Gemini pack-in

[Prof Procyon]

Hi,

 

I'm totally new in the Atari world. I played a lot when I was younger but that's it for my experience!

 

Well, today I just got a box containing boxed atari 2600 games, one of what I would guess to be a light-sixer system and one gemini.

 

I was checking in the rarety guide for my cartridges and found all of them except for minor variations like my star raiders box with 5 languages and no comic book, but I think this is pretty minor.

 

What I found a bit weird though is a loose cartridge in the box, Carnival. It has a sticker on the back marked "Bonus cartridge included with Gemini purchase. Non-Refundable". I looked around a bit and it seems that the gemini system is always stated to have been sold with DK or with Mousetrap or both, but nowhere I found that Carnival was the free bonus that once came with the Gemini system.

 

That may be unimportant, I just found this to be strange.. but the gemini doesn't seem to be very popular anyway, so that can explain.

[Spirantho]

I was checking in the rarety guide for my cartridges and found all of them except for minor variations like my star raiders box with 5 languages and no comic book, but I think this is pretty minor.

 

Hi Prof - and welcome!

 

Sounds to me like your Star Raiders is PAL, rather than NTSC - so you may find the picture rolls on your telly, assuming the cart belongs to the box, and the colours may be wrong.

 

Can't say about the Carnival, but I do know my Gemini only came with Donkey Kong!

[Mindfield]

I'd have to say I've never heard of it coming with Carnival, either. None of my Carnival carts have that sticker on the back, and my boxed Gemini advertizes both Donkey Kong and Mouse Trap as the pack-ins. I recall the Gemini I had as a kid only came with Donkey Kong.

[SS]

If memory serves, Carnival may have been an extra pack-in late in the life of the Gemini.

[SS]

On a semi-related note, did the Columbia Home Arcade come with any pack-ins? Did it even have a "real" box to pack things in?

[NovaXpress]

I think the Gemini with Donkey Kong and Mouse Trap was either the first release or came soon after. A friend of mine had one the first year it was released and it came with both games. I've never heard of any other cart being included with the US version.

[Vic George 2K3]

The Gemini I bought in 1985 came with Mr. Do! as its pack-in game

[povlok1]

I have a gemini Venture Pack in as well as a dk and mouse trap

[Prof Procyon]

I'm from Quebec so I guess we had different versions here since we mostly speak french. My gemini has a bilingual sticker on it, as well as the sticker on the cartridge, it's in english and french.

 

For my star raiders multilingual box, I think it's NTSC but again, since Quebec is french, I guess they simply took the international box to sell it here.

 

Do you think that minor variations like this can make my stuff a bit rarer than the US version? I don't wish to sell or anything, but I think it'd be cool to start off with somehow rarer stuff already!

[Esc]

Coleco would slap a sticker on the box with whatever add-in cart they included. I've only seen Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap, Venture and Carnival as packed carts. You're probably right that they added this near the end of the life of the Gemini. The first set of Gemini's only had DK included.

[SS]

Coleco exec - "Just throw in three of whatever crap we have lying around. Maybe someone will buy 'em!"

[NovaXpress]

Most of the ones I saw included Donkey Kong and Mouse Trap, was this the first edition, with a bonus cart to pump up sales?

 

The paddle for Gemini was awful, I believe it was the wire brush type.

[SS]

So does anyone know any info on the Columbia Home Arcade?

[Mindfield]

I think the extra pack-ins were later editions due to the flagging sales of Gemini and the fact that Coleco was heading towards the grave at a nice clip. The ADAM was a fairly pricey failure for them, after all, so I figure they tried to increase the Atari-compatibility cash-in by including more carts with their Atari-compatible and still sell for less. After all, the Gemini didn't really need extra incentives to buy when it was released, since the Atari craze was stilll in full swing, and the Gemini being cheaper (I recall getting mine for a cool $99.99 CAD in 1982) was probably incentive enough.

 

Of course, the crash wasn't far off, so I'd imagine the need to enhance interest through extra free games increased with the decline in the market, thus the two and three pack-ins. The one with Mr. Do was probably the last, considering Mr. Do itself is fairly rare, which speaks of a shorter production run due to the late, crash-era release.

[+Random Terrain]

Mine came with Mouse Trap.