Can you help identify these carts? (Ewok, LOTR, etc.)

[rbn]

In the early 90's I got into collecting Atari 2600 stuff in a big way. Along the way I found things like an Atari POP circuit board, an Imagic cartridge tester, a real SALT cartridge, service manuals, Atari prototypes of Taz and Sinistar and several other interesting things.

 

Over the past few years I've either sold or given away all the stuff listed above. I'm about to get rid of the rest of my Atari stuff, and I really didn't think I had anything unusual or proto left in my collection.

 

Last week I pulled my big box of 2600 cartridges out of storage and photographed them. Among the carts was a lot of 11 Parker Brothers cartridges with handwritten labels. I bought these cartridges at a garage sale here in Silicon Valley sometime in the 1990 - 1994 window (when I was actively acquiring interesting Atari 2600 stuff.)

 

A fairly high-resolution photo of these cartridges can be seen at:

 

http://www.justsleightly.com/eBay/AtariCar...2600carts13.JPG

 

The cartridges are labelled as follows:

 

Amidar

Deathstar

Empire

Ewok

Jedi Arena

Lord Rings

Mr. Do

Packman

Spider

Strawberry Shortcake

Super Cobra

 

As I began to research these carts a bit, I was surprised to find that at least a couple might be prototypes. I tested Lord Of The Rings and Ewok adventure, both are playable and are NTSC.

 

The rest seem to be NTSC as well. The strange thing about this lot is that Pacman (labelled 'Packman' on the cart) was an Atari game, not a Parker Brothers game. No idea how it ended up in a PB cartridge.

 

So...what I'd like to know is...can anyone provide information as to whether some of these carts might be actual Parker Brothers prototypes. I plan to post these on eBay, but I don't want to identify them as protos if they're not.

 

Thanks for your help with this!

 

-rbn

 

UPDATE: I got curious about the insides of these cartridges, so I carefully moved the handwritten labels and opened the cartridges.

 

You can see the innards at:

 

http://www.justsleightly.com/eBay/AtariCar...Ewok_Inside.jpg

 

and

 

http://www.justsleightly.com/eBay/AtariCar...LOTR_Inside.jpg

 

And, in a shameless plug of an auction I have on eBay (currently the high bid is ONE PENNY!)...if you're looking for a 1983 receipt from the Atari Company Store check out:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...3017970945&rd=1

[CPUWIZ]

Check your private messages.

[sku_u]

Be careful if posting these on Ebay. They have been really cracking down on prototype sales lately. Those look like they may be protos. If they are, there are several people here who would buy them off you.

[CPUWIZ]

I count for at least 3 of those several people.

[+Mitch]

No Hulk though.

 

Mitch

[Tempest]

Wow you really have some gems there. Ewok and LotR should go for a very large sum. I wish I had the money for them, but I'm really limiting myself to 5200 prototypes now. If you want to trade them for other 2600 prototypes I can do that. Of course CPUWIZ is probably offering is soul for them as I speak...

 

Tempest

[san-d-2000]

Just noticed the pac-man cart, how is it possible to have an Atari proto in a parker bros casing?

 

-San

[rbn]

I mentioned this in my original post, as I found it strange and completely baffling also:

 

The rest seem to be NTSC as well. The strange thing about this lot is that Pacman (labelled 'Packman' on the cart) was an Atari game, not a Parker Brothers game. No idea how it ended up in a PB cartridge.

 

I'm hoping someone will have a reasonable explanation, even if it's, "Yeah, I worked at Parker Brothers, and sometimes we'd violate copyright laws and behave completely unethically by copying the cartridges of other manufacturers for our own kicks."

 

I played the Pac-Man cart for a bit this evening, and it seems identical to the release version of Pac-Man as I remember it.

 

Thanks to everyone who's provided information on these carts thus far, as they've now been confirmed to be actual Parker Brothers prototypes and/or internal carts. Prior to finding this site and posting my question, I was completely in the dark...it's been quite interesting to find out such interesting stuff about a bunch of cartridges I purchased at a garage sale about a decade ago!

 

-rbn

[CPUWIZ]

Of course CPUWIZ is probably offering his soul for them as I speak...

 

Errm, I have no such thing, remember ?

 

j/k

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Errm, I have no such thing, remember ?    

How much did you get?

[JCroniger]

Very Nice!! Are you selling these? I'd be very interested in some of them.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Very Nice!!    Are you selling these?  I'd be very interested in some of them.

Sorry, I have only one. It's a unique WIP and not for sale.

[Godzilla]

hmmm.. selling souls for 2600 protos, i think that belongs in the 'most outrageous thing you did to get a rare 2600 cart' thread....

[Paul Slocum]

How do you verify the authenticity of protos like this? I mean how do you verify that a Lord of the Rings proto isn't just a Popeye prototype with the EPROM replaced?

 

-Paul

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I want to know a few things myself since I actually own two PB protos of my own.

 

All PB protos that I have seen all had Dot Matrix printed Labels that read a very basic title for the game and a date of the burn with a rls# or WIP build # on them.

 

These protos here have the same sticker type...which is just a little white label. But they are all handwritten and not printed. So that means that either these aren't really the real deal per se..and instead are repros that someone made for themsevles. Or someone at Parker Bros. was maybe doing a little business on the side making these. Having access to the little stickers wouldn't be hard and you can probably get these now too I would think.

 

Now for my other question...how the hell did you crack open the cases...without breaking them?! My two Protos will not come apart for me to get a really good look at my PCB layouts on them.

 

Also...the LOTR proto there...if it does truly work...needs to be examined more fully since I thought this game used some weird bankswitching that made it very difficult to reporduce in a cartridge form? Also the Ewoks cart needs to be dumped..since an NTSC rom of this does not yet exist. However, all of this is up to the final owner of these carts.

[Tempest]

Or someone at Coleco was maybe doing a little business on the side making these

 

Yes this is what I think. All offical PB prototypes I've seen have the dot matrix labels, but the LotR proto that was released last year had a similar hand label and from what I understand was a personal copy. Not that this makes them any less valuable (well maybe a little). I guess its how you stand on the issue.

 

Tempest

[CPUWIZ]

How much did you get?

 

Bushie gave me a really cool Coleco Turbo prototype for it.

[jsoper]

Yeah, I'm really interested in the bankswitching myself. All the PB 8k games use the E0 bankswitch method which is difficult to duplicate with logic IC's (which is why no one has made LOTR and Ewok reproduction carts yet). I cracked open a Popeye cart once, but there was only one chip (rom with embedded bs circuitry). I guess maybe PB had a stand alone bs chip so standard eproms could be used in development (which is what the photos look like). I'm interested in learning more.

[+Propane13]

Hello,

 

What is VCS spider? I'm having one of those days where I can't remember a PB game that this could be...

 

Thanks,

-John

[CincYnoTi]

Hello,

 

What is VCS spider?  I'm having one of those days where I can't remember a PB game that this could be...

 

Thanks,

-John

 

well, you could search the rarity guide for occurences of "spider". spiderman jumps to mind.

[+Propane13]

ah, good call!

[rbn]

Surmise is correct...I plugged in "Spider" and it's Spiderman. Seeing a web shoot out when I pressed the joystick button was a big hint.

 

Seems to be the same sort of shorthand as 'Lord Rings', 'Jedi', etc. on the labels. The handwriting on all the labels is the same on all the carts, and also matches the label on the EPROM for the carts I've checked (see previous photos).

 

I've been asked by several folks here whether I plan to sell these carts. I do, and I'm thinking I'll try listing them on eBay (though I've been warned eBay might pull the auction.) In addition to offers I've received some estimates of the value of these carts, and I much appreciate that as well. Ive also been asked if I'm interested in trading for other carts; unfortunately I am not, as I'm getting rid of all my Atari stuff (most of which you can see if you look at the pictures at http://www.justsleightly.com/eBay/AtariCarts/ -- the only things not there are several VCS systems, a pair of wireless controllers, an 810 Drive service manual and a 130 with about 10 game carts).

 

For the next several days I'll be out of town, and I won't be listing these carts on eBay prior to my return. While I'm gone, anyone interested in mkaing a serious offer can e-mail directly to [email protected] If you do send an offer, please let me know if you're interested in LOTR/Ewok only or the whole lot of PB cartridges. Also, please let me know WHY you want to buy these carts; who knows, the "why" might factor into acceptance of an offer.

 

When I return next week I'll try to get a video capture of each of the cartridges in action. I may have e-mail access while I'm out of town, but it will be intermittent at best.

 

And yes, CPUWIZ, I'll make sure you get a good look at these carts when I get back to the Bay Area.

 

Thanks again to everyone who has provided information about these carts...it continues to be an interesting adventure!

 

Regards,

 

-rbn

 

P.S. -^Cro§Bow^- asked how I opened these carts to take the photos of the circuit boards. Easily, but very carefully...I removed the label from the cartridge (the labels sit directly over the phillips screw holding the shell closed) and unscrewed the cart. After taking the photo I reassembled everything and put the sticker in place. The label was very carefully, and very slowly, lifted off...the only way to do so without tearing a 20-year old adhesive label or destroying the adhesive.

[CPUWIZ]

And yes, CPUWIZ, I'll make sure you get a good look at these carts when I get back to the Bay Area.

 

[christianscott]

i'm gonna go out on a limb here and call this highly suspect. there are a few issues here that just do not jive with what is known about the ewok game and parker bros. for one thing PB was not a CA company but a boston area company, trivial i know. number two that board pic in no way resembles this ewok proto http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/.../9260/ewok.html

 

lastly and i think importantly the you can see the copyright 1984 in this image

http://www.justsleightly.com/eBay/AtariCar...Ewok_Inside.jpg

 

as any ROTJ geek knows it was a 1983 film and the game was being developed prior to the release. the project was dropped in 1983 so why would PB be tinkering around with it more than a year later?

 

airworld anybody?

[CPUWIZ]

airworld anybody?

 

Turbo ?

 

Btw, the ©1984 is a copyright of the bankswitching circuit, I think we all agreed already that these are copies made by an employee.