Star Ship Picture Label?

[Christophero Sly]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands

 

RE: Star Ship cart with actual picture label towards bottom of that page.

 

If it's legit, I assume it's an Atari-Corp re-release. I doesn't have the usual copyright line below the illustration, however.

 

Can anyone verify that this thing actually exists or can I assume that it is some sort of mock-up made for the purposes of the article?

[AtariBrian]

I'm no expert on cart labels so I am not sure . I have never seen that Flag Capture either .

[Andre81]

Star Ship has the W from Warner on the label, so no re-release by Atari Corp.

 

[Christophero Sly]

Star Ship has the W from Warner on the label, so no re-release by Atari Corp.

Ah... didn't notice that. It's a mock-up then.

 

Edit: Basic Math appears to be a mock-up as well.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Christophero Sly

[Scooter83]

Flag Capture is real Ive owned that before.

Hang man was a wierd black label re-release that was grey. a cross breed between silver re-release and a black original style label.

[Andre81]

Ah... didn't notice that. It's a mock-up then.

Maybe not a mock up. Might very well be that Atari designed a new picture label but due to low sales numbers then decided against a new production run.

 

I guess that less than 25% of the box art was actually released and that many alternative art was drawn.

 

[BassGuitari]

LOL, I was seriously going to post this exact topic last night....until I noticed that the cart is photoshopped.

It looks like the title and artwork were superimposed over the Basic Math cart (which I'm confident is also a fake, itself) two rows above. The two slight splotches on either side of the title give it away. You can also make out a perfect yellow block around the "Star Ship" text. Also, you can make out the reddish remnant of some other label art (or something else?) hanging out slightly under the bottom edge. Also, the top and bottom edges of the artwork form pixel-perfect borders. All that, coupled with the fact it still says Warner on it, unfortunately screams "fake" to me.

Edited December 16, 2013 by BassGuitari

[BassGuitari]

Flag Capture is real Ive owned that before.

I'll second that the Flag Capture pic label re-release is indeed real. I own one.

[Christophero Sly]

Maybe not a mock up. Might very well be that Atari designed a new picture label but due to low sales numbers then decided against a new production run.

I'm convinced it's mockup. If you look closely, you can see that it shares the same cartridge template as Basic Math. Moreover, the label would look very different if it was an actual Atari release. The artwork for the cart mockup has clearly been lifted directly from the box, same goes for the title text.

 

It looks like the title and artwork were superimposed over the Basic Math cart (which I'm confident is also a fake, itself) two rows above. The two slight splotches on either side of the title give it away. You can also make out a perfect yellow block around the "Star Ship" text. Also, you can make out the reddish remnant of some other label art (or something else?) hanging out slightly under the bottom edge. Also, the top and bottom edges of the artwork form pixel-perfect borders. All that, coupled with the fact it still says Warner on it, unfortunately screams "fake" to me.

Oddly enough, even though they appear to be legitimate labels, Flag Capture, Adventure, and Warlords are all mockups as well (well, at least two of them are) because they are each using the same cartridge template that was used for Star Ship and Basic Math.

 

Someone went to a great deal of trouble to create the cartridges on that page.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Christophero Sly

[+bcombee]

I just heard back from Andrew Webster, the writer on this article, who I mailed after this thread showed up. His answer does help things much:

 

Hey Ben!

Sorry for the crazy long delay. I checked in with the designer who put the layout together and he finally got back to me. When I asked if any of the carts were mockups, he said "I think we shot every one of these." I know we bought a bunch of carts for a photo shoot, but I wasn't a part of it at all, unfortunately (I just do the words). Hope that helps!

[Bakasama]

I looked at the info for Vanguard and wasn't that game made by SNK?

[+FujiSkunk]

It's definitely either a fake or an Atari Corp. re-release. My money is on fake.

 

One more problem: Star Ship isn't a paddle game.

 

I looked at the info for Vanguard and wasn't that game made by SNK?

 

Vanguard was indeed originally released by SNK. Centuri distributed the arcade game in North America. At the time it was common for Atari to credit the North American distributor of a game, probably due to the way all the licensing worked out. Note that 2600 Ms. Pac-Man cartridges credit Bally Midway as well as Namco-America, and 2600 Moon Patrol cartridges mention Williams but do not mention Irem.

 

Curiously, Atari didn't play that trick with the arcade games they themselves imported from Japan. Pole Position and Dig Dug 2600 cartridges actually credit Namco as the original source.

[+bcombee]

Yeah, I definitely think the Star Ship image is fake too... I could easily believe that they thought there was a picture release, but just had the weird cart and the box, so they made a mash up, but the image has some clear signs of editing, and no one has come up with a cartridge like that from the collector community.

[Christophero Sly]

Flag Capture, Adventure, Warlords, Star Ship, and Basic Math are ALL easily identified as mock-ups. Why someone went to all that trouble is the real mystery.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Christophero Sly

[AtariBrian]

Flag Capture, Adventure, Warlords, Star Ship, and Basic Math are ALL easily identified as mock-ups. Why someone went to all that trouble is the real mystery.

Flag Capture is real I guess . I thought it was made up but there is one on ebay now . http://www.ebay.com/itm/Flag-Capture-For-Use-With-Paddle-Controllers-On-Atari-Game-System-/201018141630?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item2ecd9d6bbe

Edited January 15, 2014 by AtariBrian

[Christophero Sly]

Flag Capture is real I guess . I thought it was made up but there is one on ebay now . http://www.ebay.com/itm/Flag-Capture-For-Use-With-Paddle-Controllers-On-Atari-Game-System-/201018141630?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item2ecd9d6bbe

I guess I was unclear. The Flag Capture cart is legitimate, common even, insofar as a cartridge that looks like that actually exists, but the actual image of the cartridge on that page is a mock-up. Same goes for Warlords and Adventure--both legitimate labels, but their images on that page are also mock-ups. Actually, one of those three is probably completely legitimate because one of them, I assume, had to serve as the template for the other two, as well as Star Ship and Basic Math.

 

The images of Basic Math and Star Ship are completely illegitimate. They are clear mock-ups representing labels that do not actually exist.

 

Whoever is in contact with the author should suggest to him that he remove, at the very least, the mock-up images of Star Ship and Basic Math. The article is not well-served by their inclusion. I'm sure his intentions were benign in creating them, but one is left to question the veracity of the entire article when it includes such obvious misrepresentations.

[BassGuitari]

It's definitely either a fake or an Atari Corp. re-release. My money is on fake.

 

One more problem: Star Ship isn't a paddle game.

Atari Corp. was known to print incorrect controller info on a lot of their re-releases, so that wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility. The label is hella fake though. (Too bad, too. I like it!)

[+FujiSkunk]

Vanguard was indeed originally released by SNK.

 

Now that I've actually read the article, I see the real reason why this was brought up!

 

According to Vanguard's Wiki, the game was originally developed by TOSE, and then published by SNK. So the article isn't wrong.