04 space combat - What the dilly?

[Atari Rescue Group]

I just weighed two carts -- one a regular Atari 2 digit cart ("11 Indy 500") that weighs 2.3 oz, and a loaner cart I got from Tempest which weighs 3.1 oz. I'm guessing that prototypes were sometimes different weights as they were made with different board/chip combinations.

966429[/snapback]

 

What game was the loaner cart?

 

I'd expect one of three things for a cart of that vintage:

 

-1- For a 2K or 4K production game, a single 24-pin DIP

 

-2- For a 2K prototype, a 24-pin DIP and a 14-pin DIP

 

-3- For a 4K prototype, two 24-pin DIPs and a 14-pin DIP

 

Spacewar/Space Combat is 2K.

966462[/snapback]

 

It's a Ms. Pac-Man. I haven't seen the inside of it but Tempest's best guess is that it is probably like this one. Board/Chip combo

 

 

I would venture to guess that this is a "marketing" prototype, not necessarily a game prototype. Makes sense that they would consider Space Combat since Combat has tanks and planes -- why not space ships? Perhaps it was even planned to be on the same cartridge as Combat, but with the variations they just ran out of room. So Space Combat was born.

 

Of course not too long afterwards you got to think that someone decided that having two cartridges with similar names in a limited initial release of seven games (or whatever was immediately available) might not be the smartest move from a marketing standpoint.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is based on a semi-coin-op, is it not? I remember playing it as a kid before Atari came out - vector graphics like Asteroids with a small but gravitationally-strong sun in the middle... was this called Space War too? Who made it? Come to think of it, wasn't it the Enterprise vs. a Klingon ship?

 

~G

966471[/snapback]

Maybe it was this Space War arcade game.

[crunchysuperman]

So how much does it weigh?

966026[/snapback]

 

Bare cart weight = 2.5 oz. / 70 grams

 

My scale is digital, but only shows 1/4 oz/5g increments.

 

Crunchy will tell you all about it later this week, I'm sure.

 

Chuck

966278[/snapback]

 

I just weighed two carts -- one a regular Atari 2 digit cart ("11 Indy 500") that weighs 2.3 oz, and a loaner cart I got from Tempest which weighs 3.1 oz. I'm guessing that prototypes were sometimes different weights as they were made with different board/chip combinations.

 

Crunchysuperman can hopefully weigh it again to get a more exact weight.

966429[/snapback]

 

 

I've got a .01g resolution scale put away somewhere - I'll definately try & dig it up.

[Tempest]

There were different proto board revisions, but they should all weigh about the same. The only things that changed were the EPROM memory size and the position on the board (from horizontal to vertical). The only things that would cause a noticeable difference in the weight would be if it only used one EPROM (I've only seen this in old 2K games), or if it used a SARA chip (that would only apply to a handful of 1983-1984 games).

 

Of course there are some crazy proto board hack jobs like this that might account for some weight differences:

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/h...house/81281.htm

 

Tempest

[A.J. Franzman]

Maybe it was this Space War arcade game.

966493[/snapback]

Or this Space Wars arcade game which was in fact the same game as the above, but plural vs. singular title and branded as "Cinematronics" instead of "Vectorbeam". In the upright cabinet this version was wide enough for 2 people to comfortably stand side-by-side, and a cocktail version was also made. I remember playing the "Space Wars" upright version in the Sears store at the local mall. I liked all the strange options it had, including black hole, no sun, no gravity, bouncing off screen edges or wrapping, etc. There was even an "expanded universe" option which allowed players to hide and maneuver beyond the edges of the visible screen. I also liked the partial damage and ability to cripple your opponent without destroying him.

 

The keypad-only controls sucked, though.

Edited November 16, 2005 by A.J. Franzman

[crunchysuperman]

Ok, here's some cartridge weights:

 

Space Combat, Sears pic 4975106 62.73g

Space Combat, Sears txt 4975106 64.04g

Space Combat, Sears txt 699812 61.23g

Space War, Atari pic 66.01g

Space War, Atari txt 63.91g

 

Space Combat, Atari txt 68.45g

 

So it is definately the heaviest version, but they all seem to vary quite a bit. All these cartridges have locking dustcovers, so the shell should be the same weight.

 

Pushing back the dustcover reveals that there definately is a different pcb inside this cartridge. All these other versions are green/white with shorter edge connections, but this one appears brown with long edge connections. Batteries died in my camera, but when I can get a shot of it, I'll put it up.

 

I did go ahead & get some scans done. Notice the red border bleeding in "behind" the silver border on the left side of the end label. It's printed that way - it's not written on or altered.

 

I'm gonna be modding my 7800 to dump roms - I'll put this one up when I do.

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What's the weight of an extra label?

 

[crunchysuperman]

Yeah, I thought about peeling up a sacraficial combat or pacman to find out when I was doing this.

[Tempest]

Pushing back the dustcover reveals that there definately is a different pcb inside this cartridge.  All these other versions are green/white with shorter edge connections, but this one appears brown with long edge connections.  Batteries died in my camera, but when I can get a shot of it, I'll put it up.

 

Is it this color?

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/m...nigolfproto.htm

 

If so, then it is most likely a prototype. The earliest proto boards were a light tan color.

 

Tempest

[crunchysuperman]

Well, my cheap digital camera just won't focus properly up that close But no, it's not a proto board that's pictured in that link. It's tan with longer edge connections than most carts, but after some cleaning I noticed there is some green down at the bottom. Checking out my Atari original numbered carts, some of those are like this as well. However, none of my Space War or Space Combat cartridges have this style PCB inside.