RickR

Posting this just for Ballblazer.
 
I have three Outlaw carts (actually 4 -- I also have a Sears "Gunslinger").  But look...all three have different labels.  AtariAge lists the picture label and the red label, but no mention of the yellow.  I'm going to guess red is the oldest just based on the font.
 
 

Here is the June 1982 review of Pac Man from Electronic Games magazine.  I like to pull this out for those that think a bad opinion of the game only came much later. 
 
 
Pac Man Review - EG June 1982.pdf

And a bit more from me....I just want to state that no matter what I say about Pac Man on 2600, I hope to goodness no one feels offended in any way.  For example, AtariBrian loves the game, and I totally respect that.  It's a fun topic to talk about, but it's just a game.  Like all pieces of art, opinions may vary and it's totally acceptable. 

Tempest is a modern release, right? Great game that never got ported to home consoles back in the day.

Tempest is a modern release, right? Great game that never got ported to home consoles back in the day.

Holding it and playing is part of the challenge! 

My first complete Atari 2600 set: text label cartridges!
 

 

 
The Atari text label library is no doubt the easiest of the various Atari label types to complete.  I'd like to upgrade a few of them at some point, most notably Basic Math (which has a faded end label), but all in all I'm super happy with the condition of these.  A few notes:

- Othello is the only text label cartridge with an all-caps title.  I believe this was one of the last text label carts produced, right before they started to introduce picture labels.
- Combat is the only text label cartridge that I know of that has a variant with 1) text in multiple colors on the main label, and 2) "Made in Taiwan" printed on it.
- My copies of Home Run and Hunt and Score have gold-colored borders on their main labels.  For whatever reason, the ink on the color-border labels seems to bleed/fade more than the white-border labels.  These are two I'd like to upgrade to the other, sharper style.
- There's lots of red and yellow/gold here, and unfortunately, that's just the way it is.  I'd like to eventually replace Brain Games with the blue text version, but that's really the only non-red/yellow/gold text label I don't have.
- Some of the red labels (Miniature Golf, Slot Racers, and Star Ship) exhibit the fade pattern I mentioned in my post about the numbered text labels, where you can see that the printer laid down a rectangular layer of red ink instead of just inking the text itself.
 
 
Another complete set: Epyx games.
 

 
Like the Activision carts, these are tough to find without serious glue staining.  California Games is from my original childhood collection, while the other two are recent additions.
 
 
And one last complete set for now: Mythicon games:
 

 
Fire Fly and Sorcerer are near mint, with mint manuals.  Hoping to find a Star Fox to match.  BTW, the "Star Fox" text is not faded -- for whatever reason, this title was printed pink-ish while the other two are red.  Similarly, the end label for Fire Fly is the only one that has "by Mythicon" printed in white -- the other two are gray.

And a bit more from me....I just want to state that no matter what I say about Pac Man on 2600, I hope to goodness no one feels offended in any way.  For example, AtariBrian loves the game, and I totally respect that.  It's a fun topic to talk about, but it's just a game.  Like all pieces of art, opinions may vary and it's totally acceptable. 

Here is the June 1982 review of Pac Man from Electronic Games magazine.  I like to pull this out for those that think a bad opinion of the game only came much later. 
 
 
Pac Man Review - EG June 1982.pdf

And a bit more from me....I just want to state that no matter what I say about Pac Man on 2600, I hope to goodness no one feels offended in any way.  For example, AtariBrian loves the game, and I totally respect that.  It's a fun topic to talk about, but it's just a game.  Like all pieces of art, opinions may vary and it's totally acceptable. 

And a bit more from me....I just want to state that no matter what I say about Pac Man on 2600, I hope to goodness no one feels offended in any way.  For example, AtariBrian loves the game, and I totally respect that.  It's a fun topic to talk about, but it's just a game.  Like all pieces of art, opinions may vary and it's totally acceptable. 

And more from me (of course)....I always found it fascinating that the versions of Pac Man Atari created for other systems were all really, really good.  TI-99/4A, VIC-20, Intellivision, C64, Atari 800, 5200....those were all great. 

Agree with all these sentiments.  It's a fun game, it did get a lot of playtime from me when it was new.  But the game was NOT Pac Man, and it ended up eroding confidence in the 2600 and Atari.  At the time, you could see a superior version on the computers of the day, and even the lowly O2 had a better munching game.  Atari was more interested in suing other companies than making great games, it seemed.  Pac Man made me think twice before buying any other game from Atari.  Was a VIC-20 version available instead?  If yes, I'd probably just go with that -- that was my thinking after Pac Man.  So yes, it was a good game...but ended up creating a lot of baggage for Atari IMO.   

Agree with all these sentiments.  It's a fun game, it did get a lot of playtime from me when it was new.  But the game was NOT Pac Man, and it ended up eroding confidence in the 2600 and Atari.  At the time, you could see a superior version on the computers of the day, and even the lowly O2 had a better munching game.  Atari was more interested in suing other companies than making great games, it seemed.  Pac Man made me think twice before buying any other game from Atari.  Was a VIC-20 version available instead?  If yes, I'd probably just go with that -- that was my thinking after Pac Man.  So yes, it was a good game...but ended up creating a lot of baggage for Atari IMO.   

And more from me (of course)....I always found it fascinating that the versions of Pac Man Atari created for other systems were all really, really good.  TI-99/4A, VIC-20, Intellivision, C64, Atari 800, 5200....those were all great. 

PS - Kamakazi has a great blog post about this very topic.
 
http://forums.atari.io/index.php/blog/8/entry-27-pac-man-atari-2600/

Or you could have the ultimate Sega experience....

Bump.

I do have an extra original Genesis controller.  I can take a  pic if you are interested. 

Awesome trade with StormSurge. This was such a good trade, I almost feel a bit guilty!  Interesting, the booklet is printed upside down
 
Thanks so much!
 
 

PS - Kamakazi has a great blog post about this very topic.
 
http://forums.atari.io/index.php/blog/8/entry-27-pac-man-atari-2600/

Thanks Chas for the gorgeous Dragonfire nice and complete!  Also dig that retro font, from the real stuff.

Great trades!  You guys rock. 

Great trades!  You guys rock. 

My next project is to clean and test this box of stuff as step 1 in getting a bunch of NES systems ready for sale.