Surround) Tank City (Thunderground) War Zone (M.A.S.H) There are at least three types of labels: pirate cave, flying saucers, and saturn rings. There may be a fourth, made up of a grid of 4 pics, but that one hasn't been found in a box yet. They all come in generic blue boxes, with a sticker indicating the name of the game. You can find an example here. Cheers, Marco

I am worried about you outbidding me... :wink: Cheers, Marco

Bah Mayhem_UK Cheers, Marco

Very interesting find! So far, these had only been found in Germany. So now another Atari 2600 Germany - Australia link has been revealed. Those pirate companies were working on a global market, it turns out. I have never seen a box for this type of game. So, I classify them as "Video Game Program" till a first box shows up. My guess is though that the box won't credit any manufacturer either. One cool piece of info about these games: there are also 2in1 carts from this company, that have a red and green LED built in, to indicate which game is playing. Very cool! Cheers, Marco

With separate I meant, that they should be classified somehow, like PAL and NTSC games are classified. IMO, they don't have to be in a different section, if you are able to use the filters as e.g. for PAL/NTSC. And it would be nice if they are linked to the originals. I think that would make both of us happy. Ok? Well... allright then :wink: Cheers, Marco

That's a Hi-Score game by Action Hi-Tech, an Australian 'pirate' company. Besides the pirate skull island label, they also used labels with flying saucers and Saturn rings. There must be about 25 titles by this company. Cheers, Marco

Funvision was most likely one of the vaguest Atari 2600 companies around. Various cart and box styles have been found. There are boxes that look like K Tel Vision boxes, and there are boxes that are very similar to Zellers boxes, but blue. Lots of people classify the V grooved cases as Funvision games, though there's mostly no real proof to support that. The carts I have in the blue Zellers-like boxes have the V groove also, and they have a generic Funvision label underneath their final label. The games you currently have listed under Funvision may just as well be 'regular' pirate games. I think that it's safe to assume that Funvision did not release any mulitgames. But don't ask me why, that is merely based on a gut feeling. Cheers, Marco

I will celebrate the day that the Digital Press Guide will have one big Atari 2600 section. Actually, come to think of it, JerryG's guide already has that. I think it's very cool to see the games regared by many as inferior on the same level as the almighty originals. Cheers, Marco

The only homebrew that gets a rarity and value in my book is Cubicolor. The rest is best left to players, programmers and hackers, who cannot be bothered about rarity ratings and other nonsense. I AM the international heavy hunter group Cheers, Marco

What ever is wrong with the name "pirates"? As a collector I wouldn't want to step on any programmer's toes by getting involved in the hacking vs programming discussion Cheers, Marco

Welcome to the Club! Cheers, Marco

Gee, hate to say I told you so. but I did If I were a conservative American I would say "Just like guns, it's the people who use it that make it evil". I'm glad I'm not though Oh, just to be sure - no accusation towards anyone specific was intended here Cheers, Marco

I guess the idea of "hurting" comes from my reaction. I probably overreacted to Chris' posting. I do get upset when people start talking about prototype collectors as if they're all insane, rich and greedy bastards who do not care about these games. There have been people like that in the past and there are still some around today (the NES community appears to have its fair share of them), but most of them are just good guys who care about the games and this hobby. I, at least, like to think of myself as being a nice guy. Cheers, Marco

Sorry, English is not my native tongue. Nothing wrong with that, though you're always gonna hurt lighthearted people like me, I guess. Ah well... Most of the stuff in my collection is still cheaper than it originally sold for. I think that's a nice feature for a collectible. Nothing like paintings, stamps, porcelain or silverware - and you can't even play those! When reading your posts I got the idea you were very unhappy with the state of the hobby. Glad to hear it's not that bad. Cheers, Marco

Everybody knows what you are putting into this hobby. People like yourself, the Al's from AtariAge, and the people from CGE spend lots of time and money on this hobby. I see no problem at all with you guys trying to recoup some of that if that means you can keep up the good work Cheers, Marco

Very nicely put indeed, but I'm not sure I can agree. As a European collector, there are many things I will never be able to find in the wild. When I started collecting, I could find all kinds of stuff to put in my collection. Later on, I started to fill my tradebox with stuff I already had myself, using the internet to find people to trade with. Getting a game through a trade was pretty much as much fun as finding one in the wild. You had to find the person that had something on his tradelist that you needed and something on his wantlist that you had. The quest was still on! But trading got harder and harder as my collection grew, the fleamarkets here started to dry up, and a (non-understandable) trend among US collectors to no longer be interested in PAL stuff entered the scene. But I found ways around that: I started to buy stuff through Ebay. The cycle repeated itself. At first, I started to buy stuff for my collection. And as my pockets aren't infinitely deep, there was excitement in that as well. Would I win this auction for that amount? Later on, I also started to buy some stuff that would end up on my tradelist. Or that went directly to collector friends of mine, whom I could offer stuff that they wanted for an item I wanted from them. The excitement of gathering games now is the process of sometimes many, many steps before I get something that I can put in my collection. It goes soemthing like buy - sell - buy - trade - sell - buy - trade - trade and then I finally get a gem I still wanted. This takes time, patience and lots fo contacts in the community. And I enjoy it alot! As for finding stuff in the wild. Those days certainly aren't over. It's gotten a lot more difficult though. And certain things, you just won't find in the wild, especially not here. Cheers, Marco

I'm probably too sensitive, but this is not the first time I've seen you post about the sillyness of people spending more money on this hobby than you think is healthy. Cynical replies like the above to serious posts aren't very helpful, I think. Here again, you explicitly state that playing is better or "richer" than collecting (almost in a Boeddhist kind of way). And then, why the urge to warn (a handful of) people for spending money on something they think is worth it? The majority of them have been in this hobby as long as you have. They probably know what they are doing, don't you think? Cheers, Marco

Curt, Sounds good, but I don't think any of the bidders will have a real problem with the current agreement. I'm sure you can work something out with the winning bidder that's good for all of us. Cheers, Marco

I've noticed a recent uprising in players (and programmers) attacking collectors again. Why is it so hard to understand that there's a lot of fun in collecting Atari 2600 games, even if it involves money? Why do you feel the need to proclaim that some part of this hobby is better than others parts? Why can't we just all enjoy different parts of this hobby, without the need of defending yourself against others? This hobby needs players, designers, programmers, collectors, hackers, researchers, you name it, to stay alive and kicking. The only hobbyist we can do without is the whiner... My take on this particular situation: [*]I bet I can predict nine out of ten people that will bid on this item [*]I am positive that none of them will be bothered by the release agreement, as they would have released it anyway. And if they are bothered, they just won't bid. I actually know no collector that has to own them all and now. [*]I am positive that 95% of Atari 2600 prototype owners agree that the value of their protos is in no way related to the availability of the ROM. For every non-available 2600 proto ROM there are twenty or so that are available. [*]Of course Curt wants to make money here, there is nothing wrong with that. You Americans should understand the capitalist way. Considering the prices of prototypes his buy-it-now price isn't irrealistic or insane at all, even for an implayable game. [*]The only thing that bothers me is that it has to be Atarimuseum or Atariage. Not that I don't like these sites (I love 'em, you know that guys!), it is just that as the new owner I would want to pick place and time for release. Personally, I would pick these sites, like I've done before, but it would be my pick. I think it is noteworthy that it's always people who do not buy nor wish to buy prototypes that are complaining about this kind of situations "that are ruining this hobby". I buy prototypes myself, I know many other collectors who do, and most of them are very active in this hobby, organising events, creating new games, releasing old games, maintaining very cool websites. I hurts me to hear people say we are destroying the hobby... One final comment I would want to make is about prices. There are still people complaining about "the direction this hobby is going", mostly referring to the "outrageous" prices being paid for 2600 carts. I did not build a database to prove it, but I'm convinced that most items actually have become much cheaper than in the first half of the nineties. Rare titles like Crazy Climber, Waterworld, Chase the Chuck Wagon, Music Machine are available on a regular basis at ever lower prices. Only a handful of top items still raises money. Heck, (un)common carts can be had cheaper through the net than on fleamarkets these days. And with that I've offered you my 2 cents, which I cannot spend on that nice proto now... Cheers, Marco

Mariana by which company do you want? There's Suntek, Rainbowvision, Marpes, generic Taiwan, maybe more... Cheers, Marco

I got a nice package in the mail today, so I'm gonna change the above into: Unreleased: Boxed Ewok Adventure, Thwocker, Stunt Cycle And I guess I should put my boxed Tempest in there as well Cheers, Marco

I have no idea how many unique games I have, I never bothered to sort that out. I collect manufacturer variations, but no label variations. To me, the same game, but in a completely different box/case is just as interesting to own. As a collector, these things matter to me. Only hardcore programmers and hardcore players are too blind to see the richness of the plethora of 2600 games out there. They rather use programs to compare bits in ROMs (this is a joke, Thomas) I'm currently at 1490 Atari 2600 carts now, of which 1160 are boxed. Cheers, Marco

Wow, Jeffy! Now see what you have done! Thanks man, I love it! Cheers, Marco