Wooden 2600 - 4 switches made in Ireland ?

[oldric]

I've just received a PAL Wooden 2600 - 4 switches made in Ireland. I didn't know there were some built there.

Do you have some more information about it ?

 

[alex_79]

Several pal 2600 consoles were produced in Ireland in the early '80s. I've seen a lot of irish "vader" 4-switch and "junior". The serial number was in the form "XXX AI XXXXXX", where the firs 3 digits should indicate the date of production. (2 digits for the week and 1 for the year. This seems to be confirmed by the stickers with the date that sometimes are on the rf-shielding, inside the case).

Following this theory, all the irish "vader" that I've seen so far were produced in 1983 and all the "junior" in 1984. Never seen an "Atari corp." copyright on them, so maybe production stopped in Ireland in 1984, after Warner sold the company to the Tramiel.

Your unit has a different type of serial, but the "412" stamped on the plastic case, above the sticker, could mean that it was manufactured in october 1982.

 

I don't know about the other countries, but here in Italy the "woody" seems to be less common than the other models.

[oldric]

Inside :

 

Date and model :

 

A really strange copyright of 1991 !!! :!:

[alex_79]

I think that the date on the board refers to the production or assembly of the board itself, while the one on the case refers to the final assembly of the console. (I have a junior with the date stamped inside which precedes the one on the serial number by about a month).

The copyright should be "1981"; the "8" probably is misprinted, or partly detached from the board so that it looks a "9".

My "vader" made in Ireland has the same board, but doesn't have a date printed on it.

 

Edited March 23, 2007 by alex_79

[oldric]

Thanks for all these interesting information Alex.