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Instruction Variations


Atari_Bill

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I know that collecting label variations for games is a somewhat common thing among collectors. I've been pursuing it for a while. That got me to wondering how many people are as anal (disturbed? :ponder: ) as I am and acutally collect instruction manual variations too? From what I've found, typically the 2600 has multiple instruction manual revisions for most of the games and catalogs out there. How many (if any) of you go to this extreme? Just curious....

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I don't collect cart or manual variations, but I do like to have the matching manual for the cart that I own. At some point I found that a few I had didn't match, which bothered me enough that I decided to pick up a different cart or manual so they would.

 

It's a sickness really. ;)

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I guess it all depends on what game/box variations you collect. For example, if you get a gatefold box, you'd want the cart with the end label with the 2 digit number such as 01 Combat. With that, you'll want to get the original black instruction manual with the "Litho in USA" printed on it since that is the one that came with the first release. If you have say a red label Yars Revenge, you'll want the instruction manual that came with the red label cartridge.

 

Go to my website and view the .pdf (it's a bit outdate, think 1 year now) or download the MS Word file which I think is more current, and you can see the amount of variations I have for manuals. No one ever covered this in the list before and this is my own addition to the giant variation list. I know this is far from complete since it is only what I've come across personally or viewed on a couple of sites online. Also, check out Atarimania.com and see what he may have.

 

I personally do not collect variations of the manuals short of what I mentioned above for specific label variations I may keep boxed.

 

Phil

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Go to my website and view the .pdf (it's a bit outdate, think 1 year now) or download the MS Word file which I think is more current, and you can see the amount of variations I have for manuals.

Phil

 

URL, please!?!? Thanks! ;)

 

It's in my signature, www.videogamevariations.com, .net, or .org.

 

I promise to modify/add some new discoveries I've found thanks to the last two purchases of boxed games I made. Hopefully by the weekend. I'm just torn between trying to sell stuff to make the only source of income I currently have on Ebay along with spending time with the wife, working on house stuff, looking for a job, and trying to get the website continuing. I began the owners manuals and will be moving on to the warranties soon and other paperwork. Scanning paperwork takes much more time than a cart or box since they require multiple scans. That being said, I'll also finish at least the owner manuals for the systems, which I only have 12 so far and have put up the first 6 already. Then I'll go on to the boxes, then back to the paperwork.

 

Phil

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Go to my website and view the .pdf (it's a bit outdate, think 1 year now) or download the MS Word file which I think is more current, and you can see the amount of variations I have for manuals.

Phil

 

URL, please!?!? Thanks! ;)

 

It's in my signature, www.videogamevariations.com, .net, or .org.

 

Phil

 

Phil, Sorry about that. I was at work, so im sure my eyes had rolled back into my head to where I couldn't see your sig. Wow!! That is some intense info there! It is going to take some amount cross-referencing from the legend to the listings, but very awesome and a lot of work on your part. I really appreciate someone selling carts and actually refencing the variations to this extent. Thanks, Morgan

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  • 8 years later...
On 8/9/2011 at 7:01 PM, Philflound said:

I guess it all depends on what game/box variations you collect. For example, if you get a gatefold box, you'd want the cart with the end label with the 2 digit number such as 01 Combat. With that, you'll want to get the original black instruction manual with the "Litho in USA" printed on it since that is the one that came with the first release. If you have say a red label Yars Revenge, you'll want the instruction manual that came with the red label cartridge.

 

Go to my website and view the .pdf (it's a bit outdate, think 1 year now) or download the MS Word file which I think is more current, and you can see the amount of variations I have for manuals. No one ever covered this in the list before and this is my own addition to the giant variation list. I know this is far from complete since it is only what I've come across personally or viewed on a couple of sites online. Also, check out Atarimania.com and see what he may have.

 

I personally do not collect variations of the manuals short of what I mentioned above for specific label variations I may keep boxed.

 

Phil

I was searching around trying to figure out how to tell the difference in manuals for the gatefold/numbered text labels and the regular text labels when I found this.  Could expand on the "Litho in USA" thing please?

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I guess I might be answering my own question here.  I have two Combat manuals that have "01 combat" on the back.  One says "PRINTED IN TAIWAN" and one has "LITHO IN USA" on the bottom of the back page.  Did the Taiwan one also come in the gatefold or was it packed in with the first regular text label cartridges?

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I don't ACTIVELY collect manual variants (or cart variants for that matter) but I certainly pick them up on the rare occasion I find them, and love seeing the differences.

 

I'm more about playing than collecting, so finding a new game not in my collection (even a crap one, lol) is WAY more exciting than anything. Of course, something as old as atari, finding anything is still quite the rush.

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Glad to see some new responses. Litho in USA is the first original release. I don't know if you looked at the PDF file, which needs to be updated. It's been several months. These are what I have documented in the way of Combat manuals and since each one has a specific size noted, that means I had them in my hands or most likely still do as I need to scan them all. Eventually I will write a detailed list about the manuals like I did with the cartridges and boxes under the GENERAL ATARI LABEL AND BOX VARIATIONS. To give a brief summary, you had the original black small release with the Litho in USA. Taiwan ones for Combat came with most likely the Taiwan box variations. Since I own dozens and dozens of Combat manuals, there are probably no black Rev 1 and 2 versions for Combat. There were some strange things going on with Rev numbers on some titles as there are some boxes that have Rev 1 and 4, but nothing in between. In fact, there may be some titles with only one release that only had Rev 4 written on the box. I can't remember offhand and don't have time to look it up. After the black release came the white larger size manuals. For some titles such as Missile Command and Video Pinball that come to mind, there were small white manuals and then afterwards went to the larger 5x7. If titles were released by Atari Corporation/Atari Corp from 1985-1988, the manuals would most likely have gone black and white. Red box versions had manuals white, but had red lettering on them, easier to distinguish that these are specific to the red boxes. International manuals I believe always had 5 languages, even for box variations that only have 3 languages. Again, don't hold me to anything, but when I finally get to this, a lot will be explained. 

 

As for 3rd party manuals, anything goes. You may have one specific non-English language, dual English/French for Canadian versions, or multi-language versions. Again, depends on which company and whether there are lots of different county variations. My particular fun 3rd party company that covers many different languages is CBS.

 

Anyway, below are the Combat manuals known from years ago. I haven't updated anything in a while. Since there is a 1986 box, my guess is that there should be a 1986 manual, though no 1986 cartridge exists to my knowledge.

 

A)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Litho in USA, no Rev

B)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan in small letters, no Rev

C)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan in large letters, no Rev

D)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 3

E)   Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on back, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in USA, Rev 4

F)   Manual      ©1977, white, C016942-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in USA, Rev 1

G)  Manual      ©1977, white, C016943-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Made in Macau, Rev 1

H)  Manual      ©1977, white, C017878-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 1

I)    Manual      ©1978, white, C016973-01 on back, 5 languages, 40 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Macau, Rev 2

J)   Manual      ©1978, white, C016973-01 on back, 5 languages, 40 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 2

 

EDIT: Ok, just reviewed all the gatefold boxed games. Litho in USA is only under Air-Sea Battle and Combat. The others all have black manuals with either no printed or Printed in USA on them. None of these have a Rev number because they would be the first release for the game. So if you look at the pdf giant list, you'll be able to figure out which manual belongs to the gatefold versions. They will always be Manual A.

Edited by Philflound
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15 hours ago, Philflound said:

Glad to see some new responses. Litho in USA is the first original release. I don't know if you looked at the PDF file, which needs to be updated. It's been several months. These are what I have documented in the way of Combat manuals and since each one has a specific size noted, that means I had them in my hands or most likely still do as I need to scan them all. Eventually I will write a detailed list about the manuals like I did with the cartridges and boxes under the GENERAL ATARI LABEL AND BOX VARIATIONS. To give a brief summary, you had the original black small release with the Litho in USA. Taiwan ones for Combat came with most likely the Taiwan box variations. Since I own dozens and dozens of Combat manuals, there are probably no black Rev 1 and 2 versions for Combat. There were some strange things going on with Rev numbers on some titles as there are some boxes that have Rev 1 and 4, but nothing in between. In fact, there may be some titles with only one release that only had Rev 4 written on the box. I can't remember offhand and don't have time to look it up. After the black release came the white larger size manuals. For some titles such as Missile Command and Video Pinball that come to mind, there were small white manuals and then afterwards went to the larger 5x7. If titles were released by Atari Corporation/Atari Corp from 1985-1988, the manuals would most likely have gone black and white. Red box versions had manuals white, but had red lettering on them, easier to distinguish that these are specific to the red boxes. International manuals I believe always had 5 languages, even for box variations that only have 3 languages. Again, don't hold me to anything, but when I finally get to this, a lot will be explained. 

 

As for 3rd party manuals, anything goes. You may have one specific non-English language, dual English/French for Canadian versions, or multi-language versions. Again, depends on which company and whether there are lots of different county variations. My particular fun 3rd party company that covers many different languages is CBS.

 

Anyway, below are the Combat manuals known from years ago. I haven't updated anything in a while. Since there is a 1986 box, my guess is that there should be a 1986 manual, though no 1986 cartridge exists to my knowledge.

 

A)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Litho in USA, no Rev

B)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan in small letters, no Rev

C)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan in large letters, no Rev

D)  Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on front, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 3

E)   Manual      ©1977, black, C011402-01 on back, 8 pages, 4 x 6.5”, Printed in USA, Rev 4

F)   Manual      ©1977, white, C016942-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in USA, Rev 1

G)  Manual      ©1977, white, C016943-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Made in Macau, Rev 1

H)  Manual      ©1977, white, C017878-01 on back, 12 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 1

I)    Manual      ©1978, white, C016973-01 on back, 5 languages, 40 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Macau, Rev 2

J)   Manual      ©1978, white, C016973-01 on back, 5 languages, 40 pages, 5 x 7”, Printed in Taiwan, Rev 2

 

EDIT: Ok, just reviewed all the gatefold boxed games. Litho in USA is only under Air-Sea Battle and Combat. The others all have black manuals with either no printed or Printed in USA on them. None of these have a Rev number because they would be the first release for the game. So if you look at the pdf giant list, you'll be able to figure out which manual belongs to the gatefold versions. They will always be Manual A.

Thanks for the response.  Now I need to check that Combat gatefold box I stuck the "LITHO IN USA" manual in to see if it is a Taiwan box.  I really need to find original manuals for Street Racer and Basic Math to complete my gatefold boxes.

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6 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

Thanks for the response.  Now I need to check that Combat gatefold box I stuck the "LITHO IN USA" manual in to see if it is a Taiwan box.  I really need to find original manuals for Street Racer and Basic Math to complete my gatefold boxes.

Note that Combat has 2 versions of the gatefold box. I'm actually not sure which was released first. My guess is the vertical slot is the original release and they realized that removing and putting back the manual was not easy. So they probably changed it to the slanted slot. I don't have any of my games in front of me, but I think the other gatefold boxes had slanted slots.

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5 hours ago, Philflound said:

Note that Combat has 2 versions of the gatefold box. I'm actually not sure which was released first. My guess is the vertical slot is the original release and they realized that removing and putting back the manual was not easy. So they probably changed it to the slanted slot. I don't have any of my games in front of me, but I think the other gatefold boxes had slanted slots.

Well that makes sense and since I have the vertical slot box I guess the manual is in the proper box.

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On 5/27/2020 at 6:32 AM, roadrunner said:

Black & White Atari Corp Combat manual seems rare. Don't see it too often.

 

I actually put that on my "should exist" list as I haven't seen one yet. Though I haven't really been looking too hard. There are many manuals on that list that I'm removing because I now have seen a copy on the internet.

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  • 4 months later...
On 5/27/2020 at 7:32 AM, roadrunner said:

Black & White Atari Corp Combat manual seems rare. Don't see it too often.

 

 

On 6/1/2020 at 11:03 AM, Philflound said:

I actually put that on my "should exist" list as I haven't seen one yet. Though I haven't really been looking too hard. There are many manuals on that list that I'm removing because I now have seen a copy on the internet.

They are hard to find, I have already identified two variations of the manual © 1986 black and white! I will try to send one of the versions to the list!

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