Psionic

Sector Alpha by Spectravideo has a programming bug similar to the one in Victory. TCRF has a list of ColecoVision games with extra code but most of them are just hidden credits or other text.

You have it backwards. The earlier cartridges in standard cases have the contest text, whereas the later beveled cartridges lack it. The beveled cartridges also lack the contest form inside the box. This shouldn't be surprising at all, since the beveled cartridged were obviously produced as the contest was nearing its deadline or after it had ended. For what it's worth, no one ever actually won the contest or received the $10,000 prize. None of the NIB examples of U.S. Games titles that I've come across over the years were "sealed" per se. They may have been taped shut in some cases but these games did not come shrinkwrapped from a factory case. There are eight altogether that exist in both variations, not five. The beveled version of Gopher being very rare, and the standard versions of Entombed, Picnic, Piece 'O Cake and Raft Rider being extremely rare. There are actually subtle graphical differences to the artwork and fonts on several of them that can be used to distinguish versions. Additionally, some of the later boxes that go with the beveled versions have a UPC, whereas none of the earlier standard ones have them. I know my beveled versions of Eggomania and Piece O' Cake are in bar coded boxes.

I would certainly like to see this released, but two things come to mind here... 1. This game was apparently developed by VideoSoft, but has it been definitively established that Jerry Lawson personally programmed this game (as opposed to one or more of the other programmers working for him)? 2. Is there really much more going on in this game than what we can see in that one widely circulated screenshot? I thought the rumor was that the game was never finished and only a playable demo was produced? Exactly how "playable" is this thing?

In this interview, Larry Kaplan claimed an initial salary of $27,000 when he joined Activision in August 1979, which had climbed to $155,000 by the time he left in June 1982. He also claimed to have stock options but no royalties tied to game sales. But I would imagine that salaries and circumstances varied from person to person.

False. It's well established that the black Vidtec label cartridges were the earliest variation. Furthermore, upon Quaker purchasing a controlling interest in U.S. Games, the company was essentially folded into Fisher Price...not Vidtec. The Vidtec brand name had been created by U.S. Games before Quaker was even involved and was eventually phased out entirely.

There's a beveled case Gopher in this lot on eBay if anyone is looking for one. Probably not worth buying just for that. But if someone needs several of these titles, this wouldn't be a bad purchase.

Looks like someone was hungry. 🐶

The boxes themselves were never format specific. First Star added stickers to the boxes to indicate this, which are frequently missing. But it does appear these originally housed cassette versions based on how the inserts are punched.

It was...eventually. I mentioned it in this thread.

No...although no one seemed to notice or care last time.

The earlier version would be the one without the 1985 date. That was added to all the back labels circa '89, right around the same time they switched from the black round Nintendo Seal of Quality to the white oval one. Examining a selection of random NES cartridges will demonstrate this. In regards to these two carts specifically, you can always open them up and check the date codes on the chips to be sure.

Production copies most likely had Spectravideo/Bondwell PCBs inside. That one that just sold on eBay two weeks ago in the Apollo shell with the Avery style label on it is either a prototype or an early bootleg. Probably the latter.

I have all three TechnoVision cartridges but mine were sourced from Europe. Those games turning up in the wild here in the U.S. is virtually unheard of. Nice find for sure and in great shape too. 👍🏻

That's an original PAL cartridge you have there. There's no region lock on any of the older Atari systems, so it really depends on the television that you're using. Some PAL games will indeed work but the colors will be off. I don't have Save Our Ship handy, but I just tested the other two TechnoVision games on one of my NTSC TVs with the following results... Nuts displays the wrong colors and the TechnoVision logo at bottom of the screen is chopped off, but the game is playable. Pharoah's Curse unfortunately is not due to the video display jittering like crazy but it might be playable on a different TV, especially an older one with a vertical hold adjustment.

I guess nobody here except me saw this. Someone posted here about owning one years ago but never posted a picture as proof. I do know of at least one other cartridge out there though. Anybody else own Picnic in a standard square case?

The ones that jimpoleshuk sold for years here and on eBay were great, but they don't seem to be available anymore. 😕

I just noticed that he sold a bunch of repros on eBay back in May. It looks like his more recent copies of Pac-Man were sold as "Munchie" and used the artwork that was intended for the commercial release.

I didn't...I have several items that I've been meaning to scan. Part of the problem with this one is that the ad is too large to fit on the bed of my scanner. I have to find someone with a larger one or scan it in sections and piece them together.

When this cartridge turned up on AtariAge FB Marketplace back on April 30th, several people including me identified it as a reproduction and the listing was pulled within hours. It subsequently reappeared on eBay a week later. There's no doubt that the seller knows what he has and is being dishonest.

Yes, that's the ad I have which I mentioned above in post #4. It's in color and very large.

Thanks for the explanation. To be clear, I wasn't implying that anyone was doing anything wrong or that there was some sort of a "problem" with the auction, as our torch-bearing friend seems to think. If someone wants to pay that much...more power to you. I just thought it was odd that it went so high.

Yes to both questions. Since they were produced in such limited quantities, the Japanese releases had North American NTSC cartridges inside. It's ultimately just a packaging variation.

Interesting. So your unit has no issues with any games whatsoever, including Cosmic Ark and Journey: Escape? What's the serial number and where was it made?

Last I knew, the rights to the Stern arcade games were held by Gary Stern and his daughter.

Okay, that makes more sense.