Krazy Ace Miniature Golf (among others) finally released as curved lip cart

[Juan José Torres]

Last week pictures of Krazy Ace in curved lip format surfaced in another thread in this forum. Up to this point no curved lip had ever beed produced for this title, which had always been produced as PCB carts since its 1995 release, so seeing the first curved lip cart Krazy Ace 23 years later was in itself a pretty big deal.

 

But then a few days later surprising news kept coming in from elsewhere. Pictures of some other Telegames titles that had never been released in curved lip format began to appear in Facebook this past weekend.

 

 

So now for the first time ever you can get Krazy Ace Miniature Golf, Bubble Trouble, Hyperdrome, Raiden and Fat Bobby as curved lip carts.

 

A final surprise came in the form of mint curved lip carts for Desert Strike and Double Dragon with brand new labels on them, so it seems that it is not only their aftermarket titles that are being newly produced as curved lip carts.

 

 

I have never been a fan of PCB carts, and these carts looked absolutely fantastic (definitely not 3D-printed), so this seemed like amazing news to me.

 

I decided to order myself a Krazy Ace curved lip, and while doing so took the liberty ask Pete Mortimer how did these newly minted curved lip carts had come about. He kindly answered me that he had finally been able to find a manufacturer that could make them in small quantities, which made this new batch possible.

 

Anyone ordering any of these games from Telegames, should bear in mind that Telegames is still keeping a stock of PCB carts for some of their titles. If you want to get a curved lip cart, your should specify it in the comment section of your order. Contacting Pete Mortimer beforehand is advisable too, so he can confirm if he still has curved lip carts in stock for the games you want to order.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Juan José Torres

[BadPricey]

I ordered Krazy Ace last October and it arrived 2 weeks ago as a pcb cart whilst others received curved lip carts. I contacted Pete who said I needed to specify what type of cart I wanted. Having never seen Krazy Ace as a curved lip cart why would I have asked for that.

 

Anyway does the rarity of Desert Strike and Double Dragon go away now there are 'new'curved lip versions? (The same for the others too).

[PFG 9000]

I'm no authority on rarity, but I would imagine there would be a separate value for the PCB release and the curved lip release. The respective quantity of each type available would play a big role in that version's value. I'm willing to be these curved lip releases will be extremely limited, and thus even more sought-after than the PCB version, even though the PCB one is the original release.

[BadPricey]

I'm willing to be these curved lip releases will be extremely limited, and thus even more sought-after than the PCB version, even though the PCB one is the original release.

This still has 8 days to run.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163234907824

[Juan José Torres]

I ordered Krazy Ace last October and it arrived 2 weeks ago as a pcb cart whilst others received curved lip carts. I contacted Pete who said I needed to specify what type of cart I wanted. Having never seen Krazy Ace as a curved lip cart why would I have asked for that.

 

Anyway does the rarity of Desert Strike and Double Dragon go away now there are 'new'curved lip versions? (The same for the others too).

Tough luck, ordering so long ago and getting a PCB. Maybe when you placed your order Mortimer was still doing PCBs only and curved lip carts were not even an idea.

 

In any case, I think it would be in Pete's best interest to publicize these new curved lip carts, because even old-timers are will seriously consider buying curved lip versions of games they already have in PCB carts. Once everybody knows about them, these carts are going to sell like candies in front of a school.

 

I'm no authority on rarity, but I would imagine there would be a separate value for the PCB release and the curved lip release. The respective quantity of each type available would play a big role in that version's value. I'm willing to be these curved lip releases will be extremely limited, and thus even more sought-after than the PCB version, even though the PCB one is the original release.

Different value for PCB and curved lip carts is totally reasonable. There is no telling, though, wich version will be more valuable for collectors in the future. In the case of Krazy Ace, the only thing PCB carts have in their favor is being the original run. Exposed circuit board and bulky EEPROMs always felt amateur, and the old labels usually look like printed at home (older ones even looked like the had been printed in an old dot matrix printer). New curved lips, will not be part of the original run, but they are still official Telegame products, look very much like the classic curved lip carts, have professional labels on them and will probably be scarce in number, though there's no telling wich will be scarcer, because PCB Krazy Ace was never in abundance either.

 

A very different case might be made for games whose original run was already in curved lip carts, like Double Dragon, Deser Strike and Super Off Road. For Double Dragon, for instance, original run curved lip carts will probably remain the most valuable ones for collectors, being Atari sanctioned products that even sported the Fuji logo in their backs. The original labels in those carts didn't look as good as the new ones, but they were decent professional-looking labels. I'd say for the specific set of games, original run curved lip carts will remain the most valued ones by collectors, new curved lip will be second best and PCB cart versions of these games will be the least desirable ones.

 

Personally, I just ordered curved lip Krazy Ace, and would have never bought the PCB version even if was in stock and at a reasonable price, first run or not. But that's my choice, because I always avoid PCBs if possible, and my focus so far has been games released during Atari's reign (which Krazy Ace was never a part of). I'll occasionally pick up an interesting homebrews or aftermarket out of curiosity, but that's all. Each collector will have different priorities.

 

This still has 8 days to run.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163234907824

 

8 days to go and these poor devils are already engaded in a biding war. £108 for a cart they can get straight from Telegames for £49.99. I'm in Spain and I have paid less for mine plus shipping from UK.

 

This is one more reason why Pete Mortimer should start publicizing these new carts more widely. People buying these flipped carts from eBay instead of buying them from Telegames are supporting douchey ebayers, when they should be supporting Telegames.

[macsessed]

 

A very different case might be made for games whose original run was already in curved lip carts, like Double Dragon, Deser Strike and Super Off Road. For Double Dragon, for instance, original run curved lip carts will probably remain the most valuable ones for collectors, being Atari sanctioned products that even sported the Fuji logo in their backs. The original labels in those carts didn't look as good as the new ones, but they were decent professional-looking labels. I'd say for the specific set of games, original run curved lip carts will remain the most valued ones by collectors, new curved lip will be second best and PCB cart versions of these games will be the least desirable ones.

 

I would imagine the original releases would remain the most valued for the reasons stated - plus the fact that they also came with properly printed glossy manuals vs cheap photocopies. But you would think there would be far fewer of these newer versions available - even if more are created in the future.

Edited September 4, 2018 by macsessed

[Twoface2]

Would be interesting to see the back of these new curved lip carts.

 

Whether they have the Fuji on it like the original carts or not like Zaku

[macsessed]

Would be interesting to see the back of these new curved lip carts.

 

Whether they have the Fuji on it like the original carts or not like Zaku

 

I have almost all of these new versions, and none have the Fuji on the back. This is Krazy Ace...

 

[Juan José Torres]

I would imagine the original releases would remain the most valued for the reasons stated - plus the fact that they also came with properly printed glossy manuals vs cheap photocopies.

 

That's true, those printed glossy booklets add a lot of value to those sets. Not only that, those original releases also came with nifty Telegames catalogs in the form of folded color brochures.

 

But you would think there would be far fewer of these newer versions available - even if more are created in the future.

 

Yes, depending on their scarcity, they may end up being a very interesting rarity. Even so, I still think 1993 curved lip carts for Double Dragon, Desert Strike and Super Off Road will remain the most valuable, specially CIB ones.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Juan José Torres

[+-^CrossBow^-]

How does one actually order any games? I looked at their sites and didn't find a link to a store front or anything to even let it be known these are available? I certainly wouldn't mind ordering up a few I need for my Lynx collection?

[Juan José Torres]

How does one actually order any games? I looked at their sites and didn't find a link to a store front or anything to even let it be known these are available? I certainly wouldn't mind ordering up a few I need for my Lynx collection?

Telegames UK site does not show top bar with online shop categories until you login. A mistake in my opinion, because that's leading many people to believe that Telegames has no online shop. Here is a direct link to their online Lynx catalog, which you can browse without logging in.

 

http://www.telegames.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=324_63_64&sort=pd.name&order=ASC&limit=100

 

Whatever you do, don't buy from ebayers flipping the cart right now, when you can buy straight from Telegames for half the price. Here's an example of some dude asking triple the original price (original price is £49.99 but he's asking £149.99).

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312232956782

Edited September 5, 2018 by Juan José Torres

[Juan José Torres]

Wait, I just checked again and someone actually bought that listing!? Poor sucker. Well, I guess the person behind the 'Retroriginals' eBay shop will not have any problem to pay this month's rent, specially if some other loser buys those other crazy overpriced listings for Desert Strike and Double Dragon.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/312232955156

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/312232955851

Edited September 5, 2018 by Juan José Torres