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Heavy Sixer rounded bottom and 4-switch top question


save2600

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No, this is not a gay personal ad requesting some kind of strange Atari fetish be thrown into the mix :lol:

 

Umm... I remember a while back someone here was selling what they thought was a strange oddity. They had the rounded corners of a heavy sixer bottom, but said that the rest of their machine was just a 4-switch. I forget who it was, but they commented that they thought it looked like someone had modified/bastardized the two systems together. Well, I was looking at my 4-switch box today and noticed it too had the curved/rounded corners on the bottom, by the wood grain. This box from 1980 has the Sunnyvale address in the lower right hand corner on it, but mentions the deck was made in Taiwan. I had previously thought that by the time the system had been revised to their 4-switch standard, that they all had the sharper corners, but this box contradicts that notion. The two woodgrain 4-switches I currently have do NOT have the rounded corners. Just this odd box, which finally caught my eye after all these years.

 

I guess my question is this: how rare are these rounded 4-switches? Who all here has one? Among the dozens of systems I've refurbished throughout the years, I can't say I recall ever seeing one. Perhaps I have the ONLY box ever released for the one system this other guy here has. What would be the odds? lmao

 

Funny bit of memory here... only reason I have this particular box is because I was at a customers home installing their cable (yes, I was a cable/internet guy for a while) when I spied the thing sitting all alone on a shelf in their basement. Asked him about it (he happened to be a UPS driver) and he said the box was empty, just that he had been carrying it around all these years for sentimental reasons. He offhandedly mentioned he was just about to throw it away when I asked if I could have it :)

 

post-13896-1297199778_thumb.jpg

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No, this is not a gay personal ad requesting some kind of strange Atari fetish be thrown into the mix :lol:

 

Umm... I remember a while back someone here was selling what they thought was a strange oddity. They had the rounded corners of a heavy sixer bottom, but said that the rest of their machine was just a 4-switch. I forget who it was, but they commented that they thought it looked like someone had modified/bastardized the two systems together. Well, I was looking at my 4-switch box today and noticed it too had the curved/rounded corners on the bottom, by the wood grain. This box from 1980 has the Sunnyvale address in the lower right hand corner on it, but mentions the deck was made in Taiwan. I had previously thought that by the time the system had been revised to their 4-switch standard, that they all had the sharper corners, but this box contradicts that notion. The two woodgrain 4-switches I currently have do NOT have the rounded corners. Just this odd box, which finally caught my eye after all these years.

 

I guess my question is this: how rare are these rounded 4-switches? Who all here has one? Among the dozens of systems I've refurbished throughout the years, I can't say I recall ever seeing one. Perhaps I have the ONLY box ever released for the one system this other guy here has. What would be the odds? lmao

 

Funny bit of memory here... only reason I have this particular box is because I was at a customers home installing their cable (yes, I was a cable/internet guy for a while) when I spied the thing sitting all alone on a shelf in their basement. Asked him about it (he happened to be a UPS driver) and he said the box was empty, just that he had been carrying it around all these years for sentimental reasons. He offhandedly mentioned he was just about to throw it away when I asked if I could have it :)

 

post-13896-1297199778_thumb.jpg

 

Sounds interesting. Used to play space invaders at a friends house often but don't remember if it was 4 or 6 switch. Was wood grain 4 sure is all I remember.

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http://www.atariguide.com/10/1050.php

 

This site I found has list of all 2600s.

Whoa nelly! Black background - hard to see! But, I did peruse and still didn't find anything about a round-cornered 4-switcher. You see one there?

 

I'm wondering if Marty, Curt or Bruce have anything to say about this...

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Far as I know, Atari just altered the h6er photo instead of redesigning the box artwork. I've had a couple of those boxes, none had an actual system of that part combination.

 

Agreed, my original 4-switcher purchased in 1982 has a box like that. Not too unusual, toys are like that a lot too. Look at the packages for 80's GI Joe toys and the photos on the back look more like protos than the real toy inside.

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In addition to the four switch, many boxes display a picture of a heavy sixer unit, while the actual unit packed inside was a light sixer. Atari obviously was too cheap to reprint the cartons for the 4 and 6 switch later units.

Wow. I did not know that either. I'd have been pissed not getting what I thought was represented inside. Probably wouldn't have known better back in the day, but still. And yeah... what's with being too cheap to not change their marketing (clear case of bait and switch), yet they went out of their way to photograph something that never existed on a consumer level? Goofy.

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