Tempest Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Cat Trax was never released on cartridge in the US. It only exists as a pirate cart or as a built-in game in special versions of the Video Game Brain. A prototype does exist however and was released as a repro several years back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Cat Trax was never released on cartridge in the US. It only exists as a pirate cart or as a built-in game in special versions of the Video Game Brain. A prototype does exist however and was released as a repro several years back. http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-cat-trax_17181.html That's not a pirate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 (edited) Rom, you accidentally wrote Cat "Rax" rather then "Trax" in your text. A question if I may? The CIB Cat Trax game shown in your pictures on that page has me confused. You have it marked as NTSC and with an R10 grail. So was it actually an officially released 2600 game? And if so, where? (USA, Canada, South America, Europe,)? Title fixed. Thanks! The cart on that page is 100% NTSC. AFAIK it was released in North America, just like the Arcadia 2001 titles. It was the first (and only) title in the UA Limited VCS library. Edited November 18, 2015 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Ok that one is news to me. When and where did that turn up? Are we sure it was actually released and not just manufactured? On a side note, it looks like they took their Arcadia packaging and stuck Atari on it instead. The box got changed from silver to gold too. Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 (edited) Yes, it has the same packaging as the silver Arcadia boxes. Looks like a official release to me, with inlay and booklet and all. It's 100% genuine. It turned up on E-Bay more than a year ago. Edited November 18, 2015 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 I missed that too. The cartridge looks the same as the one used with the Game Brain... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 The cartridge looks the same as the one used with the Game Brain... Good catch! Is there any known relation between UA and the company who made the video game brain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 That would be hard to find out. UA was an Asian outfit (most of the Arcadia stuff was programmed out of there) I believe so records are kind of hard to come by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Wow, it was released. New grail.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Some additional research & follow up questions need go through a process before we make any final decisions here; in regards to the cartridge. As for the game brain "pack-in" version, we're looking at a very grey area surrounded by a cloud of dust. I'll finish up my research & post up my final thoughts sometime in the next few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 As for the game brain "pack-in" version, we're looking at a very grey area surrounded by a cloud of dust. I'll finish up my research & post up my final thoughts sometime in the next few days. What's grey about it? It was a freebie pack-in (well built-in anyway). This sort of thing isn't unheard of. The only real question I have is was that boxed version actually sold in stores or just manufactured and sat in warehouses unsold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Remaining questions (for both the stand alone cartridge as well as the game brain "hard wired" version) include, but are not limited to: Was this item actually available for purchase at a retail store in North America and/or Canada during the 1977-1990 Atari 2600 systems lifespan & originally intended for use in the NTSC market? (the colors of the screenshots provided by the original poster look off compared to both the screenshots shown on this website as well as what I saw on my NTSC TV when I tested the "alleged" NTSC rom on my NTSC system) So, the entire NTSC / PAL and South America argument come into play here and must be investigated. With regards to the cartridge version, we literally only have just the one known sample? It is unheard of to have only 1 known copy of a "non mail order exclusive" cartridge. Put it this way, name another? (Good Luck) (I think Air Raid comes the closest and it has over a dozen known copies) Look at the label on the cartridge. Heck, it has a full box & manual for that matter. The label is full color, glossy, thick, factory printed. Not some paper thin washed out colors Eli's ladder, Birthday Mania, Air Raid, Red Sea Crossing, etc. style garage made crap. It is far more comparable to a Bomb or Puzzy released cartridge, (with the uncommon NTSC rom inside rather then PAL) then it is comparable to say some normal full blown NTSC release with all the trimmings, but by coincidence only 1 was ever found. Illogical at this stage to think so. As for the Game Brain, the grey area is you will open Pandora's box. Where will you draw the line? It will never end! It's hard enough that for an Atari 2600 collector to have a complete collection, he must have sent in money orders in 1983/4 for games like Red Sea Crossing, Birthday Mania, Gamma Attack, and Extra Terrestrials. AND, he must have gotten lucky and found a retailer local to him that carried the 9 pornographic games as well as 2 horror games, and purchased them, AND had to be subscribed to Atari Age and have ordered all 5 Atari Club exclusives, AND had to walk into a Christian Store and purchased Music Machine, AND had to send in proofs of purchases of Chuck Wagon dog food, etc. etc. etc. (I'm in a rush here) but now he had to have bought an entire accessory, in some cases TWICE as he may have already bought the one withOUT the pack in game, in order to have a complete collection. That is INSANITY and is NOT fun anymore and will ruin the hobby. Again, go ahead, make it count, without any reservations or research first, and then I will open the floodgates. Pandoras Box. How so you ask? Well, to be a complete set, he also had to go to the mall and purchase a Romox cartridge for each of the 2 or 3 (otherwise pal only games) AND, had the game line module thing and downloaded save the whales, AND visited South America and picked up NTSC space tunnel, pizza chef, etc. WHERE do you draw the line? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Where the line is drawn is an individual choice, is it not? There is an *official* line? Like someone gets certified as having a complete set? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Yes, that is the point. There must be a set & agreed upon goal. No collector cares to see the goal posts continuously moved over & over again. Hey, I bought a Copy Cart back in 1983, went to a friends house on a Sarurday to play Atari. He happened to own the Game Brain with the Cat Trax game built in, so I connected it to my copy cart and made my own stand alone NTSC Cat Trax cartridge. So I'm good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Yes, that is the point. There must be a set & agreed upon goal. Why? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Sorry, that's just a bootleg copy. Doesn't count, right? Track down that friend and hope he still has it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Good catch! Is there any known relation between UA and the company who made the video game brain? cart1.jpg cart2.jpg cart3.jpg There's this on the PCB, don't know if it stands for UA Limited or not. I'll check my normal Game Brain to see if it has the same marking. It's hard enough that for an Atari 2600 collector to have a complete collection, he must have sent in money orders in 1983/4 for games like Red Sea Crossing, Birthday Mania, Gamma Attack, and Extra Terrestrials. AND, he must have gotten lucky and found a retailer local to him that carried the 9 pornographic games as well as 2 horror games, and purchased them, AND had to be subscribed to Atari Age and have ordered all 5 Atari Club exclusives, AND had to walk into a Christian Store and purchased Music Machine, AND had to send in proofs of purchases of Chuck Wagon dog food, etc. etc. etc. (I'm in a rush here) but now he had to have bought an entire accessory, in some cases TWICE as he may have already bought the one withOUT the pack in game, in order to have a complete collection. That is INSANITY and is NOT fun anymore and will ruin the hobby. Again, go ahead, make it count, without any reservations or research first, and then I will open the floodgates. Pandoras Box. How so you ask? Well, to be a complete set, he also had to go to the mall and purchase a Romox cartridge for each of the 2 or 3 (otherwise pal only games) AND, had the game line module thing and downloaded save the whales, AND visited South America and picked up NTSC space tunnel, pizza chef, etc. WHERE do you draw the line? I know that I will never have a complete collection and have never set that goal for myself. I don't think having one would make it more fun, and no matter what, there will always be something missing from somebody's collection. To me, that's the fun part, that there are still more things like this to discover. When things stop being discovered it will be boring! Luckily, the rate of discovery seems pretty steady 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 There's this on the PCB, don't know if it stands for UA Limited or not. I'll check my normal Game Brain to see if it has the same marking. Found some detailed pictures here. The standard video game brain has the same logo on the pcb: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Yeah, UAL doesn't stand for the game company UA Limited. It's probably like UA Listed or something to do with FEC regulations or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 (edited) WHERE do you draw the line? Wherever you want to draw it, I guess. Must there be one fixed drawn line? There will always be a new goal to reach and it will never stop. How far will you go? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-raiders-of-the-lost-ark_20852.html http://www.atarimania.com/2600/boxes/hi_res/river_raid_cart_6.jpg This one for example still puzzles me: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-words-attack_15914.html Edited November 23, 2015 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Wherever you want to draw it, I guess. Must there be one fixed drawn line? There will always be a new goal to reach and it will never stop. How far will you go? http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-raiders-of-the-lost-ark_20852.html http://www.atarimania.com/2600/boxes/hi_res/river_raid_cart_6.jpg This one for example still puzzles me: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-words-attack_15914.html Exactly. There will always be something new discovered. Heck, even on the VideoBrain we just discovered a new cart and we thought we had them all identified years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Yeah, UAL doesn't stand for the game company UA Limited. It's probably like UA Listed or something to do with FEC regulations or something. Is there any evidence that let you exclude that? Wouldn't the conformity to state regulation be referred to the assembled device and therefore indicated on the exterior case instead that on a single component like the pcb? I'm no an expert, but I found plausible the fact that Universal Appliances Limited produced the device, since it was a manufacturing company of electronic equipments (telephones, radios and similar) before and after their video game related products. Moreover there's the "CAT TRAX" logo with trademark symbol printed on the unit, which support the fact tha UAL could be involved (If it was a pirate copy they would have probably changed the title). UAL filed trademarks for CAT TRAX and other arcadia 2001 games between 1982 and 1983 (unrelated to this thread, they also filed a trademark for an "HOME ARCADE" logo which was used on some consoles using the same hardware as the A2001). http://www.tmquest.com/results.asp?maxFiles=24&sort=1&adv=1&owner=Universal+Appliances+Limited The original (without built-in game) Video game brain was released by RGA, another company located in KOWLOON HONG KONG at the time. http://www.tmquest.com/results.asp?maxFiles=10&sort=1&adv=1&owner=REGENCY+GENERAL+AGENCY+LTD. If another box or manual for this "SIX PACK" unit is found (or if the person who won the ebay auction in 2008 is watching this thread and can share some hi-res pictures...), it would be interesting to see what company released it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 None at all. My apologies, I stated "probably" in my post, but I have no idea one way or the other. If anything, sounds to me like your findings make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazzeri Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 Sorry about the Necro-bump, I´m writing an article about the rarest A2600 games around and stumbled upon this. Something caugh my attention: In the game box it says "For use with the SEAR video arcade" (no "S"). That seems like a very weird and primitive mistake for a commercial product, don´t you think? Maybe that´s a prototype / production sample of some sort? Thank you all and sorry again for the necrobump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazzeri Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 Exactly. There will always be something new discovered. Heck, even on the VideoBrain we just discovered a new cart and we thought we had them all identified years ago. I'd love to hear your toughts on this, Tempest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.