ULTIMATE Activision Patch Collection

[Zwackery]

Well, there it is, to the best of my ability to ascertain from manuals, databases, and other sources, a complete set of EVERY Activision patch ever released, for all platforms: Atari 2600, 5200/8-bit/Colecovision, Commodore 64, and Intellivision (this is how they are organized left to right). A few people here at AA (riffraff, mr.bill, and FND) helped me realize this particular classic gaming goal, which delights me thoroughly and is the cornerstone of my collection, especially with the last few pesky patches: the insanely rare "half moon" version of Beamrider, Decathlon Gold, and Intellivision Dreadnaught Factor and Stampede. Also thanks to crunchysuperman for providing some pointers on how he framed his 2600 collection (which is still incredible, as I believe all of his patches are near mint quality, whereas a couple of mine show a little wear). The framing job I did is temporary for now (some straightening of rows is needed); the backing is black felt with metallic sparkle embedded in it (you can see it better in the second pic) - I wanted something that I felt captured the feeling of the classic era, and I toyed around with a repeating Activision "rainbow" in the back before deciding on something that wouldn't compete so much with the patches themselves - and the frame was a score at the local thrift store (real metal and real glass, actually a nice find and a bit heavy, too), but I just wanted to get these up and on display.

 

Activision, and Atari, still rules!

 

Sorry the pics are not as crisp as they could be, I'm dealing with an older digital camera for the pics.

 

 

[PressureCooker2600]

You've always made me jealous with that patch collection.

 

Especially the Short Order Squad patch and the Toy Bizzare patch.

 

 

Glad to see you've finally got 'em all.

[the 5th ghost]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

 

That is one awesome collection!

 

I am impressed with the Atari 2600 Beamriders patch especially. Most collectors seemed to think that the Intellivision patch was the only version made.

 

Of course, the fancy Starmaster patch would be the icing on the cake, but the only guy I know with one is Todd Rogers.

 

Do you have the Dragster certificate or any of the letters as well?

[crunchysuperman]

Incredible collection - very nicely done! I think I like your black background better than the color I chose.

[Omegamatrix]

Didn't Tom, Atariager get it done? I thought he did but I can't find the thread...

[+Psionic]

So they never made a Zenji patch?

[Zwackery]

Some very nice comments, thought I'd respond to them:

 

1) I never really had any aspirations beyond collecting all the 2600 versions, but when the NOS flood happened in Spring 2006, I watched the price for Toy Bizarre go lower and lower and lower. This was a patch that I saw routinely command $300 a pop when it would rarely appear, and when it started dipping significantly, I thought, well, why not? And thus the expansion began. (Short Order Squad was definitely in the last group to be had - Pressure Cooker is a great game that I never played until I started collecting Atari, now it is one of my favorites.)

 

2) I consider the Todd Rogers Starmaster patch (on jacket with another type of Space Shuttle patch) to be such an amazingly rare production piece that, while in itself it has considerable value, this value is truly augmented by having the patch on the jacket with the other Shuttle patch as well as the context in which it was awarded. It would be a great addition to any collection, but to me it is really in a league of its own (and in some ways perhaps more directly related to the Activision jackets available in the UK), kind of like an Atlantis II cart. If a loose version of the Rogers Starmaster variant showed up, then I'd feel okay with putting it in, but I would never remove the patch from the jacket just to add it. Here's what Todd wrote about the patch a couple of years ago: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=951314

 

3) I don't have the Dragster certificate - itself a nifty item to have - or any of the original letters; most of what I assembled was NOS and hence had no letters to go along with them, plus with the letters existing as PDFs over at DigitalPress, I didn't feel the pressing need, although I can see where having an actual letter for each patch that someone actually earned back in the day would be a really interesting level of documentation for the patches.

 

4) From some messages with riffraff, my sense is that there were actually a number of 2600 versions of Beamrider that got produced, but for some reason Activision sent out mainly the Intellivision variety. The weird thing is that all of the Intellivision patches have a different Activision font/logo for the word "Activision", except for Beamriders, which I just find a little odd. How many of the 2600 style Beamrider patches got produced is a matter of speculation, but I think it was drastically less than the INTV version, and perhaps if the INTV demand didn't reach the level as that of the Atari then a substitution seemed to be a likely financial decision.

 

5) I will probably play around with the presentation of the patches before settling on something definite, but I do like the sparkle black felt. It's like the patches are floating on a sea of stars.

 

6) I do not believe that Activision ever made a Zenji patch. If they did, I think it might be pretty interesting looking.

[Rom Hunter]

Very impressive, Zwackery!

 

I was immediately looking for the Beamriders patch, but I see you even own that one.

 

Great to see them all together in one picture.

 

Just to make this clear: that other Space Shuttle patch has nothing to do with Space Shuttle from Activision.

 

Here's a picture of Todd's special StarMaster patch:

http://www.atarimania.com/zoom_frame.php?T...OODIE&ID=96

 

And the Beamriders patch:

http://www.atarimania.com/zoom_frame.php?T...OODIE&ID=95

 

Edited August 5, 2007 by Rom Hunter

[Mayhem]

So the half moon Beamrider is the proper one for the 2600 and the other formats got the one with the picture, correct?

 

Just asking as I'm trying to acquire all the patches applicable to the C64 at some point... and I actually started out by getting the Toy Bizarre one! And only for $25 too... how much did you pay for yours Zwackery? I consider that to be one of, if not the hardest to perhaps find.

 

So they never made a Zenji patch?

 

Or Zone Ranger. I've got in my quest Toy Bizarre, both Space Shuttle (I think), one or two of the Decathlon, Pitfall and something else so far.

[the 5th ghost]

Zwackery, what's you favorite patch then?

 

[PressureCooker2600]

I like the presentation. I don't think you should change it.

[jboypacman]

Very cool and congrats.

[Zwackery]

- Yes, Rom Hunter is correct that the Space Shuttle patch that is on the other shoulder of Todd Rogers's jacket has nothing to do with Activision's Space Shuttle game, but given that it was made this way, I think it has more value (plus given its history as being handed to him by Neil Armstrong, that only boosts the overall historical worth). Mildly interesting tangent: when I finished my MA back in 1998, I got a job that summer as an intern down at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas. I brought along my CIB copy of Space Shuttle in hopes of getting an autograph, and that summer I did indeed have a meeting with STS-1 Commander John W. Young. Unfortunately, Young had been so inundated with autograph requests that he no longer signed anything except for a picture of himself and Pilot Robert Crippen. Ah well, at least I tried. Anyhow, I find the overall aesthetic of the Starmaster Master patch a little strange in that it doesn't look smooth (i.e., printed with a picture) like all the other Activision patches but instead looks actually sewn. It would be really interesting to find out how many were actually produced; my guess is a very finite number.

 

- The half-moon Beamrider is actually pictured in the manuals that accompany the 2600, 5200, and Colecovision versions of the game. I would really love to see scans of the 8-bit, C64, and INTV manuals to see what they pictured, but I'm guessing that the other version (inverted trapezoid) is actually the INTV version because the "Activision" logo exactly matches that of the patches for the INTV patches for Happy Trails, Pitfall, Stampede, and Worm Whomper.

 

- I think my Toy Bizarre probably cost around $25, too. I got lucky and hit on collecting the patches at just the right entry point, put together a big bunch quickly, and then patiently waited for the others (in the process, buying a couple of partial collections to pillage and resell) - it took about 16 months total. Toy Bizarre is the only patch unique to the C64 line. You can see all of the patches indexed over at DigitalPress: http://www.digitpress.com/archives/cc_patches_2600.htm

 

- My favorite patch? That's a really good question! I was really, really surprised at the size of the 2600 Beamriders patch - that sucker is a lot bigger than it appeared in the manual, it's 5.25" along the bottom axis. I was also surprised at the size of the INTV Stampede patch, again much bigger than I expected. I love the color schemes used in Friends of Dolphins and H.E.R.O., they really visually pop, and the 5200 Dreadnaught Factor is neat just for the stylized spacecraft. It's really hard to pick a favorite actually. I think the Starmaster design with the 3 chevrons looks great, and some of the characters on some patches are more whimsical than others.

 

- Okay, PressureCooker, you convinced me! (Although I eventually will get out a ruler and actually straighten the columns. )

[+Psionic]

I do not believe that Activision ever made a Zenji patch. If they did, I think it might be pretty interesting looking.

I guess you're right. I just looked at my Zenji "manual" (instruction card) and it makes no mention of a patch. I guess Activision was phasing out the patch contest by that point.

[FND]

Interesting I found this Space Shuttle patch in with the rest of the patches when I recently found my old

collection, I dont know where it came from and thought it was just there by mistake ?

Anyway I scaned it next to the Supreme Starmaster patch as it looked smaller then Todd's and

seems more in line with the Activision line size ?

 

[Zwackery]

Interesting I found this Space Shuttle patch in with the rest of the patches when I recently found my old

collection, I dont know where it came from and thought it was just there by mistake ?

Anyway I scaned it next to the Supreme Starmaster patch as it looked smaller then Todd's and

seems more in line with the Activision line size ?

Hmmm, that is indeed interesting. I re-read Todd's entry and see where the shuttle patch was given to him by Armstrong, which caused me to think it was possibly a NASA product, and looky here, you can buy both a 3" and 4" version from the Kennedy Space Center: http://www.thespaceshop.com/spacshutpat.html

 

Plus, in the picture of Steve Kitchen in the Space Shuttle manual, you can see the KSC patch on his sleeve, too!

http://www.atariage.com/manual_page.html?S...amp;maxPages=32

[FND]

Hmmm, that is indeed interesting. I re-read Todd's entry and see where the shuttle patch was given to him by Armstrong, which caused me to think it was possibly a NASA product, and looky here, you can buy both a 3" and 4" version from the Kennedy Space Center: http://www.thespaceshop.com/spacshutpat.html

 

Well there it is another mystery solved I can put it back away again, not to be found again for another 7 or 8 years

[video game addict]

Did the half moon Beamriders come from riffraff then or was it sourced somewhere else? I'm wondering how many of this patch have been found?

 

I like the current arrangement they look great Zwackery!

[doctorclu]

Hmmm still like the STARFIRE competition and other recent Atariage ones for the patches they offered.

 

As for the rarish Activision patches, I wonder if anyone has made templates for the sewing machines that can take a jpeg and create a patch from it.

[+Psionic]

As for the rarish Activision patches, I wonder if anyone has made templates for the sewing machines that can take a jpeg and create a patch from it.

That wouldn't work for lots of them...many of them were printed patches with a stitched border only. Plus, that would pretty much take the fun out of collecting them if there were all kinds of fakes and repros floating around.

[Zwackery]

Did the half moon Beamriders come from riffraff then or was it sourced somewhere else? I'm wondering how many of this patch have been found?

Yes, the 2600 Beamriders was originally in riffraff's possession. IIRC, he described it as one of several different patches - each of which had multiples - he picked up while doing some video game work/consulting quite some time ago. This indicates to me that several other copies of this patch were produced, but how many remains unclear - and how many of those were actually sent out complicates the number. Two different people I have been in contact with who earned the Beamriders patch back in the day were sent the INTV version, not the 2600 halfmoon, even though they had sent in their scores earned from playing the 2600 version of the game. Kind of weird how the whole thing happened.

[Zwackery]

Finally acquired a Starmaster Master patch. The border is better sewn than the one at atarimania, the stars use gold thread, and there are some other minor differences that look to be artifacts of the manufacturing process. I'd really like to know the manufacturing story behind these. The one fireball does need to be repaired (which I will get my artist girlfriend to do), but for $1.99 I couldn't pass it up (thank you, Canada).

 

 

Once I get it fixed up I will then consider how to best integrate it into the Ultimate Activision Patch Collection.

[Miss 2600]

Great collection! Are they still in the same display case? I just have a handful that I earned back in the day. I lost some of the letters, but still have the letters for Pitfall II and Plaque Attack which I'm very proud of.

[Dr Manhattan]

That is one amazing collection! Thanks for sharing.

 

Someone should scan all those patches and turn them into a poster and then sell it here on the AA store.

[boxes of sawdust]

I don't have anything insightful to add to this discussion, I just have to say WOW. You lucky dog.