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Fast Food is hilarious good fun. Hope you enjoy! Also -- I hope you're keeping track of Combat label variations.

A quick post for a new label variant to come my way: Version on the left is the common label. Version on the right is less common. Similar colorized "screenshot" labels exist for about 8-10 other Activision titles. I have no idea how rare these are for Freeway, specifically, but this is the first one I've ever had hands on -- pretty cool. I'm not gonna go out of my way to collect Activision variants but if I happen to end up with them? Yeah, gotta keep 'em.

This is fantastic, thanks for posting it. Three gripes with an otherwise great and entertaining video review: 1) One *can* catch Atari's E.T. before hitting the bottom of a pit and "beam out" before hitting bottom if there's no phone piece there, and in fact it saves a ton of energy since hitting bottom subtracts 269 energy units. Granted, none of this is documented in the instruction manual. But ideally one should levitate during a fall into EVERY pit, and gently lower oneself to the bottom if needed. 2) Atari's E.T. *does* include a way to turn off enemies (choose Game 3 to turn off the Scientist and the FBI Agent, keeping only Elliott). 3) The quoted review doesn't say "inspired by", it specifically says that E.T. is "similar in format" to Adventure and Superman, and it is. They all have game "maps" traversible in four directions, something not common at the time. In summary: OUCH. Seriously though, this video BE GOOD.

Thanks -- this will probably be the next thing I look at with respect to a fix for the constant-fire. https://console5.com/store/cd4050-cmos-hex-buffer-converters-atari-2600-5200-4050.html I don't have soldering equipment (or know-how) but a local friend does. Hopefully he can give me a hand.

Update! I'm not sure how, but the controller port is now working. However, it acts as if the fire button is being constantly pressed. Definite progress.

I'm interested in 7800 Rampage. Will PM you about it later this evening when I get back to you about the T&F controller (it works!)

Here's another completed publisher set for the 2600 -- Absolute Entertainment. Pete Rose Baseball came from Atari.IO member StormSurge, Skate Boardin' came from Atari.IO member nosweargamer, Title Match Pro Wrestling was a local flea market find, and Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator was an eBay pickup. These games were released during the 2600's minor retail resurgence under Atari Corp. Absolute was founded by brothers Dan and Garry Kitchen, David Crane, Alex DeMeo, and John Van Ryzin. I believe they were all previously employed by Activision. They named the company Absolute to be alphabetically in front of Activision, just like Activision was named to be in front of Atari. Absolute only produced four games for the 2600 before moving on to making games for what was a more popular system at the time, the NES (e.g. A Boy and His Blob, Space Shuttle Project, etc). If the cart shell design looks familiar, well, have a look at the back -- they use Activision shells! I think Pete Rose Baseball is the best-looking baseball game on the 2600 by far. The computer seems to be able to win every time I play -- probably with some extended practice I'd be much better. But really, even with its limitations (fielding a ball in the infield, for one!) the game is far preferable to other baseball games on the VCS. Skate Boardin' is decent fun but not fun enough to keep me playing long enough to learn where all 30 obstacles are, and certainly not fun enough for me to want to make a map. Title Match Pro Wrestling is... well... it's a wrestling game. It's a bit more fun with two players, I think. I haven't played Tomcat for very long -- it's a game that uses console switches during gameplay, and I'm generally not a fan of those (Space Shuttle being one exception). But the little I've played so far has been great -- I'm amazed at the amount of game that can come from 16K of ROM.

Hmm. Measured 7 & 8 pins with a voltmeter, getting a constant 4.91V on each port. Maybe it's an IC issue after all? Thanks for the help...

Last weekend I picked up a Sears heavy sixer at a used movie/game shop, and today I finally had the chance to clean it up (it was FILTHY) and test it. It powers up, displays a great picture, sound is good, all the important switches function normally. The left controller port seems to be totally dead, though. I've tried known-working joysticks, paddles, and a keyboard controller in there, and nothing works -- no movement, no fire button action. The right controller port works fine, which leads me to believe that all of the ICs are good and the problem is the port itself. I can't see any obviously bent or broken pins. Suggestions, anyone? I may put this otherwise beautiful thing up for trade/sale if I can't come up with a reasonably fast and easy fix, but at this point I really would like to keep it. The field service guide assumes I have all sorts of fun diagnostic tools -- I have a screwdriver and a multimeter.

The junk box is packed and en route to correagonzalez! Here's what I took out. Atari Arcade Hits 1 -- might end up on my trade list or in a future junk box since it doesn't seem to want to play on Windows 7. That said, all official Atari stuff is cool with me! Phoenix (2600) -- I actually have a spare end label for this one... Maze Craze (2600) -- ...this one, too! Double Dribble (NES) -- A neighborhood friend back in the day had this one. While I don't ever plan to go for a complete NES collection, I think it'd be cool to pick up the carts that mean something to me, and this is one of them. Silent Service (NES) -- See above! Different friend, same story. ACE 3-way coaxial switch -- Something I didn't know I needed until it arrived in the Junk Box. Between my various consoles and my Pong, I'm all out of coax inputs on my TV. Penny Arcade NASCAR Red Line Racin' -- neat little backlit color LCD mini-cabinet thing. Looks like it's missing some side artwork for both sides, but otherwise it's in pretty nice shape! Pac-Man Stickers (Fleer, 1980) -- "Slide out the side door" and "I'm cookin' now". Huh?

Atariman: Justin owns (or used to own?) a VSX, so he'd be an ideal person to help you out. Send him a PM, or post here so we can follow along? Also -- welcome to the site, hope you stick around! The joysticks with the red/green buttons are also VSX prototypes. The Atari 5200 Diagnostic Cartridge Rev. 1.3 refers to them for some reason -- presumably Atari planned for the final joystick design to include the prototype keypad before switching to the one that was eventually used. Really awesome. What sample cartridges did you find with all of this wonderful stuff?

That's really cool -- we need to hear more about and/or see this stash! As for restoration of the X -- what needs to be done? As far as I know, the Video System X is entirely the same as a retail 5200 except for the nameplate, so I suggest making it functional a lower priority. It would be super amazing to have a working one, of course. Did it come with joysticks that say "ATARI" in red and green on the keypad (instead of * and #), by any chance?

I see you have constructed a new Retro Junk Box. Your skills are complete. Indeed, you are powerful as the Emperor has foreseen.

It's at my post office this morning, and should be ready for pick-up by the time I get over there later after work. I'm going to try my best to have it back in the mail tomorrow so that it's not sitting at my place until after Labor Day!

I watched your latest review at work with no sound -- but YouTube's automatic closed captioning is pretty good, dawg! R.I.P. Bob Laser, 2016-2016

Much of this is miles above my head, but I'm certain that a number of you here will be interested in this: http://www.chzsoft.de/asic-web/ Christian Zietz has uncovered schematics for a number of Atari ASICs, including a 68K video shifter that is almost certainly related to the Atari Panther. Most of what's discussed on his page is with regard to the Atari ST (hence my posting it to this forum), but he also found an incomplete schematic for the Atari Sparrow (Falcon prototype). Here's hoping for more discoveries like these, and kudos to him for his efforts so far!

I don't know for certain, but if you google the seller username it pulls up a name that matches one in the Atari Employee Directory ('83?) that can be found online. Whether that's who it is, or someone they married, or it's just a red herring, I don't know. I guess maybe they had extra blue plastic leftover from making the Kids' Controllers for the CCW games? It's an odd look for a console for sure.

I mentioned this one to one or two of you in chat. I don't like to think about it. True nightmare material. Back in early March this year, on eBay, a former Atari employee posted an auction to unload eight giant bins of old Atari hardware and software he'd saved from his time working there. I happened to be surfing the 'Bay the minute it was posted. $999 for everything. But this particular "everything" included prototype games (including Xari Arena for the 5200), piles of 8-bit hardware and carts, a bunch of consoles, one thing I didn't recognize at all (that weird-looking thing made of the same blue plastic as the kids' controller), and... an Atari 2700. $999 was an utter steal, just for the 2700 alone! And if there were working wireless controllers in the console compartment... oh man. I'd have jumped on it immediately but it was a pick-up only auction, and the seller was in Sunnyvale. In hindsight, I *should* have jumped on it immediately and figured out all the details later. Instead, I quickly contacted my cousin who lives in Cupertino to see if he'd get in on this deal with me. But before we had a chance to get a plan pulled together, the opportunity was gone. But wait! It gets worse! Much worse. The thing I didn't recognize? I didn't figure it out until just recently. It's a CX-2000 "Val" prototype console. A sort of precursor to the 2600jr. The bottom left bin in the first photo even says "Val" on it, but... I didn't put two and two together. A CX-2000 sold in 2009 for almost $7,000. The one from this auction? It's now currently for sale at rareearthvideogames for $10,500. You know, if you want one. According to REVG's sale page, fewer than 10 are known to exist.

New addition to the Atari label variant family: Defender with a bright blue colored label! This is a PAL format game that seems to have only been sold in Europe; the only visible indication that it's PAL is the small "P" sticker on the back. The reason for this unusual label's existence is unknown. One could argue that it might be due to Atari Corp. basing another design on an existing game box -- after all, the only other Atari-produced cartridge with an unusually bright-colored label is the weird orange Breakout, which also looks much like its original box. But that doesn't really explain why or how the game title on the main label of this Defender cartridge ended up red. That said, I can't come up with a better explanation. Unless... sabotage at the Atari factory! Sure, it could very well be just a mistake by the factory that printed the labels -- I mean, if I've demonstrated one thing in this thread it's that Atari Corp. cartridges often exhibit mistakes that weren't caught before printing. But this seems too drastic a difference to be an outright mistake to me. I guess it's probably just going to be one of those things for which we never get a good answer. Anyway, I love that the much smaller Fuji logo allows more of the artwork to be visible. But additionally, the framing of the artwork is different from standard Defender cartridges -- this one allows you to see the woman in the red dress shielding her eyes and running/falling, at the bottom center. Here's the original artwork so you can see her clearly. The blue version does unfortunately lose the top half of the spaceship, but overall I still like it better. The hard-to-find red label PAL version shows off the greatest amount of the artwork, but it's crammed in to a tighter frame than the other carts. So this label variant isn't exactly common, but neither is it incredibly rare. There are two on eBay at the time of this post; one from Germany, and one from the UK, and there was at least one more for sale from Germany in the last few months. There are two other scarce color-variation Atari carts I'd like to collect someday. One is Berzerk with yellow title labels -- I've seen a couple of these around. The other is a Pole Position variant with the weird "Pole Positn" spelling error end label, but in addition to that the end label is mainly red in color with white text! I've only seen this in one single photo of someone's collection, and I can't seem to find it at the moment. Will update this post if I come across it again...

RickR comes through for me with another set of fixed-up paddles -- I had to trade away the last set that he sent to me as part of the deal that netted me Chase the Chuckwagon, etc. Super happy to be able to play paddle games again! Also included was a Touch Me (broken, but still really cool), a copy of Air Raiders (one more M-Network cart to go!), and for good measure he added a bonus World War I Flying Ace, to help me take down the Red Baron once and for all... Thanks for another great trade!

Rom Hunter -- welcome to the site, hope you stick around! Your first post comes as a timely surprise, at least to me -- I've actually been working on putting together an article about this game. Just a few weeks ago I managed to track down one of the screenplay authors -- he was able to give me a synopsis of the script and talk a bit about why the movie project was shelved. I hope to have something finished to share with everyone in the next week or so!

Atari Force, checking in.