RickR

Thanks jmjustin!

Well I got in my big atari game lots.

The MYSTERY cart is Seaquest.

I found this Vizio 13" analog LCD TV for $11.  I figure these things are going to get harder and harder to find, and they are perfect for playing old consoles.  Very light and easy to move around, and nice picture quality. 

I found this Vizio 13" analog LCD TV for $11.  I figure these things are going to get harder and harder to find, and they are perfect for playing old consoles.  Very light and easy to move around, and nice picture quality. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2016/04/08/first-look-book-celebrates-art-atari/82785834/
 
$39.95.  Looks like something that a lot of us here would love.
 

 

I found this Vizio 13" analog LCD TV for $11.  I figure these things are going to get harder and harder to find, and they are perfect for playing old consoles.  Very light and easy to move around, and nice picture quality. 

I found this Vizio 13" analog LCD TV for $11.  I figure these things are going to get harder and harder to find, and they are perfect for playing old consoles.  Very light and easy to move around, and nice picture quality. 

The Atari XL computers also had an expansion bus that was not used (as far as I know).  So there's a history of that in the line. 

Unboxing the 7800-à-la-smoke, from nosweargamer!
 

 
An Atari Corp. 90-day limited warranty card!  1986 Revision B!  But wait, this is for "Cassettes, Cartridges, or Diskettes".  I wasn't expecting any...
 

 
Cartridges!
 

 
Nice -- three cool 7800 games!  Also, Karateka. 
 

 
"FOR USE WITH VIDEO GAME".  Just one?!  WHICH ONE?!
 

 
Ahhh, there she is!  Smellin' like she just staggered home from a long night at the dank corner bar that still has a CRT up on the wall.  Nah, it's not really that bad at all.  Noticeable, but tolerable.
 

 
I can't wait to check out all the cool hardware for the expansion interf... wait, what?  Really, nothing?  At all?  Well, damn. 
 
Thanks!  Now, who wants to trade me some CX78 joypads?

Todays goodwill finds. Linus is good and all but i am still searching for a snoopy or a charlie brown

Wii is easily one of my favorite systems, and games are quite plentiful. I have a fairly nice collection of Wii games.

A Wii (with cords, but no Wiimotes), one Wii game, and one PS2 game.
 
The Wii is in the cheap collector sweet spot right now.  I got this one for $20.  Games and systems are plentiful and very low priced.  Grab em if you don't have em!
 
 

I think I need something signed by Willie. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2016/04/08/first-look-book-celebrates-art-atari/82785834/
 
$39.95.  Looks like something that a lot of us here would love.
 

 

Another fine trade with RickR!   Thanks buddy!

A Wii (with cords, but no Wiimotes), one Wii game, and one PS2 game.
 
The Wii is in the cheap collector sweet spot right now.  I got this one for $20.  Games and systems are plentiful and very low priced.  Grab em if you don't have em!
 
 

Let's change gears and look at a few of my favorite carts from my favorite system, the 5200.
 
Many folks are familiar with the two SuperSystem games Atari released with no title on the cartridge.  Anywhere.  At all.  Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus, both Lucasfilm Games games, were unleashed upon the world during Atari's mid-80s limbo: after the sale of Atari Inc and after the discontinuation of the 5200, but before the major resurgence (sorta) of Atari Corp.  The music in Ballblazer and the 3D/fractal landscapes in RoF were both things that made a big impression on me as a kid -- I could tell that some serious work had gone into these games.  They're also both a ton of fun to play.
 
The surprise that shows up in the later levels of RoF! also made a big impression on me as a kid -- but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who's never played it...
 

 
It's hard to tell with the lighting in these photos, but these cartridges have dull gray labels that Atari Corp was using for their 5200 games in 1985-1987 -- both their new games and re-releases.  They were almost certainly cheaper than the previously-used reflective silver style labels.  I think the labels look really sharp without a title, honestly, though I think I'd love them even more if they were the older silver labels.  And -- if Atari had done the proper thing (in my opinion) from the start and put end labels on their 5200 cartridges... they'd be pretty much perfect.
 
Now, have a look at this beauty!
 

 
Yep, that's Vanguard -- re-released in 1986 in the same gray, title-less style.  I've only ever seen a few of these, though they're probably not as uncommon as I hope they are.  By my count, Atari re-released 16 of their games in the mid-80s with gray Atari Corp labels, but this is the only other one known to feature the artwork with no title.  My favorite thing about it (other than the clean artwork design): because the game title isn't present on the cartridge, the asterisk next to the the Centuri licensed trademark ends up referring to nothing.
 
Rumors of a Space Invaders re-release in the same title-less style persist, but I'll believe it when I see one.
 
I've never seen a satisfactory answer to the "why no title on these releases?" question.  Someone wondered on AA whether it was related to the Lucasfilm license agreement -- I could see that, sure, but then what about the Vanguard re-release?
 
Look closer at the cartridge label design: Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus have artwork that's exactly as wide as the text up top, but Vanguard does not.  Strange -- why would that be?  Now, think back for a moment to my post about some Atari Corp re-releases for the 2600.  If you remember, they appeared to be using their own instruction manual covers as the basis for the re-release label artwork.
 
Let's now look at some 5200 boxes/manuals.  Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus have unique boxes and manuals that were designed in or before 1984 -- that's another story for a different day.  The cartridge labels' artwork appear to be square crops of the box art -- they're nearly identical, with just a bit trimmed off the top and bottom.  With Vanguard's box/manual design, on the other hand... the square crop can't be as neatly done since the ships extend outside the main artwork border (in that same faux-3D style that shows up on many Atari Corp re-releases for the 2600).  But it looks like they did it anyway, as that's exactly how the art appears on the re-release cartridge!  So was Atari Corp doing the same thing with the 5200 title-less cartridge label artwork?  Essentially lifting the artwork from older boxes and manuals?  I say yes.
 
My final bit of evidence (for now!) is subtle.  Compare the re-release Vanguard cartridges to the first-release cartridges for Vanguard.  One obvious difference was already mentioned: the spaceships are fully contained within the artwork and aren't straddling the artwork border.  But on top of that, look at some of the detail in the artwork itself, especially that horizontal orange glow below the lower left of the player's ship.  On the originally release carts the horizontal glow appears more sharply defined -- there's a distinct LINE, and some of the background detail even shows through the orange glow.  But on the re-release cart, we see the same indistinct orange blotch that shows up on the Vanguard box and and manual.
 
So... what's the deal?  My best guess is that Atari Taiwan wasn't given the original cartridge artwork and design files for one reason or another, so they were forced to use box & manual artwork to make their own from scratch.  It's more noticeable with some of the 2600 re-releases, but seeing what looks like the same thing happening with the no-title 5200 carts lends stronger support to this theory, I think.

Some 2600 games in BEAUTIFUL condition from Rowsdower70.  Had all these titles already, but these looked so good I couldn't pass them up.  The manuals are just as nice!
 

A Wii (with cords, but no Wiimotes), one Wii game, and one PS2 game.
 
The Wii is in the cheap collector sweet spot right now.  I got this one for $20.  Games and systems are plentiful and very low priced.  Grab em if you don't have em!
 
 

A Wii (with cords, but no Wiimotes), one Wii game, and one PS2 game.
 
The Wii is in the cheap collector sweet spot right now.  I got this one for $20.  Games and systems are plentiful and very low priced.  Grab em if you don't have em!
 
 

A Wii (with cords, but no Wiimotes), one Wii game, and one PS2 game.
 
The Wii is in the cheap collector sweet spot right now.  I got this one for $20.  Games and systems are plentiful and very low priced.  Grab em if you don't have em!
 
 

Ooh, Atari Corp cart!  Multiple fonts in the copyright line!  No controller info on the cart!
 
It's... *sniff*  beautiful.
 
/I have problems

Thank you Senor Zap!
 

Thanks to StormSurge and Ballblazer for the excellent trades!