Almost got a 2600 Meltdown prototype for $1

[punker1974@cox.net]

Hello! Just for your information I am the guy that sold the PROTO to Matt. It seems that most of you are making comments in reply to very inaccurate information. I sold the PROTO to Matt thinking that the 2600 community would be grateful that I choose to sell to Matt so that all of you could get a chance to play such a rare game. I am not a 2600 fan myself as I specialize in NES and import SEGA SATURN. I do, however, own many protos for various systems and know how to spot one almost by instinct. If any of you love the 2600 the way I love NES then you will know what I mean. The real story of the game goes as follows:

 

I was out of town with my girlfriend when one of my employees (NICK) bought some 2600 games of a tweeker who looked homeless for $.10 each. Nick threw the games in the ATARI box behind the counter before I got back. The day after I returned it was supposed to be my day off but I came in to catch up on some work. After a while a gentleman JOE came in and asked to look at some older games in which we handed him the ATARI box, which for your information has no label on it indicating any price as JOE indicated. He pulled out a game and set it on the edge of the far counter. I looked over and immediately knew it was a PROTO and grabbed it and ran into my office to confirm the authenticity of the cart. I did not "TEAR OFF" the label as some of you indicate; I only broke the seal where the screw was in order to open the casing. I opened the case and knew right away it was a PROTO and since I have never seen the inside of a 2600 PROTO I popped out the chip to look at it, putting the chip back in I pushed a little to hard and two of the pins bent on EPROM which actually does nothing to the DATA on the chip itself. I then went out into the front of the store and explained to JOE that I could not sell him the game because it was a rare PROTO, this is when JOE decided to use his very poor acting skills in trying to convince me that the game was 7800 and telling me he did not really know anything about PROTOS he just wanted to own one as he does not have one in his collection. Not that most of us wouldn't have tried the same thing, but once JOE new that I was obviously not an amateur or I wouldn't have even known the DAMN thing was a PROTO in the first place he continued to lay it on thick. Joe then left and returned trying to buy the cart from me; However, Joe was unaware that I have four college degrees and am working on my fifth, ( I am moving to next year to TOKYO to teach at TOKYO UNIVERSITY) one of those degrees is in Psychology and I read JOE with more accuracy and understanding then Ernest Hemingway could a DICK AND JANE BOOK! the more he tried to lay on the bull shit the more I made him think he might get the game, after all why not give it back to him for continuing to take me for a fool! Anyway, I then confirmed through ATARI2600.com that the game was in fact still unconfirmed. After that many of you read JOE'S post on this site and contacted me making very generous offers. The bashing most of you did just gave me that much more publicity on the subject as many collectors heard of the discovery and either came into my store personally or sent a rep to represent them. It was when Frank came in that the deal finally became finalized. Frank was a pretty nice guy who just seem to love games, especially the NES like me, and after calling around to a few friends I discovered that Matt was seen as a pretty nice guy who just loved the 2600 and wanted the game, not just to own a piece of video game history, but to give all of you the chance to play the game as well, which is by far a selfless act and you should all be grateful. It was then I made the free choice to sell the game to Matt and we made the arrangements. As far as me “jacking up the prices in my store when I know you are a collector” is also bullshit! Joe is just bitter, after all having found the cart and then having it stripped away must be difficult as I am sure it will play an indelible roll in Joe’s life and as the Germans say FENGSCHWA! Think of it like this, you are a video game collector who comes into a game store owned and operated by a video game collector himself and are expecting to get a rare game for pennies. Let’s be realistic here! I am in business selling video games and know what they are worth! Why would I sell them to anybody, collector or not for less then I what I know I can get. I do admit that if I like you then sure I will cut the price a little but you are barking up the wrong tree if you think you can walk out with a valuable game out of my store for almost nothing, if you want such luck then go to a THRIFT STORE! I personally started selling games fifteen years ago and it has been not only my life but my livelihood as well and I am sure there are more then a few of you who have had dreams of opening your own video game store. But there is one thing for sure and that is that all of us here love games! I am not here to bash anyone, as I am grateful that JOE came buy and spotted the game in my box and would have even hooked him up if he didn’t try so hard to take me for a fool. Those of you who just love games and want to play MELTDOWN and have a good time I give ya huge PROPS! For those of you who are haters and just talk shit all day, GET A LIFE!

 

Thanks Frank for letting me borrow those NES games! I really hope you get the cart going Matt as I know it means a lot to you and the others. And if any of you have anything rare for the NES let me know as I am always buying! STEVE!!!!

 

P.S. HAVE A HAPPY MILLENIUM!!!!!!

[Saikyo]

Dude He was just angry that he didnt manage to buy the proto in the first place

and as such you do sometimes say things that you dont mean.

 

Also we did not say that you TORE the lable off read carfully and you will see that

it says something like "Broke the untouched lable!"

 

I can also see that you are not a "TURD" like I stated in previous posts

and I never agreed that you are a liar.

You are probably a very cool guy some people here seem to think so

theredeye for instance!

 

Anyway thanks for selling the proto to people who can preserve and keep

this piece of our human history alive!

 

P.S I wish I had as much luck as you did!

[ussexplorer]

Well, I don't understand if you are so much of collector in games that you didn't know how to treat such a item. For instance you can heat the label off to remove the screw. I have done that a few times with carts that needed the connectors cleaned. This was way before I even joined atariage. As for an employee putting the cart out. I'm suprised you didn't train him on looking for proto types. In a few games shops I was in the owner got to inspect everything that came in before it went out.

 

Later,

 

ussexplorer

[MegaManFan]

The seller does not have to sell anything to you if he doesn't want to, regardless of what the price is on it.

Weird concept. If someone offers something for sale and puts a price tag on it, he has to sell it for this price.

 

At least in Germany. It happens quite often, especially when a special offer period is over. Sometimes they forget to put the old price back on it.

 

For the most part that's true here too. Several times I've gotten games for $10-$20 less than the price it rang up for because some store clerk put it on the wrong shelf next to the wrong price, and they were forced to give it to me for that price instead of what it rang up as.

[sku_u]

    I was out of town with my girlfriend when one of my employees (NICK) bought some 2600 games of a tweeker who looked homeless for $.10 each.  

 

Well then, since you made a profit of 999.90 on this, are you going to share it with the "tweeker" should (s)he come around again? Didn't think so.

 

Welome to AA. Hope you stick around.

[MegaManFan]

Incidentally with Tempest paying $1000 for one prototype, it's no wonder I can't find anybody to sell me even a dirt common Atari Lab loaner that there are tons of floating around for at $50. I definitely need to stay the hell out of the prototype market.

[2600 Forever]

Hope you stick around.  

 

Doubt it, he got the cash and the URL isn't NESAge.com.

[joesmooth]

Hi Steve. Welcome to AtariAge. I'm glad you joined for the sole purpose of defending yourself.

 

However you spin the tale really doesn't matter. The fact that the prototype is in the good hands of my friend Matt (who would likely have ended up with it anyway if you had sold it to me) is the important part. Sure I was bummed that I couldn't buy the cartridge, but I mentioned it to you then and it hasn't changed since last week - I don't own any prototypes and I'm too cheap to spend a lot for one. As far as you might have "hooked him up if he didn’t try so hard to take me for a fool" is a nice tale considering I left the first time immediately after you said you couldn't sell it to me and I left the second time after you raised the price again (after a fairly normal conversation - and no, I wasn't trying to butter you up as your clever mind may have thought). Also, I don't recall ever saying the box of Atari cartridges had a label with the $1 price on it - you're the one that told me that was the cost. Well, until you saw the prototype. We could go on and on about who's right, but I really don't care, and I'm sure no one else does, either.

 

I'm sorry I don't have 4 degrees to compete with your academic prowess, but I'm not sure what "brains" has to do with this situation. I called your store today to try and give you some advice that they don't teach you in school. Unfortunately, you weren't available. If you were as smart as you'd like us all to believe, you would have done some research on who you were talking to (Matt and Frank) before you start talking about people (me) behind their backs. You can try to discredit me as much as you'd like, but I challenge you to find someone who would question my contributions to this hobby. And if you had asked nicely, I would have gladly fixed those bent pins for you.

 

Anyway, enjoy your store and enjoy Japan, and thanks for being such a valuable contributor to the Atari community.

 

Sincerely,

 

Joe

[Thomas Jentzsch]

FENGSCHWA? :?

 

Many thanks to everybody involved in this story (well, maybe except one ).

 

BTW: Is ROM size known yet?

[CPUWIZ]

FENGSCHWA? :?

 

Germany is in China, didn't you know?

 

http://www.fengshuiwiz.com/11/the-meaning-...fung-schwa.html

 

I am willing to bet 4K.

[hhwolfman]

Hey Matt Let me know when you get the proto. Tanks bud HH

[birdie3]

What an interesting thread. Disgustingly political but that's the way it goes I guess. Fortunatly, the game is ending up with someone who is reputable and respected. I hope 2600 Meltdown turns out to be a complete game that is fun to play. Most of us can only dream of such a delightful discovery. Congrats to all involved.

 

After reading all of this, I just wanted to send a few thoughts out to people who are ethically challenged. If this Steve guy is real and this actually happened, I think that it was greedy and rather lacking of good morals to pay $0.10 for a game and then sell it for $1000 in the name of "helping the community" as well as other things. If he is as educated as he believes himself to be, he would surely know that the greatest amount of power is derived from genuine acts of selfless-ness (ie: knowing that he has a VCS proto and selling it to Joe for his offer as a gesture of spirit and integrity instead of what he finally decided to do). Tempest seems to fully understand this and we are all greatful for his amazing contributions. An individual with 5 college degrees and apparently little if any life experience combined with the classic video game world brews an ugly cocktail of deceit and selfish/spoiled-bratted-ness and one can only hope that the effort to extract this cart from an obvious enemy of the fold was all worth it in the end.

[Marco]

Nice acquisition Matt, congrats

 

Cheers,

Marco

 

 

surprisingly, this turns into one of the "good vs bad guys" issues, yet again. I was hoping that "we'd been there, done that, never doing it again", but alas. All it does IMO is taking out part of the fun from this hobby, and nobody wins from that.

[hhwolfman]

Hope you stick around.  

 

Doubt it, he got the cash and the URL isn't NESAge.com.

 

Yeah he is to smart to hang around with us dumb guys.

 

TROLL ALONG

[NovaXpress]

Well, assuming his story is true let me ask this question.

 

Let's say that YOU own a classic gaming store. And you leave town for a weekend, leaving your wife's idiot brother in charge. And he acquires a "Fall Guy" proto and sticks it in the cardboard box along with all the copies of Donkey Kong. So you come back to the store, to see a customer hitting the counter with a stack of games including said promo. He has not made the purchase yet.

 

What would you do?

[+johnnywc]

Tempest,

 

Congratulations on your acquisition. If all goes well and you plan on selling copies of this, you can count me in for one to help recoup some of that $$$ you put up for this. I'm sure I speak for many people here when I say "thank you" for all you do for this community. I must say that the occasional news of a new prototype being discovered keeps this hobby fresh, and your atariprotos.com website is a great resource for that part of the Atari community.

 

Good luck with that proto - I hope you can get it to work!!

[Dolt]

Joe comes in, finds a $1,000 cart that the owner, Steve, didn't know about, and then gets treated poorly when he tries to buy it for the price he was quoted. Then, in the wake of everything that happened, Steve comes online and bad mouths Joe. Talk about a sore winner. What if Nick The Employee was manning the store when Joe came in? That Meltdown would have come and gone without him ever knowing. I don't know--if I owned a store, I'd find a way to thank someone for finding me $1,000, but this guy Steve came here and talked smack.

 

As a result, Steve just sounds like a very insecure guy:

--The college degrees have nothing to do with selling a game yet he mentioned them

--More obviously, he got the money so the deal is done...yet he tracked down the AA forums solely to find out what people were saying about him.

 

Most people would probably just be proud of themselves (from their POV) for spotting the proto (oops, I mean PROTO) at the last second and managing to get $1000 for it--and they'd leave it at that, not go hunting for critics. The fact that Steve came here to the AA forum means that the $1,000 is not enough salve for his guilty conscience for the way he treated Joe.

 

To which I say "GOOD."

[TheRedEye]

After reading all of this, I just wanted to send a few thoughts out to people who are ethically challenged. If this Steve guy is real and this actually happened, I think that it was greedy and rather lacking of good morals to pay $0.10 for a game and then sell it for $1000 in the name of "helping the community" as well as other things. If he is as educated as he believes himself to be, he would surely know that the greatest amount of power is derived from genuine acts of selfless-ness (ie: knowing that he has a VCS proto and selling it to Joe for his offer as a gesture of spirit and integrity instead of what he finally decided to do). Tempest seems to fully understand this and we are all greatful for his amazing contributions. An individual with 5 college degrees and apparently little if any life experience combined with the classic video game world brews an ugly cocktail of deceit and selfish/spoiled-bratted-ness and one can only hope that the effort to extract this cart from an obvious enemy of the fold was all worth it in the end.

 

You are an idiot.

[keilbaca]

I'll buy a cart to help get the money back, that's for sure. Count me in for that

[hhwolfman]

After reading all of this, I just wanted to send a few thoughts out to people who are ethically challenged. If this Steve guy is real and this actually happened, I think that it was greedy and rather lacking of good morals to pay $0.10 for a game and then sell it for $1000 in the name of "helping the community" as well as other things. If he is as educated as he believes himself to be, he would surely know that the greatest amount of power is derived from genuine acts of selfless-ness (ie: knowing that he has a VCS proto and selling it to Joe for his offer as a gesture of spirit and integrity instead of what he finally decided to do). Tempest seems to fully understand this and we are all greatful for his amazing contributions. An individual with 5 college degrees and apparently little if any life experience combined with the classic video game world brews an ugly cocktail of deceit and selfish/spoiled-bratted-ness and one can only hope that the effort to extract this cart from an obvious enemy of the fold was all worth it in the end.

 

You are an idiot.

 

LMFAO I liked it.

[hhwolfman]

After reading all of this, I just wanted to send a few thoughts out to people who are ethically challenged. If this Steve guy is real and this actually happened, I think that it was greedy and rather lacking of good morals to pay $0.10 for a game and then sell it for $1000 in the name of "helping the community" as well as other things. If he is as educated as he believes himself to be, he would surely know that the greatest amount of power is derived from genuine acts of selfless-ness (ie: knowing that he has a VCS proto and selling it to Joe for his offer as a gesture of spirit and integrity instead of what he finally decided to do). Tempest seems to fully understand this and we are all greatful for his amazing contributions. An individual with 5 college degrees and apparently little if any life experience combined with the classic video game world brews an ugly cocktail of deceit and selfish/spoiled-bratted-ness and one can only hope that the effort to extract this cart from an obvious enemy of the fold was all worth it in the end.

 

You are an idiot.

 

LMFAO I liked it.

 

BTW Frank Not taking a shot at you You are one of the Heroes on this thread. My congrates to Joe Frank and Tempest. You all are truly great for the Hobby

[Godzilla]

Tempest: since that 'other thread' got locked (sheesh I'm just happy about a new 2600 proto and LOOK at that can of worms! I do hope we all get to play it some how. Can't we all just get along! ) I've never heard of 'Look Ahead' or 'Underworld' is there any info anywhere on these? What are they/etc ?

 

I'd really like to see Mission Omega. I remember reading ads for it as a kid and drooling over what that game would be like in my imagination.

[Tempest]

sheesh I'm just happy about a new 2600 proto and LOOK at that can of worms! I do hope we all get to play it some how. Can't we all just get along!

 

I know how you feel. Sigh...

 

I've never heard of 'Look Ahead' or 'Underworld' is there any info anywhere on these? What are they/etc ?

 

I know very little myself as they were very tight lipped about them. From what I was told Look Ahead was a puzzle/strategy game by Mark Klein (Pick Up/Entity). I remember seeing Mark hand John the prototype (along with The Entity) at CGE 2K2. Mark told me it was based off a famous old strategy game that I can't remember at the moment (kinda like Maxit!)

 

Underworld was some kind of dungeons and dragons game. I was told that they got it when they got all the other Commavid games and that it was still on a development tape. I never saw that one, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

I assume both will be released in the future. From what I understand Look Ahead was complete, but I don't know about Underworld (probably not if it was still on a development tape).

 

I'd really like to see Mission Omega. I remember reading ads for it as a kid and drooling over what that game would be like in my imagination.

 

I was told that Mission Omega was finished but they didn't like how it turned out so they told the programmer to redo it. No prototype has turned up yet.

 

Tempest

[Saikyo]

Tempest: since that 'other thread' got locked (sheesh I'm just happy about a new 2600 proto and LOOK at that can of worms! I do hope we all get to play it some how. Can't we all just get along!  )  I've never heard of 'Look Ahead' or 'Underworld' is there any info anywhere on these? What are they/etc ?

 

I'd really like to see Mission Omega. I remember reading ads for it as a kid and drooling over what that game would be like in my imagination.

 

Dont know why but I have a wild feeling that Mission Omega is one of the

discovered protos in that batch found.

[Tempest]

Dont know why but I have a wild feeling that Mission Omega is one of the

discovered protos in that batch found

 

Could be, but I wouldn't count on it (see my previous post). I do have a short list of prototypes that I'm pretty sure will turn up soon however.

 

Tempest