Stadium Mud Buggies PCB

[BassGuitari]

Topic says it all. All other INTV titles have an IC visible from the end of the cartridge. This one doesn't, and I don't see how it'll work without one.

 

I'd hate for the score of a lifetime to become the "Just Kidding!" of a lifetime...

[Rev]

Are you comfortable opening it and take a pic?

[BassGuitari]

Not sure I'm ready to pry 'er open just yet, but here's a pic of the end of the PCB. On every other INTV game, an IC is clearly visible. Here, not so.

 

Seems strange, because it seems severely unlikely that this SMB cart was ever opened up. I got it in a lot from a local game shop (who clearly don't know or care about pre-NES stuff), which came in together recently. All the other INTV titles I got have visible ICs.

Edited April 24, 2011 by BassGuitari

[edintv]

Topic says it all. All other INTV titles have an IC visible from the end of the cartridge. This one doesn't, and I don't see how it'll work without one.

 

I'd hate for the score of a lifetime to become the "Just Kidding!" of a lifetime...

 

I had opened some later Intellivision Inc. produced games and they use a very small chip covered with a drop of Plastic, just like the picture of the Avatar of Jay.

 

I´ve seen a bad Slam Dunk, Chip Shot and a Tarmin with that chip. I think those chips are more sensible to Static discharges than the old ones, so you had to be very carefull with it.

[+cmart604]

I seriously wish I had a clue what you guys were talking about.

[BassGuitari]

Topic says it all. All other INTV titles have an IC visible from the end of the cartridge. This one doesn't, and I don't see how it'll work without one.

 

I'd hate for the score of a lifetime to become the "Just Kidding!" of a lifetime...

 

I had opened some later Intellivision Inc. produced games and they use a very small chip covered with a drop of Plastic, just like the picture of the Avatar of Jay.

 

I´ve seen a bad Slam Dunk, Chip Shot and a Tarmin with that chip. I think those chips are more sensible to Static discharges than the old ones, so you had to be very carefull with it.

 

Okay, I looked inside a little closer with a flashlight and found a plastic drop like what you described (it's surprising how difficult it is to see inside the cartridge, even with a light!). It's on the underside for some reason, but it's there...so I'm feeling a lot better about it now.

 

Unfortunately I'm out of town right now and won't be able test it and find out for sure if it works until at least Monday. Here's hoping...

 

[+cmart604]

$5?? $10??? How big a score was it?

[BassGuitari]

$5?? $10??? How big a score was it?

 

All will be revealed. (I don't have a camera here with me.)

 

And you'll probably want to murder me when you find out.

Edited April 24, 2011 by BassGuitari

[+save2600]

Lots, if not ALL of the INTV produced games for both Intellivision and 2600 were of the little black droplet type.

[bennybingo]

Lots, if not ALL of the INTV produced games for both Intellivision and 2600 were of the little black droplet type.

 

I got a lot of Atari stuff not to long ago and it included a box of loose PCB's. One of them was a with a rom chip on it and included Armor Ambush. I never guessed that there could be anything weird about it and there probably isn't, but it is a strange looking board. It is really short.

 

I just figured I would share. Maybe someone would have better knowledge of this one. Also, if it is normal, it is a fine example of a 2600 M-network port that doesn't have the droplet.

[+cmart604]

$5?? $10??? How big a score was it?

 

All will be revealed. (I don't have a camera here with me.)

 

And you'll probably want to murder me when you find out.

 

Was it CIB? For a dollar?

[jaybird3rd]

Okay, I looked inside a little closer with a flashlight and found a plastic drop like what you described (it's surprising how difficult it is to see inside the cartridge, even with a light!). It's on the underside for some reason, but it's there...so I'm feeling a lot better about it now.

It sounds like they used a "glop-top". It's the same as any other ROM, except that the tiny silicon wafer that would normally be inside a DIP package--such as the familiar mask ROM and EPROM chips--is attached directly to the cartridge board. The chip and the tiny wires connecting it are coated with a drop of epoxy for protection. I believe the Fairchild Channel F was the first video game system to use this technology, and other companies began using it later as a way of bringing down the cost per cartridge. It's always been my understanding that it was used mostly in large production runs because of the higher setup costs, which is why it's a little surprising that a small company like INTV could afford it for a limited release like Stadium Mud Buggies. Perhaps the technology had become more affordable by the late 80s.

 

As edintv mentioned, you can see a picture of one such cartridge board in my avatar. That one is from an Aquarius Night Stalker cartridge, which also placed the ROM on the underside of the board.

[BassGuitari]

$5?? $10??? How big a score was it?

 

All will be revealed. (I don't have a camera here with me.)

 

And you'll probably want to murder me when you find out.

 

Alright, I've kept you in suspense long enough.

 

My score was this big:

 

Pole Position

Diner

Slam Dunk: Super Pro Basketball

Slap Shot: Super Pro Hockey

Championship Tennis

Bump 'N' Jump (INTV white label)

Pac-Man (INTV white label)

Sewer Sam

Blockade Runner

River Raid

Centipede

...and as if all of those weren't bitchin' enough...

Stadium Mud Buggies.

 

You may notice that little slip of paper at the bottom that says "Debited: 10.00." That is, in fact, the price in US dollars that i paid for these.

 

Turns out, they were a dollar each and the shop was doing a "Buy 5, get 1 free" thing. So 12 cartridges = $10.00 + 2 free. And since the receipt isn't itemized (I wish it were!), I can technically say Stadium Mud Buggies was one of the freebies.

 

(And it works fine, btw. I tested it today. All my fears were about nothing!)

[jaybird3rd]

I somehow hate you for this ... but I'm glad that another Intellivision fan got such a great deal!

 

(I hope you realize I'm using the word "hate" here with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It's just because I'm so envious, as someone stuck in the backwaters of the southeast where there seem to be no classic games to be found in the wild at all!)

[+cmart604]

That's awesome! Good for you. :thumbsup:

[Supergun]

I somehow hate you for this ... but I'm glad that another Intellivision fan got such a great deal!

 

 

well, i don't hate you at all because it throws one more stadium mud buggies into the pool of availability. (one less copy that may have eventually ended up in a landfill) and if your keeping it, then so be it. enjoy!

 

but if you want to cash in your profits right away, please contact me. it is one of only three carts that i still need to complete my intellivision collection and i am ready to paypal right now.

 

regards...

[Rev]

Nice find. What was the store?

[BassGuitari]

I somehow hate you for this ... but I'm glad that another Intellivision fan got such a great deal!

 

(I hope you realize I'm using the word "hate" here with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It's just because I'm so envious, as someone stuck in the backwaters of the southeast where there seem to be no classic games to be found in the wild at all!)

 

No, I got that, you're cool.

 

I don't blame you, though. If I were you, I'd hate me too! Hell, I kind of hate myself a little (but not that much ); I've had a lot of stupidly amazing finds over the years and I've been tremendously fortunate in that regard, and I have some amazing and generous friends who've contributed to my collection as well. But of all my greatest finds -$10 TI99/4a lot w/ Peripheral Expansion Box, $5 Apple IIe rig, $15 JVC X'Eye lot, $2 Heavy Sixer Joysticks, $30 CIB Aquarius "Computer & Video Game System" set w/ four mostly-CIB games, etc.- this has to be the greatest of all. On a related note, I actually found River Raid II and Subterranea at a Goodwill once, at the same time...I thought THAT mind-blowing, and I never thought I see something like that again.

 

Just when you start to think the wild has dried up, something like this happens. Just goes to show there are still killer finds to be had, even if they don't happen as often anymore.

 

 

That's awesome! Good for you. :thumbsup:

 

Thanks, man.

 

"" pretty much sums up how I felt when I discovered these. I actually literally started trembling, I was so excited. These are the kinds of finds we dream about, you know? I wish every collector could experience it at least once.

 

Nice find. What was the store?

 

It's kind of interesting; it actually isn't even really a "game store" per se, at least not like we normally think of video game shops. It's more like a big comic book shop that also sells video games. They have a great selection of games and hardware for a healthy variety of platforms (2600, some 5200, 7800, Intellivision, NES, Master System, Genesis, SNES, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, Playstation/2/3, Dreamcast, N64, Xbox/360, GCube, Wii, even some TI-99/4a from time to time. I actually got my Vectrex from there, too), but they deal mainly with board/card/strategy gaming, sports collectibles/memorabilia, and comic books. All the neighborhood basement-dwellers hang out there and play Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon or Warhammer or whatever. I don't think they even sell that many video games, not older ones anyway; I've seen a lot of the same stuff there for years now (including, interestingly, a Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 repro for NES). But God bless the basement-dwellers who seem to be keeping them in business; this score may not have been possible without them!

 

And most of their games, most of the time, are pretty common anyway. Finds like this one are VERY much the exception. I don't mean to give the impression that this shop is a lost promised land of rare video games. And from NES onward, you WILL have to pay market price, give or take. Like Sega CD RPGs, for instance...yikes. But for some reason, "Atari" (to them, everything pre-NES is "Atari") games seem to fly under the radar. The only times I can think of where I was ever charged more than a dollar or so was when I tried to buy the Cabbage Patch Dolls game for Colecovision, and the guy did the thing where they look it up on ebay and charge you a roughly aggregate price based on that ($20? Eff that noise). I also paid $15 for Alien Brigade for Atari 7800, which was still fair. Both times, the same guy was ringing me up, so now I'm sure to approach someone else when I check out.

 

[+save2600]

Wow! Go Pack!

[+cmart604]

All the neighborhood basement-dwellers hang out there and play Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon or Warhammer or whatever

 

Hands down, my favourite line of the day.