Pole Position orange end label?

[buick]

Howdy folks. I've had this copy of Pole Position sitting around for a few years and I've realized that an orange end label is actually not commonplace for Pole Position. I've never found an identical copy. The face label is identical to a typical Pole Position but the end label is bright orange with white font hand has the "POLE POSITN" mis-spelling. Anyone have any information on this?

[Tavi]

I did a bit of digging online, as I was interested in this as well.

I found one similar here: https://gamevaluenow.com/atari-2600/pole-position-error-label?gameid=614 Which suggests the typo cartridge is a bit more valuable then a correct one, but not by a huge amount.

However, both the cartridge error labels shown on this page, and the one on AtariProtos Label Variation Museum show a black label variant; I do not know if a orange label is a more rare variant of the variant, or not.

 

[Tempest]

10 minutes ago, Tavi said:

I did a bit of digging online, as I was interested in this as well.

I found one similar here: https://gamevaluenow.com/atari-2600/pole-position-error-label?gameid=614 Which suggests the typo cartridge is a bit more valuable then a correct one, but not by a huge amount.

However, both the cartridge error labels shown on this page, and the one on AtariProtos Label Variation Museum show a black label variant; I do not know if a orange label is a more rare variant of the variant, or not.

 

Yeah I've never seen that orange one, it almost looks like a pirate end label.  I'd say it's homemade, but not bright orange like that.  Very odd.

 

BTW has anyone ever found a Ploe Position end label or is that one just a rumor?

[buick]

Homemade was my first guess, but it fits in that spot just a little too well for that, and it's made of similar paper to typical Atari labels. Maybe this is a pirated cartridge?

 

Also just noticed I made a typo on the original post, "white font hand has" is supposed to say "white font and has".

Edited December 19, 2019 by buick

[Rom Hunter]

6 hours ago, Tempest said:

BTW has anyone ever found a Ploe Position end label or is that one just a rumor?

That's a rumor that probably started by misspelled Pole Position titles on Ebay.

Could be that the orange one is real, though.

Never seen it before, but why would you fake this?

Here's another interesting variation:
 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Rom Hunter

[buick]

It's not a fake, or at least not one done by me. I got it from a local game store with a lot of about 20 games, most of which were other similarly low-value titles (think Asteroids and Bowling). I hope someone can shed some light on this.

[KevKelley]

My opinion is that this a case of sun bleaching.

 

The cart was probably in a stack so the face label was not altered but the end label changes, with the pigments in the black fading to orange and the text eventually fading to white. 

[0078265317]

There are some on ebay.

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F303131625326

 

[buick]

17 hours ago, KevKelley said:

My opinion is that this a case of sun bleaching.

 

The cart was probably in a stack so the face label was not altered but the end label changes, with the pigments in the black fading to orange and the text eventually fading to white. 

That wouldn't make sense. Black ink doesn't sun-bleach to such a vibrant orange. And besides, if that were the case, why don't we see any other Atari 2600 labels that look like this? Some sort of pirate label is the most likely answer I've received so far.

[+Spriggy]

I found reference to another orange end label an AA member has/had from 2010

 

 

[Philflound]

So far I have not listed this as a variant for the orange end label. The 2010 thread the person mentions it, but does not show it. I'm wary on whether or not this is legit. Is there a date stamped with the week as other labels sometimes have? With people printing labels nowadays, I think it would be easy to just make one.

[Tempest]

I think they meant the text was orange not red.  Not the whole end label.

[Ballblaɀer]

You can see @jahfish's copy in this post. I've been hoping for another one to turn up ever since I saw it.

 

 

I doubt there's a date stamp on the end label, as it's an Atari Corp. release.

[+Spriggy]

2 hours ago, Ballblaɀer said:

You can see @jahfish's copy in this post. I've been hoping for another one to turn up ever since I saw it.

 

 

I doubt there's a date stamp on the end label, as it's an Atari Corp. release.

 

Nice Bb.

 

 

[buick]

Wow so there's at least one more around! Is there any way to determine how many of these made it into circulation?

[Ballblaɀer]

1 hour ago, buick said:

Wow so there's at least one more around! Is there any way to determine how many of these made it into circulation?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: nnnnnoooooooooo. ?

 

Yeah, I was pretty excited when you posted your copy. Let me know if you ever think of trading/selling!

[Tempest]

Wow, what a weird end label.  Then again didn't Atari make a PAL Defender with a light blue end label like that?

[buick]

On 12/23/2019 at 6:19 PM, Ballblaɀer said:

Let me know if you ever think of trading/selling!

Honestly this is just too cool for me to sell right now lol. I'll let you know if I change my mind, though!

On 12/24/2019 at 9:36 AM, Tempest said:

didn't Atari make a PAL Defender with a light blue end label like that?

They did, but this cart works on my NA light sixer so it's definitely not PAL.

[JayAre]

On 12/18/2019 at 11:50 PM, buick said:

Howdy folks. I've had this copy of Pole Position sitting around for a few years and I've realized that an orange end label is actually not commonplace for Pole Position. I've never found an identical copy. The face label is identical to a typical Pole Position but the end label is bright orange with white font hand has the "POLE POSITN" mis-spelling. Anyone have any information on this?

I recently purchased one of these Pole Position carts with the orange end label from a seller in the U.K.  It was part of a CIB with a 1986 Atari Corp. manual.

 

From what I've seen, this is the third time this label has surfaced on AtariAge.  The end labels on all three of these carts aren't in the best condition.  Maybe that's a coincidence, or perhaps that says something about the history/origin of this end label.

 

I'm attaching pictures of these three carts; the bottom one is the one I just purchased.

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by JayAre

[buick]

4 hours ago, JayAre said:

I recently purchased one of these Pole Position carts with the orange end label from a seller in the U.K. 

Aw, cool! I've been wondering if another one of these was ever going to surface. And it only took... three years 

I've tried to do research every now and then and I still know just about as much as when I originally made the post. There's basically zero information online about why these cartridges exist or why there's so few of them. 

 

5 hours ago, JayAre said:

It was part of a CIB with a 1986 Atari Corp. manual.

 

From what I've seen, this is the third time this label has surfaced on AtariAge.  The end labels on all three of these carts aren't in the best condition.  Maybe that's a coincidence, or perhaps that says something about the history/origin of this end label.

The plot thickens! UK seller, and from 1986? Maybe these were some final run of the silver label cartridges before transferring to the red label? And used orange on white for the final batch for some reason? I don't know, this is pure speculation.

I am still in possession of my copy, though I do have a regular Pole Position to play on instead. (And besides, I prefer Enduro anyways :p) I keep mine somewhere safer these days. interesting that, even with as much technology and documentation that we have access too, this 45 year old system can still throw us a mystery every now and again. And maybe not every mystery needs to be solved. It's kind of cool having this rare oddball cartridge and not knowing why it even exists!