Does this MagiCard look real?

[awhite2600]

I found a MagiCard for sale at a local gaming store. An ad is posted on Kijiji, a popular Canadian online ad site owned by eBay. The store is reputable. I've purchased games from them in the past. They have several physical locations.

 

I'm in no way interested in purchasing the cartridge myself. The seller is asking $3,000 Canadian (approx $2,150 US at current exchange rates) - which is way out of my price range. While the manual and overlays look legitimate, I am wondering if the cartridge is real. It appears to be a bare board, not the extra long cartridge shown in the scans here at AtariAge.

 

Here is a link to the ad and picture. http://www.kijiji.ca/v-old-video-games/london/ultra-rare-atari-magicard/1129648661 Does the cart look real? While I realize that prices for rare carts fluctuate all the time...is the price fair?

[high voltage]

Mine looks the same, especially the overlays, it looks like the Sunmark repro (which I have)

[0078265317]

Cool never seen that before. As for authenticity its always hard to tell with bare boards. Hopefully somebody who has taken one apart before knows if its legit.

[BassGuitari]

I'm also thinking Sunmark repro. IIRC the original manual had a different colored cover.

A Sunmark is probably still sort of valuable but nowhere close to the thousand dollar range.

(Just out of curiosity, what's a ballpark value for a complete Sunmark Magicard repro?)

[jhd]

I would not know an original Magicard from a reproduction (nor would I pay $3K for either one!), but would checking the production dates on the chips help establish its authenticity?

[high voltage]

here's mine for comparison

 

Sunmark (value $50)

 

 

 

look at the one from the shop, 100% the same, so....repro

 

Well, Sunmark once had permission to make/sell MagiCard, so they might not be repros, but remakes.

Edited January 4, 2016 by high voltage

[awhite2600]

Interesting replies. I wasn't aware that there were authorized remakes / reproductions of the MagiCard.

[alex_79]

You can find the original sunmark.com website on the internet archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030802013934/http://www.sunmark.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20030803214123/http://www.sunmark.com/magicard.html

As a comparison, here are some pictures of the original:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/118351-magicard-sold-pepsi-invaders-relisted/?do=findComment&comment=1429322
Other pictures on atarimania:
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-magicard_12094.html
The original was initially sold as a bare board, the case came later.

[CPUWIZ]

Well, Sunmark once had permission to make/sell MagiCard, so they might not be repros, but remakes.

 

Who told you that? AFAIK, the whole "war" between Mark and the DP guys began because he repro'd the MagiCard. And as others have already pointed out, this is a Sunmark reproduction.

[high voltage]

Ah ok, memory plays tricks sometimes. Was trying to find the DP connection too, but didn't find it.

[CPUWIZ]

Ah ok, memory plays tricks sometimes. Was trying to find the DP connection too, but didn't find it.

 

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/cc_commavid.htm

[high voltage]

It makes an interesting read.

[awhite2600]

I've been communicating with the seller via email. He believes that he has an original board and the Sunmark manual and overlays. The seller's logic is that the Sunmark website shows an EPROM while his board has another type of chip. I see that "high voltage's" Sunmark repro has a non-EPROM chip.

 

The seller has received a fairly high offer already. He has taken down the ad until he can confirm the board as genuine or not.

[alex_79]

The seller's logic is that the Sunmark website shows an EPROM while his board has another type of chip.

That actually confirms that is a reproduction, because the original magicard used UV EPROM. The Sunmark repro posted by highvoltage, which is identical to the seller's one, uses an EEPROM instead (and the 4 digits after the "EXEL" logo on the IC is a date code, where the first 2 digits indicates the year of production: 1996 the case of highvoltage's pics).

There are pictures of original magicard boards in the forums and elsewhere (I've seen 2 different revisions), and they have differences from the repro (as the manual and overlays do) so they cannot be mistaken.