Let's share stories of fabulous finds in the wild. I will go

[jeffrey]

I have been very fortunate in my endless search for Atari 2600 games. I have found Mint carts of Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the XONOX Spike's Peak- Ghost Manor double ender. Other good finds include Pitfall 2 and Bugertime. Any one care to put my finds to shame? Jeffrey

[Lemmi]

Well i cant put those titles to shame but the best games ive found in the wild are

 

Xenophobe (found at a garage sale)

Atari Video Cube (found at a trade center)

Condor Attack (found at a garage sale)

Artillery Duel/Chuck Norris (found at a garage sale)

 

And thats about it

[Tempest]

I've found Chase the Chuckwagon, Harbor Escape, Pengo (twice), Track & Field, and two boxed K-Razy Shootouts for the 5200.

 

Tempest

[Stella'sGhost]

Ive checked all the flea markets in my region: nothing. But who knew the one nearest me had hundreds, all in several boxes. In there I found alot of games that are ranked a 5 out of ten. The rareest ones were RobinHood/SpikesPeak and Masterbuilder, in very good condition. Most games were not expensive, but they wanted 60 bucks for RobinHood, Canadian..man, its getting harder to find deals these days! Masterbuilder I got for 20, Canadian, thats a good deal.

[ubersaurus]

Holy shit, Gibralter had Atari Video Cube?!? Dammit, I need to get out more.

Um, my best find lately hasn't been anything more then Pitfall 2. I'm not doing so well lately.

[Lemmi]

quote:

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Originally posted by ubersaurus:

Holy shit, Gibralter had Atari Video Cube?!? Dammit, I need to get out more.

.

---

 

Yup they did and this was during the summer months last year, and i only got it because i didnt have it, i had no idea that it was somewhat rare

[Lost Monkey]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lemmi:

Yup they did and this was during the summer months last year, and i only got it because i didnt have it, i had no idea that it was somewhat rare

---

 

 

You know... for the last 7 years that I've been living in Windsor, I've only been to Gibraltar once... (around 94) and I didn't find anything but guns, hunting knives and baseball hats...

 

Maybe *I* should get out there more often too... seeing as I am only about 20 minutes away from either one... hmmmm...

[Junie]

Mine would have to be the Heavy Sixer I got while thrift shopping in Decemeber. I got it for $15 at Goodwill. Everything is in their boxes (Josysticks, Paddle set, Power Supply) with manuals, including the system manual.

 

Everything works perfectly and looks like it had little use. Of course Combat was included boxed with manual, and three other boxed with manual games.

 

Here is the message thread with pictures My Heavy Sixer Find. Here are the pictures of the box, Stan needed them for comparison Box Images.

[MattG/Snyper2099]

Well, as far as 2600 rarities go, I've found Xenophobe, Pigs in Space, Mr. Do's Castle, Spy Hunter, and an Enduro prototype all in the wild. Pretty close to where I live for the most part as well. There's a more elaborate story with the enduro prototype however, since I found it on vacation, that got published in the last Digital Press guide. It is below for those that are interested. kudos

 

NOTE: This story is two years old.

 

Once I got down to Panama City Beach in Florida this year, I had nothing else on my mind except going to the ocean and basking in the sunshine. That is, until I went to a local pawn shop and got to talking with the owner about a local flea market. I figured hell, I'm here a whole week and it was only a couple hours from my vacation that I had so carefully planned for like a year. So, that Saturday, very early in the morning, I dragged my girlfriend down the road to visit the flea. It was hotter than you know what and I wanted this to be as quick as possible. At first glance, I almost turned around once I saw the parking lot. Most of the venders had crap as usual but the really awful thing was the fact that most of them had no shirts or teeth! Anyway, I continued on in hopes of finding a combat or something else to at least laugh about. Then I picked through a stack of NES games and found one I needed. It was baby boomer, a crappy light gun game. So, it was at least worth the trip so far and that was only outside, we still had yet to trek on inside. So, after going through way too many booths filled with used books and old groceries, I came upon a booth with Nintendo, Sega, Intellivision, Atari, everything one needed to play some great classic games. I searched through maybe 100 or so 2600 games before I saw an Activision cart with no label. I remember thinking "it's probably pitfall or tennis" and set it back down in it's holder. I continued to look over the booth but saw nothing. I almost forgot about the "no label" game and was going to ask the vendor if he knew what it was but I didn't. Since it was only a dollar, I went back and picked it up. That was that and I stuffed it in my bag and put it in the car. I forgot about it for a while and remember that there was a screwdriver in the car I could take it apart with to see what title it was. To my amazement, it was actually an Activision E-PROM cart! I couldn't belive my eyes. The bad part is that I had no way to tell what game it was. So, I had to wait in sheer tremors until I got back home to test it. Even though it turned out to be a game I can't stand (enduro), I still enjoyed rummaging through who knows what to find those ER carts. That stuff is still out there! That's what I think is so amazing. Seventeen years later I found a cart dated 1/28/83. Whoohoo!

[charin]

Well, I have found a lot of weird stuff in Brazilian flea markets, including Atari 2600 cartridges of all types (including one imported Spectravideo cart and one of Coleco for the 2600)

The most rare stuff I found are vintage computers: a MX-Compacto, a weird and very unknown TRS-80 clone; and a MC1000, a rare tiny computer made by CCE (the same company of Atari 2600 clones and carts).

I also find an Atari 800XL and one Koala Pad for Apple II in a flea market. Well it is very common in US, but it is very weird to find one Atari 800XL in a Brazilian flea market!

 

Sergio

[Osmeroid]

I came across Snoopy (in a motorbike spares shop). A few weeks back I got a nice haul, all of them boxed including Off The Wall. Other pleasant finds have been boxed copies of KLAX! and Xenophobe.

 

A genuine case of feast or famine!

[liveinabin]

I got my first Atari, a mint boxed Woodgrain six-switch, still with warranty card, bubble wrapping pacman and controllers for £1.50 in a red-cross charity shop. well, I gave them £2.50 cause I felt so guilty about the stupidly cheap price

[ATARIPITBULL]

Here is my found in the wild story. I have never found shi in any store I have gone to worth buying, unless I want another Pac-man for my collection, which I already have five.

[ubersaurus]

I think all I found last summer from Gibralter that was any good was a copy of MULE for the NES.

[sly]

I found a loose Waterworld and a Proto Moon Patrol. I have picked up about 40 Atari systems in 2 years between 5 and 15 dollars.

[King Atari]

You know, everyone talking about finding Xenophobe, you're just rubbing it in, aren't you ? Just kidding, but I do hope to find an NTSC one in the wild.

[MattyXB]

My best finds in the wild (All PAL):

 

Miner 2049er Volume II (Complete)

Obelix (don't know which variation)

Orbit-Base (not working)

Spider Kong (maybe Prototype)

Star Trek (Complete)

[slapdash]

Hey Sergio, did either the MX-Compacto or the MC1000 take cartridges?

[Jek]

My best find was close to be left behind...At a time I started to look for my 2600 faves of old times, I mainly looked for things like space invaders or something of fun but not of rarity. One rainy day a went to a fleamarket and pulled a card out of the mud. Really! I was in the mud. I did not know that one, but it was cheap (DM2 = 1$) so I took it home. Some weeks later when I started to check out rarity I noticed it as a UR card called X-Man. I think this was the inital moment when I really started to become a 2600-collector.

[jeffrey]

Yeah my finds were ok but if I ever run across my dream of finding a NTSC Xenophobe in the wild like some of you have I may just have to quit collecting. That would be my apex of carts to stumble across even though I know there are rarer carts to be found. You know what is funny? I have found over 400 carts in the wild and never have been able to track down FROGS & FLIES!!! The search continues to this day. Jeffrey

[charin]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Russ Perry Jr:

Hey Sergio, did either the MX-Compacto or the MC1000 take cartridges?

---

 

The MX-Compacto has a kind of expansion port in back but I don't know anything about this weird computer - the only thing I know it is a TRS-80 clone...

The CCE MC1000 also has a expansion port in back but probably it is used for peripherals (if they really existed). All software use tapes.

 

Greetings

 

Sergio

[Marco(2)]

While I have found some nice 2600 games like X-Man and games by Bomb and Video Gems, my best Atari find must have been the big batch of Yoko game copiers and copy carts I got six years ago.

 

But my best videogame find is undoubtedly the set of Videopac (Odyssey^2) EPROMs I found, containing a dozen of previously unknown, non-released games.

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[Adrian]

My best finds were a Brazilian Dynacom Atari 2600 clone and a bunch of Brazilian carts ... and an Entex Adventurevision ... all of which I subsequently traded for extremely rare cartridges!

 

As for stuff I actually kept, Guardian and Atari Video Cube were both decent finds. An Amiga Joyboard was pretty good too! I know there's more, but truthfully, I haven't found anything decent at a flea market or thrift store since about 1996 -- the Bay Area flea markets have LONG been picked over my the many rabid collectors around here. All I can ever hope for these days is nabbing something on eBay or hitting thrift stores and flea markets when I go roadtripping into the desert.

[jahfish]

mine was probably just a few days ago ...

 

for 15$ i got two different arabian consoles, completely new and boxed. all parts are still in plastic bags, and there's not a single bit of dust.

 

i remember seeing one that was sold for over 100$ i think .... the other one appeared a few times on ebay.de but i got always overbidden .... up to 50$ ......

 

thanx bira bira ....

 

also - not in the wild - it seems i finally got my hands on a boxed gameline module ..... will get this confirmed tomorrow

 

happy fish