Canadian Intellivision Carnival in white box

[BigDumer]

Hi All - I just bought a lot of 35 Intellivision games. The lot had 8 Canadian versions I needed, but I was intrigued by a blurry image of a Carnival game in a white box.  I spent yesterday scouring the internet (browsing the amazing collections of the 125/124 collectors) to find something similar, but I did not.  Here are some pics of the box:

 

 

Before I got the lot, I assumed that someone had just found a box lying around. But upon closer inspection the box is definitely made to hold a video game cartridge and a manual.  The seller says it is his Dad's collection that the family played long ago. While I am not an expert, I have every reason to believe this is the case and the box is from the early 1980's.  The box has accurate price stickers from The Bay (Canadian department store where you could pick up lots of cheap games after The Crash).  The white Carnival sticker is smoothly pasted on the box; it's not like a photocopy and some school glue.  The sticker on the other side is obviously the French cartridge label sticker.  I know some games back in the day shipped a separate French cartridge sticker that you could put over the English one if you wanted, but not sure if they did that for Carnival.  To me, this looks like this box was made this way, either by Coleco or by The Bay. 

 

 

So, I guess I am just interested to learn more about this item.  I know that when the Mattel games first went to Canada they made the sleeves with the French text (I have a Horse Racing one) as a quick solution before they had French boxes manufactured.  This feels the same to me.  They don't have the fully printed French box so they slap a couple stickers on a plain box, put the English cart and French manual in there and sell it.

 

The only thing even remotely close that I found was some Atari 2600 boxes that were from a box set ("Pak") where the outer box had the art and the inner boxes were mostly plain white.

 

Me: This is my first post on AA (well...I had an account like 15 years ago but I forgot the user name, let alone the password).  I collect all kinds of video games, but I mostly focus on Intellivision and Wii.  The Intellivision was my first console when I found it under the Christmas tree (1982?). I have 115 of the 125 original Intellivision games and made the poor decision to try and complete not only the 125 with Mattel boxes but also the Intellivision Inc. games AND all of the Canadian releases (I'm in Vancouver).

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by BigDumer
Removed 2 extra pictures.

[+stupus]

Wow, that is ugly! Very nice!

Interesting solution for coleco to comply with the canadian law requiring bilingual labels of products. Never seen this myself

[+Lathe26]

That is quite the find!  The box itself looks like a normal Coleco game box but with no ink at all.  That is pretty awesome.

 

Side note: since you are in Vancouver, did you make it to the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo 3 weeks ago?

[BigDumer]

10 minutes ago, Lathe26 said:

Side note: since you are in Vancouver, did you make it to the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo 3 weeks ago?

Hi Lathe26.  I have gone to VRGE every year...until this year.  The week before (Father's Day) my wife bought me a Nintendo Switch with Zelda and then I bought Mario Maker 2. That used up the money that I would normally set aside to blow at the expo so I stayed home this time.  Haha, and then I spent $200 today on this Intellivision lot.  To be fair, last year there wasn't much Intellivision at VRGE so I guess it worked out in the end.  

[+cmart604]

1 hour ago, BigDumer said:

Hi Lathe26.  I have gone to VRGE every year...until this year.  The week before (Father's Day) my wife bought me a Nintendo Switch with Zelda and then I bought Mario Maker 2. That used up the money that I would normally set aside to blow at the expo so I stayed home this time.  Haha, and then I spent $200 today on this Intellivision lot.  To be fair, last year there wasn't much Intellivision at VRGE so I guess it worked out in the end.  

A fellow Vancouverite! Nice. Welcome (back) to the Inty forums. I might know a guy who may be able to

help you complete your French Canadian collection depending on what you have left to collect. ?

 

As for your find I'm honestly not sure what to make of it. I agree with Lathe that it looks like a blank Coleco box that someone took the trouble to add the French Carnival label and whatever the other side is. Lol. As to whether that was Coleco or the Bay that did it I'm not certain, but it's a very cool find. If it is a real release it would follow that there should be a Donkey Kong version like this as well. 

 

[BigDumer]

Hi cmart604!  Although we have never met, your legend has preceded you.  At one of my first VRGE I was talking to someone about Intellivision and they mentioned that they "know a guy" in the area who has the most crazy collection ever. And I might have just now re-joined AtariAge, I have lurked and seen many of your posts over the years.  Also, 2 years ago I bought a lot off Craigslist from Bradd in Ladner, and I believe he obtained many of them from you. These make up many of my "hard-to-find" inty games (like Congo Bongo, Diner) and I suspect they were your doubles/triples etc.  Of course, I could be totally wrong on that too.  :-)

 

We can definitely talk at some point about some of the holes in my collection.  There are more holes than fills in my Intellivision Inc and Canada subsets!

 

I'm surprised that nobody seems to have seen this type of box before. It seems a little too good to be some one-off by some Bay employee but you'd think that anything made in significant quantities would have been seen before now.  On the other hand I can imagine that this type of box might be much more likely to be thrown away since it's so plain.  

[+cmart604]

4 hours ago, BigDumer said:

Hi cmart604!  Although we have never met, your legend has preceded you.  At one of my first VRGE I was talking to someone about Intellivision and they mentioned that they "know a guy" in the area who has the most crazy collection ever. And I might have just now re-joined AtariAge, I have lurked and seen many of your posts over the years.  Also, 2 years ago I bought a lot off Craigslist from Bradd in Ladner, and I believe he obtained many of them from you. These make up many of my "hard-to-find" inty games (like Congo Bongo, Diner) and I suspect they were your doubles/triples etc.  Of course, I could be totally wrong on that too.  :-)

 

We can definitely talk at some point about some of the holes in my collection.  There are more holes than fills in my Intellivision Inc and Canada subsets!

 

I'm surprised that nobody seems to have seen this type of box before. It seems a little too good to be some one-off by some Bay employee but you'd think that anything made in significant quantities would have been seen before now.  On the other hand I can imagine that this type of box might be much more likely to be thrown away since it's so plain.  

Lol. I resemble that remark and yes Bradd did get a lot of his games from me. I'd be more than happy to help you out with your collection. 

 

I love the fact that these weird things keep turning up decades after the original commercial life of the Inty as they give us more things to collect from our favourite system. It would

be nice if other examples of this type of box turned up to give us a better sense of whether this was a retail release from BITD. 

[mr_me]

While I think the Mattel Canada bilingual sleeves were used in 1980 in french speaking regions of Canada; I'm not sure what to make of this Coleco Canada box.  The price of CA$24.99 seems too low to be an introductory 1982 price.  If it wasn't for the Bay price tag I would have thought this might be something Telegames put together in 1986.

[+cmart604]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

While I think the Mattel Canada bilingual sleeves were used in 1980 in french speaking regions of Canada; I'm not sure what to make of this Coleco Canada box.  The price of CA$24.99 seems too low to be an introductory 1982 price.  If it wasn't for the Bay price tag I would have thought this might be something Telegames put together in 1986.

Agreed. Given that there are actually two French Canadian versions of Carnival and that the industry was already addressing the dual language requirements much earlier than the time of Carnival’s release date it would seem unlikely that this was an early release of Carnival made to deal with the language labeling requirements. ? Still neat at any rate.

[BigDumer]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

While I think the Mattel Canada bilingual sleeves were used in 1980 in french speaking regions of Canada; I'm not sure what to make of this Coleco Canada box.  The price of CA$24.99 seems too low to be an introductory 1982 price.  If it wasn't for the Bay price tag I would have thought this might be something Telegames put together in 1986.

Excellent point.  The Mattel sleeves were part of a rush to retail when they were full price.  If it was the same situation here, it would have been a full price and highly unlikely to have been in inventory when the prices came down during the crash.

 

The only other evidence is that 34 of the 35 games in this lot are Mattel.  Only one is Intellivision Inc.  So they appear to have bought all of their games before the Intellivision Inc games started hitting the shelves (1984?).

 

Like cmart says, we might need to wait for more people to sell their Dad's collection and another example surfaces.  Ha, I guess I COULD reach out to the seller and see if his Dad remembers how this particular game came into his possession.  I mean, I guess he'd say "We bought it at The Bay" - but he might know when he bought it.

Edited July 13, 2019 by BigDumer
Spelling

[BigDumer]

8 hours ago, cmart604 said:

Lol. I resemble that remark and yes Bradd did get a lot of his games from me. I'd be more than happy to help you out with your collection. 

Thanks cmart.  Everyone in the community has been great and once I sort through this latest lot I'll compile my wanted list and post it in the appropriate thread.

[+cmart604]

28 minutes ago, BigDumer said:

Thanks cmart.  Everyone in the community has been great and once I sort through this latest lot I'll compile my wanted list and post it in the appropriate thread.

For sure. Feel free to send me a PM as well

[BigDumer]

So.    I decided I should put it into a protective sleeve since I live in a house with two kids and a cat.  When I did that I noticed another price sticker on the top flap.  Why would they put a price sticker on the part that tucks into the box?  Then I realized that it wasn't designed to be tucked-in, but folded out as a hang-tab!  Still a strange and awkward place to put a price sticker:

 

 

Unfortunately the (original?) price sticker is nearly impossible to read.  It has a different product code.  PARTS of the price are visible at the bottom:  >>$______   I need those CSI people to ENHANCE!

 

I checked out my (beaten-up) Canadian Carnival to compare the top flaps and they are different.  Has anyone seen an intellivision box with this kind of hang-tab?  Otherwise, the two boxes are the same size (based on a quick check, not a measurement).

 

 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Cool find and greetings to a fellow Intellivision and Wii collector!  Possibly a tad of topic, but what is your collecting focus of each library and how are you progressing?  My Intellivision collection is largely where I want it and complete minus a few super rares and many variants.  I (foolishly) decided to go for a complete Wii collection, and still need hundreds of games.  I'd take a picture, but it's mostly packed away in boxes.

[mr_me]

6 hours ago, BigDumer said:

...

Unfortunately the (original?) price sticker is nearly impossible to read.  It has a different product code.  PARTS of the price are visible at the bottom:  >>$______   I need those CSI people to ENHANCE!

...

The price looks like it starts with a four.

[BigDumer]

Hi Jason

 

I have built lists of games I want to play for ALL consoles and have been chipping away (and adding to!) the list for 20 years.  

 

For Wii I had defined about 160 games that I wanted to own and I had 145 of those.  There were a few expensive ones left (Shiren the Wanderer!) but about half were pretty common.  The thing is, I was bored by Wii collecting because I was down to the final few so the thrill of regularly finding games was gone.  So, a few weeks ago, I started watching videos and reading reviews and I added about 60 more games to my list.  I was almost done but now it's much more fun hunting and occasionally finding ones I want.

 

As for Intellivision it is the ONLY one that I am going for a complete set.  Worse than that, I decided to get the complete 125, plus all the Intellivision Inc. versions plus all of the Canadian releases.  All told that's about 229 games and I have 147 of them (111 of the main 125 set, 13 of 49 Intellivision Inc. and 23 of 55 Canadian versions).  I am trying to stay away from collecting all the variants even if I do own many already.

 

I guess I have a fondness for the Intellivision because it was my first console. It led to a life-long love of video games and is probably why I have worked in video game development for nearly 20 years.

 

[+Black_Tiger]

I had this version up until sometime this past year. I got rid of superfluous games and chose to keep the version with actual box art. The couple of times I've parted with excess boxed Intellivision games, I've advertised them on craigslist and not received a single response. So it likely went to a thrift store or used game shop.

 

When I first found it, I thought that it was just the remains of a flimsy Coleco box or must have shipped with a sleeve.

[+cmart604]

15 minutes ago, Black_Tiger said:

I had this version up until sometime this past year. I got rid of superfluous games and chose to keep the version with actual box art. The couple of times I've parted with excess boxed Intellivision games, I've advertised them on craigslist and not received a single response. So it likely went to a thrift store or used game shop.

 

When I first found it, I thought that it was just the remains of a flimsy Coleco box or must have shipped with a sleeve.

Cool, although I’m starting to wonder if I’m the only guy in Vancouver who doesn’t have this. Lol! 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

4 hours ago, BigDumer said:

Hi Jason

 

I have built lists of games I want to play for ALL consoles and have been chipping away (and adding to!) the list for 20 years.  

 

For Wii I had defined about 160 games that I wanted to own and I had 145 of those.  There were a few expensive ones left (Shiren the Wanderer!) but about half were pretty common.  The thing is, I was bored by Wii collecting because I was down to the final few so the thrill of regularly finding games was gone.  So, a few weeks ago, I started watching videos and reading reviews and I added about 60 more games to my list.  I was almost done but now it's much more fun hunting and occasionally finding ones I want.

 

As for Intellivision it is the ONLY one that I am going for a complete set.  Worse than that, I decided to get the complete 125, plus all the Intellivision Inc. versions plus all of the Canadian releases.  All told that's about 229 games and I have 147 of them (111 of the main 125 set, 13 of 49 Intellivision Inc. and 23 of 55 Canadian versions).  I am trying to stay away from collecting all the variants even if I do own many already.

 

I guess I have a fondness for the Intellivision because it was my first console. It led to a life-long love of video games and is probably why I have worked in video game development for nearly 20 years.

 

Very cool.  I definitely recommend aiming for non-completism, for sanity's sake.  As for the CIB 125, I'm still missing Spiker and Learning Fun 2.  For Intellivision Inc, I'm only missing Super Series Big League Baseball.  For French Canadian, I'm up to around 36-40 of a complete set.

 

As for Wii...I'm sadly going for a complete set.  I have a decent chunk of the "good" games except a few wiishlist items such as Shiren the Wanderer, Castle of Shikigami, the Data East Collection, the Ultimate Shooting Collection, Sakura Wars, Fire Emblem, Mario Party 9, Kirby's Dream Collection, Pikman 2, and the Pokemon games.  I'm hoping to complete the Wii library in the next two years.  I'm sure the last hundred or so will take some time.  It's been a fun, but challenging endeavor.

[+cmart604]

50 minutes ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Very cool.  I definitely recommend aiming for non-completism, for sanity's sake.  As for the CIB 125, I'm still missing Spiker and Learning Fun 2.  For Intellivision Inc, I'm only missing Super Series Big League Baseball.  For French Canadian, I'm up to around 36-40 of a complete set.

 

As for Wii...I'm sadly going for a complete set.  I have a decent chunk of the "good" games except a few wiishlist items such as Shiren the Wanderer, Castle of Shikigami, the Data East Collection, the Ultimate Shooting Collection, Sakura Wars, Fire Emblem, Mario Party 9, Kirby's Dream Collection, Pikman 2, and the Pokemon games.  I'm hoping to complete the Wii library in the next two years.  I'm sure the last hundred or so will take some time.  It's been a fun, but challenging endeavor.

Does that mean we’re going to walk the floor at PRGE again looking for  weird somewhat sexually suggestive workout video games?

[Humblejack]

14 hours ago, BigDumer said:

Hi Jason

 

I have built lists of games I want to play for ALL consoles and have been chipping away (and adding to!) the list for 20 years.  

 

For Wii I had defined about 160 games that I wanted to own and I had 145 of those.  There were a few expensive ones left (Shiren the Wanderer!) but about half were pretty common.  The thing is, I was bored by Wii collecting because I was down to the final few so the thrill of regularly finding games was gone.  So, a few weeks ago, I started watching videos and reading reviews and I added about 60 more games to my list.  I was almost done but now it's much more fun hunting and occasionally finding ones I want.

 

As for Intellivision it is the ONLY one that I am going for a complete set.  Worse than that, I decided to get the complete 125, plus all the Intellivision Inc. versions plus all of the Canadian releases.  All told that's about 229 games and I have 147 of them (111 of the main 125 set, 13 of 49 Intellivision Inc. and 23 of 55 Canadian versions).  I am trying to stay away from collecting all the variants even if I do own many already.

 

I guess I have a fondness for the Intellivision because it was my first console. It led to a life-long love of video games and is probably why I have worked in video game development for nearly 20 years.

 

Wrong quote, sorry. I should have read closer.

Edited July 14, 2019 by Humblejack

[BigDumer]

9 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

As for Wii...I'm sadly going for a complete set.  I have a decent chunk of the "good" games except a few wiishlist items such as Shiren the Wanderer, Castle of Shikigami, the Data East Collection, the Ultimate Shooting Collection, Sakura Wars, Fire Emblem, Mario Party 9, Kirby's Dream Collection, Pikman 2, and the Pokemon games.  I'm hoping to complete the Wii library in the next two years.  I'm sure the last hundred or so will take some time.  It's been a fun, but challenging endeavor.

I went hard on Wii games after the Wii U came out and there were a ton at every EB Games, usually for quite cheap. That's how I got most of my collection. I'm a sucker for arcade compilations so the Data East collection is one of the very few I ordered online.  I don't have many dupes of Wii but if you send me your want list I can be a spare set of eyes out there for you. 

[+JasonlikesINTV]

9 hours ago, cmart604 said:

Does that mean we’re going to walk the floor at PRGE again looking for  weird somewhat sexually suggestive workout video games?

No, I think I've picked up most of those.  I do still need some horse games, though. So that should be fun.

[BigDumer]

30 minutes ago, Humblejack said:

Wrong quote, sorry. I should have read closer.

I saw your original comment and I will say that the variants do make Intellvision collecting interesting.  Originally I was gong for the 125 and when I bought a big lot and discovered the difference between Mattel and Intellivision Inc. games.  So they were added to the list.  I knew about the Canadian versions so I added those.  It's a slippery slope.  I do have some of the major box variants (Red Action Network Space Armada and Space Battle, Blue Action Network Space Armada, different Demon Attack cover) but then I see trayless vs. plastic tray, book-style vs. bottom flap, carts from USA vs. Hong Kong, Intellivision Inc. stickers over Mattel labels on carts etc.  And that's not even getting to UK or Brazil versions!

 

The other part that is great about Intellivision collecting is that, unless you have a very advanced collection, there is always an opportunity to upgrade a box, a cart, a manual, an overlay. Though knowlege of the variants hurts here.  At the start if I had duplicates, I'd just make the best version possible with the assets from each one.  Now I'm all, "Well, I can't put a Hong Kong cart in a box that originally had the USA cart so I guess I'll keep both."  This is how it starts, isn't it?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

13 minutes ago, BigDumer said:

I went hard on Wii games after the Wii U came out and there were a ton at every EB Games, usually for quite cheap. That's how I got most of my collection. I'm a sucker for arcade compilations so the Data East collection is one of the very few I ordered online.  I don't have many dupes of Wii but if you send me your want list I can be a spare set of eyes out there for you. 

I've done well shopping the sales at GameStop for most of mine.  I'll see if I can put together a list.