Giant Label Variation PHOTO Website. Check it out!

[Philflound]

Ok, back on M Network again. I've added manuals for Adventures of Tron, Air Raiders, and Armor Ambush so far. Astroblast has been added and I put both manuals on the same page since they are only 4 pages each. If everything goes well, I'll have M Network done by the weekend.

 

Phil

Edited September 5, 2012 by Philflound

[Philflound]

All titles for M Network are complete with carts, manuals and boxes except for the last 5, which I'll hopefully be finished with this weekend. I need to scan some Parker Brothers boxes so I can sell a few duplicates so that is going to take first priority.

 

As for manuals, whatever titles are listed, I have all but 2. I'm missing Burgertime manual B and International Soccer manual B. If you have these and can scan them for me, I'd appreciate it. You'll notice that you can't click these two manuals as there is no link for them. I'm going to keep them unlinkable until I can get a scan for them.

 

There are several titles that have Canadian versions. These are in English/French boxes and the manuals are flip books, first half English, second half French. I'm assuming the titles I don't have versions for yet should have Canadian versions, or at least most of them. If you have boxes and/or manuals for these, please scan and send them to me.

 

Also, many titles have INTV white label versions. That means there should be the paper white manuals for these and also the box with white stripes and white back. I noticed Frogs 'n' Flies (slightly different title) has a white label, but I don't have the box or manual scan for it. Again, there may be others, so please check with the site and see what I may be missing. Thanks for any help.

 

Phil

[Schizophretard]

Thanks Schizo. I was actually referring to that specific page going into the Atari boxes in detail. I've been meaning to do more specifics with each company and even zoom in on areas of certain titles like I have done with others. I'm trying to make it easier on the collector who is looking for their variations without scratching their head. There were many times in the past when reading the list that I had no idea what the original creator meant by what he wrote and either I figured it out or deleted the entry.

 

I've been rather busy these past few days and have not had time to scan anything. That's the problem trying to juggle lots of things. I'm trying to finish putting up my few boxed Atari games for sale, scan manuals, scan or update boxes, put other stuff on Ebay, ship stuff that I sold, play the music at church (got sucked into this last month once again), have time for my wife, and now about to start substituting in school again since I couldn't get a full time job for the 4th year in a row.

 

All this and I have no money. Anyway, I'll post any updates. I have the stack of manuals ready to be scanned for M Network and would like to try and finish that section so I can move past it towards Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers will be fun as I have to scan sides and possibly top/bottom of the box to show the actual variation of the box. SW: ESB is listed with just a basic 2 piece box, but I have two versions, one Made in Taiwan, the other Hong Kong and one of the versions the right side of the box is printed up the box, the other is printed down.

 

I'd like to get to Sears as someone posted they were looking forward to it, but the scans out there are scarce and I have about 60% of the titles with a box in my personal collection, so I don't have much to work with. Anyone can help with this, please get in touch with me.

 

Phil

 

I liked the page. I just haven't got into boxes yet. When I do it will be very helpful. Besides REV numbers couldn't you date with other things? Like if they have the same address for Atari Consumer Division as the gate fold boxes then you know all those revisions happened before the new address. Also, the one's that explain the proper direction to hold the joysticks are obviously older than the one's that don't because people figured it out and they added "TOP" to their new joysticks. Look for things like that.

[Philflound]

The other thing about dating was mentioned by Random Terrain somewhere where he is actually making a chronological list of release dates for all Atari games. Forgot what thread but it was a recent one as I read it yesterday. Looking through the catalogs helps a bit as you would know when something was released and then look for similar boxed games that didn't have any or very few box variations.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Here is a slightly confusing thing. I couldn't confirm everything. Air Sea Battle Rev 4 is dated 1980, the Rev 1 with the copyright outside white warranty box dated 1981 is 5/81 and the Rev 2 with copyright inside white warranty box is 6/81. So it looks like the Rev 1 white outside may predate the 1978 Rev 2 white inside by a month or a few. I'm going to have to investigate further. Problem is that I've sold many of the boxes and never thought about putting them in release order, so I can't check many of the variations. I'm going to try and find the others that I have with this 1981 Rev 1 and the Rev 2 inside the white warranty box. This would probably definitely clarify the exact release dates.

 

IF and this is a big IF as this again would be a monumental task. If I decide to go ahead and do what I'm thinking of doing, would others be willing to help out. I'm considering going through the boxes and putting the printed date in the giant list. For the most part, this is easy except for the glued flap style or tab style as the bottoms are glued shut. Some of my boxes have come loose, so I could get the info prior to re-gluing them closed.

 

My assumption is that the 1981 Rev1 will predate the Rev 2 white warranty boxes, which actually makes some sense. The Rev 4 thing is a whole different story as that makes no sense whatsoever. But for the most part I was accurate with my release dates short of this one. Though I'm not going to change anything unless I can verify it on at least 2 more variations.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Ok, my meticulous nature is forcing me to go ahead and date the boxes. The way I'm seeing the dates is that I'm counting the month missing as the month printed. Bertco Graphics has a clock like logo with the numbers 1 through 12 going in a circle. One is missing on each box, so I'm counting that as the month made. Aopak San Francisco sometimes does not have a date at all. One Dodge 'Em box I'm looking at has numbers 1 through 10 going across on two lines, 1-5 on top, 6-10 on bottom. Under the Aopak San Francisco is a date of 11-80. The number 3 is also missing, but I'm going with my gut that this was made in 11/80 and not 3/80. If no month precedes the year, I'll go with the missing month.

 

Editing: Just looked at a Circus Atari with Aopak San Francisco on the flap. It seems the 1-10 means something, but not a date. This box has 1 through 12 above the company name with 81 below that. The 4 is missing so this was made in 4/81.

 

I'm guessing there will be more than one month produced for boxes, though I may be wrong. We'll see over time. This is going to be a long, slow process. I'll do them as I run across them. I'll also put multiple dates in the listing if there are multiple dates. Just another fun feature of the giant variation list.

 

Phil

Edited September 7, 2012 by Philflound

[Schizophretard]

The other thing about dating was mentioned by Random Terrain somewhere where he is actually making a chronological list of release dates for all Atari games. Forgot what thread but it was a recent one as I read it yesterday. Looking through the catalogs helps a bit as you would know when something was released and then look for similar boxed games that didn't have any or very few box variations.

 

Phil

 

By date I don't mean release date but put the box variations in order. I meant more like dating the fossil record kind of thing. But release dates of titles would be helpful because you could compare box variations of earlier titles with later titles.

[Philflound]

If you want me to rearrange the entire list, this is not going to happen. Each photo is named with the variation. So variation of box 2 would be something like CombatBoxFr(2) and CombatBoxBk(2). I have 2 copies of each scan. One is in my picture folder. The other is in my web folder under images. It is also on Albert's host site. So just to give you an idea on what would be involved.

 

1. I'd have to rearrange and renumber the MS Word document.

2. I'd have to change the names of all box pictures to rearrange them in correct order.

3. I'd have to make a copy for the web images folder.

4. I'd have to erase the entire page and put the listings in the new order and pictures in the new order.

5. I have to upload the new pictures to the host site.

6. I have to upload the updated web page to the host site.

7. I have to make sure everything went ok and nothing needs to be fixed.

 

Not going to happen. Doing this would probably take me weeks and I don't have that time. For the most part, I try to keep boxes in order. Mainly silver/grey boxes going later and red boxes going last. Each time I come up with a new variation (like the new GAME PROGRAM Combat version), it takes me at least 15-30 minutes to change things around, rename photos, update pages, and upload to the host site. Speaking of Combat, I have no idea on when the majority of these boxes were released. Many of them don't have dates on them. They were made in various countries too. So even though my theory on release dates for the most part should be accurate, there are many boxes out there that I have no clue. If you notice Combat has I think 13 box variations, with a few of them having multiple sub-variations among themselves that I didn't even separate. Most of these boxes don't fit into any of the categories I pointed out on that page. So your guess is as good as mine as to which box came before the others.

 

I stated I'll be adding dates on the boxes when I can. But I'm in no hurry to do so. I'm updating my personal MS Word list with dates right now, but I'm not updating the site yet because it takes alot of time to do. I'd rather get the most important information up on the site first instead of getting nit picky info that 99.9% of the collectors out there have no care for.

 

Phil

Edited September 8, 2012 by Philflound

[Schizophretard]

I didn't say I wanted you to rearrange the entire list.

[Philflound]

The other thing is that there are other companies that also have many box variations. Activision comes to mind. I have no idea release dates on those either short of maybe the Rev number and possibly there may be a printers date for the box like the Atari. I think Ivy Hill did many of the Activision boxes.

 

Phil

[Philflound]

Ok, after spending over 2 hours going through the majority of my duplicate boxes, I've noted all the printers and dates if there are any. I'm noting in the list if there is no printer and/or no date. I didn't do too many glued flap for obvious reasons, unless it was unglued or I could actually see the printer/date on the tiny flap.

 

One thing I've noticed and would definitely need more info on is the Rev 4 variations that have the same color warranty box with the copyright date outside the box. On a couple of titles that I have dupes of this version, when the box was printed by Bertco Graphics, it was done so in 1978. If it was Aopak it was like 1980 or 1981. Some of this variation I only have one of the printers, either the earlier date or the later one. I think on one or possibly two titles, I have both printers and the dates are off by 2 years. So I'm thinking if all boxes have a Bertco and an Aopak version for the Rev 4, then the original printing most likely is going to be 1978, which precedes most of the versions. If only some of the boxes have both printers, then those only printed by Bertco will be early while those only printed by Aopak will be later.

 

What I'm wondering is did Atari have custody of the dies for the boxes, and if so, did they just pass them on from Bertco to Aopak?

 

The later boxes, 1986 - on have things printed on the tiny flap that I don't know if they are printers or not. Since these items were not printed in the US, I'm going to note what is printed on them with the date. Examples are Kuang IH, NC, VC, Wa-Ta, MW, and Faith Luck. Your guess is as good as mine as to what any of these mean and if anyone has a clue, feel free to explain it here.

 

Taking into consideration of Schizo's suggestion of putting the boxes in order, I actually may choose to do so sometime down the road. I think I will only do that on titles that have very few variations or ones that I'm concrete on with release dates. So this is something that is going to take awhile to determine and make a judgment on. I don't plan on doing it anytime soon though. If I can get some support with printers/dates from other collectors, I would be more inclined to do so sooner than later.

 

BTW, I have not gone through my personal collection, but that for the most part won't be easy as about 1/2 my games are brand new sealed.

 

Phil

[dustygraves.]

hey man:)

no disrespectin your fine work here but i think you might need to get out your magnifire and check your boxes again.

where you list the printer as AOPAK it should infact be ADPAK. i have yet to find any box with aopak as the printer on the small flap.

or are my boxes the oddities?

[Philflound]

hey man:)

no disrespectin your fine work here but i think you might need to get out your magnifire and check your boxes again.

where you list the printer as AOPAK it should infact be ADPAK. i have yet to find any box with aopak as the printer on the small flap.

or are my boxes the oddities?

 

No disrespect at all. In fact, it seems you are right and somehow my eyes didn't see it clearly enough. The d looks like an o. So now I'll have to change everything on the site. That's another thing that is going to have to wait. It's easy to change in the MS Word document as all I have to do is REPLACE all of them with one command. Thanks for pointing this out.

Phil

[dustygraves.]

hey man:). not a problem and glad that i could help!

also your listings have been very helpful to me and my collection, thank you for doing this!.

[Philflound]

Doing something like this takes a toll on the eyes. I've been looking at the "Aopak" or now Adpak for a few years and never noticed the difference. I think there were over 80 instances that I've used that printer in the list. You would think they'd make it very apparent that it was a D and not an O.

 

Phil

[dustygraves.]

hey man:)

sokay i got 20/400 vision so i always have a magnifire handy just cause of small stuff like this:)lol.

[Philflound]

Well, Schizo may get his wish about me rearranging things, though like I said, it will take awhile. I have to approach it very delicately.

Phil

[Schizophretard]

Well, Schizo may get his wish about me rearranging things, though like I said, it will take awhile. I have to approach it very delicately.

Phil

 

I didn't wish you would rearrange things. At least not in a big way. I just was giving suggestions of more things to look at to be more sure about the basic order of the releases of each box variation. The order could already be correct.

[Philflound]

The order is definitely not correct and I wondered about it for a long time. The problem is when I discover a new variation with the box. I always tried to keep it in a year order with the gatefold boxes always going first and red boxes always going last. I usually put foreign boxes later. I'll have to think about how to handle foreign boxes as I don't have too many to physically examine.

 

My Rev 4 boxes are the ones that are confusing me the most. Football I've come across I believe 5 different ones, 2 with Bertco, one of which I still have, the other I think I sold. The other 3 are the Adpak, one with no date, the others with 2 different dates. The Bertco were created in 1978 and the Adpak were created in 1981. So I'm stumped as to where I should put these. I'm going to go through a comparison with a fine tooth comb and see if I can come up with something definitive short of the color of the tiny flaps or something. I'm debating on whether or not to give them separate listings, which I just may do if I proceed to rearrange them in release order.

 

Do you guys have boxes that you can help me out with printer/dates? Bertco pretty much has looked like a clock face and has the month missing along with the year printed next to it as 78 or 80, etc. Adpak will usually list their date like 5-80 or will have the 12 months printed above the year with one missing. I haven't figured out Adpak that has 10 numbers below the year and what they signify.

 

On a separate note, Bertco still exists in Los Angeles, CA. They are Bert*Co with a dot in between the name. I'm not bothering with the dot. And they still produce boxes for video games. Great to see after 30+ years they are still in the industry.

 

Phil

[dustygraves.]

hey man!

didnt see this on your poleposition box list so thought to send a scan for you, if already have this then disregard:). c 1983 silver box made in usa on back tab flap style profe of purchase on small top flap

rev.a on small top flap shorewood packaging(july 1983) on small bottom flap black/white sticker on front of box that says "arcade hit of the year!" on the front of the box.

Edited September 15, 2012 by dustygraves.

[Philflound]

Can you scan the front of the box?

 

Phil

[dustygraves.]

sorry had trouble loading:). it there now.

hope these help:)

Edited September 15, 2012 by dustygraves.

[Philflound]

Every little bit helps. I'm going to put this down as a variation for the one fact that I've had several of these over the years and never saw that sticker before. I'm wondering if it came out first or later. It's too bad I don't have one now to compare it to. I'll try and get it added tomorrow.

 

Phil

[dustygraves.]

very good my friend:) will finish going through my boxes later,might have a few more that i think

could be added(bowling/casino) possibly. will post when im sure about them.

[Philflound]

Almost finished with M Network finally. Since I have to give back my computer due to problems and may not have my new one / fixed one for a couple of weeks, I'm trying to finish what I need to. I won't be adding anything new until I get the computer again. I'm trying to keep all my info in one place.

 

Phil