Pleasant Valley Video Catalog 1991

[+bfstats]

The following thread in the Marketplace Forum:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...127770&st=0

 

...prompted me to dig up my docs on Pleasant Valley Video of Camden Ohio. Below are JPEGs of their price list. Please look closely. You will see a number of vaporware titles. Hmmm...

 

 

[Shawn]

Did they seriously have all these for the prices listed? Like KidVid set for $20?

[EricDeLee]

So what's the deal with this stuff. I thought they made their own carts and sold them (for example the TCM I just bought from atari2600).

 

Did they sell legit stuff as well? Sigh! The prices on Waterworld/Video Jogger/Video Reflex/and even Video Life are nice

[Rom Hunter]

All VCS titles are known to exist, some of them as a prototype.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Edited July 17, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[+Omegamatrix]

I see Dumbo's Flying Circus is listed too. So maybe there is a NTSC prototype somewhere?

[ZylonBane]

Grrrrrr. Speak not of Pleasant Valley Video.

[user42]

Very nice scans.

Thanks for sharing.

[superdevil]

Wow! I'd forgotten about these guys. I ordered the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was a kid and it came in a generic blue Nintendo case with no instructions. The label was handwritten and it looked just like the one in the AVGN review. I was HUGELY dissapointed not only in the condition it arrived but in the game itself.

 

I think the second order was for "Alien" which never came. I waited for about a whole year for it before I gave up. This would have been about 1992 or so. Whatever happened to PVV?

[+bfstats]

Grrrrrr. Speak not of Pleasant Valley Video.

 

Ohhh, now you've done it. Bad experience with PVV??? Please elaborate.

[hhwolfman]

This is nice, THanks.

[ZylonBane]

Grrrrrr. Speak not of Pleasant Valley Video.

 

Ohhh, now you've done it. Bad experience with PVV??? Please elaborate.

The usual one. Sent money, received something. Sent a lot more money, received nothing.

[Bryan]

The usual one. Sent money, received something. Sent a lot more money, received nothing.

 

Reminds me of an article I read about Ponzi schemes. These are fake investments where the scam artist returns unusually high profits at first to generate buzz about the investment then disappears with all the cash when the real money starts pouring in.

[+bfstats]

Grrrrrr. Speak not of Pleasant Valley Video.

Ohhh, now you've done it. Bad experience with PVV??? Please elaborate.

The usual one. Sent money, received something. Sent a lot more money, received nothing.

 

Welcome to THE CLUB. Anyone else want to join?

[+Mitch]

I see Dumbo's Flying Circus is listed too. So maybe there is a NTSC prototype somewhere?

 

Check out this one Tempest just sent to me.

 

Mitch

Dumbo_5_5_83.bin

[+Omegamatrix]

Yes, that one is clearly NTSC. Great stuff Mitch and Tempest!

[+Omegamatrix]

Looking at the early date of the prototype I wonder if Atari meant to release an NTSC version, or if it was simplier to work with an NTSC model on their TV's, and convert the scanlines to PAL at the last minute? If an NTSC prototype is ever found with a date higher then some of the PAL ones then it would point to Atari making both a PAL and NTSC version.

[+Mitch]

Looking at the early date of the prototype I wonder if Atari meant to release an NTSC version, or if it was simplier to work with an NTSC model on their TV's, and convert the scanlines to PAL at the last minute? If an NTSC prototype is ever found with a date higher then some of the PAL ones then it would point to Atari making both a PAL and NTSC version.

 

I'm not sure I follow you, it seems like Atari usually wrote the NTSC version first and then converted it to PAL.

For Dumbo it looks like the NTSC one we have is dated 5-5-83 and the PAL one is 7-11-83. Checking Atariprotos.com there appears to be an undumped proto dated 5-27-83 as well. This one could be a slightly more complete NTSC version or an earlier PAL version. That seems to be about right timing wise with the PAL one dated a month to two months later than the NTSC one.

 

Mitch

[+Omegamatrix]

I guess what I meant was I'm not sure if the NTSC version is complete as I didn't play it much in the emulator, and I thought Dumbo might have been meant to be PAL only. What you said about NTSC built first and converted makes sense though, Mitch.

[Tempest]

I guess what I meant was I'm not sure if the NTSC version is complete as I didn't play it much in the emulator, and I thought Dumbo might have been meant to be PAL only. What you said about NTSC built first and converted makes sense though, Mitch.

All games were programmed NTSC then converted to PAL. At least all of those programmed by Atari in the US.

 

Tempest

[Thomas Jentzsch]

All games were programmed NTSC then converted to PAL. At least all of those programmed by Atari in the US.

I doubt that.

 

We found a number of Atari prototypes with ~285 scanlines which is in the middle between NTSC and PAL. Maybe the colors where NTSC, but not the frequency.

[CincYnoTi]

I was re-telling some of the PVV story and found the address (again) in the PDF. I'd looked this up on google maps once before and thought about making a trip to see it in person. But from the google images, it looks like any other rural location.

 

Preble County's web site is tough to navigate, but I did finally find the parcel and info on 8141 Pleasant Valley Rd:

 

https://www.preblecountyauditor.org/Data.aspx?ParcelID=C07431440000006000

 

The earliest sale shown there was from an un-named seller in 1993. No mention of Redd on the property though.

 

[nester]

I half expected to see an Atari version of Yeah Yeah Beebis I on here