Psionic

They ported Popeye to every platform available so it's no surprise that a VIC-20 version was at least started. What happened to this prototype? Long gone, I assume?

I believe he's asking if the two stores were somehow related since the receipt is from Zayre but there's a Venture price sticker on the box. I'm not aware of any connection, so I don't see how that receipt could be original to that copy of the game. Weird.

Stupid prices have always been a thing. I wish I could say it's getting worse but I'm not sure that's the case. Regarding the comment about yellowing above, sometimes it doesn't show up very well in photos through no fault of the seller. I've had this problem many times with paper based items that were significantly more yellowed in person than they appeared in photos.

I missed it when it was first released but if anyone has some serious time to kill, the Computer History Museum did a very long (3+ hours) interview with programmer and eventual Furby designer David Hampton back in 2019, where he talks about his life and career. https://youtu.be/7U9eqBzmvZw A little over an hour into it, he discusses working on Raft Rider and Q*bert for the Atari 2600 at Western Technologies. He also briefly mentions involvement with an unreleased (arcade?) game project called Q*bert Circus.

Not to say that they don't exist, but I have never seen a reproduction or bootleg Game Gear game come through my hands. I just pulled out a Japanese GG game from my collection and the clear case has a "10H" production code stamped in it just like you are describing. Box flaps on new games are usually difficult (if not impossible) to open without creasing them, which is usually a telltale sign of whether a game really is in fact new (since JP Game Gear games weren't shrink-wrapped). I can't really give an opinion without seeing them, but nothing you are saying leads me to believe your games aren't genuine.

I can't say for certain, but I have many CIB titles by Parker Brothers and I do not own nor have I seen that particular insert before. The information on it was usually printed inside or on the back of the Atari manuals, so I can't see a reason for its inclusion with any of their video game cartridges.

Good to know...so dumping it shouldn't be necessary then. If and when I'm able to verify that the media still works, I'll report back if there's anything unusual. I would expect that it's the original version with the tunnels on the top and bottom but I really can't remember and I'm curious now.

The market for Atari and Commodore computer cartridges was much smaller than the VCS and they were produced in much smaller runs, often at different facilities (sometimes in different countries). Several manufacturers had different cartridge variations, both in terms of the cases and labels that were used. Sierra had at least three different generations of labels - tan with brown text, foil in various colors, and white with blue text. My copy of Crossfire for the Atari is the original release with the two-piece tan label on the ridged case, as shown above on the right. The one shown above on the left is just a second generation cartridge shell with a first generation label. Obviously they had leftovers and just wanted to use them up. They did anything they could to minimize costs...and rightly so. Like many others, Sierra got soaked when the market for cartridges imploded in 1983-84.

Over the Christmas break, I finally managed to locate this disk in storage at my parents house. I don't have access to a disk drive at the moment, but mine appears to be the original release without the catalog number printed on the label.

Tengen was incorporated as a separate entity. It was registered in December 1987 and became inactive in September 1999. https://www.bizapedia.com/ca/tengen-inc.html

The patent for the RAM Plus chip wasn't filed until May 1983 and the first titles to use it (Omega Race, Mountain King & Tunnel Runner) weren't released until December. It's worth nothing that a 4K version of Omega Race was originally in development at Bally Midway long before RAM Plus, but this version was scrapped... https://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/omegarace/bc.htm Frogger was released in the summer of 1982, most likely in August.

I ask this primarily because the numeric font used for the score counter appears to be the exact same one that was used in Crazy Climber, Gorf, and Wizard of Wor (which were all developed by Roklan) and it's not used in any other first party Atari titles that I know of. A slight variation of this font was also used in Astro Chase, Boing!, Omega Race and Solar Fox.

Sadly, Battle of the Sexes is almost certainly lost. I tried for years to track down former Multivision president Eugene Finkei, who supposedly kept the only known copy. I eventually was able to get in touch with his grandson, who confirmed that his grandfather passed away several years ago, as I had long suspected. Michael Case also confirmed that he long ago tossed anything he had related to the game (such as source code or graphic artwork). So at this point, it's highly unlikely we'll ever see this one.

Interesting read...I'm glad you were finally able to track her down. The spelling error makes sense now.

The August 1982 issue of Videogaming Illustrated (pg. 7-8) and the January 1983 issue of Electronic Fun with Computers & Games (pg. 60-62). Scans of both issues can be found online.

Given the kind of money that was apparently spent, I'm sure that whoever acquired this has backed it up properly. I always suspected that this one existed in some form, so I'm not surprised at all that it actually exists. I'm also not surprised that there's not too much going on gameplay wise. Glad to see a copy finally turned up though.

All indications seem to be that the VCS version would've been published by Parker Brothers as opposed to First Star, had it actually been released. http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/unreleased/unreleased.html#astrochase

Wow...very cool find. Do the cartridges actually work? NTSC Bomb carts are frequently dead.

It seems to me that there is a new system in place where the seller may make it a requirement to pre-pay if making an offer but it is not a requirement. Perhaps the seller also has the option of making offers valid for 24 or 48 hours, since the buyer no longer has this option?

I just sent an offer for an item and noticed two minor changes... 1. I was not given a choice to make the offer valid for 1 or 2 days as in the past. Offers now appear to be valid for 48 hours by default. 2. After submitting the offer, the next screen notified me that if the seller accepts my offer, I will have only 4 days to pay for the item. This is the first time I have seen any changes at all to the Best Offer processor my end.

Not mine but I thought a few people here might be interested. Up for sale is a batch of unused Boulder Dash boxes by Micro Fun. This box is pretty hard to find. It's the one that the original Apple II and Commodore 64 versions of the game came in, and also the one that the ColecoVision release would've used had it not been cancelled by Micro Fun. It was eventually published by Telegames in a clamshell. Owners of that version or a repro cart might want one of these for completeness. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175183992134

Perhaps it's dependent on how many feedback ratings the buyer has and/or their payment history? Or maybe the price of the item? I really can't say, but I've purchased two different items in the past week using offers with no changes to the payment process on my end. eBay wouldn't be allowed to charge you without you consenting in some way to payment if the offer is accepted, and I don't remember being asked that.

No...First Star never ended up releasing any cartridges for the C64.

Not sure what this is about, because I just made an offer on a game which was accepted and the process was no different than it ever was. I still had to manually pay for the item.

Miraculously, eBay has been around for almost 25 years now and they still keep coming up with new ways to make things worse.