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Time to do another variations thread for the Intellivision....this time from the fine folks at Parker Brothers. While Keith may have called them out for their game quality as an example of why the crash happened, which many may disagree with, I find their games to be some of my favourite to collect as their boxes were solid (with one exception), and the artwork is generally great. There were usually three types of boxes available, the regular US issue, the bilingual Canadian version and the International release. Here, sadly with one glaring omission, is all of the Parker Brothers boxes for the Intellivision. First up is Frogger, which came in the standard three versions. This is the most common of the Parker Brothers releases, so the US one is really easy to find, the other 2 aren't too bad. (By the way, if you're trying to figure out which version a game is at a glance while you're squinting at ebay auction pictures on your iPhone, look at the blue stripe at the bottom of the front of the box.....if it has two lines of white text it's the US release, if it has one line it's the International one, and if there isn't a blue line, but rather some black writing, then it's the Canadian one.) Next up is Qbert, which comes with a fourth version of the box, one that is a flip top, as opposed to the two piece boxes all the other versions came in...and no, I don't know why. The flip top box is nowhere near as sturdy either, and as a result, is difficult to find in mint shape. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back might not be everyone's favourite game (probably the worst of the six, although I genuinely enjoy playing the other 5), but it is a great one from a collecting standpoint. Auctions of sealed versions of this often run above $100. This also came in three versions. Popeye is another of the three box version games, but the Canadian one is particularly hard to find, second to "he who shall not be named" in my mind. Second to last, and the priciest of the 6 regular releases, although it didn't actually receive a US release, is Tutankham. There is only one version of this box that I'm aware of, and it's the International one. If anyone has ever seen a Canadian version, please post pics, and if you happen to own one, you know how to PM me. This will generally run you between $100-150 CIB...and apparently over $1000 NIB!!!! Yikes. Which of course brings us to the other game in the pic above and the second rarest regular issue, Super Cobra. Again, there was no US release, but there was a freakishly limited release in Canada. This remains on my most wanted list, and came in at number 4 on our Top 30 Intellivision variations list. http://www.atariage....ion-variations/ If this comes up for auction, I'm probably going to sell my home to raise funds. Just sayin. Finally, one final pic just for fun....all six of the International Parker Brothers releases....sealed.

I was thinking about the Parker Brothers boxes for the Colecovision and I remembered that they released two diferent kinds of boxes. In order to see which box is favored, I've set up this poll, and I'm curious to see which box gets more votes. Note: This poll is just for which box design is better, not for the games released in the boxes. If I had to pick one it'd be the Two-Piece boxes, as I think they are more unique.

For Eduardo: I wonder what the Parker Brothers version of Circus Charlie would have looked like? Only the MSX version might have been close, since it uses the same Z80 processor and Texas Instruments TMS9928A VDP as the ColecoVision: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Now42DgefPQ Anyways, I would like to know how difficult it would be for you and your company, Opcode Games, to make an actual CV version of Circus Charlie the way that other CV games published by Parker Brothers had been (say, Q*bert or Frogger or Super Cobra)? ~Ben

My former boss used to work at Parker Brothers in the early 1980s, pre-'84. I don't recall his exact position but I believe he was high up on the engineering side, possibly director-level. He told me stories about leading the team at Parker which reverse-engineered the VCS/2600 so they could produce games for it. As I'm sure most know, they also made games for the 8-bit computers in that era. Once he learned of my own interest in Atari and retrocomputing in general, he gave me a couple of small items from his Parker days.

OK folks they are finished, finally going to start selling these Parker Brothers Atari 2600 Reproduction labels. I took all the best images I could find of the game titles and completely reworked and touched them up. This was not an easy task as I sometime had to mix multiple pictures to get the full image including the copyrights. Then most scratches and blemishes that I found were gone over and fixed. These are printed on a high quality photo paper that has a strong peel and stick backing. They are made slightly larger then the original dimensions and should be a perfect fit for those games that no longer have the decent titles attached or are missing entirely. I have incorporated my trademark on all and written Retro Reproduction onto the bottom of some matching the original copyrights. Since these are early copies, I thought I would give the group here a discount price before I sell them on eBay. If you would like to order some you need buy a minimum of 4 labels. It will be just $2 for each single title copy and $2 for the S&H. Just send me a PM of your PayPal eMail account and list of what you want. I will then send you an invoice of your order so it can be tracked and insured by PayPal. I only have about 5-8 of each PB title already made. I won't be making them for Mr. Do's Castle or Q*bert's Qubes as I want those to maintain their original values. It's going to take a bit to get additional peal and stick Photo Paper, and I had to order a bulk shipment of ink for my new Epson printer. Some of these are not perfect as the copyrights are a bit blurred, yet others are really excellent and you can barely tell them from the originals. As the angular size of these are strange, they are DIY and you will have to cut them out and attach the labels yourself. This way you get the pleasure of "Restoring" your own games. Most of these I have already cut out individually, so you will likely get them ready to stick onto your own games.