Wanted: Common Atari 2600 and 7800 Cartridge Shells

[Albert]

Greetings!

 

I am looking for common Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridge shells, for recycling into new homebrew games.  I do plan on having new shells made soon (I'm really tired of having to recycle shells), but that's not going to happen before the end of the year.  Thus, I need to make sure I have plenty of shells to use for the new games being introduced at the upcoming Portland Retro Gaming Expo in October, as well as when I add these new games to the store in November. 

 

I'll give $1 in store credit for 2600 shells and $3 in store credit for 7800 shells, plus the cost of shipping to get them to me. 

 

Here are my requirements for the cartridges (please read!)

 

• For 2600 games, I can use any shells from Atari and Sears.  For the 7800, only first-party Atari shells.
• For 7800 shells, please make sure BOTH PEGS at the bottom of the cartridge are present.  These break off fairly easily.
• Cartridges MUST BE CLEAN.  Especially on the back of the shell, but on any of the textured surfaces.  It's very difficult removing dirt and stains from the textured surfaces of cartridges. 
• Cartridges must be free of permanent markings.  Such as markers, etchings (I see this more than you'd think!), nail polish, and so forth.  Writing on the labels is fine, since those will be removed.
• Cartridges must be free from defects.  No dog chew marks, no broken pieces, melted plastic, etc.  I've seen it all!

 

To make this worthwhile, you should have at least 20 carts to send in.  Shipping just makes these quite a bit more expensive for anything less than that.  USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes (medium and large, and some other oddball sizes they have) work well for 40+ cartridges.  For larger amounts (100+), UPS Ground and/or FedEx Ground may be less expensive.

 

Please send me a PM if you can help out, thank you!

 

 ..Al

[delmero]

Hi Al:

My humble opinion: since I've seen people get their projects done through crowdfunding maybe you could start something on Kickstarter or Indiegogo to produce the charts. What do you think?

Regards

delmero

[Albert]

4 minutes ago, delmero said:

Hi Al:

My humble opinion: since I've seen people get their projects done through crowdfunding maybe you could start something on Kickstarter or Indiegogo to produce the charts. What do you think?

Regards

delmero

That's a possibility I have considered, but I definitely won't have time to do that for a bit until I get beyond PRGE and then the new slate of games in the store at the end of the year.

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

Bumping this topic as I can still use more 2600 and 7800 shells.  Thank you to everyone who's helped thus far!! 

 

 ..Al

[Jstick]

Will you reimburse shipping costs from Canada?

[Albert]

10 minutes ago, Jstick said:

Will you reimburse shipping costs from Canada?

Generally, no, although it depends on the number of cartridges and how much it'll cost to get them here.  Might work out for a large number of carts (over 50), but shipping is still likely to be a killer.

 

 ..Al

[Jstick]

4 hours ago, Albert said:

Generally, no, although it depends on the number of cartridges and how much it'll cost to get them here.  Might work out for a large number of carts (over 50), but shipping is still likely to be a killer.

 

 ..Al

Yeah, figured as much.  

 

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with 30 Asteroids/Combat/Missile Command carts.

[Albert]

1 minute ago, Jstick said:

Yeah, figured as much.  

 

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with 30 Asteroids/Combat/Missile Command carts.

How much would it cost to ship them to the US?

[delmero]

17 hours ago, Albert said:

Bumping this topic as I can still use more 2600 and 7800 shells.  Thank you to everyone who's helped thus far!! 

 

 ..Al

@Albert

I bought a lot of 12 empty shells for the games from an Ebay listing:

I think there are more lots of 12 available, let me know where to send them

 

[+groundtrooper]

17 hours ago, delmero said:

@Albert

I bought a lot of 12 empty shells for the games from an Ebay listing:

I think there are more lots of 12 available, let me know where to send them

 

He can only use Atari or Sears Shells. No third party shells as stated in the original post. 

[masschamber]

I did my part, and was rewarded handsomely for it as well.  If you can sell some commons you should, the store has some fantastic games on there!

[+groundtrooper]

Yes, I went through my doubles and cleaned out some local shops with prices that allowed for a decent ROI for what Al was giving in credit. 

 

I pretty much paid nothing for my 2018 new releases after PRGE last year. The problem is I "cleaned them out" last year. 

I don't think I will be able to do it this year. There's just not my much out there at the prices I would need for it to not be an upside down proposition. 

 

But I will start looking harder. The problem is most shops here look up prices on the fly so it is usually futile to get something for a dollar.  

[delmero]

On 7/28/2019 at 1:24 AM, groundtrooper said:

He can only use Atari or Sears Shells. No third party shells as stated in the original post. 

Ok I'll sell them afterwards when I receive the package, but the strange thing to me that before they were shells they contained a game. 

[Shawn]

On 7/30/2019 at 8:45 PM, delmero said:

Ok I'll sell them afterwards when I receive the package, but the strange thing to me that before they were shells they contained a game. 

 

Also, those shells you bought are missing the second piece of plastic on the end needed to hold the pcb in place even if you where to try and use them for anything on the Atari. You got hosed if you bought them thinking they could be used as they are. I'd try canceling the order as you did purchase under false pretense. This is what a proper M-Network shell would look like for the Atari 2600 with both pieces:

 

[roadrunner]

Someone should make a M-Network homebrew to use up unwanted M-Network shells.

[Shawn]

47 minutes ago, roadrunner said:

Someone should make a M-Network homebrew to use up unwanted M-Network shells.

 

The boards are a different shape so you either have to hack up the shells one by one or get a new PCB printed with the M-Network footprint.

[jaybird3rd]

I'm just amazed that somebody took the trouble to remove the bottoms from all those old M-Network cartridges.  Those things are hard to get off!  And why would they have removed them in the first place?  What would they have done with them?

[Albert]

4 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

I'm just amazed that somebody took the trouble to remove the bottoms from all those old M-Network cartridges.  Those things are hard to get off!  And why would they have removed them in the first place?  What would they have done with them?

Yes, that is all very odd.

[Shawn]

17 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

I'm just amazed that somebody took the trouble to remove the bottoms from all those old M-Network cartridges.  Those things are hard to get off!  And why would they have removed them in the first place?  What would they have done with them?

 

I'm guessing they where never assembled.

[jaybird3rd]

8 minutes ago, Shawn said:

I'm guessing they where never assembled.

That's what I thought, too, but some of those shells are dirty and worn far beyond what one would expect for unused NOS shells.  (Look at the filthy Astrosmash carts in the upper-left, for instance.)  It also seems odd that they would have been labeled before they were assembled.

[CPUWIZ]

26 minutes ago, Albert said:

Yes, that is all very odd.

Maybe for Intellivision homebrews.

[Albert]

Just now, CPUWIZ said:

Maybe for Intellivision homebrews.

I dunno, I have a ton of common Intellivision games, they are not hard to come by.  And then you don't have those holes at the bottom of the shell, to say nothing of the extra work to pull the bottom piece off.  I don't even know if Intellivision boards would fit in those M Network carts.

 

 ..Al

[amiman99]

FYI, Last weekend we had in Austin, Classic Game Fest. Gameover Games were selling bunch of Atari 2600 games for $1 each. Boxes of them. Maybe you could contact them and ask if they could sell you the leftovers.

[jaybird3rd]

21 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

Maybe for Intellivision homebrews.

That's a possibility.  Without the bottoms, the M-Network shells are indeed the same as Mattel's later Intellivision shells; this is why the M-Network cartridges are such an unusual shape.  But these later shells are a pain to work with: they use a screwless design which requires a different board from the originals, as well as a small interlocking plastic insert to secure the board inside the shell (which would be missing in M-Network donors).  This is why the original-style Intellivision shells with the screw-on doors are preferred for use as donors.

 

The only scenario I can envision is that somebody harvested these cartridges for gold scrap, and because the boards are secured to the bottoms, they simply broke off the bottoms for processing and dumped the leftover tops on eBay.  There's not enough value in these cartridges to make them worth the effort (most of those M-Network boards are tiny), and one would think that breaking off the bottoms in bulk would leave the tops more damaged than those appear to be, but that's all I can come up with.

[delmero]

On 8/1/2019 at 1:12 AM, Shawn said:

 

Also, those shells you bought are missing the second piece of plastic on the end needed to hold the pcb in place even if you where to try and use them for anything on the Atari. You got hosed if you bought them thinking they could be used as they are. I'd try canceling the order as you did purchase under false pretense. This is what a proper M-Network shell would look like for the Atari 2600 with both pieces:

 

Will do, thanks Shawn

I have one or two same as your photo. I'm a newbie in this, always wanted an Atari and computers but I kept getting dolls as toys. I grew up as disconnected as you can be in the 80's. My enthusiasm for video games never waned although I didn't have a console, I first saw an Atari 2600 four-switcher at my neighbor's house and I fell in deep love with the console and PacMan.

Edited August 3, 2019 by delmero
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