I had a dream about a fictitious Atari 2600 product last night

[sirlynxalot]

In my dream I was at a thrift store and came across some atari stuff. While looking through it, I found this thing called the "atomic cartridge"

It was about 6 times the size of a standard cartridge (although it had a little piece extending on the bottom akin to the last inch or so of a normal cart so it could plug in to the cartridge slot of a 2600. It also had 2 joystick ports on the back. In my dream, my friends encouraged me not to buy it saying it looked like a piece of junk.

In my dream, because I had never heard of it, I went home and then went on ebay to see how rare or valuable the "atomic cartridge" was. None were currently for sale, but a search of completed auctions turned up about 8 or so, which had been for sale in the last few months for $50 and up, and none of which had sold.

In looking at the completed auction pages, I could see the packaging for the "atomic cartridge" which indicated that the cartridge itself had some sort of internal spring cannon, which you would put little pieces of plastic that originally came with the atomic cartridge into the cartridge's spring loaded cannon, and shoot the pieces out during gameplay where they would scatter over the ground and this would influence gameplay some how. I think it may have also been supposed to come with a mat with markings of some kind to lay on the ground, and the plastic pieces would ideally scatter onto the mat, thereby indirectly influencing gameplay.

Unfortunately there were no screen shots of the atomic cartridge's software program in my dream, but with the cannon, plastic pieces and mat, and the extra joystick ports on the cartridge itself, it sort of adds up to suggesting it is a party game / virtual board game of sorts.

Again, as far as I know this is a fictitious product that only existed in my dream last night. But it was so vivid I wanted to share

Edited May 25, 2014 by sirlynxalot

[+save2600]

Funny stuff. I think a lot of us have had similar thrifting and classic gaming (typically 2600) dreams. I know I have as like yours, they're usually pretty vivid.

 

In your dream, I wonder if you were somehow mixing the 2600 with something like Codemasters' Genesis cartridge that has the extra joystick ports for the 4-player games included on it...

[+Random Terrain]

At least you remembered the details. I can never remember the names or box art or the screenshots on the back. I just remember that I saw cool stuff.

[tailGator]

Only cart I can think of with the joystick ports are the J-Carts from Codemasters.

 

[Ranthulfr]

In my dream I was at a thrift store and came across some atari stuff. While looking through it, I found this thing called the "atomic cartridge"

 

It was about 6 times the size of a standard cartridge (although it had a little piece extending on the bottom akin to the last inch or so of a normal cart so it could plug in to the cartridge slot of a 2600. It also had 2 joystick ports on the back. In my dream, my friends encouraged me not to buy it saying it looked like a piece of junk.

Sounds like it could be related to the "Supercharger", which is also larger than a normal cart and does have a cable coming out of it (though not a joystick cable). Cool dream - thanks for sharing.

[high voltage]

Only cart I can think of with the joystick ports are the J-Carts from Codemasters.

 

 

 

Tank War on Radofin (1975), programmable Pong style console from the PC-50 family

 

[Keatah]

Ha! I had a similar nightmare years ago. I wrote about it so I remember it. It was a Missile Command that would launch real Nerf Rockets. And if your buddy across the street had it also you could do real battles!

[BigO]

From the physical description, I keep visualizing the 2600 add-on for the 5200.

[Zwackery]

Welcome to the Reef Store!

 

https://atariage.com/glossary/index.php

 

Generic term for a videogame collector's dream in which he/she finds a fantasy store filled with prototypes, rare games, and other unusual items. Experienced by hard-core collectors. No kidding. Derived from one of the first descriptions of such a dream in which the dreamer visited a store simply called 'Reef Store'.

 

 

Just do a search on the forums for "Reef Store" and you'll find many interesting dream finds recounted.

[BigO]

Here's what I was thinking of as I read the description. I had the name wrong.

 

VCS Cartridge Adapter

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/5200/cx55.html