How to figure out when your 2600 was made

[boek]

How does one figure out when their 2600 was made?

[missioncontrol]

some have a piece of paper with a date stamped on it taped to the inside (think pre-sticky notes)

 

others you can tell by the first 2 numbers in the serial number for example:

 

My Vader: S.N. TR-83-0409064 was built in 1983

My Tele-Games: S.N. 81-293370 was built in 1981

My Woody: S.N. 81491583 was built in 1981

 

these 3 serial numbers came off three of my systems that I happened to have opened for cleaning and saw the small paper taped inside with a stamped with the build date. I have seen this also in a few other Ataris that followed the same trend that I had given out to friends hoping they too would catch the Atari collecting bug...

 

I'm not sure if this was always the case or just happened on the ones I have had....