Qs regarding A800 cartridge variants

[krslam]

I've been sorting thru my collection of 800/XL/XE carts and noticed that several titles came with different labels, case colors, or case styles. I was wondering if any of these variants are particularly collectible (similar to how the 2600 Silver label Gravitar is much more desirable than the red one).

 

As I went thru the boxes, I found 3 rather unusual labels shown in the pictures. The American Techna-Vision Donkey Kong seems to have been made by an Atari parts supplier, and I can guess that the Computer War is some sort of demo cart, but the third one stumps me - some sort of home made editor/assembler cart? Any info is welcome (and no, these aren't for sale).

 

 

[Caterpiggle]

Wow and early prototype's ? I never seen such a messy with many wires. Does all works prefect on your currently Atari 8 bit ?

[krslam]

They all boot in my 800, though the assembler cart needs delicate handling to get it to work. It just comes up with a blue screen that says 'EDIT' which I think is normal for the regular editor/assembler cart.

[+hunmanik]

I have the exact same Donkey Kong cart, purchased directly from American TV. Like the label says, I don't think American TV made them, I think they were selling a bunch of DK carts supplied by Atari without labels.

[Shinju]

awesome stuff! Saw these in person. That no soldier trace cart is a cool piece for sure!

[krslam]

One and only bump of this topic before I let it die quietly.

[1050]

I'll bite even though I don't have any information for you, it's possible you might give us some. For instance, what is the logic chip's number on the assembler cart and eprom type as well? I would like to have a dump of the code just in case this is the only copy of OSS's EASMD still in the wild that I've never run into before and would love to have. Even if it's an early version of Atari's Ed/ass cart, I'd still like to have that too, there might be some differences in this one as opposed to the released version. Homemade by Atari? They had to start somewhere.

 

I can't imagine trying to hire someone to solder all that for a big production run, the exposure to lead alone would be grounds for a lawsuit I would think. So I'm thinking as you, has to be a one off home made cart and boy was that dedication. Desperation? Impressive no matter what, thanks for the look.

[krslam]

Logic chip is DM54LS138J/883B and the line above is 8006.

 

Hitachi eproms are H462716G

 

How would I go about dumping the cart? Assume I know nothing about the topic when providing instructions. Due to the fragility of the cart, I'd be hesitant to mail it.

[idavis]

Maybe I have watched too many episodes of Pawn Stars but how about some documentation on where these came from. Can you directly tie any of them back to Atari? I guess what I am saying is the wire wrapped ASMED cart could have been built by anyone with the skills and time on their hands. To make it valuable you would have to have some evidence that it was indeed a prototype built by someone at Atari. Maybe a picture of it somewhere, or if you dump the eproms, something in the bits and bytes that matches up to early code that can be verified?

 

Otherwise it's just a cart that someone created. Back then it wasn't uncommon. I remember having to get the instructions from MPP for the hangup circuit on my modem. We had to open the modem and add some parts to enable it to hang up the phone line. I had a very early 520ST that came with ROM on floppy. We were mailed the rom chips when they were finalized and put them in ourselves. Imagine something like that today. Wouldn't happen.

[krslam]

I make no claim of it being a prototype - just something odd. Most likely it came into my possession when I bought out someone's collection. I did a lot of that back in the '90s.

As to value - who cares? I'm not looking to sell it. All I wanted was information. My original question was to find out if there was any particular collectibility to different versions of otherwise common cartridges.

[Atari8bitCarts]

I've been sorting thru my collection of 800/XL/XE carts and noticed that several titles came with different labels, case colors, or case styles. I was wondering if any of these variants are particularly collectible (similar to how the 2600 Silver label Gravitar is much more desirable than the red one).

 

As I went thru the boxes, I found 3 rather unusual labels shown in the pictures. The American Techna-Vision Donkey Kong seems to have been made by an Atari parts supplier, and I can guess that the Computer War is some sort of demo cart, but the third one stumps me - some sort of home made editor/assembler cart? Any info is welcome (and no, these aren't for sale).

 

 

The computer war car looks like a prototype, the DK is an Atari cart missing a label, the other looks like homegrown electrical project, not a proto. But AtariProtos.com would know more. They are interesting. And worth something if I'm wrong about the homegrown..

Edited March 22, 2013 by chrislynn5

[krslam]

The computer war car looks like a prototype, the DK is an Atari cart missing a label, the other looks like homegrown electrical project, not a proto. But AtariProtos.com would know more. They are interesting. And worth something if I'm wrong about the homegrown..

 

Computer War's label identifies it as a 'sample', so I'm thinking it was an early copy sent out to a reviewer or perhaps to a store for demonstration purposes, but probably not a prototype. There's only one hand-wired cart - I just took multiple pictures to document its construction. Thanks for your input.

[1050]

How would I go about dumping the cart? Assume I know nothing about the topic when providing instructions. Due to the fragility of the cart, I'd be hesitant to mail it.

No need to mail it. Just boot DOS 2.0 with it plugged in and type in DOS which should show the menu. Choose K. Save option and enter 8000,BFFF,,,"D2:cart.rom" and press enter. A file will be written to drive 2 with that name, zip it and upload it here. It won't really be a ROM file nor a BIN file as it will have the Atari file headers on it but half a minute with a hex editor to strip those first six bytes will provide those PC versions from the Atari one, I don't see a need to do that on the Atari when it's so easy to do on the PC. And thanks.

 

I wondered if it might not be a 138 or 139 to keep all the chip select lines going to the right ones. And 2716 eproms would have been my second guess too. Actually I was thinking 2516s, they liked the odd ones early on, they might have been cheaper. I was clueless during those days and not paying attention what so ever.

[krslam]

Thanks for that reply. Circumstances will prevent me from trying this for a week or two, but I will get to it. Your method will yield a file on a 1050 disk. How do I get that over to my PC? I don't have an SIO2PC or anything similar, or any way to upload directly from my 800. Seems like one of those basic operations I should know how to do, but I've never had the need.

[1050]

Thanks for that reply. Circumstances will prevent me from trying this for a week or two, but I will get to it. Your method will yield a file on a 1050 disk. How do I get that over to my PC? I don't have an SIO2PC or anything similar, or any way to upload directly from my 800. Seems like one of those basic operations I should know how to do, but I've never had the need.

Ok, if your 1050 happens to have a US Doubler or Happy installed making it capable of Double Density along with Enhanced Density and the default Single Density AND you have a 360K 5.25 drive installed in your PC you can use AtariDSK by Hiassoft to transfer files back and forth. You need to format disks on the PC first and then they can be read and written by the modified 1050 in DD only.

 

Lacking either or both of those two specialized drives, I know of no way to do it other than the SIO2PC you already mentioned you don't have. I don't have a SIO2PC either and have been meaning to get one since before the last century turned. Last resort you could mail me the disk as I do have both drives and use AtariDSK a good deal and can post it here as a service to others. PM me for contact info if you want to go this route.

[krslam]

I'll look into the SIO2PC solution and hold the mailing a disk option in reserve. Are there other options, some sort of SD card device that's a better long term investment?

[1050]

I'm afraid I'm not the one to ask about the newer SIO2 items out there. I think you are limited to SIO devices with the 800 and my only other point is that if you invested in a plain jane SIO2PC cable you would be out all of about 20 bucks in parts which I don't think you can even touch the other stuff for. You bring up a good point if we were talking about expensive gear sure enough and some the new stuff has to be that expensive, I'm not sure you can even use it with 800 SIO only access like you've got.

http://pages.suddenl...5bdu/sio2pc.htm

 

Mainly here to bump the topic so somebody who does know a thing or two about the new SIO2 devices can add their two cents.

[Tempest]

The computer war car looks like a prototype, the DK is an Atari cart missing a label, the other looks like homegrown electrical project, not a proto.

That's my guess. No clue on the last one, it's strange for sure but a lot of people made weird hacks for the 8-bit back then. Most likely it's a homemade cart.