How can you tell which manual version goes with which version of a cart?

[orrimarrko]

I don't know how else to phrase that in the title bar...

 

I just bought a couple of large manual lots, and when I got them, there were several different manuals for the same game(s).

 

What I was wondering, is there a site/link/reference guide out there that identifies what version of the manual goes with each release of a particular title.

 

Allow me to give a couple of examples:

 

1. I received two manuals for Tanks but No Tanks (one color, one black & white.) Now, I know that they released the color versions first, and then the b&w versions later, to save money. I don't believe that there were multiple releases of the cart, so that would mean that the manual goes with the one cart (either color or b&w.) No mystery there.

 

2. I received 2 versions of Armor Ambush (one larger, and in color, one smaller on different paper, black & white.) I know that there are at least three versions of the manual, and at least as many of the cart. No idea which goes with which. Perhaps I'm wrong.

 

3. I received 3 versions of Enduro. One color, one b&w, and one color, but in 5 languages. I know there was a regular green labeled cart, a blue labeled cart, and a cart label with multiple languages. Anyone know if the manuals were specific to a cart type?

 

4. I received some Atari corp manuals (Galaxian, Dig Dug, RS Volleyball, Pole Position, Moon Patrol) that were b&w and in 5 languages. What cart did these come with?

 

5. White background, color Atari manuals (Moon Patrol, Dig Dug, Jungle Hunt, Pole Position, Battlezone). My assumption is that these were the original manuals when these titles were released. What cart goes with each of these? Silver? Atari Inc?

 

I'm thinking that for the most part, the date on the cart and the date on the manual would match (and Atari Inc vs. Atari Corp).

 

Any help is appreciated. My plan is to get the carts that go with the manuals.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[+Omegamatrix]

I think you can see why some people like to get their boxes sealed. Even then their is no guarantee. Sometimes a manual revision happens while everything else remains the same.

 

Most companies switched to B&W for their later releases. Xonox however went the other way and used color when they released their double enders. This holds true until you find the Tomarc / Motocross double ender. Its instructions are in black and white and has English and French manuals. So you can see how easy it is to throw a wrench into a classification with an oddball here and there.

[froggger2]

I have heard that NTSC cartridges sold in Canada sometimes got multi language instructions for French speaking Canadians while the same NTSC cartridges sold in the United States came with English only instructions.

[Trade-N-Games]

This is something we worked hard on for the book "Classis 80's Home Video Games" coming out soon. So that in each listing for the cart we had the correct manual listed with it. We found a pattern and that worked most of the time however there was always some weirdness.

Most Atari Picture labels had the larger White inst., Text labels had smaller black ones- all in full color.. Most Atari Corp 85 and newer had black and white larger or Multi Lang. Most 85 manuals had matching carts dated 85 and those manauls were in color and were thick for all lang. and then the same carts released later were not in color with matching dates most of the time.

As for the M-network the first release was full color on most and then the INTV later release was the black and white version.

Some of the later activision carts that are blue labels had the black and white manuals with them and then there is a few for the international release.

Hope that I helped Steve

[orrimarrko]

This is something we worked hard on for the book "Classis 80's Home Video Games" coming out soon. So that in each listing for the cart we had the correct manual listed with it. We found a pattern and that worked most of the time however there was always some weirdness.

Most Atari Picture labels had the larger White inst., Text labels had smaller black ones- all in full color.. Most Atari Corp 85 and newer had black and white larger or Multi Lang. Most 85 manuals had matching carts dated 85 and those manauls were in color and were thick for all lang. and then the same carts released later were not in color with matching dates most of the time.

As for the M-network the first release was full color on most and then the INTV later release was the black and white version.

Some of the later activision carts that are blue labels had the black and white manuals with them and then there is a few for the international release.

Hope that I helped Steve

 

Certainly helpful - I plan to get your book, so hopefully that will help some.

 

It's definitely confusing...

 

Thanks,

Steve

[+Omegamatrix]

I have heard that NTSC cartridges sold in Canada sometimes got multi language instructions for French speaking Canadians while the same NTSC cartridges sold in the United States came with English only instructions.

Yep, I've seen alot of multi-language manuals from Atari, Imagic. Most of the other companies just did a English and a seperate French manual.

[froggger2]

Activision also had quite a few text only instruction booklets with four or five languages including French.

[brucebidder]

This is something we worked hard on for the book "Classis 80's Home Video Games" coming out soon. So that in each listing for the cart we had the correct manual listed with it. We found a pattern and that worked most of the time however there was always some weirdness.

Most Atari Picture labels had the larger White inst., Text labels had smaller black ones- all in full color.. Most Atari Corp 85 and newer had black and white larger or Multi Lang. Most 85 manuals had matching carts dated 85 and those manauls were in color and were thick for all lang. and then the same carts released later were not in color with matching dates most of the time.

As for the M-network the first release was full color on most and then the INTV later release was the black and white version.

Some of the later activision carts that are blue labels had the black and white manuals with them and then there is a few for the international release.

Hope that I helped Steve

 

I didn't ask this question but boy I was seriously going to ask it tonight almost word for word. THanks for the info although not actually directed at me it was perfect. Thanks Steve.

 

Bruce

[orrimarrko]

This is something we worked hard on for the book "Classis 80's Home Video Games" coming out soon. So that in each listing for the cart we had the correct manual listed with it. We found a pattern and that worked most of the time however there was always some weirdness.

Most Atari Picture labels had the larger White inst., Text labels had smaller black ones- all in full color.. Most Atari Corp 85 and newer had black and white larger or Multi Lang. Most 85 manuals had matching carts dated 85 and those manauls were in color and were thick for all lang. and then the same carts released later were not in color with matching dates most of the time.

As for the M-network the first release was full color on most and then the INTV later release was the black and white version.

Some of the later activision carts that are blue labels had the black and white manuals with them and then there is a few for the international release.

Hope that I helped Steve

 

I didn't ask this question but boy I was seriously going to ask it tonight almost word for word. Thanks for the info although not actually directed at me it was perfect. Thanks Steve.

 

Bruce

 

No problem man!

 

It dawned on me when I was considering how I wanted to approach collecting for the 2600. 5200 collecting was simple - CIB, sealed when possible, and must be minty.

 

For the 2600, I would love to collect CIB, but that would just be crazy on three counts: space needed, cost involved, and availability. Not to mention, what about variants?

 

So, here's what I came up with. Collect loose and manual, both cart/label and manual must be near mint. That way, acquiring variants would be cheaper and easier, and require less space. They'd be easily accessible to play and display. Over time, I will work on completing CIB subsets (by publisher.) The first one I'm working on is Avalon Hill - no variants, relatively small set (5 games) with only one toughie.

 

So when I got my 100+ manuals last night, I was seeing a lot of doubles, but they weren't the same. There were a lot of "different doubles" or triples. For example, I'd get the US/English manual for some Coleco games, but also would get the multi-language version.

 

It dawned on me that it would be cool to try to put together cart and manual for each set. I just had no idea of what went with what, and as great as AA.com is, it doesn't have that info. Also, I checked the huge list of Atari 2600 variations, but that didn't say either.

 

I figured that the date matching would at least be a start. We'll see how it goes!

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Steve

[gamme]

Not sure if this is still on topic, but I recently noticed 2 Coleco Donkey Kong manuals which are identical except one says printed in Taiwan and the other printed in Hong Kong (or it might have been printed in USA, I don't remember). Thought this and the similar label variations should be mentioned for pretty much all Coleco.