Activision intellivision lab protos?

[djpubba]

Picked up a couple Intellivision carts in an eBay lot (Pitfall and Stampede) that have yellow labels and are marked "Lab Prototype". In trying to tell if they are the real deal, I found another just like mine:

 

http://www.gamescollection.it/collections/a/138

 

First column, 3rd row down.

 

That one says "the first Pitfall prototype, unique in the world!"

 

Are these commonly accepted as genuine protos? If so I guess there are now 2 Pitfalls in the world.

[Supergun]

Picked up a couple Intellivision carts in an eBay lot (Pitfall and Stampede) that have yellow labels and are marked "Lab Prototype". In trying to tell if they are the real deal, I found another just like mine:

 

http://www.gamescollection.it/collections/a/138

 

First column, 3rd row down.

 

That one says "the first Pitfall prototype, unique in the world!"

 

Are these commonly accepted as genuine protos? If so I guess there are now 2 Pitfalls in the world.

 

 

Yeah, good luck trying to get an answer. I posted asking about these very carts last week when the auction was still active. Nobody seemed to know as it went unanswered. I see you paid the seller and told him to just mail you the 2 carts as he re-listed the remainder of the lot.

 

Let's start with the most obvious. Are the carts heavier then normal activision inty carts? If they are not, it's probably not worth damaging the labels to open them as they would almost certainly be the same as the released carts and their value would be 99% the labels. If they are heavier, then you got something special...no, not just cause an eprom's inside...but rather because you have an eprom inty cart which "allegedly" does not exist and/or is not possible to fit inside a regular cartridge shell.

 

EDIT: Checked your link and it looks like parker brothers was able to fit it so never mind.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Supergun

[djpubba]

Ah, well thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty sure that the reason we're not getting any answers is because nobody's seen anything like these before except that guy in Italy. That's good IMO because it means they're super rare. The cases are interesting too. Compared to a retail cart, they are smooth instead of textured.

 

They are normal weight so it's a masked ROM inside, not an EPROM. I tested them and they both work.

 

I'll post some pics later.

[djpubba]

Here are some pics. Sorry about the watermark.

 

Stampede:

 

Pitfall:

 

Stampede works:

 

Pitfall works:

 

Side by side with a retail cart. note the smooth surface of the proto compared to the textured surface of retail carts:

 

 

The circuit board inside seems to be of a different type than the retail as well. The picture doesn't show it clearly but the retail circuit board has a green flux mask while the proto is unmasked.

 

[Supergun]

A thousand thanks for the really nice quality photos.

Interesting tidbits regarding the texture on the cartridge shells, and the variation on the circuit boards.

 

Since they weigh the same, I guess that makes it very unlikely that an eprom in on the board as even without a socket, it would still be heavier then the retail cart.

 

Pitfall & Stampede were Activisions' first two Inty titles, so perhaps these were just samples given to magazines for review, and the lab loaner labels were purely for keeping better track of them.

 

The texture & circuit board variances could be initial runs (perhaps samples by the manufacturing plants) of what the final products could look like.

 

Regardless of all this, they are still very unique and (according to at least one Italian collector) they are super rare and one of a kind. So either way, you did well. Heck, I didn't bid only because I didn't want all the other stuff in the lot as I would then have to deal with re-selling it. But you did great, getting the seller to take a smaller side payment, and re-listing the lot without them.

 

Thanks again for the pics & info!

[djpubba]

I've put these up on eBay to finance my other collecting habits.