Odd Cartridges

[+Ksarul]

I received a package of cartridges yesterday that I bought to restock my shell donor stock. I found three very strange TI cartridges in the box though. The titles were normal TI releases, but from there on out, the strangeness begins. The cartridge cases are late model beige cases, but the labels are the very narrow (as measured from top to bottom) versions normally seen in later European cartridges. That was interesting enough, but then I looked at the manufacturing dates. All three cartridges have manufacturing dates between 0485 and 1485, with serial numbers that look oddly aligned with each other. The 0485 cartridge has a 08785 serial number, the 1385 cartridge has a 21252 serial number and the 1485 cartridge has a 25052 serial number. All three are educational titles. I suspect that other titles would fill in gaps in the date and serial number ranges. I suspect these were made for Triton Products, as they had the right to produce additional copies of TI titles, but I had never seen such obvious proof that such production occurred. Once or twice in the past, cartridges with 1985 dates have shown up as single copies that could be dismissed as manufacturing date stamp errors, but these three cartridges are too similar in style to dismiss that way. I'll post pictures later if anyone is interested. . .

Edited April 1, 2018 by Ksarul

[Opry99er]

Interested!!!

[digdugnate]

my interest is definitely piqued. if you can share pics i'd love to see them!

[Ed in SoDak]

My Triton SXB has only a © 1982 TI 1987 TPC on a very basic label in a beige shell, no date code or serial nor box where it would normally be stamped.

-Ed

[+Ksarul]

SEB and other cartridges original to Triton Products (Great Word Race, 4A Flyer, Munchman II, Strike Three) usually used the cartridge cases with the generic square on the bottom of the case. TI also didn't do the manufacturing on them. The cartridges I found today are strange in that they show distinct signs of actually having been manufactured by TI (at Lubbock) in 1985. I'll take some pictures of these sometime this week to show what I think I see here.

[iliketurtles]

The cartridges I snagged were a 4A Flyer, a Frogger, and a Q*Bert. Here are the cartridge names that were from 1985: Laws of arithmatic, Numeration 1, and Story machine (weird that they are all educational).

[kl99]

yes, photos please. were they assembled at ATA or LTA?
btw - who assembled the cartridges for Argentinia?