Dancing a little happy dance. . .

[Starhopper]

My latest acquisition from e-bay was fraught with wonderful surprises!! The auction was for a light sixer in an Arcade Center with a couple of regular joysticks, a slik stick, paddles and 20 games (one of which was that darn Smurf cart that's eluded me for so long).

 

Besides Smurf was a copy of 'I want my mommy' and 'Dark Cavern' that I needed to add to the collection, plus a mystery cart with no labels and a suspicious blue socket on the top side. I have no idea what that one could be, so any ID-as anyone has would be greatly appreciated (I don't have a console hooked up at the moment, so I'm not immediately able to test it).

 

The best was yet to come, though! On a whim, I turned the console over. . . Made In Sunnyvale, CA!!!

 

And, here, I thought today was going to suck... WOOT!

[jboypacman]

Its always awesome when you think you are going to have a bad day and it turns out awesome.Congrats on purchase,Hopper.

[Starhopper]

Here's a pic of the mystery monster (I apologize for the hugeness of the image)

[+Wonder007]

Here's a pic of the mystery monster (I apologize for the hugeness of the image)

 

I am not an expert in Atari 2600 hardware but don't you need an EPROM placed on the blue compartment for the cart to work?? not sure???

[Dino]

Here's a pic of the mystery monster (I apologize for the hugeness of the image)

 

I am not an expert in Atari 2600 hardware but don't you need an EPROM placed on the blue compartment for the cart to work?? not sure???

 

I believe you are right. though i think they work with ROMs too. These carts are fairly rare but don't usually sell for great amounts. fantastic pick-up though!

[Lord Thag]

I had a friend whose dad worked for Atari in the 80s. He had piles of carts like that, and he would take home ROMs of the current games in development to play. He had hundreds of chips on little foam pads. I think a lot of the Atari folks did that. Now, if only he hadn't chucked it all. He had roms of several rare or unreleased games that I remember playing. *Sigh*

[Starhopper]

Excuse the dust. . . I'm building a display case for the little bugger. . .

[Cassidy Nolen]

Neat looking cart. That socket is either for a ROM (just like the ones in your regular production carts) or an EPROM (one that you would burn from a computer then play in a system). I have seen them both ways. If you are careful and open the cart up you will see what you are dealing with. If there is a second chip, say a 7404 (or similar) hex inverter, then it will work with home-burned EPROMs. If there is no little extra chip, then you can play regular production ROMs. I have a tester cart like that but it came without a case and had an Asteroids chip in it. Said Ast. pull and then some numbers. I have a feeling a few chips from each production batch were tested prior to assembly. Most likely that is where the cart came in.

 

Definately worth what you have in it Enjoy.

 

C