Atari CX-2000 (VAL) Prototype information

[furious_01]

First post and Atari newb here! A few months back, we were running the garage sale circuit and my buddy and I happened to come across something that may be "special". The prior owner made mention that his friend was a former Atari employee and was integral in the early day development and testing. This particular unit came in a dusty box that looked like it had been sitting in a dark garage for years - included was an Atari 1200 along with some other run of the mill controllers and cartridge games. Fast forward about 3 months and we finally dug this out of the same dusty box and are trying to understand functionality, hardware/software compatibility, and maybe even a guesstimate as to value.

 

The attached pics are of the actual unit - no cleaning, dismantling, or tampering of any kind was performed. With some research yesterday, we've come to understand that this is a CX-2000 prototype, otherwise known as VAL.

 

[ColecoJoe]

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2000/a2000.html

 

 

https://www.retroist.com/2010/06/25/atari-2600-cx-2000-prototype-console-for-50000/

[furious_01]

Thanks, Joe - while I would hope it was worth $50K (or even $25K was it seems the old eBay listing was reduced to) to someone, I highly doubt even the most anxious of collectors would be unwilling to throw down that kind of dough. It would be nice, though!

 

And while there is some great information in the first atarimuse link, I was hoping for maybe a schematic someone may have and/or some first hand experience with this operating this unit.

[ColecoJoe]

Thanks, Joe - while I would hope it was worth $50K (or even $25K was it seems the old eBay listing was reduced to) to someone, I highly doubt even the most anxious of collectors would be unwilling to throw down that kind of dough. It would be nice, though!

 

And while there is some great information in the first atarimuse link, I was hoping for maybe a schematic someone may have and/or some first hand experience with this operating this unit.

Curt may be able to help.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/270776-cx-2000-no-joysticks-version-found/

[Shawn]

Thanks, Joe - while I would hope it was worth $50K (or even $25K was it seems the old eBay listing was reduced to) to someone, I highly doubt even the most anxious of collectors would be unwilling to throw down that kind of dough. It would be nice, though!

 

And while there is some great information in the first atarimuse link, I was hoping for maybe a schematic someone may have and/or some first hand experience with this operating this unit.

 

$10k might be a little more realistic. You have to find someone that wants one, has serious disposable income to buy it and doesn't already own one. Amazing find. Best of luck selling. I'm sure you will find a happy new home for it. If it's in full working order you will have a much easier time selling. If it doesn't work that takes big bucks off it's resale value but you will still get a lot for it.

[The Evener]

What was the inspiration for this direction/design? The built-in controllers is a throw-back to the home Pong era, which seems all the more puzzling after Atari freed the controllers from the main unit with a cord. Was the final design going to have detachable joysticks?