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Atari Video System X


RickR

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I used to work for AMI semiconductor. The produced all the roms for Atari. the first three pictures are engineering roms for the 2600 with the socket test cartridge. The last picture is I believe a test card for the 7800 but not sure.    

You know, that does look like like a 7800 cartridge ROM board. Maybe, it is a Super Game Cartridge, but I am not so sure. I have seen something like it, but I don't know if it is similar. Maybe…

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My congratulations for that uncle and his Atari treasure chamber!

 

I am absolutely fascinated by the 5200, because it is really an exotic piece of hardware in Europe. I had imported a console four years ago and there are no regrets about that. So i am always keen on informations about it. It embodies the Golden Age of Atari in a special matter, that "What could have been..." feeling.

I hope you know, what i mean. :vulcan_salute:

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Are there any interviews of Regan Cheng? I suppose I should do a YouTube search. I had no idea he also designed the Mindlink. Is there any information regarding the small three rectangle logo to the right side of the text on that system?

 

From my interview with Atari designer Tom Palecki, he mentioned Barry Marshall designed the MindLink, and Tom designed the logo for it:

 

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/interviews/tom_palecki/interview_tom_palecki.html

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I agree on the test board after looking at the contacts. For the 2600 pro-line controller the thing I find interesting is all the pictures I can find have have the line series 2000 pro below the Atari and mine does not.

 

I've never seen that version either, only this one:

 

http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/unreleased/vcs_nr_proline_1.png

 

Notice the one in the flyer has a divot on the top of the joystick knob.

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I used to work for AMI semiconductor. The produced all the roms for Atari. the first three pictures are engineering roms for the 2600 with the socket test cartridge. The last picture is I believe a test card for the 7800 but not sure.    

 

I've seen that pcb with the switch before.  It's for a 2-in-1 cart.

 

The labeled chips are most likely copies, as I see a bunch of Activision games there :)

post-1089-0-26451600-1503749653_thumb.jpg

Edited by Scott Stilphen
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Here it is...from the Jan 83 edition of Electronic Games.  Look...it's YOUR prototype right there. 

 

Pages 30-31 from that issue feature an ad for the 5200 ("Atari Introduces the 5200 SuperSystem").  Jump down to pages 64-70 to the article about the 5200, but the photo shown is the earlier "Video System X" model.  Guess they didn't get any updated photos from Atari to use?  To Arnie Katz's credit, he recognizes the immediate problem with the controllers and notes they made a poor substitute for paddles with the pack-in game, saying, "If Atari doesn't intend to produce a paddle, it would be a kindness to electronic gamers to refrain from creating games that require such a command device."  In the next paragraph, he goes on to say the system has 64K!  But then later says, "With the exception of Galaxian, all titles in the first group of releases are copied from either the computer or VCS catalogs with only the slightest changes."  Katz then claims Super Breakout "is certainly one of the best games ever packaged with a videogame system(!?), it isn't exactly fresh and new."  

 

Super Breakout was the worst pack-in IMO.  Friend of mine got the system as soon as it came out (late 1982) and playing that game with those controllers was such a letdown for a system that had been hyped all year, especially if you'd had already played the Atari computer version, which came out in 1979, and you realized what the next-gen system really was (an Atari 400)!  Trying to play a paddle game with a joystick was a huge step backwards.  I ended up getting a 5200 sometime in 1983, for Pac-Man more than anything else, but my copy of Super Breakout sat in the box until I sold the system.

Edited by Scott Stilphen
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