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I recently found a 2600 clone! My first one, not counting the very not Atari-looking Akor Super TV Boy. I almost even ignored it because at first glance, it looked like an Atari 2600. Then I decided to check it, just in case there would be interesting games or accessories. And oh boy it became interesting very fast. So the clone is a "Television Computer System" manufactured by Dar Yar; model is 2600B-160. It is... quite descriptive. It is indeed a PAL B* system with 160 build-in games. It came with two joystick, both made in Taiwan, I assume from Day Yar as well. *PAL B here is unrelated to the unfamous NES A and B zones, here, B is for the technical video system used in msot of Europe, PAL B/G. UK used PAL I, France used SECAM L, Eastern Europe used SECAM D/K. With the exception of SECAM L, it's mostly a sound carrier issue. What caught my attention is the the outside is really well done. I could swap the shell for a genuine Atari 2600 and most people would be totally fooled. But let's have some picture so you can see it by yourselves : Big bonus for the plastic insert with the list of games. Very rad with that late 80's theme, hard to lose and impossible to destroy. Great job! Of course they couldn't copy the name and all. But still, looks very genuine. The "Game Select" button confused me for a bit, until I found the answer to that odd labelling later... On AtariAge The back is the part where a trained eye would spot odd things. Of course the biggest clue here (ignoring the sticker) is the "Dar Yar" embossed in the plastic. Still, remove it and it still look genuine. Now, let's take a look at the joysticks : Can you tell the real deal from the clone? For the nayed eye, they are hard to tell apart, but when you hold them... You can tell them more easily. I suppose those clones were made long before the consoles itself and they didn't took as much care to make them as they did for the system. The plastic, while still decent, is much thinner and hard, making it feel brittle. Two things to note here : one, they aren't shy of slapping "made in Taiwan" on their products. And second : They moved the cable exit, so that the rubber pads can be put more in the corner of the shell, making it a bit more stable than the original Atari design. The biggest changes are inside. Dar Yar completely redesigned the joystick. On one hand, the Taiwanese design is better than Atari's original. Those metal strips can be easily fixed and are reliable. Atari's use of those cheap clicker metal things isn't really a nice solution, requiring a PCB, then a layer of sticky tape to held those down, and those kind of clicky metal things flattens with use and don't work properly anymore. On the other hand, the downfall of the Dar Yar Joystick is the use of that cheap, hard plastic. As you can see in the second pic, a bit of strenght on it and it just snaps. Atari used soft plastic that bend and avoid such failure. Now let's go back to the system and do some comparisons with a Darth vader model... I mean, either they managed to get their hands on the original Atari molds, or they managed to copy them to a surprisingly good degree. With a genuine system to compare, little details appears that shows that it isn't an original factory model. One thing that appears clearly on the upper shell are the hole for the joysticks, power supply and difficulty switches, have all been redrilled, apparently by hand. My best guess is that the molding process wasn't perfect and plastic partially obtured the holes. For some reason, extra holes have been hand drilled on the bottom. I say for some reason because I see no reason for this, there is absolutely nothing under those. The hole for the RF cable is bigger too, but this time, there is a neat explanation : Dar Yar used a proper RCA plug, unlike Atari, so it couldn't fit through the original hole Also of notice is that Atari-made stuff is absolutely void of mentions about who and where it was made. Hah! Let's take a screwdriver now... Well, now you can easily tell the fake from the real deal. Some of you may know better than me so if you do, tell about it. But my guess is that Dar Yar only got their hands on the outside molds of a Darth vader or didn't wanted to pay for the inside part, and they simply recreated it by hand or "molded" it from an existing shell. I'd go for the molding because they copied everything from the original. Tho you'll notice that they added two plastic legs, that support the console PCB where you insert the cart, reducing stress on the PCB. Now I never heard of an original Atari PCB cracking or having contact issues because of this, but once again, we see that despite making a clone, Dar Yar attempted to improve the original Atari design. That's actually very cool Same "unproper finish" on the clone. But as an added bonus, they added "Dar Yar" inside. They were really proud of their work I assume! And frankly, I can see why. And now, maybe the most interesting part : I didn't had a proper Atari 2600 Jr to compare, but since it's a Darth vader shell... (don't mind the wires on the bottom of the original PCB, it's something I added to do a mod). Another good surprise : this is a proper, clean design! Not a single wire to patch a mistake, no botched hand soldering. If I had been given this PCB without any infos, I would never say it's a clone! Very impressive. The only giveaway (save from the lack of Atari markings) is the generic big chip. And, while I looked for a PAL Jr PCB, I found this : Important quote : So, now that explain why on this clone system, the B/W switch is called "Game Select". Tho, no this console, the switch does nothing. Here is a pic of the original Atari 128 games PCB : And the Dar Yar : The most mind-blowing thing, however, are the two main chips. They are the same used in both console, from the same manufacturer. If I looked right, the "generic" chip is the TIA, which kind of make sense as it's the only part Atari could sue (erm, at least, as far as electronics are concerned) and UMC probably didn't wanted that. It's noteworthy that various components on the board bear date codes of 89 and 90, so that clone was made and maybe sold while the Atari 2600 was still for sale. I didn't took any pic of the menu, for it's just 3 numbers you roll to select a game. Game display is correct so they took care of using PAL roms.
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Hi, i got this game Air Bone Assault and Robot Attack which are the same game but... What is the original game? At Atarimania it gets placed under Commando Raid but thats a different game... Someone knows?
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Hello, all. As part of my continued spring cleaning efforts I'm selling my Taiwanese video game collection for PC (DOS) and Mega Drive. Also included are two American games. Some pretty cool stuff here, most are rather difficult to find: PC: 熊貓大進擊 (aka Panda, Go!) <- Two versions: One complete (CD version), second is disks and manual only. 西楚霸王項羽 (aka Xiang Yu, The Overlord of Western Chu) <- Complete except for outer box. 西遊記 (aka Journey to the West) <- Two versions: Both complete (CD and disk; disk version not pictured because box looks exactly the same). 爆笑保齡球 (aka Hilarious Bowling) <- Complete. VR網球96 (aka VR Tennis '96) <- Complete. 排球原人 (aka Volleyball Hominid) <- Disks and manual only. 天才寶寶大進擊 (aka Little Geniuses, Go!) <- Disks and manual only. Metal & Lace: The Battle of the Robo Babes <- Complete. One Must Fall 2097 <- CD w/manual & all inserts. MD: 麻雀惡魔塔 (aka Devilish Mahjong Tower) <- Complete. 悟空外傳 (aka Legend of Wukong) <- Complete. 世界職棒爭霸戰 (aka World Pro Baseball '94) <- Complete. All disks/CDs in great shape. Recently all were tested. All CDs are fine. Floppy disks however, ~95% read OK w/no errors. However I cannot guarantee any of the data on the floppy disks due to age. Game cartridges likewise are recently tested. They work fine. I originally bought these games for research purposes, including making scans. Staples were removed from the manuals in order to get the highest quality scans. Sold "as-is." Please keep this in mind when considering a purchase. I prefer to sell the collection complete, for USD$350 -> USD$300 (includes shipping within USA). Please inquire about international shipping. Please get in touch by PRIVATE MESSAGE if interested. And don't litter the thread with "PM Sent!" messages. Nobody cares. Pardon the lackluster photos. Thanks for having a look.
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While there is lot of discussion about Taiwanese carts, I was wondering about Taiwanese consoles. And since I did not find much information at AtariAge, I started searching the web (using Google translate). This seems to be an interesting forum, the linked post talks about quite number of Atari 2600 consoles which I have never seen before. And a similar post from another forum here. Given these two posts, there must be much more hidden behind that language wall.
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6 of my Atari 2600 "Taiwan Cooper" duplicates (2 PAC-MANs), free to a good home, I will pay shipping. EDIT: CLAIMED
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This is my collection of V-case cartridges for the Atari 2600 Most of them are PAL, but there are a bunch of NTSC carts too. Small jpegs - hover over jpeg for title. No duplicates, plenty of label variations. If you have one that isn't here - please consider selling it or trading it with me 11/9/15: Three nice carts to add = 273. 6/2/15: Three rare numbered funvision carts = 270!! big ups to AAer Chris Leach 3/2/15: A very rare Halley's Comet Funvision cart to start the year off = 267 9/12/14: 5 nice carts to add = 266 15/10/14: Slow and steady wins the race, 1 more = 261 21/7/14: 3 more = 260 Schtroumpfs!! 30/5/14: 2 more = 257 3/3/14: 3 more = 255 3/2/14: 2 more = 252 28/1/14: 12 new brings the total to 250!! Big thanks to Elsayed in Egypt with the crazy pirate stash!
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Does anyone know the location of the Atari Taiwan factory? I'm headed there and would like to check out the site if possible.
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Hey, AtariAge. I'm a new user who has always had a small collection of 2600 games, usually very common NTSC ones I just enjoyed playing. Recently I've gotten into more serious collecting and have a few Quelle games and this oddity. I purchased it from Spain for about 50 euros. It came cartridge-only, without a box or game list. What I find most interesting is that I cannot find an entry for it on Atarimania. I have seen a few 160 multicarts online but with different labels and no dip-switch on the front. Now, let's get to the physical description. It has one single dip-switch on the front, which can be switched 3 ways. I don't know if there's 3 ROMs in the cart, or what the significance of the switch is. I would open up the cart and find out but the label's in good condition and I'd hate to ruin it. What I find interesting is that the label dips down a bit in 5 little sections which means that the same shell was probably used for 32-in-1 carts with actual dip-switches. Also, it takes a little wiggling to get into my Atari. It might just be the console, or the circuitboard. To select the game, you select a mode with the dipswitch and turn the Atari on and off until you find a game you like. What's annoying is that since I don't have a list it's like blindly grabbing a 2600 game from a box of them. So far I've seen Spiderman, Alien's Return, and some interesting European games I haven't seen before. I've attached scans for future reference and to aid Rom Hunter in his quest for HQ scans, and also a size comparison with a standard NTSC Tennis cart. For anyone with experience with PAL carts: is it standard for the front label to be pointing towards the end-label, instead of the cartridge slot like NTSC games? The two Quelle games I own and this multicart have their labels like this. Also, how much would this be valued at? Also, if someone can aid me on how to dump the ROM I'd be very appreciative. Thanks, BizarreBootlegs https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZ_Gwx3k3OAJ7tMNR05dQQ
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