loose EEPROMs and ROMs...

[SmileyDude]

Hi,

 

When I got my two 2600s earlier this year from my Dad, there was 3 boxes with loose EEPROMs and ROMs in them -- are these typically worth anything?

 

I thought it was kinda bizarre to find an EEPROM version of Combat in there (wasn't this bundled with the 2600 originally??) Also, all of the ROMs/EEPROMs are listed as either 16k or 32k -- I'm assuming this means kbits, which gives you the normal 2k and 4k when you divide by 8.

 

Almost all of them are labeled, but there are two ROMs that aren't labeled:

 

B226MM

52132KHX/N

C012009-19

©ATARI 1981

and

B209MM

52132JRR/N

CO12055-19

©ATARI 1981

 

Also, the third box appears to be all EEPROMs, but they have a holder that allows you to snap the chips into the cart without worrying about bending the pins. The other two boxes just contain the chips.

 

Here is a list of the ROMs (not including the two un-identified ones above):

 

Pinball - J

Chess

Checkers

"Devils And Diamonds" - P -- I'm assuming that this is Demons to Diamonds

Chess

Beserk

Casino

Soccer - J

Backgammon - P

Nightmare

Space Invaders - J

2 Pac-Mac -J

Superman

Dodge-Em -J

Breakout - P

Football

 

The second box is EEPROMs:

Sking - J

Tennis - J

Slot Racers - J

Boxing - J

Canyon Bomber - P

Blackjack - P

Skeet Shoot - J

Surround

Space War -J

3D Tic-Tac-Toe - J

Kaboom - P

Surround

Basketball - J

Laser Blast - J

Freeway - J

Bowling - J

 

The third box appears to contain all EEPROMs, and they are in the holders I described above:

Bridge

Basic Programming

Super Challenge Football

Super Challenge Baseball

Pac-Man

Code Breaker

Brain Games

Concentration

Unnamed -- but, it has AG-010 on it

Baseball

Combat

Football

Othello

Backgamming

Super Breakout

Frogger

 

I don't know what the Js and Ps are on some of the labels -- I thought it might be PAL for the P, but what would J mean?

 

Also, the whole package came with two carts for the EEPROMs and ROMs -- one is a modified Space Invaders cart, the other looks like some kind of homemade board, no case.

 

One thing that puzzles me is that I can see why someone would have a bunch of loose EEPROMs, but not why they would have a bunch of loose ROMs -- wouldn't it be better to keep the ROMs in the original carts??? Hopefully someone can shine a little light on this mystery for me

 

I'll try to take some pictures later on and post them, but I don't know when I'll get the chance.

[JCroniger]

My guess is that the 'J' is for joystick and 'P' is for paddle.

 

Pretty nice lot of Roms/Eproms.

[SmileyDude]

My guess is that the 'J' is for joystick and 'P' is for paddle.

 

Pretty nice lot of Roms/Eproms.

 

Doh! Now that you mention it, that makes sense! I wonder why I didn't think of that...

[Callipygous]

One thing that puzzles me is that I can see why someone would have a bunch of loose EEPROMs, but not why they would have a bunch of loose ROMs -- wouldn't it be better to keep the ROMs in the original carts??? Hopefully someone can shine a little light on this mystery for me

 

These are pirated eproms ( EEproms came later). People burned illegal copies of games from ROM dumps. They usually had a PCB or two with a Ziff socket in order to play. Remember games were $40 at the peak. Every once in a while, a collection of these shows up at auction and few people get excited and overbid. Not really worth much, IMHO, but kinda fun to have anyway.

[Tempest]

Generally loose EPROMs like that are just copies that people made of popular games back in the day (before we had CD burners). A collection like that could be worth around $100 due to the curiosity value, but since they're just copies they're not really prototypes.

 

I have a set of those myself: http://www.msu.edu/user/reicher6/prototype...otos/eproms.jpg

 

Tempest

[SmileyDude]

These are pirated eproms ( EEproms came later). People burned illegal copies of games from ROM dumps. They usually had a PCB or two with a Ziff socket in order to play. Remember games were $40 at the peak. Every once in a while' date=' a collection of these shows up at auction and few people get excited and overbid. Not really worth much, IMHO, but kinda fun to have anyway.[/quote']

 

I understand the EEPROMs (EPROMs?) -- it's the ROMs that I don't understand -- I haven't pulled the stickers off, but they look pretty much the same as the two loose ROMs with Atari copyrights on them -- I might pull back the stickers on them if I feel brave enough

 

Anyone have any idea why someone would have a bunch of ROMs (not EPROMs) loose? Is it possible that there was a black market of sorts for loose ROMs? Maybe the company that actually made the ROMs for Atari leaked them out the back door?

[SmileyDude]

I took some photos -- please excuse the quality, the camera is kinda cheap and the lighting wasn't that good.

[SmileyDude]

and the rest of the pics

[JCroniger]

I wonder if there was a group of guys that took turns buying carts. Then they would open them up, unsolder them then copy them. Whoever bought the original got to keep it and the other guys cot copies.

[Rob Mitchell]

What is the game called "Nightmare"?

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[SmileyDude]

What is the game called "Nightmare"?

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

 

To be honest, I haven't tried it yet -- I might give it a try sometime in the next few days -- since I have the Atari connected to the TV all the time, it's a bit easier than it used to be

[Tempest]

It's probably Haunted House. At one point Haunted House was known as Nightmare Manor.

 

Tempest

[SmileyDude]

What is the game called "Nightmare"?

 

There is this -- http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...areLabelID=1592 -- but without any screenshots, it wil be tough to tell if this is the same thing.

 

I have this one listed as a ROM, so maybe I'll peel back the sticker on this one to see what it is

 

For all I know, it's a version of E.T. that someone mistakenly thought was a nightmare

[SmileyDude]

It's probably Haunted House.  At one point Haunted House was known as Nightmare Manor.

 

Interesting... I'll compare it with the screenshots for that game, then

[iguana]

Can you just plug the EPROMS and Roms into that Space Invader cart to play them? If so I would guess that a group just got together and pulled thier carts apart to copy them then made copies for all and a cart so you can then play all the games at any time. I did not notice any dups (except of Pac Man) so that could be the case.

[Callipygous]

These are pirated eproms ( EEproms came later). People burned illegal copies of games from ROM dumps. They usually had a PCB or two with a Ziff socket in order to play. Remember games were $40 at the peak. Every once in a while' date=' a collection of these shows up at auction and few people get excited and overbid. Not really worth much, IMHO, but kinda fun to have anyway.[/quote']

 

I understand the EEPROMs (EPROMs?) -- it's the ROMs that I don't understand -- I haven't pulled the stickers off, but they look pretty much the same as the two loose ROMs with Atari copyrights on them -- I might pull back the stickers on them if I feel brave enough

 

Anyone have any idea why someone would have a bunch of ROMs (not EPROMs) loose? Is it possible that there was a black market of sorts for loose ROMs? Maybe the company that actually made the ROMs for Atari leaked them out the back door?

 

eeprom - Electronically Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory (not used in Atari 2600, AFAIK)

eprom - Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory. These are erased by a strong light , (UV?) shined in a small window on the chip.

 

I would be surprised if they are ROMS. If you remove the labels, you will see likely the windows.

[SmileyDude]

eeprom - Electronically Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory (not used in Atari 2600, AFAIK)

eprom   - Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory. These are erased by a strong light , (UV?) shined in a small window on the chip.  

 

I would be surprised if they are ROMS. If you remove the labels, you will see likely the windows.

 

Yeah -- I've figured out the terminology now, I'm so used to newer tech that I had forgotten about EPROMs and mistakenly called them EEPROMS On the ones that are labled EPROMs, you can feel the window -- on the ones that are labeled ROMs, it's completely smooth under the label.

 

I'm reasonably certain that the ROMs are really ROMs and the EPROMs are really EPROMs -- I still don't get why they just wouldn't put the ROMs back into the cart they came out of after copying them?

[Callipygous]

ah, okay. Well, if it was someone running a little business, he would probably keep a set of the real ROMS for dumping. Hard drives were mucho expensive, but even the dumps were on some other storage media (floppies), the files are easily corrupt or lost, so the safest archive is the ROM itself. Putting it back in the cart makes it more likely that someone would run off and play with it. Just a theory ...

[slapdash]

eeprom - Electronically Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory

eprom   - Erasable Programable Read-Only Memory.

 

And just to nitpick, earlier you referred to a "Ziff socket" -- it's actually just one 'f':

 

ZIF = zero insertion force

[Callipygous]

Thanks, Russ. appreciate the correction. Apparently I've been brainwashed by all those "Ziff" -Davis publications over the years and automatically typed it wrong.

[SmileyDude]

It's probably Haunted House.  At one point Haunted House was known as Nightmare Manor.

 

I just confirmed it -- it is Haunted House. Good call on that one

 

So, now my question is that when in Haunted House's life was it known as Nightmare Manor? And, would a group of people pirating Atari games have known that it was called that?

 

This find is becoming very interesting -- first, it's not just EPROMs, but ROMs as well. Second, one of the games is labled with it's development name and not the release name.

 

I'll check the two unlabled ROMs next -- who knows what those two will be...

[SmileyDude]

I'll check the two unlabled ROMs next -- who knows what those two will be...

 

And now I know -- Yar's Revenge and Defender.