AtariSpot // rob

@atarispot

2600/5200 aficionado. Video game preservation enthusiast. Collector of unusual stuff. Philly native living in MD. He/him. atarispot @ gmail

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AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· 8d

Suntek, the likely (Taipei) manufacturer of the mystery carts Crazy Race, Cat & Rat, & Combat, was also active around this time. So, did they maybe make a few Follow Me compatible games, too? If I had to guess at 3 possible CV games, I'd maybe go with Turbo, Mouse Trap, and Tank Wars. 🧵 6/7

Photo of three 日碁企業股份有限公司 (Suntek) produced cartridges for the Atari 2600: Galactic, Netmaker, and Space Raid.

Trademark for the Galactic name (with company name 日碁 above it) from 日碁企業股份有限公司 (Suntek). Application date 1983/04/23, registration date 1983/10/01.

Trademark for the Netmaker name (with company name 日碁 above it) from 日碁企業股份有限公司 (Suntek). Application date 1983/04/30, registration date 1984/02/01.

Trademark for the Space Raid name (with company name 日碁 above it) from 日碁企業股份有限公司 (Suntek). Application date 1983/04/30, registration date 1984/02/01.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· 8d

In searching Taiwan's trademark database, we find the first application for ENKUN by Kaohsiung's 詠群電子股份有限公司 (Yong Qun Electronics Co., Ltd.) at the very end of 1984, with registered marks through 1985-1986. 🧵 5/7

B&W image of a trademark that reads 跟我來 Follow Me, with a walking owl in a mortarboard cap pointing forward with one wing above it. Application date 1985/12/19, registration date 1986/07/01.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· 8d

But it was the second cartridge that was even more helpful. Its label confirms a Taiwan origin (space for an NT$ price has been left on the end label), and the English text points to a console called the ENKUN “Follow Me”. What’s more, the screenshot is from the... ColecoVision port of Zaxxon? 🧵 3/7

White colored game cartridge about the size of an Atari 2600 cartridge with a label that has "跟我来 Follow Me" at the top, 立體空戰 below that, and a ColecoVision screenshot from Zaxxon as the label art.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· 8d

I showed the two mystery carts to a friend in Taiwan (this was also many years ago), who at first responded with their best-guess answer as seen in this screenshot… 🧵2/7

Email text:

These cartridges are AMAZING! :O

I have never seen cartridge in this type before, but I guess may be it's a MSX game port for SEGA SG-1000 series console.

There have several MSX unlicensed port for SG-1000 games have been found in Taiwan.

Another possibility is it just a simple MSX Clone, but using modified pin for their own MSX clone console only.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· 8d

Here’s my best shot at answering this quoted mystery. Many years ago @earlthird.bsky.social showed me two unusual carts. One, hand-labeled with 鐵板陣 (Xevious), is pictured in this post). I think these two carts could be similar to / the same as those seen in @ianoid.bsky.social’s AA thread. 🧵 1/7

A hot pink colored plastic cartridge about the size of an Atari 2600 cartridge with 鐵板陣 written on it in black marker.

The hot pink colored cartridge disassembled into top and bottom shell pieces, plus the PCB.

Detail of the PCB, which is marked GAM7. It uses a combination of NEC, TI, and Mitsubishi chips. 25 connector pins are visible.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· May 18

Okay, fine, while I’m here… I acquired my first 2600 cartridge that retailed in Uruguay. (The shop in Montevideo is on a street called Paraguay) Neat little 8-in-1 cartridge, and one of them is a game you don’t find too often on unauthorized multicarts: London Blitz!

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Feb 14

Parade day. Go Birds. 🦅 More photos later/tomorrow!

Saquon Barkley rides atop a bus and holds out the Lombardi Trophy for the crowd

Jalen Hurts walks alongside the parade of buses. He’s wearing a black “Love,Hurts.” Nike hoodie, sunglasses, and a black hat.

Brandon Graham holds the Lombardi Trophy atop the lead bus in the parade and points to my dad while holding a cigar.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Feb 10

Had to go celebrate with strangers since I’m not in Philly. What a night!

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 25

It’s not Halloween, but it *is* Random Game Saturday! I would never have been able to show this one if not for a recent big trade (yes, an Atari TRADE! in the year of our lord 2025!) Honestly, I expected never to have this one given where prices for it have gone in recent years.

An Atari 2600 game, Halloween, featuring a red, black, and white label. The game title is red on a black field, and is above the Wizard Video Games artwork in B&W on a red field. At bottom is the publisher name and product number “No. 007” in black.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 19

Eagles meme with three linear segments:

“Oh boy am I excited to watch my team play”
“I’m going to kill myself”
“Nice we won”

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 12

Oh, here’s the culprit.

A photo of a blotchy tortoiseshell/calico cat peering over and down from a window ledge.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 12

It’s Random Game Saturday once more. I let one of our cats choose this one! Here’s 法櫃奇兵 (Raiders of the Lost Ark) from an unknown Taiwan distributor (maybe 立達 “Leader”). Not sure if the titles on these carts were written at the factory or by the end user. I lean toward the former, but don’t know.

An Atari 2600 cartridge with a fairly plain label. There are scattered pink triangles on a plain white background. The word 立達 (Leader?) is printed vertically in a purplish color. The name of the game has been neatly written onto the bottom of the label in blue pen. Glue spotting/staining mars the label.

A view of the end label, showing the game name written neatly in blue pen.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 7

Advertise your account with one Simpsons image

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 7

Recently snagged a very nice box upgrade for the New Zealand silver-label-styled release of Yars’ Revenge. I love that Atari/Monaco redesigned the box sticker so that instead of hawking an included Yars’ comic (since it wasn’t part of the NZ release) it now just says: NEW INSIDE AMAZING GRAPHICS

Atari 2600 box for Yars’ Revenge in the silver-label style box. Residue from a price sticker is the only major blemish. A red triangular sticker is affixed to the lower right box corner, which reads “NEW INSIDE” “AMAZING GRAPHICS”.

The manual and cartridge on top of the (now flipped over) box for the NZ release of Yars’ Revenge. The back of the manual has the reflective foil stickers from Monaco Distributors, Atari’s licensee in New Zealand. The cartridge has a label with a white colored background, but is in the design of the standard silver foil label that Atari used in 1982-1984.

A zoomed screenshot of a scan that shows the triangular box sticker on the original release of Yars’ Revenge: it says (white text on blue stripe) “NEW INSIDE”, then (white text on red stripe) “YARS’ REVENGE from ATARI action packed”, then (red text on yellow) “COMIC BOOK”, along with a cyan unshaded line-art drawing of a Yar from the comic.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 6

Gonna just make this a thread. 🧵 This super-80s-lookin' art is by Ladislau Braun per a 2017 tumblr post. If true, and if I found a legit LinkedIn, he's an illustrator/designer who attended a Bucharest art academy in the 1950s. chromeandlightning.tumblr.com/post/1597581... bsky.app/profile/atar...

This artwork features a woman wearing brightly primary-colored clothing. She is on a mostly white background with some diagonal rainbow stripes. Overlaid on top of her are a man who seems to be performing a jump on a motorcycle, a child flying a kite, and two people in exercise outfits. The name "Topper" appears three times in the art on people's tops.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 5

Random game Saturday returns! Here’s “Uzay Savunma Zirhlisi” (Space Defense Armor), the licensed release of Defender in the Republic of Türkiye 🇹🇷 by Atari / ME-TA for the 2600.

An Atari 2600 cartridge with the standard Defender artwork. The Turkish and English names of the game are above and below the game art, respectively. Standard copyright text is at the bottom and names Atari’s distributor in Türkiye: ME-TA.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Jan 2

Unauthorizon, the immense (11,000+ and counting!) online database of video game clone consoles, has had to revoke free access due to increased hosting costs. Hopefully some new Patrons will join me and we can get this invaluable resource back online for all! www.patreon.com/posts/new-ye...

Screenshot of the Unauthorizon database website when it was active. Photos of new arrivals to the database are shown on a grid with names and identifying tags when known.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 25

Something I enjoy doing is finding the original art that was "borrowed" for unauthorized Atari 2600 cartridges. This Santa/toys artwork by Kim Whitesides was likely lifted from a Paper Moon Graphics Christmas card printed between 1977 and 1981, per this post. westread.blogspot.com/2012/12/chri...

A scan of two Paper Moon Graphics Christmas cards. The first features a smiling Santa leaning out the driver's window of a red fire truck (maybe?) emblazoned with "Xmas Xpress" and a wreath graphic on the door.

The second card features the Santa artwork used on the cartridge/box of an unauthorized cartridge that is most commonly found in Australia and some otherr SE Asian / Oceania areas. It shows a surprised Santa with a robot toy walking out of his sack, firing lasers at starships flying around the scene. Other electronic/video games are shown in the sack he's holding.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 24

Found the place; it was a video rental store in Parker, Colorado (suburb of Denver). I still would love to know whose handwriting this is on all the KLUGE carts! Someone at Atari assembled all these and shipped them out to service centers…

Snippet of a 9/27/1987 Grand Junction Daily Sentinel newspaper that includes the address of Video World / Parker TV (6276 E. Pine)

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 23

Confirmed that this Diagnostic cart is also version 2.6 (I dumped it before I remembered that it’s printed right on the ROM, oops)

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 23

When I snagged these I was pretty sure that I was getting both a 2600 KLUGE (Signal Tracing) cart and a Diagnostic cart. And so they were. But this is the first time I’ve seen some inscribed with the name of the Atari service shop that used them!

Two Atari 2600 cartridges. The screws underneath the main labels are exposed, and the 3D Tic Tac Toe label has over top of it an extra neon green label with the handwritten word “KLUGE” on it. The Air-Sea Battle cart has a torn label corner, suggesting that maybe another label was once affixed to it.

The same two 2600 cartridges viewed from the side. Etched/melted into the visible sides of the plastic shells are the words VIDEO WORLD / PARKER TV

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 21

Saturday… again? I grabbed a random one off a random shelf. M.A.S.H. (you know, M*A*S*H?) for the Atari 2600, from prolific Argentina distributor Artkaris. 🇦🇷 We’ve got badly drawn Galaxian, badly drawn Popeye, badly drawn… okay, all of it I guess. Pac-Man is about to devour a chess piece.

End label view. Plain red text with black outline that says “M.A.S.H.” on a solid yellow field. The red printing is offset in error by a hair

Rear view of the cartridge, showing the ARTKARIS distributor name embossed in the middle of the plastic shell.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 21

Xzibit laughing, from the Xzibit laughing “yo dawg” meme

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 7

Gif of Bart Simpson laughing at the Flintstone Phone

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 7

Atari Party cannot be known, only experienced But seriously it is something that grew out of an annual California event in the 2000s, went on hiatus a while, re-emerged in NJ a few years back, and is now in PA for the second year running. I printed a sign at work today www.atariparty.org

A photo of my computer screen at work that says in all-caps Impact font:

“This is where the ATARI SAUCE ! would be if, after their first shipment went lost in transit, they had kept their promise to deliver a replacement order to arrive in time for Atari Party (you know, literally the only reason I ordered the sauces to begin with…)

Unfortunately, you’ll just have to imagine taste-testing them 🙁”

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 7

Why yes, you WILL be able to make calls from the Pac-Phone tomorrow at Atari Party!

A handset/wired telephone with a plastic mold styled to look like Pac-Man (open his mouth to reveal the earpiece, mouthpiece, and dial pad. It sits in front of an original home Pong machine

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 5

This one really makes me think that a 2600 cartridge shell mold was repurposed, though the grip design isn’t a match for any known 2600 shell.

The Lowrey cartridge photographed next to a standard Atari 2600 cartridge (Centipede). Their dimensions are essentially identical.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 5

Is it cool (maybe) or is it demented (probably) that I could make a small thread showing cartridges that are very, very similar to Atari 2600 carts? Here’s another: a games cartridge for a Lowrey electronic organ.

A Lowrey Genius cartridge entitled “Musical Games”. It is exactly the same size and shape as a standard Atari 2600 cartridge.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 5

For Video VVednesday, I’ve got… subtitle cartridges! Pretty sure that these are similar to Melovision carts for specific laserdisc players, but from a different company. (Yes, I bought them because they are very nearly 2600 cartridge sized.) 雷射工作室中文字漆 is embossed on the back. Anyone know more?

Two off-white cartridges with label art for the movies Independence Day and Rob Roy. The cartridges are very slightly larger than Atari 2600 cartridges. Yes, this is why I bought them.

Close-up photo showing the end of the cartridge and the PCB inside.

The back of a cartridge. It’s essentially plain except for the embossed text mentioned in the post.

AtariSpot // rob@atarispot· Dec 1

It’s Sega Sunday? Post Sega! Punching Bag - photo taken earlier this year while touring a collection in storage at The Strong in Rochester, NY.