Mystery Cartridge / Help Identify!

[Supergun]

Let me preface this post by stating that it's most likely 99% certain that this will end up being a common cart that simply lost it's label back in the 80's.

But it's always best to be sure, and why not make these things more fun!

 

So I was out of town last weekend and whenever I travel, I make it a point to search for any local used video game stores that carry the older stuff. These kinds of stores are few & far between, but I never give up looking for them as they are still out there.

 

So at one of the 2 stores I was able to visit, I found an Atari 2600 cartridge that caught my eye out of nothing more then curiosity. It was an Apollo cartridge shell and it had no end label. In addition, the main label was some random sticker most likely applied by some kid back in 1984 or so. I'm only guessing that because it has a copyright of 1984 on it. The image looks to me like one of the Jackson brothers. (not Michael but perhaps Jermaine or whoever). surrounded by stage dancers.

 

 

I had no way to plug it in or test it at the store. And the board was loose inside as the center support peg had broken. (a common problem in Apollo carts) But I could tell it was the eprom style board, and the price tag was only $2, so I knew I could use it as a donor if it ended up being nothing special, so I bought it.

 

When I returned home, I plugged it in, but got nothing on screen. My first problem was the fact that the board inside was loose so it wasn't making it easy for me to know for sure if the board was making correct contact, so I decided I had to open it up. Also the contacts were filthy so that was kind of my second problem. The sticker had long lost most of its adhesiveness so I was able to just lift it up slightly where the two screws were, remove the screws, and simply place the label right back down with no damage to it.

 

Once I opened it, obviously I found my third problem. Low and behold, the hex inverter had been removed by someone! And worse yet, it had not been done very well for that matter! They had clipped the legs and were inconsistent with the method as some legs were cut longer then others. They left a mess of broken legs, and damaged one of the traces on the board as well.

 

 

OK, so this morning I went ahead and desoldered the mess of broken legs, jumpered the damaged trace, soldered in a socket (just cause I'm OCD) and plugged in a 7404 hex inverter. I figured I should be set right? Nope. The cart still did not work. I then noticed a fourth problem that had eluded me before! The eprom was a 2732. (8 kb game!) I had simply assumed it to be a 2716 (4 kb) as that is what all Apollo games are (except the 2 kb skeet shoot) and it was on an Apollo board and in an Apollo case.

 

Well, obviously the eprom ain't gonna work on this board.

 

So, I went ahead and desoldered the eprom and it is currently sitting on my work bench. I soldered in a socket on the Apollo board and I'm going to test the board out here in a minute with a 2716 Kyphus or Pompeii eprom just to see if the board works.

 

As for the eprom, I'm gonna go ahead and read it with my eprom burner and see what the checksum is, etc. but my question here is with what board should I test it? I mean, there are different 8 kb bank switching methods used by different manufacturers, and Apollo never made an 8 kb Atari game so what is the correct style to use?

 

So you tech guys...please let me know the best way to proceed from here! The curiosity is killing me at this point!

 

Oh and I also have a harmony cartridge if that helps in figuring this out as well?

 

Regards,

Billy

[+5-11under]

Fun!

See if the 8K file is a doubled 4K file, or if half is empty, or neither.

I don't have a harmony cart, so I don't know how the bankswitching works... but that sounds like a great place to start.

[CPUWIZ]

2716 = 2K

2732 = 4K

 

Not sure where you are getting the 8K from. My guess is that it's Lost Luggage.

[Supergun]

Your right, I get confused sometimes, I multiplied my eights incorrectly.

 

Ok, so then yes, the apollo board does support the 2732 and so it is correctly on that board.

 

I just tried Kyphus & Pompeii & Sqoosh (all 2732 eproms) and none of them worked on this board so CLEARLY the board itself is still bad and has some problem.

 

I'm going to open up another Apollo donor cart I have here and try out the eprom on it.

[Supergun]

OK, I'm back!!!

 

I went ahead and used another Apollo donor cartridge, desoldered the eprom, soldered in a socket, and tested it first with Pompeii, Sqoosh, & Kyphus 2732 eproms (obviously all 4kb games & I was simply confused earlier) After confirming that this board works 100%, I went ahead and plugged in the 2732 eprom from the jacksons mystery cartridge and yes, it worked!

 

So...drum roll...here's the report!

The bad news is, it isn't some super rare unreleased proto.

BUT!

The good news is that I think it IS nevertheless a Proto!

 

It came up as Space Cavern. So at first I figured, ah crap, nothing special, must have been a space cavern that lost it's label. But I like to ALWAYS be sure of stuff so I went ahead and played a few games and then plugged in my regular space cavern cartridge and did the same.

 

Well, low & behold they are different!

 

The jacksons version has character sprites (icons) at the bottom of the screen to show your spare lives in reserve while the released version does not!

Here is a pic I took in a mad rush just to post this up!

 

 

The icons look to me like the Atari Berzerk sprite. Maybe that's whay Apollo had them removed?

 

Not sure what other differences there may be, and very curious to compare the checksums from the jacksons version to the released version, but I'm in a huge rush at the moment. I will go ahead and read the eprom later tonight and post up the binary here so we can all check it out!

 

Regards,

Billy

Edited September 6, 2014 by Supergun

[CPUWIZ]

Cool.

[Supergun]

Hey guys,

 

Sorry for the delay.

I got tied up last night with another project that took longer then expected.

 

OK, so here is the binary for the Space Cavern proto.

Not sure if it was an earlier beta, or a work in progress, or perhaps a final that was tweaked last minute.

 

If anyone has the time to play it through a little bit more then I did and/or look at it with a hex editor please do

and let me know if you find anything else interesting.

 

The eprom is a 4kb Hitachi HN462732G & the rom checksum I got was 9FA4

 

Regards,

Billy

 

scproto.bin.BIN

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Sorry, but this cannot be a proto, because Stella 4.1 detects it by its correct name.

[Tempest]

Someone should tell Dan Oliver about this, maybe he knows what's up?

[Supergun]

Sorry, but this cannot be a proto, because Stella 4.1 detects it by its correct name.

Interesting.

Does that mean the checksums matched then? Not possible if the games are different.

Can someone here verify the rom checksum on the regular Atari Space Cavern?

 

Maybe it is simply a revision thing. Like two different revisions of the game exist.

Perhaps the first run was a certain way, and then they changed it later down the road.

 

I found a similar scenario with Polaris a few years back and discussed it here.

Atari Asteroids also comes to mind. (1 without & 1 with the copyright "title" screen)

So this would be a very realistic possibility.

 

I guess everyone start checking your Space Cavern carts!

 

With regards to Apollo Games & Dan Oliver, sure it's worth asking.

Maybe Atari threatened to sue Apollo for ripping the Berzerk sprite?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Does that mean the checksums matched then?

Yes.

 

Maybe it is simply a revision thing. Like two different revisions of the game exist.

Then the checksums would be different. Your ROM is 100% identical to the already known one.

[Supergun]

Yes.

 

Then the checksums would be different. Your ROM is 100% identical to the already known one.

I get what your saying, but then does that mean my other space cavern cartridge (the one with the label) is the different one?

 

I mean, how else do you explain that I have TWO space cavern cartridges that act differently?

In plain simple terms, they can't BOTH be the same as released!

 

Can someone here plug in & play there Space Cavern cartridge and tell us if it shows Berzerk icons on the bottom for the extra lives in reserve?

 

I mean, if not, I will simply open my other space cavern cartridge and dump that rom just to prove they are different here!

 

EDIT:

I mean, never mind, I just checked the screenshots on this very site as well as did an image search and the Berzerk icons come up in the shots.

So obviously, they are in the released game, but yet the other cart I have does not have them.

 

What are the odds of this!

This means that for the last 30 years that I have been playing Space Cavern, I was playing it with a different romset then normal.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Supergun

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I get what your saying, but then does that mean my other space cavern cartridge (the one with the label) is the different one?

 

I mean, how else do you explain that I have TWO space cavern cartridges that act differently?

In plain simple terms, they can't BOTH be the same as released!

I know about at least 3 versions (attached). One of those shows different icons at the bottom. Maybe that one is yours?

Space Cavern - Les guerriers de l'espace (1981) (Apollo - Games by Apollo, Dan Oliver - RCA Video Jeux) (AP-2002) (PAL).bin

Space Cavern (1981) (Apollo - Games by Apollo, Dan Oliver) (AP-2002) ~.bin

Space Canyon (AKA Space Cavern) (1983) (Panda) (100).bin

[CPUWIZ]

Maybe the ROM was changed, when they changed the box style.