Ballblaɀer

Nope, not dead!  Keep an eye on the AA thread for an update from them real soon.

Nope, not dead!  Keep an eye on the AA thread for an update from them real soon.

Nope, not dead!  Keep an eye on the AA thread for an update from them real soon.

A couple of good things came out of cleaning out my mom's house for an estate sale:  I found some old missing power adapters! 
 
First, for our original home video game system:  Unisonic Pong.  I think we got this around 1976 or 77.  I've had the console for a long time and it works fine with a universal adapter.  But now that I have the original power adapter, it just feels more complete. 
 
Here's a pic of the console with it's original power adapter:

 
A close up of the original adapter:

 
And the old adapter next to the surrogate universal adapter:

 
 
Next is a little less exciting to most, nirvana to me.  The power adapter for a really old Unisonic calculator.  The calculator works fine with batteries.  But now it is complete once again.
 
The full set:

 
And the calculator in it's functional green glory:

What?  You're not joining the Junk Box?!
 

 
(Maryland)

What?  You're not joining the Junk Box?!
 

 
(Maryland)

What?  You're not joining the Junk Box?!
 

 
(Maryland)

First footage?
 
https://twitter.com/llamasoft_ox/status/896159971984855040

I'd fall into the "who cares?" part of the spectrum of opinion if not for the fact that these have little purpose other than to be obtrusive.  These days, it's a rare subway ride where one isn't exposed to someone's crappy music played through some tinny cell phone speaker.  Nobody wants to hear what you're listening to, I promise.  And exactly how good are speakers in a hat brim going to be, anyway?  (Here, I'll tell you: not all that good.)

Anyway, for this reason alone I hope the hat venture is a failure.
 I'm all for innovation and the creation of "I didn't even know I wanted it because, until now, it didn't exist" type products.  And hey, I could even go for a nice, stylish, minimalist Atari hat.  But nobody was asking for this, as far as I can tell, and I suspect that the only people who will use this product as intended are those without respect for others' rights to exist in an undisturbed public setting.

Dynamite and an ice cream cone can mean only one thing:
Taz!

5146
 
Can't see myself grinding too hard on this one.  There's only so much bamp-bamp-bamp-bamp-bampbamp-bamp-bamp-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO a guy can take!
 

(Screwed up the audio, so I muted it. Was anything *really* lost, though? Change to 720p60 to fix the disappearing ghosts.)
 
I feel like I can play better.  But... do I want to?

Dynamite and an ice cream cone can mean only one thing:
Taz!

we will be starting the beta testing process in a week or so. i cannot wait to announce these games when they become available. it was always my dream to port some of our games over to other atari platforms, it looks like those dreams are about to become reality.
 
 we will try to keep the atari community posted and updated with current information as it becomes available.
 
lance
www.atarisales.com

I managed to convert 9 different games I have the rights and make them playable on the 5200. Amokbots, Delta Space Arena, HeliCommander, Laser Blast X, Megaoids 2016, Putt 18 Miniature Golf, Surround'Em, Tile Smashers, and Venture.
 
The only game that is still in the process of being ported is a version of Secretum Labyrinth. I originally wanted to port "Secretum Labyrinth Kings Gold" over. However since that game was a free download for the Atari 8-bit area, I decided to make it worthwhile for people to purchase and change things around inside its realm. It will have a new room map, and stuff moved to all new locations. A new store is being written with a new sub title. Include a few features I had been developing for next cartridge game for the 8-bit. 

I think that this is all I have in me: 6,113. I might try again next weekend.
 

5146
 
Can't see myself grinding too hard on this one.  There's only so much bamp-bamp-bamp-bamp-bampbamp-bamp-bamp-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO a guy can take!
 

(Screwed up the audio, so I muted it. Was anything *really* lost, though? Change to 720p60 to fix the disappearing ghosts.)
 
I feel like I can play better.  But... do I want to?

5146
 
Can't see myself grinding too hard on this one.  There's only so much bamp-bamp-bamp-bamp-bampbamp-bamp-bamp-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO-WEEEOOO a guy can take!
 

(Screwed up the audio, so I muted it. Was anything *really* lost, though? Change to 720p60 to fix the disappearing ghosts.)
 
I feel like I can play better.  But... do I want to?

Everyone watching!

Everyone watching!

Everyone watching!

Everyone watching!

3 various Atari 2600 consoles and a sack of probably 30 games. 
The Gemini works fine The woody has no RF cable.  Most likely broken, but too tired to test further. The Video Arcade 2 uses a different power adapter, and I'm too tired now to go find one.  Pretty cool stuff, and some potential projects!
 
 

The most recent additions to my Atari collection are things I’ve not seen in photos on the internet or elsewhere.  I can't see that they've been cataloged on AtariMania.com, AtariBoxed.com, or any other comprehensive database sites, and I’ve never really seen them specifically mentioned on any Atari forums or in Usenet groups like RGVC.  I don't believe these are super-rare or anything; one has to think that lots (thousands, perhaps?) of these were printed.  I just don't think anyone has bothered to document and share them.  So, what are they?
 

 
These are unique Swedish language instruction manuals from licensed international distributors for the Atari VCS in Scandinavia.  They are supplementary to the standard English manuals, and are designed to refer directly back to the English manuals for illustrations, etc.  Most are printed in black-and-white only, but a handful of them have color printing.  Two of them -- Space War and Surround -- have the officially licensed artwork on the front, too.  Video Chess has the title of "Schack", the Swedish word for Chess.
 

 
When it came to releasing region-specific products for the VCS, Atari partnered with distributors all over the world.  Aficionados may be familiar with some of the more noteworthy ones like Polyvox in Brazil, Monaco Distributors in New Zealand, and Irwin Electronics in Canada (see photo of Night Driver manual below, another recent collection addition). Some of Atari’s international relationships, including those with Scandinavia, find their roots in the first half of the 1970s when Atari/Syzygy partnered with a number of coin-op distributor corporations.  Check out mcurrent’s fantastic Atari timelines for additional details.
 

 
Atari's connection to Scandinavia appears to have originated in 1973 through the newly incorporated Atari International, with partner “AB Roulettekonsult och Spelautomater”, a roulette & slot machine distributor in Sweden that (if I'm reading translations properly) originally dates back to 1963.  Sometime in their earliest years, the Swedish company re-branded as (or signed a partnership agreement with -- it’s not clear to me which) Cherry, a Swedish casino gaming company.  One of the coin-op Atari games that Cherry distributed was a uniquely manufactured Breakout.  Cherry also seemingly built their own version of the Atari Theater kiosk, though I'm not sure if any were ever put into service.  Anyway, it's this same company that later also distributed the Atari VCS and its games in Scandinavia.  The manuals are mostly attributed to “Cherry Hemelektronik AB” (Cherry Home-Electronics Ltd.) and “Cherry Företagen” (Cherry Enterprises).
 
 
 
In addition to Cherry, there are also some manuals printed by “AlgaVision AB” and “AB Alga” to contend with.  AB is the Swedish acronym for Aktiebolag, which is like "Corporation" or "Limited Company".  I don't think that AlgaVision is directly related to Cherry, though they seem to have similar/overlapping regional coverage.
 

 
Alga appears to have had an office in Finland as well: they printed an Atari 2600 system owner's manual all in Finnish.  An article (“Growing Interest in TV Games”) in December 1981 Norwegian magazine “Radiobransjen” refers to AlgaVision AB as Atari's official distributor in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.*  Inter-Salg A/S is named as another Atari distributor in Norway.** The designs of the B&W Cherry manuals and those of the Alga manuals are nearly identical.  Interestingly, I've found two images through Google Image Search that show VCS advertisements from Cherry; one of them has the ad displayed next to a separate ad from AlgaVision, the other has the ad by itself but with an AlgaVision sticker ON it, as if maybe they were sharing stock, or they took over for Cherry at some point.
 
All of this is to say that I don't yet understand how these Scandinavian companies were related (if at all), both in general and chronologically.
 

 
My first instinct is to wonder how it's possible that these particular manual supplements don’t seem to have ever been documented anywhere.  Then I remember that, while Atari expanded their business all over the globe, the VCS didn’t become a part of global mainstream pop culture in the same way or to the same extent that it did in North America.  Ultimately, So if, say, some devoted Atari VCS fans don’t go to the trouble of unearthing and cataloging things like this, they could potentially be lost to time.
 
I call on everyone, especially international readers, to help me chart the existence of additional manuals and supplements (find me at @AtariSpot on Twitter, message me here or on AA, or email AtariSpot [at] gmail [dot] com).  I’ve been building a spreadsheet tracking major variants of Atari manuals, and I'm sure that the international manuals I have listed are but a fraction of what exists.  I also strongly encourage everyone to scan unique manuals and submit them to AtariMania, AtariBoxed, and archive.org -- these things are all part of video game history and deserve to be preserved electronically, if in no other way!  We’re seeing big pushes to archive post-crash video game history in recent years, but not nearly the same attention and effort is being given to classic systems, and especially non-North American releases.  I hope to help change that.
 
*Bonus: there’s a full-page VCS ad on page 6 of the same magazine which shows Inter-Salg A/S as the Norwegian distributor.
**Double bonus: there’s an article that appears to be about VCS Pac-Man sales in this June 1982 issue of Radiobransjen -- when I get more time I intend to try to translate it.

The most recent additions to my Atari collection are things I’ve not seen in photos on the internet or elsewhere.  I can't see that they've been cataloged on AtariMania.com, AtariBoxed.com, or any other comprehensive database sites, and I’ve never really seen them specifically mentioned on any Atari forums or in Usenet groups like RGVC.  I don't believe these are super-rare or anything; one has to think that lots (thousands, perhaps?) of these were printed.  I just don't think anyone has bothered to document and share them.  So, what are they?
 

 
These are unique Swedish language instruction manuals from licensed international distributors for the Atari VCS in Scandinavia.  They are supplementary to the standard English manuals, and are designed to refer directly back to the English manuals for illustrations, etc.  Most are printed in black-and-white only, but a handful of them have color printing.  Two of them -- Space War and Surround -- have the officially licensed artwork on the front, too.  Video Chess has the title of "Schack", the Swedish word for Chess.
 

 
When it came to releasing region-specific products for the VCS, Atari partnered with distributors all over the world.  Aficionados may be familiar with some of the more noteworthy ones like Polyvox in Brazil, Monaco Distributors in New Zealand, and Irwin Electronics in Canada (see photo of Night Driver manual below, another recent collection addition). Some of Atari’s international relationships, including those with Scandinavia, find their roots in the first half of the 1970s when Atari/Syzygy partnered with a number of coin-op distributor corporations.  Check out mcurrent’s fantastic Atari timelines for additional details.
 

 
Atari's connection to Scandinavia appears to have originated in 1973 through the newly incorporated Atari International, with partner “AB Roulettekonsult och Spelautomater”, a roulette & slot machine distributor in Sweden that (if I'm reading translations properly) originally dates back to 1963.  Sometime in their earliest years, the Swedish company re-branded as (or signed a partnership agreement with -- it’s not clear to me which) Cherry, a Swedish casino gaming company.  One of the coin-op Atari games that Cherry distributed was a uniquely manufactured Breakout.  Cherry also seemingly built their own version of the Atari Theater kiosk, though I'm not sure if any were ever put into service.  Anyway, it's this same company that later also distributed the Atari VCS and its games in Scandinavia.  The manuals are mostly attributed to “Cherry Hemelektronik AB” (Cherry Home-Electronics Ltd.) and “Cherry Företagen” (Cherry Enterprises).
 
 
 
In addition to Cherry, there are also some manuals printed by “AlgaVision AB” and “AB Alga” to contend with.  AB is the Swedish acronym for Aktiebolag, which is like "Corporation" or "Limited Company".  I don't think that AlgaVision is directly related to Cherry, though they seem to have similar/overlapping regional coverage.
 

 
Alga appears to have had an office in Finland as well: they printed an Atari 2600 system owner's manual all in Finnish.  An article (“Growing Interest in TV Games”) in December 1981 Norwegian magazine “Radiobransjen” refers to AlgaVision AB as Atari's official distributor in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.*  Inter-Salg A/S is named as another Atari distributor in Norway.** The designs of the B&W Cherry manuals and those of the Alga manuals are nearly identical.  Interestingly, I've found two images through Google Image Search that show VCS advertisements from Cherry; one of them has the ad displayed next to a separate ad from AlgaVision, the other has the ad by itself but with an AlgaVision sticker ON it, as if maybe they were sharing stock, or they took over for Cherry at some point.
 
All of this is to say that I don't yet understand how these Scandinavian companies were related (if at all), both in general and chronologically.
 

 
My first instinct is to wonder how it's possible that these particular manual supplements don’t seem to have ever been documented anywhere.  Then I remember that, while Atari expanded their business all over the globe, the VCS didn’t become a part of global mainstream pop culture in the same way or to the same extent that it did in North America.  Ultimately, So if, say, some devoted Atari VCS fans don’t go to the trouble of unearthing and cataloging things like this, they could potentially be lost to time.
 
I call on everyone, especially international readers, to help me chart the existence of additional manuals and supplements (find me at @AtariSpot on Twitter, message me here or on AA, or email AtariSpot [at] gmail [dot] com).  I’ve been building a spreadsheet tracking major variants of Atari manuals, and I'm sure that the international manuals I have listed are but a fraction of what exists.  I also strongly encourage everyone to scan unique manuals and submit them to AtariMania, AtariBoxed, and archive.org -- these things are all part of video game history and deserve to be preserved electronically, if in no other way!  We’re seeing big pushes to archive post-crash video game history in recent years, but not nearly the same attention and effort is being given to classic systems, and especially non-North American releases.  I hope to help change that.
 
*Bonus: there’s a full-page VCS ad on page 6 of the same magazine which shows Inter-Salg A/S as the Norwegian distributor.
**Double bonus: there’s an article that appears to be about VCS Pac-Man sales in this June 1982 issue of Radiobransjen -- when I get more time I intend to try to translate it.

And last but not least, I got a new computer!   Oh yeah, I can't wait to fire this thing up (once I get some games)!


Thanks RickR!