2600 related annoyance

[Inky]

I was searching on ebay for stuff for the 8-bit, mostly dreaming right now, and I searched the term "ATARI TAPE". Half the stuff that turned up was for the 2600...

 

Whene are the eBay doofuses (Doofi?) going to realize, with the exception of starpath games, that Atari 2600 carts HAVE NO TAPE IN THEM?

 

Thank you for your support.

Edited August 23, 2006 by Inky

[Lord Helmet]

I agree...who in the hell would call them "tapes"???

 

Doesn't that require that they have some sort of tape in them???

[Jacob Rose]

I agree...who in the hell would call them "tapes"???

 

Doesn't that require that they have some sort of tape in them???

 

I think it's kind a of a fun anachronism. Sometimes I refer to recording a television program with my PVR as "taping a show." In Star Trek, they referred to their memory wafer things as "tapes," too. Remember also that when the Atari was released, 8 track tapes were still very popular, and they didn't look much different; 8 track tapes were almost completely enclosed, and had no window to reveal the reels inside. So, some comparison is to be expected. It doesn't necessarily mean that the person referring to the cartridge as a "tape" doesn't know what it really is...

[Student Driver]

While watching Cloak & Dagger the other day, I noticed that they referred to 5200 carts as "tapes" in the film. And *that* was a movie with substantial support from Atari...

[shadow460]

"Atari tapes -2600"

 

I do it all the time for the 7800.

"Atari 7800 -2600"

[ATARIPITBULL]

Calling a cart, a tape is bad enough, but when they say on Ebay that games like Pac-Man & Defender are RARE carts, thats when I get mad!!!

 

[godzillajoe]

My eBay gripe is people charging $10 for shipping and handling for *ONE* bare cart

 

Are you sending it carrier pigeon and that's to cover food costs?

 

One cart costs 87 cents to ship

[Video]

Actually, everybody used to call Cartridges 'Tapes' And no, they didn't believe they had tape in them, that's just what they were called.

 

You think it's bad when people call it a tape, but when you see company's that make them, and add them call them tapes, that's different.

 

Few people call them tapes now, cause well, few people actually use tapes. Kind of like few people will say "Lets go play Atari" to mean lets go play games cause few people own an Atari now.

 

It's just the changes in the english language.

 

I remember everybody use to call them tapes, and all of a sudden, people stopped. Somewhere between the late 8 bits, and early 16's, people actually started calling them cards or cardtridges. Not sure why, probably as I said the transition away from tapes.

 

I'd have to agree with the person that said what peeves them off is people calling dirt common stuff rare, and charging $10 to ship it. I understand the set price shipping, I do that by shipping all things priority, but there's no shiping method that will cost $10 for a single game cart.

[godzillajoe]

Yeah, people still say stuff like "hey did you get that new Bruce Springsteen album yet?" even though everything is on CD now.

[potatohead]

Yeah, people still say stuff like "hey did you get that new Bruce Springsteen album yet?" even though everything is on CD now.

 

Isn't the word Album still appropriate as in a collection of individual recordings? Asking if one has gotten the LP or the Record is old news, but an album is still an album, regardless of the media carrying it. (Tape, CD, Vinyl, 8 Track, Zip file, mp3, etc...)

 

Think of it like Photo Album, which is a collection of individual photos.

[nester]

Maybe they just call them tapes to get them to show up in more searches. People like to use common words like that. It's similar to when they'll hide the product in a long line of words. It will be something like RARE ATARI 2600 7800 carrying case GAMES FUN ATARI RARE! That's what you gotta look out for.

[Godzilla]

ah, little did you know, inside all that 2600 silicon is micronized, gnome-on-a-treadmill-powered nano-tape drives feeding the game to the system. You have to have the right kind of special glasses to be able to see this, but it is true, oh yes, it is true!

[nester]

So that's what happened to my Pole Position cart. The gnome died! How do you replace one of those?

[plaidbrad3141]

The people that call Atari games tapes are usualy the ones that would sell you Quadrun for a quarter or throw it away, whichever came first.

[A.J. Franzman]

Yeah, people still say stuff like "hey did you get that new Bruce Springsteen album yet?" even though everything is on CD now.

Isn't the word Album still appropriate as in a collection of individual recordings? Asking if one has gotten the LP or the Record is old news, but an album is still an album, regardless of the media carrying it. (Tape, CD, Vinyl, 8 Track, Zip file, mp3, etc...)

 

Think of it like Photo Album, which is a collection of individual photos.

The original music "albums" looked a lot like photo albums, which is where the name comes from! They were collections of 78 RPM records (thick, heavy not flexible, typically 10 inches in diameter instead of 12 inches like a 33 1/3 RPM LP record, fragile like china, and often sounded like sandpaper when played) which came in book-style hard covers with each page having a pocket to hold one disc. A single symphony would be spread across several discs (which each had comparable playing time to the later 45 RPM "single" format, about 2-3 minutes per side, max.) and packaged into such an album. The "album" as a collection of shorter songs by a single band or orchestra, or a "various artists" collection with a common theme, was also found in this format. When the 33 1/3 RPM Long Playing record format was introduced, allowing collections of a dozen or more songs, or an entire symphony, to fit on a single disc, the term "album" was retained even though the format was no longer actually an album.

Edited August 25, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[Urchlay]

AFAIK, the term "cartridge" originally meant "bullet" (or maybe a particular type of bullet, not really a gun expert)... I wonder if there are any antique gun collectors out there who get annoyed by the use of "cartridge" for 2600 games

 

Maybe instead of searching for "Atari tape", you could search for "Atari cassette"... I've never heard anyone call an Atari cartridge a cassette (and I've only heard them called tapes once or twice in many years of video game addiction, usually by older people, talking about their kids' games).

 

Related terminology annoyance... people who refer to CDs or floppy disks as "hard disks" (yes, they're disks, and yes, they're "hard", so I at least get where the confusion comes from, but it still irritates).

 

The worst unintenional use of terminology has got to be the guy who told me someone donated 10 "computers" to his church, but they weren't complete... so I asked him, "What do you need?", thinking mice, keyboards, or such... He said, "I need those, but I also need the box that sits on the floor". Turns out, someone "donated" 10 old monitors to this church that had no computers (and likely none of the monitors even worked).

[jbanes]

AFAIK, the term "cartridge" originally meant "bullet" (or maybe a particular type of bullet, not really a gun expert)... I wonder if there are any antique gun collectors out there who get annoyed by the use of "cartridge" for 2600 games

Generically, it refers to a casing that holds a payload of some sort. In guns, a cartridge is a sealed cylinder containing the bullet, powder, and an oxygen supply. The hammer in the weapon strikes the cartrige to ignite the powder inside the cartridge, which dislodges the bullet and sends it hurtling through the barrel. (Yes, you can fire many weapons under water because of this. It's not just hollywood.)

 

Magazine cartridges are casings that hold and dispense ammunition into a weapon. (Loading the bullet cartridge into a firing position is called "chambering" a round. This comes from the action of loading the round into the firing chamber.)

 

In the case of games, the circuit card is wrapped in a protective shell to create a cartridge.

 

In the case of an ink cartridge, the protective casing holds the ink well and dispenses the ink in the appropriate amounts. Modern cartridges even contain print heads as part of the unit.

[supercat]

AFAIK, the term "cartridge" originally meant "bullet" (or maybe a particular type of bullet, not really a gun expert)... I wonder if there are any antique gun collectors out there who get annoyed by the use of "cartridge" for 2600 games

 

To a Revolutionary War soldier, a cartridge referred to a paper package containing a lead ball, a cloth patch, and a measured quantity of powder. Most of the powder would be dumped into the barrel, but some would be put into a pan called the frizzen. Pulling the trigger would cause a spark which would ignite the powder in the frizzen. This would then, hopefully, send a flame through a small hole into the barrel where the rest of the powder was waiting. Prior to the Gold Rush, the term "flash in the pan" meant that the powder in the frizzen had ignited without touching off the main charge.

 

Improvements in bullet design removed the need for the cloth patch. Then, shortly before the Civil War, the percussion cap was invented. This used a chemical that would ignite when struck. At first, percussion caps were used in firearms that were still loaded separately with powder and bullet. Later, the primer, powder, and bullet were combined in a metal package similar to the modern firearm cartridge. Despite the superiority of cartridge-loading firearms, however, most rifles used in the Civil War were of older muzzle-loading styles.

[Vic George 2K3]

I think it's been said before, but if it needs to be said again, the confusion of calling Atari 2600 cartridges "tapes" would be understandable in its day and age, given the existence of the 8-track tape cartridge media for music up until the early 1980s. Then again also, computer games and programs for personal computers used to be stored on cassette tapes.

[A.J. Franzman]

In guns, a cartridge is a sealed cylinder containing the bullet, powder, and an oxygen supply.

Actually, the powder itself contains its own oxidizer. This is partially what enables it to burn so fast that we think of it as an explosion (though it really isn't). In many instances, the powder charge takes up all or nearly all available space inside the metal cartridge, right up to the bottom of the bullet when stood upright. If the powder needed ambient oxygen to burn, the small amount available between the granules and any other remaining space would not be anywhere near enough to complete combustion.

[Room 34]

8 track tapes were almost completely enclosed, and had no window to reveal the reels inside.

BUT... the end that was inserted into the player had the tape exposed -- and completely unprotected!

 

Still, I understand the reason that clueless people used to call Atari games "tapes," but I remember how much it pissed me off, even as an 8-year-old!

Edited August 25, 2006 by Room 34

[JacobZu7zu7]

My eBay gripe is people charging $10 for shipping and handling for *ONE* bare cart

 

Are you sending it carrier pigeon and that's to cover food costs?

 

One cart costs 87 cents to ship

 

This is also mine. It's just a game not a big brick!

[Video]

AFAIK, the term "cartridge" originally meant "bullet" (or maybe a particular type of bullet, not really a gun expert)... I wonder if there are any antique gun collectors out there who get annoyed by the use of "cartridge" for 2600 games

Generically, it refers to a casing that holds a payload of some sort. In guns, a cartridge is a sealed cylinder containing the bullet, powder, and an oxygen supply. The hammer in the weapon strikes the cartrige to ignite the powder inside the cartridge, which dislodges the bullet and sends it hurtling through the barrel. (Yes, you can fire many weapons under water because of this. It's not just hollywood.)

 

 

 

Just remember to let the barrel fill with water first or it might backfire, or have a blowout.

 

Oh yeah, and only subsonic weapons will work any distance under water, supersonic ones tend to expload...

[Dauber]

I agree...who in the hell would call them "tapes"???

 

I'll tell you who: whatever lady was working near the 2600 in-store demo display at the K mart in either Bourbonnais or Kankakee, IL in 1982, 1983...

[Dauber]

Calling a cart, a tape is bad enough, but when they say on Ebay that games like Pac-Man & Defender are RARE carts, thats when I get mad!!!

 

Well, if it makes you feel better, I just searched eBay for "atari 2600 pac rare" and questioned the seller something like this:

 

"What exactly makes your item rare? Atari manufactured many more Pac-Man carts than the number of Atari 2600 systems that ever existed, and if you search through eBay, you'll find that you can't buy a set of Atari 2600 games without Pac-Man being one of them."