The filename of each image corresponds to the manufacturer of the items
in the image. For each filename, there's a list of what's pictured in
the image and possibly a note on things to look for.
Pictured: Two boxes for 8-in-1 games by the nameless company that I call "2600 Compatible".
There's the front of one box and the back of the other shown.
Pictured: Two 8-in-1 carts--one showing it's end label and the other showing it's
main label. Notice the three switches on the cart that are used to select which game you
want to play. (They're a little hard to see, but one's on the Star Wars Jedi Arena box,
one's on the left edge of the Pac-Man box, and the last one's just above the Pac-Man one.)
Unlike the 8-in-1 boxes, most of the "2600 Compatible" ones have the title on the front
and English and French at the bottom. Pictured: The front of the box for Laser Volley.
Some Activision labels had two different coloring schemes in the little
screen shot pictured on the label. In this picture the three on top have fewer
colors than the three on the bottom. Pictured: Checkers, Gran Prix, Kaboom!
Activision's Decathlon with the original label, the Canadian label with
English and French, and the "white label" version. Note that the label was
accidently put on upside down on the white label one. Pictured: Decathlon.
Many Activision carts were re-released in the "blue label" form in the
later years of the 2600. The blue labels were made so that the game's name
appeared on the end of the cart, but because of poor quality control, some of
the labels got put on upside down so that they say "Activision" on the end of
the cart. Pictured: Enduro.
Early Activision carts didn't have an Atari trade mark notice at the bottom of the
label. Shown here is a Stampede with the TM notice and one without. Also shown is a
Spider Fighter with a large "presents" and one with a regular size "presents". Pictured:
Stampede, Spider Fighter.
Shown here is the first box style that Activision had. Initial releases of the games
had the "A new game..." notice at the bottom. Pictured: the front of the box for Dragster
and Stampede.
Later Activision boxes were a little more artistic and didn't necessarily follow a standard
format like the earlier ones. Pictured: the front of the box for River Raid II and H.E.R.O.
Three versions of Apollo labels from earliest style (on the left) to
latest style (on the right). In the label variation list I call the first two "fancy letters"
and the last one "stick letters" Pictured: Skeet Shoot, Racquetball, Wabbit.
Apollo had two basic box styles. The first style (shown on the left) was used with
the "fancy letters" cartridge labels. The last style (shown on the right) was used with the
"stick letter" cartridge labels. Pictured: the front of the box for Skeet Shoot and Wabbit.
One cart from each of the four children's series that Atari made.
Pictured: Alpha Beam With Ernie, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Snoopy and the
Red Baron, Pigs in Space.
Atari Corp.'s red label format came with either light red (top row) or
dark red (bottom row) backgrounds and either color pictures (left column) or
greyscale pictures (right column). Pictured: Ikari Warriors, Midnight Magic,
Venture.
When Atari Corp. re-released carts in 1986 there were a few changes
to the label format. The Atari logo and CX number were made smaller,
objects in the picture were allowed to go outside the picture border, some
games had their title split into more than one word (like Codebreaker was
called Code Breaker), and in some games the picture was reversed (like
Codebreaker). Note also that some errors were made in the "use with..." line
(see atari4.jpg). Pictured: Codebreaker, Basketball.
Some errors that were made in the "use with..." line when Atari Corp
re-released some carts in 1986. Some had a blank black sticker put over the
error, some had a sticker with the correct "use with..." line on it, and some
were not corrected. The worst error was probably Pele's Soccer which said
"Atari Game Program Instructions" on the "use with..." line. Pictured: Air
Sea Battle, Pele's Soccer, Home Run.
Atari changed the color of the letters on some of their games' labels.
Here are some of them with both colors next to each other. Pictured:
Outlaw, Video Chess, Casino, Flag Capture, Blackjack, Hangman, Bowling,
Indy 500, Football, Street Racer, Brain Games, Sky Diver, Space Invaders,
Asteriods, Super Breakout.
End labels from the first Atari releases. The top four were the first
ones released and came with colored borders (Air Sea Battle may have been
made with a colored border also, but nobody has confirmed that yet). Below those are the
ones with silver borders. Pictured: Combat, Air Sea Battle, Star Ship, Indy 500, Street
Racer, Video Olympics, Surround, Blackjack, Basic Math.
Pictured: Atari end labels including some with a "p" indicating that
they're PAL, a Pole Position misspelling, different versions of Raiders of the
Lost Ark, Track and Field with its unique grey background and sharp
corners, Stargate which was in the original arcade game's font, the weird
Star Ship label with unusually large letters, and 7 different end labels for
Video Olympics.
Here are some different indications that a cart is PAL. In Atari games
there can be a P at the end of the part number (CX26163P or CX-2662-P), a
small sticker on the back of the cart with a "P" on it, a "P" on the end label
(see atari9.jpg), or the cart can be in a different case (the one shown here in
the lower right is Pac-Man shown in atari9.jpg). Activision had some that
said "International Edition" under the title and some had the prefex "P" in
the part number (PAX-014 is in this picture). Pictured: 32 in 1, Brain
Games, Grand Prix, Ikari Warriors (lower left), Pac-Man (lower right).
Three styles of Atari's silver labels. Note that when Atari Corp. re-
released these games they had grey labels instead of silver. Pictured:
Realsports Volleyball, Gremlins.
Some different Star Ship labels including the really odd one. Notice
the copyright date of 1977 on the odd one (this cart was really made in 1982
as can be confirmed by the date code stamped on the end label). Pictured:
Star Ship.
The label for Track & Field was unlike any other that Atari made.
The background and picture are greyscale and the label is made out of cheap
paper with sharp corners. Pictured: Track & Field
Here's an example of a box that came in one of Atari's "Paks". This one came from
the Action Pak. The cartridge label inside the boxes are just the normal kind. Pictured:
the front of the box for Othello.
In 1986 Atari re-released some of its old games in grey boxes.
This particular one didn't scan very well--the background should be a uniform grey.
Pictured: the front of the box for Fun With Numbers.
Here's an example of a box that came with a silver1 style cartridge label. This one
is a little different from normal because it has 5 languages on it. Pictured: the front of
the box for Obelix.
In an effort to sell a few more games, Atari made some boxes saying "Special Edition"
across the front. As far as I know, the contents of the boxes were the same as the normal
versions. Pictured: the front of the box for Superman.
Here's an example of a box that came with a red1 or red2 style cartridge label. Some
of the boxes came with the little yellow "New" sticker in the lower right. Pictured:
the front of the box for Road Runner
Here's an example of a box that came with a CCW style cartridge label. This one
didn't scan very well either--there's supposed to be a grid of fine white lines on the
yellow part (just like on the Disney one). Pictured: the front of the box for Oscar's Trash
Race.
When Coke contracted Atari to make a videogame for it's employees, Atari didn't put much
effort into it. All they did is alter the graphics and gameplay of Space Invaders and put
the the game into a cartridge with no label and a generic box. Pictured: the front of the
box for Coke Wins!.
CBS had some excellent box artwork. Note that some carts say "CBS
Electronics" on the bottom and some say "CBS Video Games". Pictured:
Omega Race, Mountain King, Solar Fox, Gorf, the front of the box for
Wizard of Wor.
A very small percentage of Coleco carts were made with grey plastic
instead of white. Shown here is a version of Front Line with a grey plastic
cart alongside some regular white plastic ones. Pictured: Time Pilot, Mr.
Do!, Front Line, Roc 'n Rope.
Here's the back of the Kid Vid box. There's an ad for Berenstain Bears, a good
picture of the Kid Vid, and screen shots from Smurf's Save the Day. Pictured: the back of
the box for a Kid Vid Voice Module.
Carts released by Ed Federmeyer. Shown is the serial number 1 cart
of SoundX. The first batch of SoundX carts were put in old Imagic carts by
Ed and the rest of his games were put in old Atari carts (made by Hozer
Video Games). Pictured: SoundX, Edtris 2600.
In the early 80's some people copied games from thier friends onto
EPROMs instead of paying $30 each for their own cart. To play a game,
just place the EPROM in the green socket and pull down the lever (this locks
the EPROM in place). The EPROM must be oriented correctly with the
notch on the right hand side (in the picture the notches are on the top edge of
the EPROMS). The switch must be set to either 16K or 32K (Bits)
depending on the size of the program stored in the EPROM. Then just plug
the whole thing into the cart slot on the 2600. Pictured: a bootleg setup with
many EPROMs circa 1982.
Want to know how to look cool in the early 80's? Check out the box
for California Games... Pictured: Summer Games, Winter Games, the front
of the box for California Games.
On the back of the box for Boing are two screen shots of Boing as
well as screen shots of three other games by First Star Software. Were these
games made for the 2600? Maybe some day one of them will show up in
prototype form. Pictured: the back of the box for Boing!
Four label styles for 20th Century Fox carts: Red label, red label
printed in Taiwan, black label with screen shot, black label with illustration.
Pictured: Deadly Duck, Fantastic Voyage, Porkey's, the front of the box for
Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes.
There were two basic box styles for 20th Century Fox games. The one on the left went
with the red label style cartridges and the one on the left went with the black label cartridges.
Pictured: the front of the box for Worm War I and Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes.
Some Froggo carts had a small frog in the upper left corner of the
label and some didn't. Pictured: Spiderdroid, Sea Hunt, the front of the box
for Cruise Missile.
Pictured: Pac-Kong, Eishockey-Fieber, Strahlen der Teufelsvogel, Die Hungrigen Frosche,
Dschungel Boy, Bobby Geht Nach Hause, Super Ferrari, Wustenschlacht.
There were at least six label versions of Imagic's Atlantis. Shown here
are five of them including the version that Activision released (the one with
the blue label). Pictured: Atlantis.
Most Imagic boxes were silver like the one on the left. The blue label Imagic carts came
in black boxes like the one on the right. Pictured: the front of the box for Riddle of the
Sphinx and Demon Attack.
The Imagic carts with white labels came in these pink boxes. (That checkered look isn't
supposed to be in this picture either.) Pictured: the front of the box for Wing War.
Pal Mystique games were packaged almost exactly the same way as NTSC ones. One
diference was the vinyl cases for the PAL ones had little brass lock & keys just like
Playaround had. Pictured: Jungle Fever cart and vinyl case.
PAL Mystique games came as double enders and single enders. Here's a page out
of the catalog showing a double ender of Gigolo and Burning Desire (no. 205), a single ender
Gigolo (no. 1009), and a single ender of Burning Desire (no. 1003). Pictured: a page out of
the Mystique PAL catalog.
Some panda games had huge labels that wrapped all the way around
the cart. Shown here are two styles that did this. The one on the right
shows the label wrapping all the way around to the back of the cart.
Pictured: Tank Brigade, Harbor Escape.
Most Parker Bros. Boxes had the same layout as the James Bond box shown here.
Star Wars the Arcade Game had a slightly different layout. Pictured: the front of the box
for Star Wars the Arcade Game and James Bond 007.
Playaround had some very high quality packaging for their games.
Each game came in a vinyl case which housed the cart and instructions. The
case even had a brass lock and key so parents could keep thier kids from
playing the games. Each cart had end covers that snap into place so that
only one end of the cart was exposed at once. Pictured: Philly
Flasher/Cathouse Blues with end covers and vinly case.
Collectors call these "prototypes", but they're really just demonstration or promotional
cartridges. These cartridges are all unusually heavy because they have big circuit boards
inside with EPROMs instead of ROMs. (An EPROM is a ROM that you can erase and program.)
Pictured: Frankenstein's Monster serial number 180 (the orange labeled one), Journey/Escape
serial number 880, H.E.R.O., Realsports Soccer 2-15-83 version (which appears to be
complete), Championship Soccer, Moon Patrol cart number 214, Cookie Monster Munch, Taz.
Here are some true prototypes. When a programmer wanted to try out his game to see
how it was comming along, he'd save his game on EPROMs and them put the EPROMs into a cartridge
or circuit board that he could plug into a 2600. Pictured: Star Wars: Death
Star Battle WIP.11 (Work In Progress version 11--it appears to be the released version),
Squoosh (this one has no sound, no title screen, no enemies, no way of killing yourself,
no scoring... Basically all it has is the starting level with your character. The character
movements are about half finished and all he can do is move to the left and right or instantaneously
levitate for as long as the button is pushed.), Crystal Castles 1-4-84 version (which
is the same as the released version except the levels are out of order), Millipede 1-4-84
version (which is the same as the released version except it's a bit faster and multiple
spiders come out right from the start).
Only 50 copies of Cubicolor were made. Each was signed and
numbered by Rob Fulop (who programmed the game). Tim Duarte
maintains a list of all registered owners of Cubicolor carts. If you ever buy
or trade for a Cubicolor, check with Tim to make sure the cart you are
obtaining is authentic! Pictured: 4 of the 50 Cubicolors.
Just like Atari, Sears made carts with both picture labels and text
labels. Typically the picture ones are harder to find. Pictured: Submarine
Commander, Maze, Stellar Track, Math Gran Prix.
Sears had three numbering systems for their carts. Shown here is #99806 with a
slanted "s" font, #6-99806 with a straight "s" font (the normal font), and #49-75104
with the copyright notice was added. The first style produced is on the left and the
last style produced is on the right. Pictured: Pong Sports.
On a few titles, Sears made the picture labels with the game title in two different
colors. This picture has Defender and Yar's Revenge with the titles in both orange and red.
Pictured: Defender and Yar's Revenge.
Sears had two different "use with..." lines that they used. Shown at the top of
this picture are two different versions of bowling; one saying "Use with joystick controllers"
and the other saying "Use the joystick controllers". Sears also used two different font sizes
for the numbers at the top of the main labels (which indicates the number of game options on
the cart). At the bottom of this picture there's a small 8 on the left and a large 8 on
the right. Pictured: Bowling and Baseball.
Sega released some of its games in carts with distinctive grips on the
sides (those not released this way were liscensed from Bally Midway).
Pictured: Buck Rogers, Congo Bongo, Star Trek, Sub Scan, Tac Scan,
Thunderground.
The Music Machine cartridge had a unique shape to it. Notice how the grips on the
side cut into the cartridge. Pictured: the cartridge and instructions for The Music Machine.
There were 3 basic types of Spectravision labels: 1) "Spectravision" company name with copyright
info above the name, 2) "Spectravision" company name with no copyright info above the name,
3) "Spectravideo" as the company name. Pictured: Master Builder, Bumper Bash, Tape Worm,
Nexar, Planet Patrol, Cross Force.
These Taiwan companies were clueless. Here's one of their more famous screw-ups
where they made a copy of Othello, called the game Chess, and put a picture of 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
on the box and cartridge. Pictured: Chess.
A typical Telegames box is shown on the left and a telegames version of a Mattel
game is shown on the right. Pictured: the front of the box for Glacier Patrol and Super
Challenge Baseball.
Notice the sticker on the cartridge in the upper left. It looks like they
had to replace the circuit board inside, but didn't have an extra Glacier Patrol label
lying around. Pictured: glacier Patrol, Soccer, Quest for Quintana Roo, Bogey Blaster.
Telesys released games in both regular carts (assembled in Mexico)
and "handle carts" (made in Hong Kong). Pictured: Cosmic Creeps, Fast
Food, Ram It, Coco Nuts.
Tigervision was known for having colored cartridges. Here we have white, orange
blue and red. Pictured: Threshold, Polaris, Jawbreaker, Miner 2049er, King Kong, Miner
2049er vol. II.
Here are three distinct main labels for King Kong. Notice how the gorilla is dark
grey on the right hand cartridge, light grey in the middle cartridge, and brown on the left
cartridge. Pictured: King Kong.
X-Man came in a Spectravision style cartridge (the only difference being the absence
of "Spectravision" from the front and back of the cart). Pictured: X-Man.
U.S. Games made "square carts" (top row) and "notched carts"
(bottom row). Pictured: Sneak 'n Peak, Name This Game, Eggomania,
Squeeze Box, Picnic, Raft Rider, Piece o' Cake, Entombed.
U.S. Games had different box styles for it's early black label cartridges and it's
later blue label cartridges. Pictured: the front of the box for M.A.D. and Space Jockey.
Xonox made single-ender carts with the label oriented both directions
and double-ender carts with black plastic and grey plastic. Pictured: Ghost
Manor, Artillery Duel, Spike's Peak/Artillery Duel, Artillery Duel/Ghost
Manor.
Some Zimag games came in a cartridge that had the Zimag logo on
the back and some had nothing on the back. Pictured: I Want My Mommy,
Dishaster, Tanks But No Tanks, the front of the box for Cosmic Corridor,
the back of a cart (this one is Cosmic Corridor).
Updated: Wed, 27 Dec 1995
Maintained by John Earney - jearney@best.com
