Deemar Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 I received these today and everything seems fine but I just wanted to post and ask people more knowledgeable than I. Do these look legitimate? I want to make sure I made a good buy here and they're not fake or anything. Bottom left = Frog Pond unreleased prototype Bottom right = Dukes Of Hazzard unreleased semi-prototype Top right = Jr. Pac-Man prototype Top left = Malagai / Gauntlet chips from Answer Software Apparently they were bought from Digipress long ago and now I bought them from that person (may actually be a member here). I spoke with buyatari and he was telling me the Dukes Of Hazzard is actually from Best Electronics but what does that mean? Did they make fakes or is this one of the originally produced ROM chips from the original run? Thanks a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 I am no expert, but I would suggest looking at the date codes on the ROM/EPROM chips as a starting point. It will not prove that these are vintage items, but it can establish that they are not. For example, a chip produced in 1995 cannot have been used to develop a game in 1983 (though a game developed in 1995 could be burned on a chip from 1983). I have never heard of an "unreleased semi-prototype" before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennybrooks Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Hopefully that bag around the Gauntlet and Malagai is non-static. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari181 Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Malagai and Gauntlet look to be original Roms from Answer, not Prototypes. Dukes is a copy of a prototype. The others look like they could be legit, but it is hard to tell from the picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 How dark does it need to be for me to pull the stickers off the chips and look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Dukes is actually a production PCB as well it was just unreleased. Malagai and Gauntlet are production chips. The other 2 I would be warry about as they look to be "best electronics" prototypes which where all assembled by them and not at or by Atari. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 I just played Frog Pond and Dukes Of Hazzard, they play like they should. I don't have a Atari 800 to play Jr. Pac-Man and I'm not sure how to test Malagai / Gauntlet. Can I put them into donor boards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 44 minutes ago, Deemar said: Can I put them into donor boards? Yes, any PCB, that has a 4K mask ROM on it (Pac-Man for instance). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 5 hours ago, CPUWIZ said: Yes, any PCB, that has a 4K mask ROM on it (Pac-Man for instance). I think I'll do that. Do I need some sort of gripper tool to pull the chip off the PCB? Or one of those solder suckers for the bottom? Is there a new PCB I can buy that it will just push into more easily? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 50 minutes ago, Deemar said: I think I'll do that. Do I need some sort of gripper tool to pull the chip off the PCB? Or one of those solder suckers for the bottom? Is there a new PCB I can buy that it will just push into more easily? Not really, but I am sure several people here could make you one with a socket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 11, 2020 Author Share Posted November 11, 2020 So are these the legitimate cartridges I thought they were? I know people say I have the Best Electronics version of Dukes Of Hazzard but what does that mean? Are they making new games with the ROM? Are they using old chips and new cartridges? Is it all old? What about Frog Pond? Is that a real 197X prototype? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supergun Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 The most valuable items that you have in that entire lot, are the Answer Software game roms. (assuming of course that they are indeed original mask roms, but most likely they are) The dukes of hazard cart may or may not contain an original mask rom, either way, as a best electronics aftermarket game, it’s “relatively” common as he has sold hundreds of them. So it’s value isn’t very big. The frog pond cart has an eprom board, so that at least is proto cart material, but whether or not the EPROMs currently populating it were actually original to it is difficult to guess from that pic. the Atari computer cart is pretty much the same as above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bah Posted November 11, 2020 Share Posted November 11, 2020 Best Electronics bought out Atari warehouses and buildings after Atari was gone. What people are telling you is that the chips and boards and even the housings were all assembled by Best from original parts with new labels and sold after Atari was defunct and no longer in the game making business. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 Okay cool, so they're the original unsold cartridges that Atari was holding onto and Best just sold them. That's fine, I think. Do these sound like suitable prices? I'm just checking. Frog Pond = $190 Dukes Of Hazzard = $190 Jr. Pac-Man = $90 Malagai = $90 Gauntlet = $190 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 On 11/12/2020 at 11:23 AM, Deemar said: Okay cool, so they're the original unsold cartridges that Atari was holding onto and Best just sold them. That's fine, I think. Do these sound like suitable prices? I'm just checking. Frog Pond = $190 Dukes Of Hazzard = $190 Jr. Pac-Man = $90 Malagai = $90 Gauntlet = $190 I think you missed a decimal point! But that's just me. Let's see what the other say. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deemar Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 8 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: I think you missed a decimal point! But that's just me. Let's see what the other say. Are you saying I paid 10 times the value? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Deemar said: Are you saying I paid 10 times the value? Definitely not. I think Best Electronics sold some of those games (Frog Pond, Dukes of Hazzard, etc) for $12-20 a long long time ago. They probably go for $60-$100 today. Malagai and Gauntlet are really really rare but I don't think those prices are unreasonable. My opinion is that you may have overpaid a touch for Dukes but none of those games are available very often so enjoy your purchase. Edited November 15, 2020 by cvga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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