froggger2

I was glad to see Rom Hunter added to the hall of fame in 2014. As an archivist he added he added immensely to my knowledge and enjoyment of collecting Atari 2600 items. For 2015 I am voting for Philflound another archivist who has spent considerable time adding to my Atari2600 enjoyment.

I vote for Philflound because of the large number of variation photos he has accumulated and shared with the Atari variation community.

The cartridge shell shown above looks like the Boing prototype/lab loaner cartridge shell shown in Atarimania for the standard cartridge version of Boing. The cartridge shown above may be a preproduction or early production version of Boing.

Attached is a 1986 Atari Corp Code Breaker error label that has had the black tape covering the label error removed. The Code Breaker label should have said "Use with Keyboard Controllers". I bought this cartridge with the tape already removed. I keep it with my black tape version to show the reason the black tape was added.

The HES BMX Airmaster sold for the reasonable BIN price of AU $15.00. Unfortunately airmail shipping to the United States was AU $47.30. Hopefully the winning bidder will post a scan of the cartridge. I am not aware of any available scans of the HES BMX Airmaster cartridge.

Although most if not all blue label Activision cartridges came in boxes with bar codes on the bottom, not all bar coded boxes contained blue label cartridges. Specifically, some of the sealed Activision Skiing boxes with bar codes on the bottom do not contain the scarce blue label Skiing cartridges.

Are any of these PAL cartridge scans the HES version? Neither the Atarimania or AtariAge databases show a cartridge scan of the HES version.

Curt, thank you for sharing this very interesting information. Gamerz, thank you for pasting the information so that everyone can see it. The information is very understandable, even if the pasted columns don't line up

I also can't open up these files. I also would also appreciate seeing this data as a PDF file.

I am interested in hearing whether the new reproduction joysticks are as good as the joysticks that came with the Atari consoles after the heavy sixer. Joysticks wear out and/or break over time, especially if used on games like Activision Decathlon. I have bought used later version Atari joysticks on eBay and found some still worked well and some did not. It would be tempting to buy new reproduction joysticks if they performed as well as original Atari joysticks .

Al, I have six from the list. You can have them and I will pay for the shipping. Please PM me your shipping address. I appreciate your efforts that make AtariAge available for us to use.

Can the carts be PAL or must they be NTSC? Does it matter if the carts are the variety that have rectangular holes in the upper corners of the front of the cart?

Sears Football game instructions come in two different varities. One has "GAME INSTRUCTIONS" in red like your copy. The other has 'GAME INSTRUCTIONS" in white. I posted scans of these two varieties in my November 14, 2007 reply to http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=114993&hl.

There are two 1986 Atari Corp Flag Capture picture label variations that are relatively easy to find. There is a 1978 Atari Inc Flag Capture picture label that is very scarce.

Orange background Breakout labels have only been reported on NTSC cartridges. Bright blue Defender labels have only been reported on PAL cartridges. Being willing to purchase both NTSC and PAL cartridges increases the enjoyment of label variation collecting. Although I cannot play PAL cartridges on my television, in most cases I have NTSC versions of the PAL label variations in my collection.

I agree with Homerwannabee that you can't judge rarity of a game by how many sealed titles of a game there are, but rather by the total number of games available. I have always interpreted rarity ratings as the rarity of used but undamaged loose carts. I assume rarity ratings of complete in box games and mint sealed box games would be different. Using this logic, reasonable revised rarity ratings of NTSC Motorodeo and Ikari Warriors would such that the delivered cost to American and Canadian collectors including postage from Mexico or Venezuela should be approximately same as the delivered cost of other title undamaged loose NTSC Atari brand cartridges of the same rarity rating bought on eBay. The Motorodeo and Ikari Warriors box may be opened or have crushed corners as long as there is a good likelihood the cartridge has not been damaged. Using this logic, NTSC Motorodeo and Ikari Warriors should be classified as a 5 if they can be purchased on eBay including delivery costs for the same price as a undamaged loose Off the Wall, Pigs in Space or Snoopy and the Red Baron cartridges. They should be classified as a 6 if they would cost the same as undamaged loose Gremlins or Pengo cartridges. They should be classified as a 7 if they would cost the same as an undamaged loose Atari Video Cube or Xenophobe cartridges.

HES cartridges are my favorite PAL cartridges made by someone other than Atari. I like the picture labels on most Activision cartridges better than the Activision originals. Some, such as River Raid II, Double Dragon and Rampage, have picture labels. Most others are less cluttered than the Activision originals in that they only have two lines of large text at the bottom. The HES versions of several Imagic cartridges have picture labels with a colorful picture and a screen shot. Some HES cartridges are apparently scarcer than others because the Atarimania database does not yet have some of the HES cartridge scans.

The Oak Ridge Boys helped to create this confusion. Their January 1983 hit song "American Made" said, "Seems everything I buy these days has a foreign name from the kind of car I drive to my video game..... But the one I love is from the U.S.A. and standing next to me. My baby is American Made born and bred in the U.S.A." The Atari 2600 was born and bred in the U.S.A. although most were eventually made elsewhere.

Attached are scans of the box containing the 1986 NTSC silver Asteroids cartridge.

I have always assumed these units were the units given to stores to use in demonstrating the Atari 2600 system and cartridges to potential buyers. I assumed the boxes were marked "Not For Resale" so that the stores would order additional units to sell and not sell the demonstrator unit. Once Atari stopped selling the 2600 there was no longer any reason not to sell or otherwise dispose of the obsolete demonstrator unit.

I initially believed the Intellivision TV ads that claimed the more detailed Intellivision graphics made Intellivision games more fun to play than Atari games.

To be honest I only maintain the investment line, just in case I one day wind up with a girlfriend who does not dig the hobby. Edit: I did make a profit when I had to sell off my rarer games. So I may of been wrong about the hobby going down. One of the best ways to make money on video games or at least minimize the money you lose when you sell them in not to overpay when you buy them. It is sometimes necessary to let another bidder have an when the price gets too high rather than outbidding every bidder on every item. It also may be a good idea to list items for sale with a high enough minimum bid that some items do not sell the first time. Listing all your scarce items with a $0.99 minimum bid and no reserve can result in some items bringing less than less than fair value. You can always lower the minimum bid on a relisting. Congratulations on making a profit when you sold your items.

Luke is using actual carts. He has the original carts for all the Activision games that originally offerred patches. His Grandpa (me) gave him and his Dad all the games with patches his Dad didn't originally get in the 1980s.

Thank you for your suggestions. Luke has mastered Seaquest and is working on several of the other games mentioned above.

What Activision games and game levels would be easiest for a seven year old Atari 2600 fan to play and achieve scores that would have qualified the player for Activision patches?