Parker Bro's Q*bert eprom?

[endrien]

Is there anything significant about this? Or did they just decide to use an eprom. I pulled this from a label less Parkerbro's cart I got from an auction.

I believe my Amidar game is like this as well.

 

Edited August 30, 2010 by endrien

[endrien]

Nobody?

[Supergun]

Nobody?

 

well my friend, I can explain this pretty well to you, but I hesitated to reply because someone around here (I guess I will keep him anonymous) turned psycho on me when I inquired for further details about it a while back.

 

The Good: it is a natural phenomenon which occurred every so often with quite a few different manufacturer's and different cartridge releases from them. The eprom carts could have been part of an initial manufacturing run, or perhaps a rushed run to meet a quick distributor's demand for a Christmas rush, or just a short/small run to complete an order that was needed, etc.

 

The Bad: these carts will eventually all be destroyed by gamers/collectors such as myself who happily use them as sacrificial lambs (or should I say the politically correct term, donor carts) for projects such as "do-it-yourself" home-made proto carts of proto games in their correct manufacturer's cart shells.

 

The Ugly: members here such as the anonymous fellow I mentioned above don't use this information and/or these carts for personal use at home, rather they build them on a cart by cart basis and sell them to other collectors, usually overpriced and sometimes with almost perfect reproduction labels, and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

 

Good Luck!

[CPUWIZ]

This particular one is actually not as common, the one without the inverter IC is much more common in Q*Bert (as seen in the McDonald's proto board scan). But it would be perfect, if you were interested in making any kind of 4K Parker repro.

[Pioneer4x4]

Can you identify these without opening? Can you see the inverter by peeking in the cart end? What about a small scale. I assume with the inverter, and the ceramic eprom, it would be measurably heavier.

Too bad I don't work at one of my old jobs. I used to run a flouroscope, we used to xray all kinds of odd things for kicks.

Also what other carts have eproms been found in?

[phuzzed]

I had a non-working "Tron Deadly Disks", so I cracked it open, and it was en EPROM as well. Not sure if that was common on that cartridge either.

[Supergun]

Can you identify these without opening? Can you see the inverter by peeking in the cart end? What about a small scale. I assume with the inverter, and the ceramic eprom, it would be measurably heavier.

Too bad I don't work at one of my old jobs. I used to run a flouroscope, we used to xray all kinds of odd things for kicks.

Also what other carts have eproms been found in?

 

 

yes, yes, and yes.

I always bring my small scale and my high intensity mini flashlight with me whenever I go cart hunting at used game stores, flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops, etc. I specifically seek out these cartridges among the stacks of commons everywhere I go. Usually, you can feel the extra weight in your hands by just holding & comparing. But having a scale handy just in case of uncertainty does help. Also shining the flashlight beam inside the cartridge connector area at just the right angle can usually let you see the eprom inside the cart. Lastly, you eventually memorize the trace patterns on the cart boards of those which contain eproms as well.

 

As far as which carts, well, there is a wealth of information on this subject. Some of it, although very little, can be found by simply doing forum and history searches. I myself have compiled this information over time from various sources, and have created a pretty good data base of which carts from which companies can have the eprom boards.

 

However, once again, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, there are forces at work that don't care for this information to become common knowledge. As an example, who would pay $5 a board from atariage / pixelspast for an atari eprom board, and then another $2 for a blank eprom, and then another $1 for a common cart to sacrifice for the cart shell, plus shipping costs and waiting for the package to arrive...when rather then that, you could just go to a local place, buy a common crap cartridge for $1, and your set.

 

(open cart, remove eprom, erase eprom, reprogram eprom, resolder eprom, close cart, print label, done)-- cost? $1

Edited September 1, 2010 by Supergun

[horseboy]

Can you identify these without opening? Can you see the inverter by peeking in the cart end? What about a small scale. I assume with the inverter, and the ceramic eprom, it would be measurably heavier.

Too bad I don't work at one of my old jobs. I used to run a flouroscope, we used to xray all kinds of odd things for kicks.

Also what other carts have eproms been found in?

 

 

yes, yes, and yes.

I always bring my small scale and my high intensity mini flashlight with me whenever I go cart hunting at used game stores, flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops, etc. I specifically seek out these cartridges among the stacks of commons everywhere I go. Usually, you can feel the extra weight in your hands by just holding & comparing. But having a scale handy just in case of uncertainty does help. Also shining the flashlight beam inside the cartridge connector area at just the right angle can usually let you see the eprom inside the cart. Lastly, you eventually memorize the trace patterns on the cart boards of those which contain eproms as well.

 

As far as which carts, well, there is a wealth of information on this subject. Some of it, although very little, can be found by simply doing forum and history searches. I myself have compiled this information over time from various sources, and have created a pretty good data base of which carts from which companies can have the eprom boards.

 

However, once again, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, there are forces at work that don't care for this information to become common knowledge. As an example, who would pay $5 a board from atariage / pixelspast for an atari eprom board, and then another $2 for a blank eprom, and then another $1 for a common cart to sacrifice for the cart shell, plus shipping costs and waiting for the package to arrive...when rather then that, you could just go to a local place, buy a common crap cartridge for $1, and your set.

 

(open cart, remove eprom, erase eprom, reprogram eprom, resolder eprom, close cart, print label, done)-- cost? $1

As far as I know Al doesn't even sell the boards anymore.

[endrien]

Hmmm I opened up a amidar out of thinking it had an eprom, It didn't though it has a weird board. The board looks to have some kind of connector on top, but there is only connector pins on one side.

 

[horseboy]

What is under that shielding?

[Pioneer4x4]

I counted 22 pins, is it only on that side? maybe it is so they can reporgram a eprom without removing it from the board?

[endrien]

What is under that shielding?

 

Just a normal mask rom from what I can see, not an eprom.

 

I counted 22 pins, is it only on that side? maybe it is so they can reporgram a eprom without removing it from the board?

 

It is only on one side yes.

 

 

 

Other side:

Edited September 1, 2010 by endrien

[horseboy]

maybe it is so they can reporgram a eprom without removing it from the board?

 

That is what I was thinking. Cool idea if so.

 

Here is another.

[Albert]

and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

Your crazy is showing.

 

..Al

[pinball22]

Too bad I don't work at one of my old jobs. I used to run a flouroscope...

 

Wouldn't that erase the EPROMs? I suppose if you were just looking for them to reuse it would be fine, though.

[Pioneer4x4]

Too bad I don't work at one of my old jobs. I used to run a flouroscope...

 

Wouldn't that erase the EPROMs? I suppose if you were just looking for them to reuse it would be fine, though.

Honestly I don't know, depends on how much how long I'd guess. I know one guy caught a rat in a box and put that in and watched the skeleton as it ran around in the box.

We used to look in spray cans, you could see the level of the fluid, and the rattle. I know we put eletronics in it for kicks, but nothing with an eprom that I recall.

We mainly scanned castings for porosity.

[Pioneer4x4]

maybe it is so they can reporgram a eprom without removing it from the board?

 

That is what I was thinking. Cool idea if so.

 

Here is another.

I just looked at that, the only thing that comes to mind is testing a batch at once, there could be a device that comes down over the array of PCBs from one side. I know I'm reaching, but unless there are some pins going to the extra connector that isn't on the atari side, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

OR, maybe they had one standard test connector for several systems carts, like maybe colecovision, intellivision?

[Crazy Climber]

 

The Ugly: members here such as the anonymous fellow I mentioned above don't use this information and/or these carts for personal use at home, rather they build them on a cart by cart basis and sell them to other collectors, usually overpriced and sometimes with almost perfect reproduction labels, and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

 

Good Luck!

I don't get what you mean? Do you mean they turn them into rare games (Qubes/Do's castle/etc..) and try to pass them off as originals? I don't understand what you are accusing people of

[horseboy]

 

The Ugly: members here such as the anonymous fellow I mentioned above don't use this information and/or these carts for personal use at home, rather they build them on a cart by cart basis and sell them to other collectors, usually overpriced and sometimes with almost perfect reproduction labels, and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

 

Good Luck!

I don't get what you mean? Do you mean they turn them into rare games (Qubes/Do's castle/etc..) and try to pass them off as originals? I don't understand what you are accusing people of

That is what he means.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Hmmm I opened up a amidar out of thinking it had an eprom, It didn't though it has a weird board. The board looks to have some kind of connector on top, but there is only connector pins on one side.

 

 

I have a Frogger like that, isn't it just the standard PB mask ROM board? I'm assumming the connector was for factory programming.

[CPUWIZ]

I have a Frogger like that, isn't it just the standard PB mask ROM board? I'm assumming the connector was for factory programming.

 

Yes and no.

[horseboy]

I have a Frogger like that, isn't it just the standard PB mask ROM board? I'm assumming the connector was for factory programming.

 

Yes and no.

Then what is the connector for?

[CPUWIZ]

I have a Frogger like that, isn't it just the standard PB mask ROM board? I'm assumming the connector was for factory programming.

 

Yes and no.

Then what is the connector for?

 

Diagnostics.

[Crazy Climber]

 

The Ugly: members here such as the anonymous fellow I mentioned above don't use this information and/or these carts for personal use at home, rather they build them on a cart by cart basis and sell them to other collectors, usually overpriced and sometimes with almost perfect reproduction labels, and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

 

Good Luck!

I don't get what you mean? Do you mean they turn them into rare games (Qubes/Do's castle/etc..) and try to pass them off as originals? I don't understand what you are accusing people of

That is what he means.

So this Qubes that has a perfect 10/10 label is possibly a fake?

https://www.atari2600.com/item--Q*Bert-s-Qubes--ATA26GAM1009J.html

If so that sucks

[CPUWIZ]

 

The Ugly: members here such as the anonymous fellow I mentioned above don't use this information and/or these carts for personal use at home, rather they build them on a cart by cart basis and sell them to other collectors, usually overpriced and sometimes with almost perfect reproduction labels, and so they DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ANY OF THIS!

 

Good Luck!

I don't get what you mean? Do you mean they turn them into rare games (Qubes/Do's castle/etc..) and try to pass them off as originals? I don't understand what you are accusing people of

That is what he means.

So this Qubes that has a perfect 10/10 label is possibly a fake?

https://www.atari2600.com/item--Q*Bert-s-Qubes--ATA26GAM1009J.html

If so that sucks

 

You guys crack me up, Mr. Do's Castle and Q*Bert's Qubes are 8K - E0 bankswitched games, you can't just slap an EPROM and an inverter together to make those.